Last year I wrote a similarly titled blog entry, which focused on the cost of inefficient electrical appliances. This time around I’m interested in good prices for good groceries.

I think I’m doing a decent job at getting both–the good prices and the good groceries–because our grocery bill hasn’t gone up that much, despite the media telling us how much food prices have increased. I mean, I know that I have my issues with brand loyalty to some products, which probably doesn’t help at the checkout counter, but yesterday I went food shopping for the week, and I spent $143 only (I try to keep our weekly grocery bill at about $150). That included six pounds of chicken for which I paid $12. I thought that was a respectable price, because it allowed me to serve my family of four, with fixings, dinner for about $8 last night. But I’m wondering if I can do better all around?

For starters, I find that if I don’t let too much time go in between grocery shopping trips, I can spend less on each trip. I’ve heard advice that if you normally go food shopping every seven days, that you should try to stretch your shopping trips to every 10 or 12 days as a way of saving money. However, I haven’t found this to be true. The longer the intervals between grocery shopping, the more I spend overall when I finally do get to the store. And during that in-between time? If we’ve run out of easy things to make for dinner, I revert to my fallback–ordering pizza!

Also, I try to buy things only when they’re on sale and/or I have a coupon that brings the price down well below the “regular” price. Case in point: yesterday ShopRite had certain Kellogg’s cereal on sale for $2. So I got a box. I didn’t have a coupon but I’ve yet to see name-brand cereal that cheap, except on those rare occasions in Target. I thought $2 was a pretty good deal.

Now that chicken? It was on sale for $1.99 a pound. I cooked up three pounds of it last night for dinner, plus served rice and salad from our CSA farm. I’ve got tons of leftovers that I can have for lunch today. Also, I’ve got enough leftover from last night’s salad that I could easily serve it with tonight’s dinner. (I’m not, though, because I’m going to try to make the French toast in the crock pot recipe that Stephanie from A Year of Crockpotting posted earlier this week. It sounds like a yummy, easy and affordable way to have breakfast for dinner, and salad really doesn’t go with breakfast, does it. Unfortunately, this French toast recipe calls for a dozen eggs and an entire loaf of bread so I guess I might have to do a supplementary grocery shopping if I hope to make eggs, sandwiches or bake anything else this week.)

Two weeks ago the meat du jour were marinated pork loins, which were on sale for about $5 a pop. I stocked up on those, since one will give us dinner–well, as long as I fix a couple of sides. I’ve found that while the smaller pork loins taste better, they don’t go as far when feeding my family of four. I’ve tried buying bigger pork loins and marinating them myself, but they just don’t cook up as well. Must be that the smaller ones are a better cut of meat.

Could I cut back even more if I wanted to? Sure I could.

* My dog doesn’t need the Iams treats that he gets as a, well, treat every night (if we’ve forgotten to give him his nightly treat, we’ll often find him sitting in the kitchen, staring at what we call “the cabinet of goodness,” which is the cabinet where we keep his treats). However, we take great pleasure giving him a treat each night, and we know he takes great pleasure in receiving them.

* We probably don’t need to have ice cream in our freezer all of the time but because I’ll only buy what’s on sale, I can get six containers of ice cream (can’t call them a half gallon anymore because they aren’t) that will last us a week or two for the same amount as one trip to Cold Stone Creamery.

* And I could probably buy a whopping can of ground, generic coffee instead of the hazelnut-flavored, whole bean (Eight O’Clock brand) but I’ve got this really cool Cuisinart coffee machine that grinds the beans, then brews the coffee. My daughters tell me that our kitchen always smells like Starbucks now (that’s a good thing), and one, five-pound bag of beans gives me at least three weeks worth of coffee. That costs as much as three morning cups of Joe from Starbucks.

I think what’s important to me is finding a balance of a happy, fulfilling life in which I do not spend too much money yet I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself or my family. Last year I read a study about how to determine if you were a tightwad, a frugal spender or a spendthrift. I think this quote from that survey (as reported in a WebMD story) sums up my existence perfectly:

“Conservative spending by tightwads is likely driven by a pain of paying, whereas conservative spending by the highly frugal is likely driven by a pleasure of saving,” write the researchers, who included Scott Rick, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

I definitely derive pleasure from saving. Does that describe you, too?