You need to find a Costco. Look here for locations in VA:
http://www.costco.com/Warehouse/Location.aspx?country=United%20States&whse=BC&lang=en-US
Not everything is cheaper, but you will find eggs and butter about 20-25% cheaper there along with savings on lots of other basics. A good discount grocery store will have many items cheaper, but Costco beats them by quite a bit on many items, and it’s all excellent quality.
“You need to find a Costco. Look here for locations in VA”
I have to respectfully disagree with your advice. Costco, while having good prices on certain items, is not all that great of a deal on everything. My observation is that they have good prices on gasoline, paper products, vitamins, and some food items. I’ve also heard that their prices on non generic prescriptions are very good, and I don’t think you need to be a member to use their pharmacy. Frankly, I’m not sure that the cost of my annual membership is justified. When I’ve compared prices, I’ve often found that I can get the same or similar item for a similar price at WalMart. So why pay to be a member?
Food prices at Costco are fair, assuming that you use large quantities of the item in question. Otherwise, it’s false economy to buy something just to end up throwing it out.
For food shopping, my strategy is to shop the supermarket circulars every week and adapt our menu accordingly. There are always meat and vegetable items on sale.
I don’t do many coupons, but I do some. My observation is that they’re usually a false economy. Buying a brand name product with the coupon is usually more expensive than the comparable generic. I’ve found that coupons for other than grocery/cleaning items are usually the best deal.
Also, the sales at the large drugstores such as CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid are often good, but only for the items that are on the sale circular. Otherwise, the drugstore chains are almost always higher priced.
Don’t forget the dollar stores such dollar general, dollar tree, family dollar etc. You have to watch the prices, but there are often some very good deals to be found. Especially when purchasing manufacturer closeouts.
Finally, Trader Joe is great for high end, organic items at a good price. I also hear that Aldi is a good deal, but there isn’t one near enough to justify the gas.
To summarize my shopping strategy:
1. Know the prices for the items you normally buy.
2. Make a list of sale items and shop the list.
3. Staple items that aren’t on sale elsewhere are usually cheapest at WalMart.