Catching bargains in as little time as possible

When I posted about buying yeast and spices at the health food store Betsy had mentioned that she didn't like to make lots of stops and wondered if I had any tips for cutting down errand running time. I thought that would be fun to post about as I also do not like spending a lot of time running around shopping. It is so much more fun to be at home busy doing something. I will share what I do but I would love it if others would leave comments telling how they reduce their errand running time.

Here are my methods:

• I make menus (a month at a time) and try to shop ahead.
• I have decided I will only go to our Super Walmart once a month. This saves me a ton of time as going in and out of Walmart with the parking and the amount of walking required to get to stuff takes a long time. I keep a running list of what we need on our fridge and if we don't have something we make do or do without.
• For places like the health food store I will only go about every 3 months. I try to be aware of what is in my cupboard and we buy enough to last us for a while. For buying our wheat which we get at a special place we only go once a year. We just buys hundreds of pounds at a time.)
• I do still buy great sale items at our two local grocery stores and Walgreens so sometimes I will stop at 3 stores a week. If a store doesn't have enough good sale items it will get skipped. When I do go I have a list made and I try to get in and out as fast as possible. Even with 4 kids along we will get in and out of those 3 stores within an hour usually.
• I always try to combine errands in bunches. I mentally plan the route through town so that we hit everything in order in the minimum amount of time.
• I do buy bread at our day old bread store but I only go there every couple of months and I buy in large amounts and freeze it. We use have that and half homemade bread.
• The biggest help is probably buying in large amounts when things are on sale. I try to hit the very lowest sales and then I don't have to go when there is just a halfway good sale.
• I do very little shopping other than food so I don't have time spent at other places.

Well those are the things that I can think of, it seems a little disjointed but maybe it will help someone someway. I would love to hear your ideas as well.