Honey, I Shrunk the Grocery Bill

Although few families can reduce their grocery costs as much as Donna McKenna has--especially in areas where prices are higher than in economically depressed western Maine--some still have managed to cut them considerably.

Pat Remick of Arlington, Va., began trimming food costs three years ago, when her husband started his own business. She says she has pared her grocery costs down to about $80 a week by buying the bulk of her groceries from a discount warehouse.

Remick, the mother of two young sons, says she and her husband spend only $40 weekly at the supermarket. Once a month she drives out to Price Club in Fairfax County, Va. and spends about $150 stocking up on staples such as chicken, cooking oil, flour, sugar, peanut butter, apple juice, coffee, cleaning supplies, paper goods and soft drinks.

She admits that convenience foods (soda, the muffins her husband likes and pudding cups for her son’s school lunches) add to her grocery costs. “I know I could cut my bill if I didn’t get those things,” she says, but she feels that she saves enough each month that she can afford a few extras.

She also suggests that not allowing your children to go shopping with you--and talking you into buying things--is also a good way to cut costs.

“Absolutely,” agrees Doreen Savaglio, an assistant kindergarten teacher in Herndon, Va. Savaglio, whose husband does their weekly grocery shopping, says the extras added on by her three children “add $75 to $100 to our weekly bill.”

“When my husband goes shopping alone, the bill is $125. When my kids get involved, it’s easily $225. My grocery bill is astronomical,” she says.

Even the thrifty McKenna admits that she finds it hard to resist when her children beg for a rare box of dry cereal.

“But they know to pick one of the generic brands,” she says with a laugh. To prevent its happening too often, she usually leaves them at home.