Hi, Kim Van Marter
When congress mandated an ethanol/gas mix. It didn't lower oil imports it raised the cost of beef, cereal, Milk and other foods. Congratulations congress.

I've found that most coupons are for processed foods that cost more than basic foods right off the cuff, so I don't bother trying to search for them anymore. I want organic quality at reasonable prices and I don't want to drive 50 miles to get it. My solution: Grow your own. Its convenient at dinner time and there are tons of support groups on the internet to help you out, even if you live in a congested urban area. Also, use a dehydrator to save leftover vegetables for use in soups and spaghetti sauces. This burns a little electricity, but is less expensive than throwing them out. You can grow more than you think on a tiny lot or roof top.

I usually like to throw in the extra snack for my kids to enjoy after school but lately they have been cut out of the grocery budget. It's hard enought to feed a family of four for a week on less than $100.00 just purchasing the necessities. I like Walmarts prices on certain items but unless you go in the wee hours of the morning it's often overcrowded and I find myself purchasing thing other than groceries that I don't neccesarily need. Publix is great if you want to pay for the customer service but who can afford to buy a weeks worth of groceries there? Not me! I like Kroger the best for ease of shopping but their prices are as high as anyone elses unless you are truly buying only sale items. I also love to go to Costco but unless you have a fortune to spend upfront for all of those bulk items that's not an option either. I have not tried Aldi, I don't even know where one is but I would venture to say if it's too far off the beaten path then I'm better off shopping the old standbys rather than burning a half tank of "liquid gold". Something gotta give!

I "troll" the aisles in my local Krogers for "manager's specials". They have them on produce, meat, deli, etc but on diff days. I freeze what I find. I also do the coupons, esp on sale items, but it's hard to find the time to shop all the specials in all the stores every wk for max saving power!!

I work for the railroad and I'm starting to find it is getting hard to deal with these high prices. Gas and food and thats just a start. If I wasn't making the kind of money I do I'm not sure how I would deal with this.
I have cut back and not eating out or doing any extra running around with our cars. I'm still looking for more ways to help save money......

Walmart isn't as competitive as they used to be. Their milk and eggs are the same price or higher than the supermarket. Combine that with terrible service, and I shop there less and less. I have been shopping at Costco and found that milk, eggs, and meat are considerably cheaper than the supermarket.