Wow...Great Value

Buzz of the Day

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were looking at the sales papers. Places like Target and Meijer had the sales item right next to their version of it...for a lower price than even the sales item. This is something very new for them (trust me, my wife would know). But with the economy the way it is, it makes absolute sense.

My wife buys a newspaper each Sunday and clips coupons and figures out what's on sale. Sometimes there are a bunch of coupons, and sometimes not so much. We do our shopping at a few different places: Wal-Mart, Meijer, Target, Kroger, and the fruit market. Why so many places you ask? Well it depends on whose having the sales. Many times we don't go to all of the stores because...we don't need to. Wal-Mart is the place that we start, and the rest are very close to where we live.

We began to venture off slightly, and starting buying some of the "off brand" things. I started with granola bars from Target. My wife started with the apple juice from Wal-Mart. And some other things here and there. Well yesterday, will forever be known as "Great Value" day at the Hall household.

FYI-Both my wife and I grew up on brand names. Period. So some of you may so it's no big deal. It really is a big deal for us.

We went to Wal-Mart and bought all types of Great Value brands (that's Wal-Mart's name for their brand). That wasn't our plan, but my wife started then trend. And once we started, we couldn't stop. Now, don't get me wrong. There were still many things that we bought as normal, but the percentage of those has dropped tremendously.

I have a magic number for how much I plan on spending at the grocery store. I take that number in my head with the amount we usually spend and average the two. We were well below both numbers and I am excited about it!

When I was younger, I wouldn't be caught dead with anything that was "off" brand. The thing is" We could have afforded the "name" brands, but we wouldn't have had as much money. Duh... The really exciting part is the thought of not noticing a difference in taste, but noticing a difference in our pockets...The only issue I'll have is if my foods don't taste good. I refuse to buy nasty food to save some money. But if the taste is there and I can save money...Rock on.