Saving on Your Groceries

Today, I went on Whole Foods value tour and gathered information for my reader Erica who has three hungry, carnivorous men in her family to feed.

My intention was to find out if Erica could shop at Whole Foods for her family and not spend more than she's already spending on groceries at the big box stores.

On the value tour, I learned that like the big-box stores such as Costco, you can purchase WFs meat, fish, bulk items, tinned, bottled and frozen goods as well as fresh produce at a 10% discount when you buy large quantities.

In fact, you can buy just about anything at WFs for a discount if you buy in quantity:

1) Note the picture above of brightly-packaged frozen tuna, salmon and halibut -- a 10% discount applies on cases of frozen fish. In one case there are 12 packets of 12 ounces of fish, so a case contains 24 pieces of top-quality frozen fish. Cost that out, and you'll find you're paying a mere $3.50 per piece of fish. Ask your fish-counter team leader for help.

2) At the meat counter, ground beef is always .50c off each pound over purchases of 3lbs. The pre-packaged family packs of chicken and steak are also .50c off each pound over 3lbs. Cryovac packs of NY steaks are available with the 10% discount as are 40lb cases of meat. Ask your meat-counter team leader about the "beef in the bag" program. With the 10% discount, WFs prices on their fresh meats are comparable (within a few dollars) to Costco prices.

3) In the bulk section (pic above) note the sacks under the self-help containers. The 10% discount applies when you buy sacks of commodities like flour, sugar, salt, oats, rice and beans. Dried fruits and nuts come in boxes rather than sacks. The weight of the box is indicated below the PLU number on the self-help containers. For instance, cranberries are 9.99 per lb and they're available in 25lb boxes. When you buy a box, the 10% discount applies.

4) Over in the frozen foods department, the 10% case-discount applies on all frozen goods. Check the yellow price label; it will indicate how many packets are in a case. For instance, the 365-brand sliced okra comes in cases of 12 packets.

5) Then over in the fresh produce department, everything can be bought in a case and the 10% case-discount applies.

If you're grocery shopping for a family on a budget, and you have a good freezer and a pantry with room to store dry goods, consider buying your groceries in bulk and making use of WFs 10% discount program.

Obviously the thing to do would be to stagger your bulk purchases so that you're not spending an enormous amount all at once. One week buy a case of fish. The next week buy a sack of rice. The next week buy a case of acorn squash. And so on.

I hope this has been helpful for readers like Erica, who have hungry carnivores at home, and who need and want to be mindful of saving dollars.