Best Price Shopping

I’ve never been much of a price comparison shopper but lately, I’ve taken notice just because the price increases, though sad, are interesting to watch. I mentioned the other day that some things, the prices are different on the shelf than when I check out so I use the Walmart Plus app and scan them as I put them into the cart to make sure the price is right. Often, it is not.

I went back in my Walmart account and found some prices. Except for the milk, these prices were all from April, 2021 and then what they are today. Milk was $2.19 per gallon in April, 2020; then $3.04 per gallon in April, 2021 and now it’s $3.90 per gallon. That’s all Great Value whole milk. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if by the end of April, 2022, which will be two years from the first price, if it hasn’t doubled in price. When you don’t pay attention to the costs, it’s easy to not notice the small increases until you suddenly realize you’re either spending a lot more money for the same things or you’re getting way less if you’re spending the same amount.

Here are the other things are are consistently on my grocery list:

Butter – one pound $2.98 last year; $3.08 now
Celery – $1.48 last year; $1.77 now
Distilled water – .94 last year; $1.08 now
Hormel Black Label Bacon – $4.48 last year; $6.98 now

I don’t have much meat on my grocery orders and I think that’s an area where prices have gone really high.

The only solution I know is to become a smarter shopper. It isn’t like we have enough money that I wasn’t paying attention to prices. I know that for the most part, Walmart or Aldi is going to have the lower prices. I don’t buy a lot of “fluff”. I buy what we need. If milk goes up to $10 a gallon, I’ll still buy it so wasting time always looking at prices isn’t going to happen. We no longer buy the more expensive cuts of meat.

I use a lot of molasses. These are some of the recipes I use fairly often:

Boston Brown Bread with Hazelnuts
Anadama Bread
Baked Beans
Pepper Steak
Oatmeal (I use molasses in my bowl – Vince doesn’t add sugar to his oatmeal – Weird!)

Anyway . . I ordered three jars of Grandma’s molasses from Walmart in April, 2021 (that’s why I had all those prices to compare) and, big surprise but it’s still the same price – 12

ounces for $3.24. I’ve already used those three jars and was going to order three more jars.

When we were at the Mennonite store the other day, I noticed they had a gallon of molasses.

It’s not a brand I’ve ever used but the lady at the store told me it’s all they ever use and they make really good molasses cookies!

That’s a 128 oz. jug and it was $14.99. That’s 11.7 cents per ounce. The Grandma’s molasses I normally get is 27 cents per ounce.

The same brand, same size is $23.49 at Walmart vs. $14.99 at the Mennonite store.

We all have to do what we can. I understand that many folks would never use a whole gallon of molasses. All I’m saying is be aware – if there’s something you can buy in bulk and will use, check into it. It’s never a savings if you buy something and don’t use it.