Price Matching

Last month Alisha shared with us about being good stewards of the money God has given us.  She mentioned how she saves money each month by price matching.  Today she gives us a quick lesson on how to get started.

I am challenged often by the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) when it comes to both my time and money. This passage, as well as many others in the bible, speaks of being a wise steward; in fact, I’d say the defining characteristics of a “Wife of Noble Character” in Proverbs 31 are her stewardship and generosity. While there are no specific commands in the Bible about how to save money (and therefore not a right or wrong way to do it) I have found price matching to be one of the least time consuming and most profitable ways to buy and eat fresh produce without spending a lot of money.

Two key reasons price matching works so well based on where I live are that 1) we have Wal-Mart and 2) we have Aldi. While Aldi definitely has the best prices on just about everything, it isn’t always convenient for me to get there and they don’t always have everything I need in a particular week meaning I have to shop at multiple stores which can be hard with two young kids. 

This is where Wal-Mart’s ad-match policy comes in handy. You can find their policy here.  This policy states that Wal-Mart will price match fresh meat and produce when the product is offered as the same unit type (lb for lb; unit for unit.) The policy also states that you do not have to have the competitor’s ad with you (although I always have it on my mobile device to show the cashier in case they request it.) And of course, they price match non-perishable items as well.

So how does it work? I have signed up to have our local store’s ads automatically emailed to me so I receive the ads first thing Wednesday morning. I typically meal plan and make a grocery list every Friday, so between Wednesday and Friday I glance through the ads to see what is on sale and add things to my list that I know we’ll eat. (Next to each item I write PM and the price as a reminder to myself.) The front page of the ad usually has the “loss leaders” which are the items that are priced super low to get you in their store.

Then when I’m at the store, I simply buy the items on my list and when I go to checkout, I try to put the items I am price matching on the belt first and tell the cashier I have things I need to price match. They ask which items and what the price is, and they adjust the price as they ring each item up. It’s that simple!

So what did I price match this week? 

At Aldi, I price matched the following fruits that we used for breakfast and snacks this week.

Grapes- $.79/lb.

Bananas- $.44/lb.

Cantaloupe- $.99 each

Something to note is that peaches, nectarines and plums were all $.19 each, but I was not able to price match them, because Wal-Mart sells these by the lb, not individual units.

In recent weeks, pineapple were $.99 each, avocados $.29 each, 1 lb strawberries $.88, 4 lb bags of oranges $1.49 and 3 lb bags of apples $1.29 so we always have a good variety of fruit to eat. I’ve never tried to price match meat but know many who do; a few weeks ago fresh ground chuck was $1.88/lb at our local IGA store which was almost half the price of fresh ground chuck at Wal-Mart.

Have you tried to price match at your local stores?  Do you have any tips you can pass along?