Photo credit: ninjapoodles
In times of financial uncertainty it makes sense to save wherever you can. Here are 8 tips for saving on your weekly grocery bill. Do yourself a big favor and put anything you save straight into your emergency fund.
1. Cook from scratch instead of relying on convenience food and prepared meals. Cooking from scratch doesn’t need to be time-consuming. There are many recipes that are very easy to make. I usually go for recipes with 5 ingredients or less.
2. If you have the space, stock up on stuff that’s on sale and can be frozen or stored for a few months.
3. When you shop, stick as much as you can to the edges of the grocery store - that’s where the healthy, less processed foods are.
4. Stick to your shopping list (you have one, right?) and be very aware of the store’s attempts to get you to make unplanned purchases, especially when you wait in line for the cashier. The more aware you are, the less likely you are to reach for something you didn’t plan to buy.
5. Avoid buying non-grocery items at the grocery store. Grocery stores typically mark up toiletries 25 percent compared to discount drug stores.
6. Don’t shop when you’re hungry. If you do, you will likely end up making unplanned food purchases.
7. Whenever you don’t have a strong preference for a specific brand, choose store brand and generic products.
8. Don’t eat meat every night. Replacing meat with a vegetarian meal twice a week will not only reduce your grocery bill, but is also healthy and more friendly to the environment. We like to have a weekly “make your own burrito” night. I make a “buffet” of Spanish rice, beans, grated cheese and salsa. Each of us fills their warmed flour tortillas with whatever they want from the buffet. Served with a side salad, it’s a healthy, low-cost, filling vegetarian meal.
While some advise against taking the kids with you when you go shopping, I actually think this is a great opportunity to make them a part of the family’s effort to save money and to teach them about shopping responsibly.
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Ah hah! I practice many of these tips. I recently put in two years of work with the major grocery chain shown in your photo there and actually live very close to the store so I never have to go to a ‘convenience’ store and buy overpriced milk.
Except for tomato soup (Campbell’s all the way!) I buy all store brand items. Often they are made in the SAME FACTORY as the name brand products but with a different label. I am not kidding at all. I never stray from my shopping list, I take a calculator with me and keep track of how much everything costs to keep under our budget. Once we get everything on the list and we have a few dollars left to our budget I allow ourselves to get a ‘treat’, something that wasn’t on the list (whether it be something we crave like a TV dinner or some off season fruit or candy & chips!). It’s a great reward for keeping track and being thrifty! (:
Hi Kerstin, it sounds like you’re doing an excellent job saving money when grocery shopping. Thank you for the tips!