Recently in Groceries Category

1.  Buying necessities on sale.  Everybody need things like toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, right?  When you buy items at a 2 for 1 sale, you are getting a 100% return on your money.  If you buy a tube of toothpaste for $2.49 and get one free, then you are earning $2.49 on your initial $2.49 investment. That is a better rate of return than you can get even in most bull stock markets.  This works only if you buy necessities and the price of the item hasn't been increased to cover the sale.  Many stores have loss leader sales to attract customers.  Take advantage of these loss leader sales and stock up when you can.

2 for 1 ROI: 100%

2.  Discounted employee stock purchase plans.  You can make a great rate of return on your money if your employer sells stock at a discount with no vesting period required before you sell the stock.  At a former employer, my husband buy company stock at a 15% discount.  We signed up to buy $20,000 worth of stock each year.  The money was subtracted in equal installments from my husband's paychecks twice each month.  The stock was bought at the end of each quarter. At the end of each quarter we would then turn around and sell the stock right away for the full price.

Each quarter my husband had $5,000 deducted from his paychecks in equal amounts over the quarter.  The average amount of money we had in the stock purchase plan during each quarter was $2,500 - zero at the beginning of the quarter and $5,000 at the end.  At the end of each quarter $5,000 of company stock was bought at a 15% discount, or $5,882 worth of stock. We then sold it right away making a profit of approximately $882.  (The amount varied slightly because of changes in the stock prices during the settlement period.  But more or less, we averaged $882 profit each quarter, before taxes and less minor transaction costs.)  Over the course of the year we had an average investment in the stock plan of $2,500 and made $3,528.

Employee stock purchase plan: ROI: 141%

3.  Shopping at Costco of Sam's Club - A local leading consumer magazine recently calculated that Costco and Sam's Club prices were approximately 37% lower than retail store prices for comparable items.  I have compared prices myself and agree with this figure. This means that if you spent $63 on groceries at a warehouse club, those same groceries at a regular supermarket would cost $100.  In effect, you are saving $37 on your $63 investment, for a rate of return of almost 59%.

Costco/Sam's ROI: 59%


4.  Outsourcing your life - If you are self employed or paid hourly, and you make significantly more than minimum wage, then consider hiring teenagers or other people willing to work for minimum wage to do the routine tasks of your life, such as mowing the lawn, grocery shopping, and going to the dry cleaners. If you can work more hours at $30 an hour and hire someone to do routine chores for you at $10, then that is a 200% return on your money.

Outsourcing Routine Tasks ROI: 200%, varies based on your hourly income and what you pay your helpers.

5.  Hire someone to shop at Costco for you - If you don't have the time or interest to shop at Costco now, you could potentially pay someone to do monthly shopping there for you.  If your helper buys $128 worth of groceries and other necessities that would have cost $200 at the regular grocery store and you pay them $10 for the Costco shopping trip, then you are in effect earning $62 on your $10 expense of labor costs.

Hiring a Costco Shopper: Potential 620% ROI

6. Signup Bonuses to Open New Checking Accounts:  I just opened an account for $500 to get a $100 signup bonus.  The only condition is that I have to leave my $500 in the checking account for 3 months.  The ROI for this is 20% for one quarter so if I can do this 4 times a year with other banks the annual ROI on my $500 will be 80% ((4X100)/500).

Checking Account Bonus ROI: Up to 80% Annually

7.  Use Sam's Club Click N' Pull Service - Sam's web site has a feature where you can order your groceries online and they do all of the shopping for you. They send you an email when your cart full of goods is ready to be picked up and paid for. Best of all this service is completely free.  If you are self employed like me this is a real time and money saver.

Sam's Click N' Pull Service ROI: It's free, so it save you per hour whatever your time is worth.

From what I've read and my own shopping experiences, the prices are pretty similar.  According to a recent study in a local magazine, in my area you can save around 36% off retail grocery store prices by shopping at either warehouse store. Costco has an optical department that was highly rated by a leading consumer magazine for product quality, so in my myopic family we use them for prescription glasses and sun glasses.  Between the two stores located near me, Costco has by far the quicker check out lines, though the lines at Sam's Club aren't bad if you go during the off hours. Both stores have very similar product lines, though the Costco near me has a lot of organic items while the local Sam's Club has few, if any, organic products.

The big advantage to my local Sam's Club is their Click and Pull service.  It allows you to select products online and then send your list to your nearest Sam's Club with the click of a mouse.  Sam's Club employees put the items on your list in a cart. (I guess "pull" is warehouse lingo for putting items in your cart.) They email you when your cart is read for pickup, usually within a day.  They also create one sheet with a scan code for your entire order so you don't have to have each individual product rung up at the register, which also saves a lot of time. 

I think it is great.  It is like having concierge shopping service with warehouse prices.  I can't believe more people don't take advantage of it.  I asked recently at my local Sam's who used the service and they said it was popular with business owners.  I'm surprised more soccer moms and other people like me don't make use of it.  I'm trying to spread the word because I love it and I want them to keep the service going. By using my online shopping list, I can check at home which items I need so I don't order too much of any one item or not order something I'm out of.  It save me hours of going through their store putting items in my cart.  I think it saves money, too, because it cuts down on impulse buying.  The only additions I make to my cart when I get to the store are freezer and refrigerator items. Other than that, there is no shopping required anymore.  It is more like an order pick up instead.

According to the Food CPI and Expenditures table at the United Sates Department of Agriculture's web site, per capita spending on food in the U.S. in 2008 was $3,832.  Of this total, $1,973 was spent on food prepared at home and $1,859 was spent on food prepared away from home. If you multiply $3,832 X 4, then a family of four would be expected to spend $15,382 per year on food, including both grocery store and restaurant expenditures. Food prepared at home only would be $7,892. ( Of course, this cost would vary from family to family depending on factors like the regional prices of food in your particular geographic area and the ages of your family members.) Visit my main site for tips on how to reduce your grocery bill.

In a separate study from the U.S. government's Consumer Expenditure Survey, the average "consumer unit" of four spent $9,478 on food in 2008.  Of this amount, $5,478 was spent on food at home and $4,000 was spent on food away from home.

Just for grins, the average of the two study results for a "consumer unit" of four comes out to  $12,430,  for the total amount spent on food, both home and away. If we only consider food prepared at home (what most normal people would simply call groceries), then that amount averages out to $6,685.

According to an article at MSNBC, "The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates about 12.5 percent of the average family's spending goes toward food, while the Department of Agriculture puts the figure at 9.8 percent."

How much do you spend on groceries?