Milk is one of those things that has quickly risen in price over the last few months. Used to be that Meijer would have it for sale for $2 per gallon almost every week, with Kroger usually picking up the slack, to where we got it at that price probably 75% of the time.
Those days seem way in the rearview mirror.
We noticed the regular and sale prices creeping up slowly, to where $2.25 was a ‘good’ sale price, then $2.39 a week later, and $2.50 a few weeks after that.
Now, they seem to have cut the number of sales altogether, so the ‘current’ regular price of $2.99- $3.29 is there more often than not.
Since our family drinks a lot of milk (both my wife and I drink it every day plus what Little Boy Beagle consumes), this is a noticeable hit to the grocery budget.
As such, we’ve expanded our search and added ways to find the best price on milk.
The first option we’ve recently found is….free! We participate in curbside recycling, and our city is partnered with a website that rewards residents for the amount of recycling they do. One local grocery store allows you to redeem recycling points for a free gallon of milk. The store is not one that we usually go to, and is a couple of miles out of the way, but for a gallon of milk, it’s a trip worth taking.
The second option we found is drugstores. Typically, even sale prices at drugstores weren’t any better, but nowadays, rewards programs have made them worth looking into. We recently paid $2.79 per gallon at CVS, but got a $1 register reward to use on a future purchase. Even if we go back and buy it on a regular priced ($2.99) gallon, that still averages out to $2.39 per gallon. For weeks where there are no sales, this is still the best price, and considering we buy 2-3 gallons per week, the savings per month add up quickly.
Have you been getting creative to combat increased food prices? How so?
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