Budgeting Tips for Grocery Shopping in IC

From my perspective, the Iowa City area is full of great options for grocery shopping. In fact, I still find it hard sometimes to decide where to go when.

We used to go with Hyvee delivery when my youngest was a baby but recently switched to Walmart pick-up for most groceries. To my surprise, I find the Walmart app easier to use, and the experience has been great. I also do enjoy Bread Garden, Costco, Trader Joe’s and Hyvee…and I haven’t set foot in a Pioneer Co-op or else I’m sure I’d love it too!

Of course, budgeting comes into play with where to shop, so I thought who better to ask than a few IMP moms of four for their tips.

• Meal plan!!!! Saves you money from not buying what exactly you will use
• Shop in bulk from Costco—diapers/household items/meat/snacks/produce because of its bang for the buck
• Smaller items, order online from Walmart or Hyvee—this prevents you from putting random things into the cart. If you use Hyvee, make sure you look for the digital coupons, fuel saver points
• Look into a meal planning service called Meal Squeeze that comes up with recipes based off the Hyvee or Fareway sales ads
• Speaking of Fareway, if you do prefer to shop in the store, they will automatically price match all the sale items from Hyvee
• If you have room, keep an eye out for the Costco sales to stock up on an extra box of snacks or cereal you know you’ll go through
• For meat, Zaycon is an option. They deliver to Coralville a few times a year and you can get chicken breast for as low as $1.49/lb. Note that it does come fresh so you have to bag and freeze it... and you have to order 40 lbs at a time (so look into splitting with an IMP friend too!)

For those stretches when I’m not cooking as much (like when I had mono in the fall ugh), I did find the Trader Joe’s frozen meals delicious and a good deal. I also don’t have a pantry so buying in bulk comes at a price of storing in the basement. I like the idea of not going to the grocery store as much but I also like to see in person produce I'm choosing--so for important things, I may opt to go to the store. Like I said, I’m still figuring it all out!

Tell us, where do you shop? What’s best for certain categories? Also, do you use any meal planning tools or just good ole pen and paper?