Many households are struggling financially now and looking for ways to save money on groceries, with 63% of Americans currently living paycheck to paycheck. As prices rise, food bills are growing, and families are looking for ways to save money.
Food Is a “Need”
One of the fastest ways to save money from your budget is to stop spending money on things, usually, items classed as ‘wants.’ Food, however, is most definitely a ‘need’ and, therefore, something that we can’t just cut out completely from our budget.
No Need for Extremes
While some frugal bloggers would suggest a diet of Ramen noodles to bring costs down, I believe you don’t need to go to that extreme to save money on groceries. So here is my list below of 12 ways to save money on groceries to reach your financial goals.
Have a Budget
There is a reason this is first on the list. Having a budget is a financial foundation everyone needs to have. Without a budget, it would be very easy to buy groceries without a real understanding of what you are spending or how it will impact your cash flow.
What number you set within your budget for groceries will largely depend on your individual circumstances. Some of the biggest factors include where you live, how many people you are feeding, and how much cash flow you have.
Don’t Go Overboard
Setting your budget for a grocery shop is a great way to make sure you don’t go overboard while shopping. But more importantly, it means if you stick to it, you won’t be doing any harm to your financial situation.
Hopefully, the rest of the tips on this list will help you spend less and set a lower budget for your groceries in the future.
Never Shop When Hungry
Why would you torture yourself like that? Shopping when hungry is a dangerous scenario; you are not only risking everyone’s safety in your hangry state, but you are likely to spend a lot more than you need.
Eat Before You Shop
Make sure you have had a good meal before you go shopping; this way, you are less likely to make impulse purchases out of hunger. This will stop you from buying more than what you really need, and you will also pay a premium for “fast” food you can eat at the store.
There is no upside to grocery shopping while hungry, so don’t do it!
Plan Your Meals
Another thing you should do before you leave home to go grocery shopping is to make a plan for your meals. This plan can be as in-depth as you would like, but I suggest you plan meals for at least five days of the week.
Planning your meals is a great way to maximize the number of meals that you make and reduce food wastage. If you have Spaghetti Bolognese on Monday for dinner, you can plan to have it for lunch the following day.
Stay Away From Take-Away
Without a plan, you may forget to take your lunch with you and buy takeaway food, which is often not as healthy, more expensive, and means your leftovers get wasted.
A great benefit of planning out your weekly meals is knowing what ingredients you require before you go shopping. This leads to my next point, making a shopping list.
Make a Shopping List
Once you have planned out your weekly meals, you will likely need a recipe to know what ingredients you will need. Once you have found your favorite recipes, get a shopping list with all the ingredients you need for the week.
Avoid Impulse Purchases
This list should include everything you need and is your blueprint for buying food in the grocery store. Anything not on the list shouldn’t be bought, as you didn’t “need” it before you left, so it’s likely an impulse purchase.
A pro tip here is to notice if there are recurring items on your shopping list that you could consider buying in bulk or searching online for a cheaper price.
Do Your Research
It may take a little bit of time, but if you buy items often, it could save you money by searching online for better deals. Online stores often sell products significantly cheaper than retail stores, given their lower overheads.
Doing your research may also help you find different local stores offering better prices than your usual store. Being loyal to one store doesn’t always benefit you as a customer, so always look around.
Take Advantage of Sales
Make sure you also take advantage of any sales that are going on or any coupons that you have. I have been able to save hundreds of dollars on my grocery bills through loyalty points and coupons. Always keep an eye out for a deal!
Use up All Your Pantry Items First
Before you go grocery shopping for the week, why don’t you first look at what you already have in your pantry? I am sure there are many items in your pantry that you can use to make meals for a few days during the week.
Use Up Your Food
If your pantry is anything like mine, you could probably skip an entire week’s grocery shop with the amount of food I have in there. So this is a good way to save money on groceries and use up what you already have.
Pro Tip: It is always good to do a pantry audit so you know what food you have that may be close to expiry dates; this way, you can use that food so it doesn’t go to waste.
Think Sustainability
Make sure you bring your grocery bags when you go shopping; this is a great way to help save the environment and your money. Some shops charge crazy amounts of money for grocery bags, and you really don’t need to be buying these bags when you most likely already have some at home.
Recycle
Also, take advantage of recycling programs; where I live, you can get up to $0.10 back for each can or bottle you return to the grocery store. So this is a great way again to help out the environment but also to help save you money on your grocery shop.
Leave the Kids at Home
I understand this may not be possible or a liked option; however, if it is an option, it can certainly help save you money grocery shopping. When I was a kid, I used to see something I thought I wanted at the store and annoy my parents enough, so I got it. I often ended up not liking the food or feeling sick afterward.
Neither option was good and cost more than what was budgeted for. So to help save any arguments or guilt trips with the children around the budget, it can be a good option not to bring them along at all.
You will probably also find a lot of time is saved during the process too.
Related: Shopping with Kids: A Terrible Combination
Meat Free Monday
I used to be a huge meat eater and still love eating meat, but I am eating it a lot less now. This is mainly due to some education about how unsustainable it is for the planet and me feeling much better eating less meat.
I started by doing meat-free Mondays, leading to Monday Meat Day and barely any meat for the rest of the week. I only highlight this fact as it cut our grocery bill by about 30%.
Go Vegan
Before, I was buying lots of meat and high-quality meat too, which, as you can guess, was very expensive. So I was amazed at how much cheaper my weekly grocery shop was without meat. Meat-free Monday could be a good way to dip your toe in and save money on groceries.
Related: Going Vegan to Save Money
Seasonal Shopping
I love my fruit and vegetables, but one thing that I will never do is buy them out of season. If you are buying fruit or vegetables out of season, you have to expect they will be more expensive.
The grocery store has to pass on the cost of importing them from wherever they have been grown, and given they are short on supply; the price goes up even higher. So make sure you are always doing seasonal shopping.
Eat Seasonally
This will likely mean you need to consider seasonal recipes to work with the available ingredients available. Fortunately, with all the information online, you can get creative and find some great seasonal recipes to use.
Related: Pass the Beets: Grocery Shopping on a Budget
Bulk Buy
This one is a well-known tip for a reason; it just works! If you need to buy non-perishable goods that you use often or a lot of them, provided you have the cash flow, it makes sense to buy them in bulk.
A perfect example of this would be toilet paper or canned vegetables. These items are used often, have a long shelf-life, and are often cheaper when bought in bulk. Make sure you don’t buy things in bulk that will expire before you use them.
Think It Through
Another important point to note here is that you need space to store your bulk items. It is pointless buying in bulk and having nowhere to put the items; you will be wasting your money.
Meal Prep
This is one of my other favorite tips to save money on groceries. Meal prepping is a great way to combine bulk buying and meal planning into one.
It involves cooking multiple meals all at once and then dividing them up into meal containers to have throughout the week. You then freeze these meals, so they last the week, and you can have them whenever you want.
There are some amazing recipes that show you how to meal prep for under $50! Meal prepping not only saves you a lot of money and food waste, but it also saves you a lot of time throughout the week.
Buy the Right Ingredients
The key to meal prepping is to allocate a significant amount of time to prep the food but also to have the right ingredients. Meal prepping is great for building healthy eating habits but also helps cut down your urge to buy lunch.
One of the downsides to meal prepping is that the repetition of meals can get a bit tedious, so take into consideration this may not be the best strategy for everyone.
Related: No More Meal Planning!
I hope you enjoyed reading through some different options to try and save money on groceries. While this list doesn’t cover everything, I have found these to have some of the biggest impacts on reducing my grocery bill.
This post originally appeared on A Dime Saved.
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