Keeping a monthly log of what I buy is a money and time-saver

So, this month, this is how I have changed things just a little bit and I believe I will save both money and time.

Taking the most advantage of Senior Discount Day
I copied and pasted my "what I bought" section from February's journal into a Word document. Then, I went through the list, item by item, determining if I bought too much, too little, or just the right amount of each item. For the items that I buy at Fred Meyer, if they are house-brand, I save 10% if I buy them on the first Tuesday of the month. If I don't buy enough of the item, then I find myself back at the store paying that 10% extra. So, after going through my list, I adjusted the amounts accordingly, so that I can buy closer to the right amount, and take advantage of sales and discounts on specific items. Here's an example, I save 10% on soy yogurt at Fred Meyer on Senior Discount day. Soy yogurt is expensive stuff, so that can add up to a couple of dollars of savings if I buy enough to get through the entire month. On Senior Discount day in February, I did buy some soy yogurt, but not nearly enough to get through till March. I subsequently bought more at the full price. Misjudging how much I would want cost me 93 cents.

Comparing prices between what I paid this past month and Cash & Carry's online info 
After adjusting amounts (and deleting any items that I don't want for March), I used my price paid info for Fred Meyer in my journal and the product/price search on Cash & Carry's website to see which store sold each product at the best price. Cash & Carry is not always the best-price store, even when buying in institutional sizes. I noted on my list where I would be buying each item. My list now entails 1 stop at Cash & Carry, 1 stop at Fred Meyer, and 1 stop at Dollar Tree.

By doing just these two things, adjusting amounts to what we actually need for the month, and sourcing the better store for each item, it looks like I will save about $10. This is on top of savings that I already realize each month through sticking to a mostly "basics" shopping list, and shopping at the low-cost stores and shopping loss-leaders.

Saving time making my list
The time-saving aspect is that 80% of my list was generated by my previous grocery journal. The other 20% will be items which come up on sale in March, and the few items of which we completely ran out. How simple is that for making out a shopping list -- cut/paste into a Word doc -- easy-peasy done.

I made my stop at Cash & Carry, as they had items on sale through yesterday that I wanted to be sure to pick up. Tomorrow is Senior Discount Day at Fred Meyer. My list is long, but at least I am organized. Up and out early it shall be!

While waiting for Senior Discount grocery day . . .

I am making do with what is in the kitchen, including:

• stretching the remaining decaf black tea by drinking herb tea, made with herbs cut and dried from my garden 2 summers ago (if only I kept bees, the honey would be free, too). I am drinking mixed mint tea and lemon balm tea. Both very good, and I can drink them right up till bedtime with no after effects.
• making steel cut oats in the crockpot overnight a couple of nights per week. I add dried blueberries in the morning for "gourmet" oatmeal.
• ran out of white flour, so I'm substituting sifted whole wheat flour (to remove some of the bran) for all-purpose in some simple baking. BTW, this was horrible in a lemon mug cake, but worked well in a chocolate one. The wheat-y taste overwhelmed the lemon, but was disguised by cocoa powder.
• scrounging the freezers for overlooked items, I found a 3-lb box of frozen spinach, hot dogs, bacon, cream puffs, and smoked salmon. A few special items to get us through the last few days till Tuesday.
• using mint syrup that I made and canned 2 summers ago from my mint plants, when making chocolate-mint cocoa.
• used some milk that was a week past the sell-by date to make chocolate pudding. I packed the leftovers into a small canning jar for my daughter's lunch (this one loves pudding!).  BTW, small peanut butter jar lids fit some, but not all, canning jars. The narrow opening, pint and half pint-sized canning jars must be a tad larger where the threads are, than the small, squat 4-oz jars and the globe-shaped, fruit-embossed 8-oz jars. Those latter two jars work well with plastic lids from commercial jars, like peanut butter ones.
• scraped out a jam jar and blended with plain cream cheese for a flavored cream cheese spread. Really delicious on saltine crackers.

There is still plenty of food in the kitchen. These are just some of the treats that I've made to make what we have left seem "special." You know how it is, the "good" stuff gets gobbled up quickly after shopping. What remains is all of the ordinary foods, or basic ingredients. I find that if I make extra efforts in that last week before a major shopping trip, then we don't feel deprived of any of that "good" stuff that we had earlier.

Senior Discount day is this coming Tuesday. I've been putting together my list and will refrain from buying anything that I plan on getting at Fred Meyer where my discount would apply, until then. The big challenge will be this weekend, with everyone home. I'll have to put on some creativity.