Hi! My name is Ashley and I'm here to help share some ways we can all save money at the grocery store. This blog post talks about how I have lived and shopped in various states in the past few years and what are the observations I made about shopping in those various places.
I've lived in a lot of places since 2018. Not always by choice, but out of necessity to provide for my family. By living in various states including Pennsylvania, Texas, Indiana, and then back to Pennsylvania again, I've lived in different climates, cultures, and political environs. all of these aspects had an impact on what my family had available to eat and the price we paid for it. Of course, in the middle of these moves we had a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic which caused a global supply shock that hit everyone's wallet.
In Pennsylvania, the food selection available is more akin to regional comfort food for me and my family. We enjoy foods like pasta with meat sauce, pierogies, and soups like Italian wedding soup. Local shops with all the fresh, local ingredients made easy dinner prep for me!
We were also consistent CSA members. CSA stands for community supported agriculture and it's an opportunity to try fresh, and sometimes unique, local produce, cheeses, honeys, jams, and jellies while supporting local farms. Pittsburgh has a strong CSA community and multiple options are available depending on what's important to you and your family (e.g. organic produce, ones that carry cut flowers, etc.)
I lost my job in 2017 and for various reasons I won't elaborate on, we decided to move the family from Pennsylvania to Texas where I had a job offer. We had lived in Texas before we had children, in Houston, and knew that city was not a fit for us. This time, the job was location in Austin, which has a reputation as a fun city and having a good food scene.
We ended up moving about 15 miles west of Austin to Dripping Springs (Drip to the locals). In 2018, it was a cute little town sitting about 30-45 minutes from downtown Austin (yes, 15 miles took that long due to the crazy traffic!). Once we arrived in Drip, it was clear we were in an entirely difference food situation. Luckily, we were only five minutes from HEB, the favorite local grocery store. However, that was my only convenient grocery store option.
In Pennsylvania, within ten miles of my house, I had: multiple Giant Eagles ( favorite hometown grocery store), Market District (up scale Giant Eagle), Kuhn's, Aldi's, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco, and Sam's Club. With all of these stores, we had access to a variety of foods and lower prices with the competition.
In Texas, we missed some of our favorite foods. For example, my homemade spaghetti sauce started with Dei Fratelli's sauces and chopped tomatoes with spices. Those are not staples at the local HEB in Drip. Not at the Whole Foods which is a 20 minute drive. Instead, we acclimated ourselves to the local offerings: amazing steaks, some of the finest BBQ in Texas, and hatch pepper EVERYTHING! There wasn't much competition on pricing nor products; it's not that the food was expensive in Texas, it was that we had limited options relative to what we were used to and the local fare made us miss home.
After a brief two year stint in Texas, I was once again jobless. Since it was during the pandemic, job searching was more difficult than it had been previously. So I took a job as an assistant librarian at my kid's high school. It was great to see my kids during the day, but the pay was less than my previous jobs and it made finding a new job more urgent.
Enter Indiana. I was thrilled to get this job offer. The pay was not ideal, but the job was back in my profession and it was, relatively, closer to Pennsylvania. We were also moving to a college town full of ethnic food delights!
When I visited Bloomington for the interview, I took my teenage son, who is a bit of a foodie. Given the lack of Asian food in Texas, we were downright excited to see all the restaurant options like hot pot! I think that sold my son on the idea of moving to Indiana from Texas.
Our first trip to hot pot!
Once we made it to Bloomington, we enjoyed the diversity in grocery stores (again!) and restaurants. I still couldn't buy my favorite spaghetti sauce starters at the store, but we could purchase them by the case from Amazon and had been doing so since we moved to Texas.
Indiana is also where I started shopping at multiple stores to fill our weekly grocery list. This store had the best produce; this store has the best prices on meat; this store has a special this week on paper products and sodas. With this type of shopping, I normally laid out my shopping plan depending on where I was going to pick up the most things. I went to the big store first for major purchases and then I would do subsequent sops if I had enough time, money, and/or patience. Most of the time, I would recognize the item I bought 2 stores ago was on sale at this store. How frustrating!
Now, I know the simple answer is probably to scour each weekly circular and store website for price variations before I go to the store. But is that really the answer? Life is so full of things already: family, work, cooking, cleaning, commuting, doctors appointments, lawn maintenance; do I need to add more things to the list?
Since I know that doing my due diligence before shopping is hard to fit in. That's why I wanted to make Smopper. A website that helps you build a smart shopping list with the latest price information.