I am excited to post this interview with an amazing money smart mom, Sarah Deveau!

We have previously reviewed her book, Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting, and it was a great read and had so much information for current parents and soon to be parents. It is recommended by Grocery Alerts and  is an invaluable resource for families of all types. Whether you have kids yet or are still in the planning stages, are in debt up to your eyeballs or just barely keeping up, this book can help. It is available at Chapters.ca. Her website contains additional information for ordering her book and her blog, http://www.moneysmartmom.ca.

Here is the result of the interview where we got to see what it was like to shop for a household of 5 people.

How many people do you shop for in your household?
I shop for five people – my husband and I and our three daughters, 6, 3, and 17 months.

Do you have a regular budget for groceries?
Yes – we aim to spend between $650 and $800 a month. Our eating out budget (including lunches, coffee, etc.) is only $100 a month.

Do you have a Costco or Sams Club membership?
I have a Costco membership, because we prefer their veggies. However, for everything else I generally shop at the No Frills store, as they’re much cheaper normally than Costco. I find Costco expensive personally!

Do you shop name brand items (Unico, Kraft) or no-name store brands?
While we buy brand name for a few select items (ketchup, salad dressing, and mayonnaise), the only time we shop brand name is when it’s cheaper than no-name because of a loss leader sale or coupons. Our store brand is yellow – our pantry is usually a sea of yellow!

Which store do you spend the most of your grocery budget?
No Frills, which is under the Superstore umbrella.

Do you use coupons on a regular basis?
In the past, I’ve used coupons mainly for eating out, not groceries, as the coupons I’d find still meant the brand name product was more expensive than a no-name brand. However, I’ve just started getting into coupon trading and stacking after watching Extreme Couponing on TLC. I’ll be blogging about the ins and outs of getting products like diapers, wipes, personal care products and cleaning supplies nearly free through coupon stacking.

Do you shop with a grocery list?
Absolutely. I create a monthly meal plan, with weekly grocery lists specific to the meals for that week. Then when it’s time to shop, I add the fresh items we need, or snack items.

Do you shop at farmers markets on a regular basis?
My nearest year-round farmer’s market is a 45 minute drive away, so it’s not worth it for me with my busy schedule. In the summer we have a local farmer’s market that I support.

Do you make home preserves or freeze fruits/vegetables?
I make some simple things, like pickles, chow chow (a Maritime region relish), salsa, etc. I do a lot of canning, and that’s when I shop at the farmer’s market. I’m looking forward to our next home, when we’ll have room for a very large garden. I don’t save any money by canning and preserving when I have to buy the ingredients, but they do taste much better than store options.

Do you shop using grocery flyers (planning in advance with sales)?
Yes. Every weekend I check the flyers against my master spreadsheet of prices for our usual purchases. I do bulk buys of meat, pasta, freezer foods, etc., when a store’s flyers advertise a screaming deal – once or twice a month. Then I shop every five to six days for the weekly items.

Any tip to reduce your grocery bill?
First, check your eating out spending. If you’re spending hundreds of dollars a month eating out, maybe you should increase your grocery budget and start eating in more often.

Plan, plan, plan! A good meal plan, done daily or weekly and actually followed, will save you so much money by letting you eat to the sales. I have a friend who buys bagels every week, regardless of the price. The bagels my husband likes at normally $2.99. When they’re on sale for $1, I buy 30 packages and freeze them. We go through at least one package a week – a savings of $104 a year. That’s just on bagels!

Any grocery shopping advice (at the store, checkout, planning)?
Know your prices – create a price list in Excel of the best prices you find on your regularly purchased items, and always take the list with you. Many store’s “sales” are anything but a deal.

What do you splurge on at the store regardless of the price?
I can’t think of anything. We eat to the season – when cantaloupes are $1 each I buy six – when they’re $2.97 each I buy bananas!

What is in your fridge at the moment?
An airtight divided tray of sliced fruit, which sits on the island for my kids to graze on at lunch and before dinner. I buy whole fruit and slice it myself every few days. Lots of veggies, and individual containers of leftovers. My husband and I always eat leftovers for lunch – it’s much easier that making another meal, and there’s less food waste.

Grocery Alerts would like to thank Sarah for giving us some great advice and showing how the “Money Saving Mom” shops and plans for groceries. It is interesting that she uses a price list to determine if a flyer’s sale is actually a good price. I like to analyze the circulars and I have a pretty good idea if items are a great deal but she takes it one step further.

I also saw that when your grocery bill is quite high it is important to shop in the season – no sense buying cherries in winter.

It is important to realize that in order to see a significant savings that you must use shop a few no-name items – I suggest a few things first and see if you notice the quality differences.

Sarah, reveals in the interview that she finds Costco expensive. I find a few items not too bad for prices but it doesn’t seem worth the membership and hassle driving to these far locations.

This year Lina and I will do our best to try and make some preserves. I think we will start with pickles (we both enjoy them  and they seem great for beginners). We don’t eat many preserves and would like to start somewhere. Any advice for the first-timers?

Sarah has the most organized fridge I have ever seen in our series of interviews!