Have you ever been to the local supermarket or grocery store and seen your neighbor or one of your friends.  The conversation can revolve around a lot of things but maybe a part of the conversation goes like this:

You - "I do this once a month like clockwork" or "I hate going grocery shopping"

Him - "Yeah me too.  I hate going to the grocery store" or "Yeah I do this every month"

Well, there is a way you can both make your lives a lot better - you can do "community shopping".

Community shopping is where you get 2 to 4 of your friends together and pool your efforts related to buying groceries.  The process is simple:

1. You all meet at a friend's (and bring your shopping lists)
2. You elect 1 person to go to the grocery store with the consolidated list
3. You give him or her the money and they drive to the store and gets the groceries
4. You split the groceries up when he returns (and you get your change back

There are several advantages to doing community shopping.

1. Only 1 person burns the gas driving to the store
2. Only 1 person has to go through the pain of doing the shopping
3. Because you are buying for 5 (or more if buying for the family) instead of 1 you get better deals at the store (the major supermarkets give major discounts if you buy in bulk ex: "10 cans of soup for $10)
4. You stay on a monthly schedule, which may keep you from running to the corner store during the week and overspending for the month
5. Because you rotate each month nobody dreads the stoer and may actually enjoy their monthly run

Buying in bulk at the grocery store will generally save you 20% to 40% versus buying a bunch of single items.  If you have friends that you trust in the neighborhood, try it out and save time and money.

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