Saving Money on Groceries – Example

This is an article in a series of articles on saving money on groceries:

• Saving money on groceries – Simpler Strategies
• Saving money on groceries – Advanced Strategies
• Saving money on groceries – Example
• President’s Choice World Elite card review

The Skinny

Groceries can cost a lot, but don’t have to. Here are some of the ways to save on staples:

This article shows an example of how to combine these 3 simpler strategies, giving you a discount for very little effort.

Simpler Strategies:

• Price-matching (made easier using the Flipp app)
• Store loyalty programs
• Using the right credit card

Advanced strategies (next article):

• Gift card gaming
• Couponing

Now I’m going to show you how you can combine these to get the best deals.

Overview

In the series on discounting groceries, here is an example on how to put together a few strategies into a tangible example.

As mentioned, these are not the “basic personal finance” type of tools, but more something I would recommend to a young professional. who likely has enough money that they dont want the headaches of couponing but would shop strategically at the grocery store.

Double-dipping and Triple-dipping

I mentioned that there are different ways to get a discount.

• Front-end discount
  • Reducing what you end up paying at the store
• Back-end rebates
  • Getting some amount back after you have left the store

This example will show how we take advantage of a front-ended discount to lower the price paid at the store but also take advantage of a back-end discount to get some of that amount paid back as a second discount.

Stores in Toronto Area (review)

Here is a list of the Grocery stores in Toronto

I live in Toronto and I will discuss this in terms of the stores that are in the Toronto area. Here is a list of the stores and their price-matching policy, loyalty program and whether they accept American Express cards or not.

Triple-dipping example

Here is an example of a situation where we might use three strategies to create a triple-dip at my preferred grocery store, Real Canadian Superstore. At Superstore, you can combine the following:

– Price matching using the flipp app (Link)
– The PC Plus in-store loyalty program (link)
– Optimized credit-card for grocery stores (Link)

To the dismay of my wife, I buy a lot of cookies. They’re on sale at Walmart this week, but this example shows how I would get them for even cheaper at Superstore.

• Item: 6 boxes of Chips Ahoy Cookies
• Regular Price at Superstore: $3.99 / box
• Price at Walmart: $1.67 / box
• PC Plus discount: 400 points ($0.40) for every $2 spent

What we would do is pricematch the cookies at Superstore to the $1.67 price at Walmart.

Cookies on sale at Walmart this week from the Flipp app on my phone

When we show our PC Plus card, we would receive an extra $0.40 for every $2 spent after the fact. Assuming we bought 6 boxes of cookies, we would receive an extra $2.40 back in PC Points. Tack on an extra percent or 2 by using the right credit card for the triple dip.

Here’s the math (for 6 boxes of cookies):

Conclusion

Combining the 3 simpler strategies of price matching, store loyalty programs, and using the right credit card can help you to get the best deal and be more convenient.