How To Save Money On Groceries with These 16 Super Easy Steps!

Grocery Bills in our house take up a lot of our extra income. The more the kids grow, the more the food bill rises! We are always looking for ways to reduce our food expenses while continuing to buy healthy food. Let’s talk about How to Save Money on Groceries while not sacrificing quality and healthy food.

How To Save Money On Groceries

Shop Once A Week

Wait till you see how much money you save by making it a point to only shop once a week. If you are constantly making short trips to the store you are way more likely to pick up things you don’t need. You are guaranteed to spend extra money that you didn’t have to spend.

I’m guilty of doing that so now I’m making it a point to only shop once a week and then stop back to the grocery store only for milk, fruit and produce.

Buy In Bulk

We bought an extra freezer years ago so we could stock up on meats when they were on sale. The freezer was well worth what we spent on it. It has saved us so much money I cannot even begin to tell you! The freezer not only allows me to stock up on meats when they are on sale, but it also gives me more room to freeze leftovers for another nights dinner.

Check Price Per Pound

As I mentioned in , How To Save Money Tips , make sure you check price per pound.

I didn’t learn this until we started to live on one income. I don’t know why I never noticed this sooner! If I was looking at two similar items I would immediately just grab the one that was on sale that was less money (at least it seemed).

However, if you look at the price per pound sticker that will tell you what the best offer is to get the biggest savings. It’s at the bottom left hand corner of the price sticker. Now I skim for the lowest price per pound of all the brands before I buy to get the most for my money.

It’s really deceiving when you see a product on sale and think you’re getting this amazing deal! Then you compare the price per pound to the same product, that is a smaller size let’s say, that is not on sale and you find out that you’re not getting a deal.

Meal Plan for The Week

These few tips all fall under meal planning on a budget

Shop The Circular For Sales

Sit down with a cup of coffee or your favorite drink and take a look at your store’s circular. Quickly(because who has time to do this anymore),browse the meat section and take a look at what is on sale for the week. Then…..

Meal Plan and Create Your Menu for the Week

Now you want to go through and figure out a menu for the week. Try to incorporate the circular sale items into your meal plan. Write down your menu.

If chicken is on sale, you want to Stock up! This is where the big savings are. So you can do two things. Buy a bunch of chicken and stock up and freeze the rest for the following week or more.(See tip #1 BUY IN BULK)… OR you can find a meal you like and double it. Then you have leftovers that you can have a few days later in the week or you can freeze for another night.

You save money and time, by cooking once.

I recently figured out that I can even freeze Lunchmeat. I didn’t know how it would turn out, but if ham is on sale I buy extra and freeze it. Then I take it out at the beginning of the week I want to have it. Another big savings because lunch meat can be expensive.

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Meal Plan Ideas To Save You Time

15 SHEET PAN DINNERS YOU NEED TO MEAL PREP THIS WEEK

10 + EASY CHICKEN RECIPES YOUR FAMILY WILL LOVE

5 QUICK AND HEALTHY PIONEER WOMAN RECIPES

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Take Inventory

Make sure you take a quick inventory of what you have now that you know what ingredients you need to make your meals. This will save you money on groceries by preventing you from buying too much food that you don’t need.

Have you ever bought produce or fruit and come to find that you already bought some already. Then you are stuck with additional food that is perishable that you can’t finish in time before it spoils!

That is wasting money.

If you don’t check what you have first and overbuy that can definitely lead to wasted food which means less money in your pocket.

Make a Grocery List

You’ve written out your menu, now write all the ingredients you need on a pretty grocery list or a grocery list app! If you go on a whim and just think you’re going to pick up items for the week and remember what you need you are bound to forget something.

If you can remember everything you’re amazing, because I can’t anymore!

I depend on my lists.

So write a list and stick to it. Don’t window shop at the grocery store and become tempted to buy other things because they look good.

Never Go Hungry

Just don’t do it! It never fails I buy more when I’m starving. Go with a full stomach.

