In these tough economic times, everyone’s looking to save money where they can. One of the areas I try to cut expenses is grocery shopping, but that gets more difficult to do when rising transportation costs drive food prices up, too. I already shop at Wal Mart and buy generics, despite my loathing of Wal Mart and the quality of its meat and produce, because the supermarkets, except for weekly sale items, are out of the question. What else can I do? There’s only two of us, so buying in bulk isn’t really worth the cost of a Sam’s or Costco membership. For a while, it was looking like I’d never be able to get our weekly grocery budget down from $100. (I remember when my mom used to be able to feed our family of four for $100; that makes me feel old.)
Then a new supermarket came to town: Super H-Mart. It’s an Asian grocery chain, and there are only two in Texas. Apparently Carrollton has the next-highest Korean and Vietnamese population in the state after Houston, and boy, am I glad we do, because H-Mart not only has the most beautiful produce and meat sections I’ve ever seen, along with a fish market that sells any kind of — live — seafood you can think of, but it’s the cheapest supermarket I’ve ever seen when it comes to fresh foods. Here’s my receipt from my first excursion there last Friday:
You read that correctly — $11.76 for all that, including nearly two pounds of lean ground beef. I used half for mostaccioli, and I’ll use the other half for tacos, giving me two meals for the price of what I normally pay for one pound of lean beef at Wal Mart. Combine that $11.76 with the $50 I spent at Wal Mart and Albertsons for my milk, orange juice, pasta, sauces, and other pantry staples, and I did a week’s groceries for less than $65! Next week will undoubtedly be a little more, because I need paper products and some toiletry items, but still, every little penny saved is a penny earned, right?
06/11/2008 at 12:44 am Permalink
Way to go!!! I’ll have to remember that if we ever move back!!!!