props to ya, Sista Savings

Is "props" even a cool word to say anymore? I don't even know!

There is this awesome lady that I don't even know, but she's a Super Hero of sorts in my house. Sister Savings is her name, saving money's her game! She goes through the local grocery ads weekly and posts on her site an easy-to-print spreadsheet of it all. She does this completely as a service to those of us looking to save our families a little money on the grocery bill.

I have a Walmart, Safeway, and Fry's in my area. Walmart entices me to shop there by "ad matching." They will give me the ad price from any other store in the area. Do you know how much time and money this is saving me? Walmart is within walking distance from my house (I still drive...I do live in hell Arizona, you know) while the other stores are across town (insert chuckle here if you know that across town for me isn't that far). I only have to go to one store if I go to Walmart. As much as I loathe the big box company that is Wally World, I still shop there because it saves me money in the long run. Shame on them. Forgive me locally owned and small grocery stores of America, when I'm rich (and famous) I'll shop from you.

Last week I clutched my trusty Sister Savings spreadsheet and grocery list in hand and set out to conquer the grocery shopping (Conquer is an appropriate word if you grocery shop at Walmart on a Saturday.) You wanna know how much I saved?

$23.82! I could buy a pair of shoes for that---and ones from like, Target even and not Payless! Instead of paying $4.26 a pound for ground beef at Walmart, I used the advertised price of $1.97 from another store. Check me out, doing all this saving!

*Disclaimer, I didn't say this was easy. Sometimes you come across the Walmart employee who doesn't know what she's talking about (I know, I was shocked too) and you have to stand firm and be a little bit pushy to get your price. Last week, Safeway had canteloupes "10 for $10" which is $1 for a canteloupe. The lady tried to tell me that I had to buy 10 canteloupes in order to get that price. Who buys 10 canteloupes at once!? I had to slowly and calmly explain it to her and eventually speak to a CSM (the red vested ones) who confirmed that I, the customer, was correct. Duh. I got my $1 canteloupe, dang it, and saved $.98 doing it.

Oooh Grapes are $0.77/lb again this week. Sweet.