Check Mobile App for Grocery Store Coupons

Our grocery store has an app that gives us extra coupons. Sometimes we will even get $10 off our whole order. See if your store has an app and take advantage of it. You will just have to link your store card up to your account and you will be all set. It will automatically take off the savings at checkout. I use this feature all the time in addition to regular coupons

Buy In Season

Look for fruit and veggies that are in season. I usually avoid buy fresh strawberries a lot in the winter because they are so much more expensive. Usually I will buy frozen if fresh produce is not in season. I prefer fresh, but when cutting costs that is the way to do it! Check out this helpful list of seasonal produce and plan your meals around these.

Store Markdowns

Find out when your store marks down meats. They all do it and I’m sure you’ve seen that yellow sticker on the meat with the big discount. They usually mark things down after the weekend. This is another opportunity to stock up. The only thing is you will need to either eat the meat that day or freeze it because it’s usually close to the sell buy date

Go Alone

Now this will vary from family to family. Sometimes my kids like to go and they are at an age that they can be a big help. They like to check items off of the list as we get them. However, there are times when they beg for junk and things that we don’t need and it’s a temptation to give in and overspend. So plan wisely here….:)

Go When The Store Is Quiet

If possible, go early morning or nighttime. Weekends are crazy and I just want to get out of the store when it’s so busy I can’t get down the aisle. If I go when it’s quiet it’s more peaceful and I’m likely to shop efficiently and not grab anything to get out of the store.

Check Your Store’s Coupon Policy

As of recently, my grocery store accepts competitors coupons. It’s definitely helpful because sometimes the competitor has better coupons, but the store isn’t close enough to me for me to warrant a trip. So make sure you check to see what the store policy is.

Buy Generic

Try to buy generic when you can. Sometimes the store brand is just as good as the name brand. Do an ingredient check or try out the generic. You may be surprised at what you find!

Food Storage

Store your food properly. If you don’t store your fruits and veggies the right way they can spoil very quickly.

For example, whenever I buy organic spinach or lettuce in one of those big plastic tubs I follow these steps:

Open it right away. Put a paper towel on top of the spinach and then close the lid and turn it upside down. Then I put it in the fridge. These will give you at least 3 to 4 more days of freshness. It sucks up all the moisture so it doesn’t rot as quickly.

For asparagus, take it out of the plastic bag and put it in a cup filled with a little bit of water. Then put it standing up in your fridge.

Ibotta

This is a cashback app that saves you additional money when you shop. There is no catch to this either. It doesn’t cost anything to join and it’s really simple to use. I mainly use this for grocery shopping, but Ibotta has 283 retailers to choose from!!

Here’s how Ibotta works:

Search Ibotta for the store you are going to shop at and see what deals they are offering(You don’t have to look in advance, but it helps to know the offers up front).
Go to the grocery store and shop as usual.
When you get home go on the Ibotta app, find your grocery store and add any item they are offering to your cart that you purchased that shopping trip.
When your done adding all your products hit redeem and then take a picture of your receipt.

You’re done! That’s all you have to do! Sometimes they make you scan the bar code of the product , but it’s easy to do.

They will send you and email notifying you of your savings that day.

You receive the money you earned from Paypal or Venmo. Earnings can also be converted into a gift card. Basically, it’s extra coupons on top of the coupons you already used!

Now the savings aren’t HUGE or anything. I just feel like why leave money on the table because every dollar adds up in the end. When you’re trying to save this is how you do it!

Coupons

I can’t leave out the most obvious way to save on groceries which is to use regular coupons! There are so many sites that offer coupons as well. Go to any of your favorite brands sites and you will find them. I also signed up at P & G because they send me coupons and free offers often.

How To Save Money On Groceries- Recap

Shop Once A Week
Buy In Bulk
Check Price Per Pound
Shop the Circular for Sales
Meal Plan For The Week
Take Inventory Of What You Have
Make a Grocery List
Never Go Hungry
Check Grocery Store Mobile App
Buy In Season
Look For Meat Markdowns
Go Alone
Go When the Store is Quiet
Store Your Food Properly to Avoid Waste
Use the Ibotta App for Savings
Use Coupons

So these are some of the things I do to save money on groceries. If you have any other ideas on how to save money grocery shopping I would love to hear about them. I’m always looking for new ways to spend less money on groceries!

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