Financial Advice Grocery Shopping

Here is a tidbit about myself. I have a bachelors degree in Economics with a business emphasis and a minor in Accounting. For everyone out there, it is a fancy degree that pretty much means that I love numbers, money, and things of that nature.
Recently an idea was presented to me to help me save money. I usually despise others giving me financial advice. I like to think that I have more knowledge and understanding of handling my money than someone who has less education on the matter. Regardless, I decided to run with their idea. After all, I do like saving money when possible, like every other normal human.
So here we go:
   Suggestion: You should drive to Watertown (a neighboring city) to Wal-Mart once a week to buy groceries. They are much cheaper than your small town local grocery store.

So today I had the opportunity to test out this theory. I was actually really excited for the results and tried my best to make a fair assessment of the situation. So I picked name brand foods, something that is carried at both stores, even if I don't buy the name brand of that item. Also I tried to use some items multiply times, such as noodles, cheese, juice, and others that I usually buy in larger quantities.

I could give you my entire list, but to save my fingers I will give you the totals. If you are interested, I have a break down for each individual item as well.

So the total for Local Grocery was $118.22.

The total for Watertown's Wal-Mart Store was $104.28

So it is clear that Wal-Mart did save me money, or so it seemed.

Local grocery is in Minnesota. Which means NO food tax. Watertown is located in South Dakota and has a tax of 6% on food. So now Wal-Mart's total is up to $110.54. Not such a great difference now.

Also it is 5 blocks to Local Grocery for me, and sometimes I even walk it and take a stroller cart. Watertown is 60 miles away and my van gets 20 miles to the gallon on average. So that is a total of 120 miles round trip. I used 6 gallons of gas using math at $3.29 per gallon, total fuel cost was $19.74.

So here are the final totals: Local Grocery= $118.22   Wal-Mart= $130.28

For my conclusion, yes, Wal-Mart can save me some money and if I am going to Watertown for a different reason in addition to groceries it can pay off. BUT it is also important to note that Local Grocery employs my friends and neighbors, provides me with goods that I may need on short notice, and saves me two hours of driving time. I love the community I live in and so I support it. Whether it is more expensive or not. I would rather pay more and live in small town Minnesota, than pay less and live in a bigger city.

PS my Local Grocery store bags my groceries and loads them into my car for me. An amazing feature for a mom with three small children who has enough to handle as it is.