Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
For years, I’ve wanted to start tracking our grocery discounts to see the financial savings.
Our grocery budget of $900 is a number we can reduce, and, like many Canadians, we struggle to stay on target.
The other day, we received news from the UK that will change our financial situation, meaning we need to save as much as possible.
I’ve finally created two free printable grocery discount tracking charts for subscribers to print and save along with us.
Let’s keep good products out of the waste bin and enjoy the foods with discounted savings.
Today, I want to discuss how we plan on tracking grocery discounts and food budgets for 2023.
Table of contents
What Are Grocery Discounts?
Technically, grocery discounts offer the buyer a better price than the listed or regular expenses.
Some examples of these might be any of the following savings routes.
- Flyer sale
- In-store deal
- Managers Special
- Buy One, Get One Free
- Multi-Buy Discounts
- Using Coupons to reduce the price
- Buying discounted grocery products
- Mail-in rebates
- Coupon app cash rebates
Although we follow the above, we will only track reduced grocery discounts.
If you want to participate, feel free to track any grocery discounts that meet your needs.
For example, you might want to track the coupons you’ve used for twelve months.
Finding Grocery Discounts
Depending on what country you live in, finding grocery discounts will vary.
You don’t necessarily have to stick to the big box grocery stores as many markets and smaller shops offer discounts on foods close to expiration.
Never limit your options when purchasing food, provided you have transportation.
Not every grocery store reduces products close to expiry, including seasonal or new package designs.
For example, a pasta company may rebrand its packaging and want grocers to sell off what they have at a discounted price to make way for the new stock.
Sometimes, you might find grocery carts in high-visibility areas with reduced signs and filled with products.
Keep an eye out for that, along with freezer bunkers in the corners, end caps, and designated shelving at the front or back of the store.
Grocery Stores We Shop At
We will find grocery discounts for this twelve-month experiment at the following supermarkets in Ontario.
- Food Basics is where we complete 90% of our weekly grocery shopping.
- Zehrs– Only shop for sales, manager specials, and reduced products in-store, or use the Flashfood app to buy 50-75% reduced food.
- No Frills– We will only visit if we find 50-75% reduced food from the Flashfood app we want to purchase.
Although we shop at Costco, we’ve never found anything that has been reduced in price besides whole rotisserie chicken.
When you spend $75 at Shoppers Drug Mart, you get 20x the Optimum Points; we may find reduced food items as our store has a large grocery section.
Although we use Checkout51, coupons, and other coupon apps to save money, we won’t use these savings for this challenge.
Getting The Best Grocery Discounts
Before you ask whether we check the prices of products with grocery discounts, the answer is yes.
As a personal finance writer, I’ve learned over the past 12 years that we must check prices at other shops before purchasing.
If we find a tub of yogurt on sale at Zehrs with a 50% off pink sticker, first, I’ll review the regular price minus the discount.
When making decisions, remember to match apples to apples regarding weight, size, litres, etc.
I’ll also use my mobile phone and the free wifi at Food Basics, No Frills, or Zehrs to do a quick product price search using the Flipp app.
I also suggest finding out if the product you might purchase with a reduced price is also on sale.
You’re getting an even better deal when you find a product already on sale with a reduced product sticker.
Typically, we find three types of reduced-price stickers on food products at grocery stores.
- 30% discount
- 50% discount
- 75% discount
Four sticker colours at Food Basics and Zehrs stand out for us.
- Red
- Pink
- Black
- White
Purpose Of Documenting Grocery Discounts
Our purpose for documenting grocery discounts is to see how much money we save on reduced products.
If grocery stores are willing to reduce the price of foods heading to the bin, we can all save money and eat well.
We want to see how much more money we would have spent had we paid the total product price for 12 months.
Grocery Discounts Tracking Goals
When I started blogging in 2012, our grocery budget was $235 monthly for two adults.
Fast-forward 11 years, and our family now has a $900 grocery budget for two adults and a nine-year-old boy.
To be transparent, we could spend less on groceries, which means going back to basics using all the available tools listed above.
Also, our monthly grocery budget includes paper towels, toilet paper, sandwich bags, tinfoil, and other kitchen supplies.
Our health and beauty budget category covers toothpaste, shampoo, creams, deodorant, etc.
2023 Grocery Discount Goals
For 2023, we have three goals for grocery discounts;
Anytime we find a discounted food product, we discuss whether the item is needed or if it’s something new we would like to try.
Sometimes, we buy discount products because we would never pay the regular price but want to see what they taste like.
Tracking the want vs. need of discounted food purchases is just a number we’re interested in tracking.
Documenting Our Reduced Grocery Discounts
I plan to include a photo of our grocery discounts form in my monthly budget update post.
Doing so will allow us to see the budget numbers in one spot.
It would be nice to see some of you join us on this journey, and if you do, send me a jpeg update of your printable, and I’ll share it on CBB.
There’s only one thing you have to do: ask for grocery receipts so you have the information to track.
Above, you will see our grocery savings from January totalling $39.42, which is an excellent start to the new year.
Update January 2024 – Read the results from our 2023 Grocery Food Savings Jar!
P. S – Don’t forget to have the cashier apply the scanning code of practice if the store follows the policy.
Thanks for stopping by,
Mr. CBB