Grocery Price Showdown: Fresh Thyme vs Mariano’s

This week we will take a look at Fresh Thyme (health conscious) and Mariano’s (owned by Kroger) to see which one had cheaper prices.

We will be seeing how cheap we can make a whole meal plan for a week, so we will utilize a lot of store brands and any sales or coupons available.

My goal is always to keep our grocery budget below $100, so let’s see if either store can do it!

Key Takeaways

• Fresh Thyme had some good prices but was still $37.33 (about 25%) higher than Mariano’s.
• Mariano’s had lots of sale items, but they were still $20.12 (about 18%) higher than Walmart.
• Fresh Time did show that you can eat All Natural/ Organic for under $150 for a week!

Meal Plan and Grocery List

Instead of just comparing random items at each store, we will use the grocery list from this week’s meal plan. (click link for full plan with recipes & printable PDF)

This grocery list at the Walmart Supercenter in Chicago, Il came out to $90.29. So, let’s see if Fresh Thyme or Mariano’s can beat that!

Is Fresh Thyme Cheaper than Mariano’s?

Fresh Thyme claims to offer fresh and healthy foods at amazing value, so let’s see how they do with our list this week!

Mariano’s total came out to $110.41. Which was not bad, but it is over our goal of $100 weekly grocery budget!

Food for Thought

Now I always like to see if it is worth going to both stores to save extra money on our groceries. If I had just bought what was cheaper at each store, our total would have been $107.52.

That’s only a savings of $2.89 (about 2.8%) so I am not sure that would be worth my time. If both places were convenient and I had the time, I may do this to save money but it’s a toss up.

If you want to see how these stores compared to other local grocery stores in Chicago, IL, check out the showdown between Aldi and Jewel Osco!