I saw a similar thread asking how many stores does everyone shop at, but I want to know which stores and why.

In my area I have the choice of Safeway, Lucky's (the Albertson's was just bought and changed to that) and a regular Target. If I want to go further there is a Nob Hill and much further away is a Walmart. There are other stores around here too but they haven't won me over.

Thing is... a buck is a buck! When I see a can of coffee for $11.99 at Safeway and then see it on sale elsewhere for $4.99, it kills me. Even not on sale, Safeway always charges $2 or more than other stores. I refuse to buy household items in Safeway b/c even on sale, it's usually more expensive than Target. But it also makes me wonder, if they charge super high for household and personal care items, are they also over charging me for food? They charge $4.79 for Laughing cow cheese, yet I've seen it for much less elsewhere and on sale for as low as $2.50. That blows my mind!

So, I shop at Target for as much as I can, but unfortunately it's a small Target and they don't have a great deal of food, but they do have all the household stuff. I am still going to Safeway for food. I tried Lucky's but they didn't have some things, and other things weren't much cheaper. Safeway is a much nicer store too. I went into a big warehouse type of store across the street a few weeks back. It was the darkest dingiest store I'd ever been in and it was empty except for two employees. I thought I'd find bargains galore and I didn't!! I don't know how they stay opened.

So, where do you shop and why. How do you save the most money. I hate to travel to too many stores with a 3 and 1 yo. I like to go once a week and be done.

I never used to care about coupons, but yesterday I found a coupon in a coat pocket for $1 off my grocery bill and it was expired. I was bummed. Is that just frugal or am I getting real cheap! Ha ha... But I'm a SAHM, single income and for the new year, DH is getting a paycut, so it was tight before, but now we won't make it, so every dollar DOES count and DOES add up!

Sorry this was so long winded, but just needing to get this off my chest and see what everyone else does to cope.

Thanks,
Tracy

I shop at HyVee Grocery, WalMart Superstore, and occasionally Aldi's or Target.

The town that is 10 mi away is where I primarily shop. HyVee I choose because they have better produce & meat selections than WalMart. They also have a store brand that is sometimes a better price than the Walmart store brand. For all of my HH items, and the balance of my groceries (what I don't get at HyVee) I hit up Walmart. I normally go once every two weeks and spend a morning in town doing all my errands ~ the Feed Store (for the animals), Kwik Trip (for milk), groceries & gas.

If I am feeling adventurous, I hit up the town 25 miles away where there is an Aldi's and a Target. I LOVE Aldi's but because of it's distance it doesn't always save me $$ when I figure in the gas to get there. Target ~ ahhhh Target! I am a total Target junkie, and will always perfer it to WalMart but, again, because of it's distance I don't get there very often. Also the Target I have available to me is very small ~ not like the Super Targets .

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Well, I shop where ever there is good prices at that time.
I like Staterbrothers because they usually have "everyday" low prices.
but i like vons because they double coupons.
also, there is a couple of farmers market by my house that have
a couple of "great loss leaders" veggies and meat usually,
and I just go in for that, and get out....!!!! because everything else is
soooo overprices.
I would love to have a SUPERWALMART, but when they tried to build one
in L. A., (I'm in Orange County ) BUT I WOULD HAVE DRIVEN THERE, all the small
businesses by there basically threw a fit!
and, of course, they didn't approve the project
My target, also, doesn't have too much grocery items.

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I go to Aldi's, Super Walmart, and Sam's. I live in between two small cities in Missouri. One of them doesn't even have a grocery store and the other one has two, yet the prices are way too high. I only go to Big V country Mart or John's Super for and emergency.

I have to drive about 17 miles to get to aldi's and walmart so I make the most of my trip. I go to Sam's on the nights my daughter has play rehearsal. Its right down the street from the church where she is at.

If there is something really "on sale" at either HyVee or Price Chopper I will pop in and grab it when I'm in town. Like Jack's frozen pizza's were 5 for $10.00 and one of those will make cheap lunch for me and the kids

We only have HEB and Super Walmart, I but most things at HEB. We have a small Target but they do not have any food.

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we have over prices stores in our town which is 20 min drive for us so I only shop sales in there and on weekends we drive an hr to the bigger towns to shop Walmart,Save a lots, aldis,krogers,foodlion

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Heather

I shop at Sam's Club and Aldis once a month. Because I love the prices, but they are 30 minutes away from me. For the balance I shop at HyVee. We only have HyVee and WalMart in our town and I find the prices to be pretty comparable, but I like the atmosphere and quality better at HyVee.

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It depends on what I am buying and why.

Albertsons is closeist to my house. So, I usually run there if I need one thing, or if I am using my WIC checks. I also will shop their ads and if I am going to be spending less than $20 I will go there just because my time is worth something. Also, when I shop there I always use my "customer rewards" card, because the nonprofit I work for (nonpaid position) is a community partner with them, and they get a portion of my purchases sent back as a check once a quarter. We have about 20 people shoping at Albertsons regularly and last quarter A Butterfly's Touch received $50 in free money!!

Safeway is next closest. I usually do not shop there, because everything seems to be more expensive.. but sometimes their ads are very good. At our old house however Safeway was closest, and I was working on earning a free plane ticket with my rewards card, so I did all my WIC shoping there instead. I was able to earn the rest of the miles I needed for a ticket just before my Grandmother passed away, so I was able to fly home for free! This did out way any extra cost I incured by shoping there over any other store.

If I am going to be making a large shoping trip, I write my list out based on what is on sale where. I make sure I write down the sale price & if I have a coupon.. Then I drive all the way to Winco (10-15 minutes) and look for everything on my list. That store is usually the best bang for the buck, so if it is not an advertised sale elsewhere I buy it at winco. Sometimes the advertised sales are even beat by the winco price. The last time I did this, I had only 5 items on my list that were not cheaper at winco.. but since the prices were less than 20% different I just picked them up at winco to save me the stop elsewhere. The savings I received on the other items that were cheaper, more than paid for the 5 more expensive items.

I will also shop at:
Fred Meyer, if the ad or coupon is really good
Walmart if I am there already
Costco If I am picking up a Rx

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Aldi's is the first stop.
Fareway or SuperWalmart or Target (depends on what I'm closest to at the time) for the rest....Fareway and Walmart pricematch so this helps.
Wonder Bread Outlet once a week or every other week for the bread stock up.