Thrifty Thursday: Shop Multiple Stores

I mentioned earlier this week that I shop at Walmart for groceries. If you read any of the money saving blogs, you know it’s a good idea to shop multiple stores to save money on your groceries.

Personally, I shop at Rite Aid, Walmart, BJs Wholesale and Stop & Shop. Occasionally I’ll shop at Target if there’s a good deal or a coupon match-up I cant pass on.

I don’t shop CVS anymore – with the other stores listed above so close, it’s not worth the time or the gas to go out of my way. But that’s me – you might have Walgreens or Aldi close to your home instead of a wholesale club or even Walmart.

Each week I scope the weekly sales circulars and plan my shopping trip based on the sales & deals at the different stores. Typically my trip looks like this:

• Walmart for packaged foods, cleaning products, health & beauty.
• BJs Wholesale for select bulk items like pet food & litter, sweetener, cereal bars, toilet paper. I also get sliced cheese, ground beef and frozen chicken breasts at BJs. (note: I don’t go to BJs every week)
• Stop & Shop to “perimeter shop” meaning produce, deli, meat & poultry and dairy – the fresh foods, anything that expires in the next couple days/weeks.
• We also do an occasional trip to our local restaurant supply store to buy meat & poultry in bulk to freeze.

The key is to plan ahead. I make a shopping list for each store and then paper clip that list to the sales circular along with my coupons to use. Each week I know exactly what to buy at each store before I leave my house.

Do you shop at multiple stores to save money on your groceries? Which stores? And how often so you go?

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