Having a healthy approach to every aspect of life, including how you think about money, is a good and worthy goal.

Focus mostly on the big things (but do not forget the little things, too!)

If you are of a certain age, and you were into frugality, you probably read The Tightwad Gazette. This newsletter came out back in the 1990s, and was compiled into books. I own The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift as an Alternative Lifestyle.

The Tightwad Gazette was the brainchild of Amy Dacyczyn (pronounced “decision”—I still remember reading how to pronounce her name, back in the day). She was (and still is) a military wife who was a graphic artist and writer, and thrift expert. She illustrated & wrote the newsletter in a down-home, folksy way, and “retired” from it after about six years, and is rarely interviewed.

I loved it and loved her. I think I got her big book the first year or so that I was married. I so wanted to emulate her.

My first frugal failure

One of her go-to ideas was a grocery “price book,” where she wrote down the prices of various items that she would purchase regularly. The grocery book would help her figure out what deals from the grocery store weekly sales would be best to “stock up” on.

I decided to start my own price book in the mid-1990s. I started at Cub Foods—at that time the fanciest grocery store in our area (though it eventually became a discount chain, and only a handful of locations still exist.)

I brought with me a small notebook. When I got there, I casually whipped out the notebook and wrote down the and wrote down the price of diced tomatoes, rolled oats, black olives and so on. But newly-married me felt very conspicuous writing down prices, and concerned I would be stopped by a manager or something. I gave up after about 10 minutes.

Truth be told? My price book lasted no longer than that one trip to Cub Foods. I remember thinking that it did not seem like a good use of my time. I definitely did not enjoy doing it; if I had, I probably would have continued with it.

I felt a little bit like a frugal failure.

Saving Money on the Big Things

The big things matter more than the little things (but the little things still matter).

–Your Money Mom

I have found ways to be somewhat frugal on groceries–more on that below.

But we did something in the early years of our marriage: focus on one big thing. That one “big thing” helped us to save money more than a price book would in many trips to the grocery store. (And full disclosure: Dacyczyn did focus on economizing on big purchases, as well, and I learned a lot from her).

We have certainly made many mistakes with money over the years, but we purchased our first house at a little more than a third of the cost of what the bank “said” we could afford. That is actually one of my pet peeves, but more on that another time.

That one decision left us with more margin  (hundreds of dollars more each month) to spend on things that mattered to us—such as travel to see family. It also gave me the freedom to not have to worry as much about small savings at the grocery store.

(I do not think that our first home was our best “investment” in a strict sense—we definitely “over-improved” the house for our neighborhood. At the same time, we have so many great memories and got so much “life” lived in that house that we would do it all the same. But all of that is a post for another month and another day. Stay tuned!)

Some big things: a beginning list

What are some “big things” to pay attention to? Here’s a few ideas:

• spend far less than you can afford on housing–whether that’s your mortgage for a house, or rent if you do not own.

• pay attention your credit score as high as possible so you can get the best rates on credit, such as mortgages or loans.

• negotiate your car purchase, and keep your car for a long time. (we are good at the latter, but not so much the former.)

• periodically check your car and home insurance to see if you can cut costs or get a better deal.

• if your employer offers to match for retirement contributions, such as in a 401(k), be sure to get the full match. It’s free money, and can really add up over time.

• once people can travel again, consider accumulating and using travel rewards for some of your travel. Here’s where I’ve written about travel rewards more, with helpful links.

… but little things matter, too

Like there is the expression, “yes, and…” It is also true that the little things do matter.

For instance, your grocery or eating out budget line items may not matter as much, but little things can add up. Having certain systems in place related to food shopping can be a big money saver over time.

I actually would like help with this concept because I am not the greatest at saving money at the grocery store. I do not have (much of) a garden; I rarely use coupons; and even before a global pandemic I was an “overbuyer” of groceries and home essentials. This actually helped us when toilet paper became scarce.

But I have found that several things have helped us fairly easily stay within our limits of grocery spending. Some of these things I have learned from others.

Saving Money on Food Shopping:

• —-shopping at Aldi for the majority of groceries.

I shop at Aldi for the majority of our groceries. Honestly, Aldi is a great place to shop to save not only money, but also time. I do shop at Wal-Mart from time to time, and I often save money there, but it takes me FOREVER. Aldi’s store is so small, and I know where everything is. I can be in and out of Aldi in 15 minutes, even with a big shop. Wal-Mart is usually 45 minutes or more.

Plus, Aldi helps avoid decision fatigue because there is only one, or at most several, of a type of item. One type of black olives; just a few kinds of coffee; and so on.

And the prices in general cannot be beat, and their selection of organic and produce is excellent quality. This is not news to most people, but it’s worth giving Aldi a try if you are often spending more than you think you ought on groceries.

• —-shopping strategically at warehouse stores.  

We are members of Sam’s Club, and I buy certain items there, such as water softener salt, toilet paper, trash bags, frozen salmon, eggs, and so on. I almost never look for these at other locations, saving time and money. Probably sales at certain stores might match or beat the prices of Sam’s Club, but the ease and time savings of buying in bulk is very helpful.

• —limiting the number of trips to other grocery stores.

I do love both Kroger and HyVee for certain items and for great service. But I try to keep those to a minimum. Before the shelter-in-place, though, I could often find myself popping into a grocery store for just a few items.

The lockdown has certainly helped our whole family cut back on “recreational” grocery shopping. In times, past, my husband & I have had “grocery shopping” dates at a nice grocery store—we can both show each other fun items, and just enjoy wandering a store. We are really missing this! I am the only one shopping for groceries now, and like everyone else we are minimizing these as much as possible. 

I have not found shopping online for pickup as much of a time-saver as others. I did this with Wal-Mart once, but there were enough items I could only buy in store that I did not find filling the cart a good use of my time. And I had trouble with the online pick-up at our local Sam’s Club, so for the time being abandoned it there as well.

I actually had intended to have this post cover savings on eating out as well–I will split that into another post because this is so long.

How do you save money while food shopping, or on eating out?