Post-college penny-pinching (again!)

Caroline

When I was just out of college, working at my first job, grocery shopping was no fun. I carried a calculator with me to make sure I didn't run my bill over $40 each week. I bought lots of hot dogs, mac-n-cheese and generic pop . Back then I longed for the day when I'd just be able to walk into a grocery store and buy whatever I liked.

Fast forward to today. I've been buying whatever I like at the grocery store for the past 10 years. But now, with two little ones at home and another one in college, and price of gas  three times what it was when I was a struggling recent grad, I'm taking some tips from that younger, poorer version of myself.

I've embarked on an experiment to see how many store-brand  items I can buy, and which ones are truly unacceptable substitutes. For some items, I've always bought store-brand: paper towels, aspirin, that sort of thing. But recently I've started wondering why I pass by the store-brand on other items. Typically store-brands run anywhere from $.30 to a dollar or more cheaper per item. So I've started branching out and I've found that most times store-brands are practically indistinguishable from their brand-name counterparts. I really haven't hit a clinker yet — store-brand breakfast cereal was a particularly tasty surprise — and I'm saving upwards of a $1 per box.

I don't know why I'm getting such a kick out of saving money this way now — when it bothered me so much in my younger days. Probably because now it's a choice, and back then, it wasn't.

If you're in post-college penny-pinching mode — are you doing anything to save money that you hope is just temporary?