Nico in the Pursuit of Savings, All Shopped Out

Thanks again to everyone for reading along with me on my savings adventure. It has been an interesting journey, that has taught me a lot about shopping and saving locally. I was really surprised to see how much prices can vary from store to store, even if I didn’t have to drive that far.

Just for fun, I made a chart of my fifteen items and all of the places that I shopped. You can really see the price difference when you view them side by side.

Items

Wal-Mart

Walgreens

Dollar General

IGA

Woods

 

Cat Food

$3.84

$4.49

$2.25

$1.79

$1.99

Kitty Litter

$1.68

$2.29

$1.00

$2.99

$1.79

Kleenexes

$1.24

$1.00

$1.00

$1.25

$1.00

Toilet Paper

$1.32

$1.00

$1.10

$1.65

$1.00

Diapers

$10.67

$9.00

$8.00

$10.89

$9.97

Baby Food 2pk

$0.98

$1.39

$0.00

$1.19

$0.99

Baby Food Jar

$0.72

$0.89

$0.00

$0.85

$0.75

Gerber Puffs

$1.92

$2.49

$0.00

$2.29

$2.09

Saltines

$0.96

$2.00

$0.85

$1.35

$0.99

Coca-Cola

$3.98

$3.00

$1.99 (6ct)

$3.50

$3.33

Bread

$0.96

$2.19

$2.40

$1.09

$1.00

Eggs

$1.70

$1.50

$2.25

$1.50

$1.50

Milk 1 Gallon

$3.40

$3.49

$3.90

$3.19

$3.69

Flour 5lbs

$1.58

$2.99

$1.25

$1.79

$1.99

Sugar 4 lbs

$1.98

$2.79

$1.65

$1.69

$1.69

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL

$36.93

$40.51

$27.64

$37.01

$33.77

I was surprised to see Walgreens on the high side of the prices and Wood’s on the low end, although the week that I shopped at Wood’s, many of the Baby Items were on sale.

Wal-Mart still seems to be the best bet for One Stop shopping, and with my two busy boys in the cart that is usually what I have to do. Walgreens is still one of my favorite places to shop, their pharmacy is great, and overall they had the best Customer Service. Dollar General is the best place to shop locally for Baking Supplies, and Cat Litter, they also had great Customer Service too. Wood’s and IGA both run fantastic sales, and incentive buys to save on fuel costs. Those might come in handy as the price of gas continues to rise.

Shopping all around town has also taught me a lot about our community, and sadly a few places that we really need. I think that our little town would greatly benefit from an Aldi, and a Bakery Outlet store. Both stores would really help out with the rising cost of groceries, and maybe get the existing shops to lower their prices, just a bit.

For the most part I’ll stay shopping local, unless gas prices magically drop and I can shop at Dillons and Aldi along with the local shops;) I’ll also be checking those sale ads weekly to see where I can save even more.

I’ll still keep my fingers crossed that maybe one day we’ll get an Aldi or a Dolly Madison Outlet 😉 A girl can dream, and this girl is dreaming about lower grocery prices…