Joseph Natividad

Grocery Shopping on a Limited Budget

My roommates and I finally pitched in for a communal refrigerator in our dorm. Aside from water bottles and random fruits we?ve been stashing from all the free meals on campus during UCSD’s Welcome Week, it was pretty much empty for the first few days.

I decided to change all that by doing a little grocery shopping at Ralph?s, the closest store of its kind off campus. There is no Albertson?s or Safeway around here for some odd reason, but there is a Whole Foods and Trader Joe?s. Whole Foods is way too pricey for a college student on a limited budget and I find Trader Joe?s to be too specialized for my everyday needs.

I was on a mission to get some milk, cereal and more fruits. As I walked into the store, it was as if a switch was turned on in my head to pay attention to any discounts I could get with my Ralph?s card and from the coupon machines along the aisles.

I?m beginning to learn that the “next best thing” isn’t that bad at all. I know it sounds corny or trite but I really do feel that way. Instead of settling on two boxes of Special K with Red Berries, I got two boxes of Oatmeal Crisp (which actually turned out to be almost as good). Instead of a gallon of whole milk, I got two half gallons of the same thing and at a cheaper price.

Looking at my receipt when I got back to my room later on, I had saved a total of $6.98. Believe it or not, you may be a witness to a smart shopper in the making.

Tags: albertsons, coupon_machines, grocery_shopping, safeway, smart_shopper, special_k, trader_joes, ucsd, water_bottles, whole_foods