Cheap Grocery Shopping

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For every college student or eligible bachelor, grocery shopping is one of the most dreaded choirs of the week. Not only is this trip to the grocer time consuming, but it also plays a large burden in our weekly budgets. 

But not to fret, because during college I devised a scheme that will not only keep you eating healthy, but it will also lighten to damage dealt to your wallet.  

Prior to grocery shopping, I check the specials of each grocery store in my area. If the store is from the Stone Age and has no website, simply pick up a coupon book on your way home from work. For my weekly shopping, I divide my list into two $15 intervals. 

The first $15 goes towards weekly dinners and lunches. After purchasing bread ($2), look for the meat that is on sale for that week, and purchase a pound ($4). Cheese is optional, and the purchase of mayonnaise and mustard should be considered only if you are running low. For your remaining $9, pick up some chicken breast ($5), pasta ($2), and sauce ($2). Voila, you now have the options of sandwiches, pasta, chicken, or a combination of all for lunch or dinner throughout your week.  

The last $15 should be spent on your beverages ($5), and the remainder for any snacks or vegetables.  
 
One important tip, however, is to take advantage of the buy one get one free offers proposed by many grocery stores. Something that not well known is that it’s not BOGO, it’s simply “this item is half priced”. These elements can double the yield of your weekly grocery harvest. By adapting your taste buds to prefer the taste of the BOGO offers, you will be saving yourself plenty of money for the dating world that you have yet to enter.  

The advantages to this system of shopping are the triple E: Effective, Efficient, and Expected. It is effective because it gets the job done by keeping your stomach full throughout the week. It is efficient because it does the job at half the price of “traditional” shopping. And as it become routine, everything is expected. 

The disadvantages are what I call the triple R: Redundant, (sometimes) Repulsive, and Rough. Once the food becomes redundant, it will begin to taste more repulsive, and that’s when life starts to get rough.