Most college students work while in school, yet they still don’t have much money at the end of the week after paying numerous bills. Sometimes it may feel like as soon as you get paid you’re stuck waiting on your next check.
Though it’s definitely frustrating spending your money on necessities, I’m here to give you a little information on how to save when spending money on one of the most basic human needs: food.
By just taking a little time and consideration into what you’re buying, you can save major bucks the next time you roll your squeaky cart through the grocery store.
First of all, where you shop could determine how much you save. In the name of research, I went to four local stores (Food Lion, Kroger, Wal-Mart and United Grocery Outlet) and price checked several items common among college students to see which one has the best deals.
At Kroger and Food Lion, it definitely pays off to get a discount card with the store. The cards are free and allow you to take part in the special prices on different items weekly. For example, at Kroger, you could get 10 boxes of Kroger brand Toaster Treats (a.k.a. Pop Tarts) for $10 or four boxes of Hot Pocket two-packs for $9 with your Kroger Plus Card. Taking advantage of these types of sales will help keep you stocked up for a while, which means less trips to the store.
Another easy way to save money is by purchasing the store brand foods instead of the pricey name brands. Food Lion’s microwavable macaroni and cheese, Quick Mac, is $2.24 for a six pack box, which saves you forty-four cents off Easy Mac’s price of $2.68.
However, even without a discount card, I found United Grocery Outlet to be the cheapest overall. Places like this sell items from factories that were overproduced or have minor imperfections such as a dent in a can. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of the food sold and it’s much more inexpensive. You can get a pound of Bunny Bread at United Grocery for 89 cents, which is even cheaper than Wal-Mart’s Great Value brand bread at $1.07 and Kroger’s brand at $1.09.
The only drawback to shopping at UGO is that you aren’t always able to find some items you may be looking for. I was unable to find items such as Ramen noodles, tuna and Pop Tarts, and when looking at deli meats, the only options were Oscar Meyer’s Turkey or Bologna. So, either you take what they have or you’ll have to make another trip to a different store to find what’s on the rest of your list, which might be worth it if you’re really looking to save money.
A tie for second place would have to be Kroger or Wal-Mart. Kroger does have great deals and has cheap store brand items. On the other hand, Wal-Mart also has reasonably priced items, selling its brand name items for less than both Kroger and Food Lion. At Wal-Mart a can of Campbell’s soup costs anywhere from 64 cents to $1.28; while at Food Lion it ranges from 99 cents to $1.39. Purity milk was also much cheaper at Wal-Mart than at every store except UGO.
No matter where you shop, looking at off brands, using a discount card or even maybe taking the time to cut the coupons out of Sunday’s paper will help you save some money. Because whether you save a dime or quarter might not seem like a big deal, it could mean whether or not you have money left over to spend on the things you actually want to buy.
