You are not going to get every product your family needs every week at the best possible prices — unless you’re willing to nitpick the sales fliers and shop at more than one store than necessary.

Today’s example: I went to Walgreens before going to work this morning; and I am planning a shopping trip at Kroger during my lunch break.

Why?

There is different pricing this week at those stores for items that we are running out of at home.

Immediate needs: milk, yogurt and pop.

Also worth getting: cold medicine, cereal.

Our Kroger flier this week lists milk at two gallons for $5 and store brand yogurt for 39 cents each. That’s a pretty good price for both products.

And if you buy 10 items from Kroger’s 10 for 10 list, you can also buy four packs of Pepsi products for $10.

While I have pounced on 10 for 10 sales before (read this post about a previous sale at Meijer!), this week’s list at Kroger just isn’t getting my attention. I have pretty good supplies on most products I could use on this list. And there’s only one item we would use fairly quickly that I can match up with coupons in my coupon box.

Now why should I spend the extra money on products I don’t need right now to get the sale price on pop at Kroger when I can go to Walgreens, use the sales flier coupon and get five cases of Pepsi products for $11 - and in the meantime pick up a box store-brand cold medicine for $1.99?

(For this math lesson, I am ignoring the Michigan 10-cent deposit law on pop cans.)

Yes, that is two trips to two different stores. Yes, gas prices are pretty high. Yes, I live in the city of Monroe and it’s easy for me to go to any number of stores that are within four miles of my home.

But even if you live in the townships or suburbia, think about this: commercial districts are generally bunched up together because of zoning rules and restrictions and / or the fact that business owners want to take advantage of high-traffic areas.

So when you are driving into the cities or shopping districts, there usually is more than one store you can put on your shopping list.

Examples from the city of Monroe and Frenchtown Township:

• Kroger and CVS are across the street from each other on Monroe St.
• Aldi, Wal-Mart and Meijer are all in the same neighborhood along Telegraph Rd.
• Rite Aid and Walgreens are across the corner from each other at the corner of Front St. and Telegraph Rd.

It’s easier than you think to split up your grocery and drugstore shopping list to more than one store per week.

It might take a little more planning. But it can be done, and you can save money with this trick, even when gas prices are high.