Being Booga

I tend to have a pretty good instinct for what things cost and so I am fairly quick at spotting a deal. However, sometimes I’m wrong and I’m duped into believing I’m “saving” because either something is On Sale or I use a Coupon.

Scenario: $30 Food Budget for this week - needs to feed 2 people.

Now, I’m pretty resourceful, so I immediately set up a strategy for how we were going to accomplish this.

The first thing we did was take total inventory of the food we had in the house. I won’t bore you now but if you’re really interested you can see our inventory here. Basically, Ryan read off what was what, and I entered the information in the notebook.

Now, why is this important? It’s important because when you’re on a food budget it’s important to know exactly what you have to work with. I myself was surprised at how much we actually had in the cupboard, including leftovers.

Restaurants and businesses take inventory every week because:

1.) It helps minimize waste (first in first out)
2.) It helps them know what items to order
3.) It helps them track trends

NOW all this boils down to is COST CONTROL for a restaurant - and this is because when you are careful about controlling costs, you can have better control over the profit margin.

How to Do Food Inventory

Professional food-buyers also keep a price book.

Over time, a price book allows you to track pricing trends so that you can buy when the price is RIGHT. Using your price book data, you will know, over time, when a deal really is a deal, and act accordingly. Over time, using this strategy alone (Price Book + Weekly Inventory Control) you can shave several hundred dollars a year off of your food budget.

You can shave even more off your food budget by shopping certain stores for certain products. It’s the same concept as only shopping for the loss leaders at your major chain - you’ll save an average of 20%-35% by shopping this way - WITHOUT USING COUPONS!

After taking your inventory you will know what you NEED to buy at the store in order to make complete meals out of everything by purchasing some key ingredients.

Next, food shopping list in hand, scan the sale ads for your favorite stores and try to match up with coupons.

Don’t be afraid to NOT use coupons, because often times when you’re really strapped for cash it’s a better deal to buy a smaller portion, the store brand, or even shop elsewhere. In our case, I acted on instinct and decided to check the ethnic shops before stepping foot in my major chain every day grocer (King Soopers and Safeway, here in Denver).

BOTTOM LINE:

We saved 26% by buying several of our key items at the ethnic shops, due to their every day prices being cheaper! Now, I knew that my Asian Market was a lot cheaper than King Soopers on things like rice, noodles, condiments. I decided to check them out more thoroughly, and after shopping there then shopping at my Mexican Market, I discovered that their prices are a lot cheaper on staple items, and we were able to meet our budget.

I believe the concepts here can work for any major metropolitan area. Look to your off-the-beaten-path ethnic shops in alternative neighborhoods for lower prices.

Want to know, on-the-fly, about the best deals in Denver? Follow me on TWITTER, (http://twitter.com) Follow: boogawooga

I’ll be posting price checks and deals! Click Here to learn about / join TWITTER (it’s Free). You can stay updated via text messages from Twitter, or follow the chatter on this web site. You can also join in, and post your own deals.

BOTTOM LINE:
For Details on what Denver stores netted us the 26% savings as well as a Price breakdown by item, click HERE.

Happy Bargain Hunting / Food Budget Stretching!~

We were able to net a 26% savings by shopping these two stores in Denver. Following the stores information is a price-breakdown for comparison to Safeway and King Soopers stores in Denver.

Store #1:

Little Saigon Supermarket
375 S. Federal Blvd.
Denver, Co
Map It!

What to Purchase: Rice, Noodles, Condiments, Spices. Also check their produce and meat departments for great deals. This week the major chains (King Soopers and Safeway) are really pushing and promoting their sales on Fresh Strawberries. The ads say “Strawberry Fest” and they’re adverted price is 2 pounds for $5.00. Little Saigon Supermarket’s price on Strawberries week of April 13, 2008: 1 POUND FRESH STRAWBERRIES for .99. Yes that’s right, 99 CENTS.

Review: Their prices on SOME items are up to 30% cheaper than the major grocery chains. They’ve got a huge selection of ramen noodle for 33 cents a package - also their meat and produce departments have an open-market feel. Where else can you buy a sack of chicken feet? I took advantage of an excellent deal on zucchini: 79 cents a pound! Here in Denver, King Soopers / Safeway are currently advertising their sale on zucchini for $1.00 / pound. Also I really love their prices and selection of spice condiments (hot sauces) and packaged spice mixes (lucky Soup Mix 69 cents). Here is where you can also purchase a 25 pound sack of 2008 New Crop rice for about $14.00.

Just south of the Far East Center, check out 88 Asian Market. I have also found great deals here, and they carry a good selection of 2008 Rice Crop - furthermore, they also have a used cooking utensils section. Salvaged restaurant items are available such as steamer trays, woks, large cooking pots, tea sets and plates.

Store #2:

Avanza Supermarket
1320 South Federal
Denver, Co
Map It!

They are having a monthly drawing to win $250 store credit. After your visit to Avanza Market, keep your receipt and log into www.storefeedback.com and complete their online survey to be entered to win.

What to Purchase: Here at Avanza, I was able to buy a dozen large, HOMEMADE TODAY flour tortillas for $1.69. King Soopers price on a dozen tortillas? $2.19 ($2.00 on sale) - Safeway? $2.79. Watch out though, their milk is priced at $4.17 a gallon, not a good deal at all when King Soopers / Safeway regularly sell milk for as low as $2.77 / gallon. There are excellent deals to be found on their regular prices for Vegetable oil, pinto beans, lentils, tomato sauce, wraps and pasta.

Review: We really enjoyed shopping at Avanza. We don’t speak spanish, and the store’s patrons were mostly spanish-speaking hispanics who live in the neighborhood. It didn’t bother us at all though. The store had an open-market atmosphere with Mexican music, pinatas and baskets of wares hanging, and lots of friendly chatter in the aisles. We are definitely going to return to Avanza to do our shopping for specific items. Oh, and at Avanza you can purchase some pretty interesting things in the meat department such as pork belly!

For our item PRICE BOOK breakdown, we noted prices on the following purchases:

Strawberries, Mushrooms, Dry Beans, Tortillas, Wraps, Pasta, Rice and Zuchinni. We priced these items at New Saigon Supermarket S. Federal Far East Center, Avanza Supermarket at South Federal, King Soopers 14th & Krameria, Safeway 14th & Krameria. See the results here.