These tips will help you save at any grocery store.
Grocery shopping can be affordable even during an inflation with smart shopping habits. Read these 5 tips before your next trip to the grocery store.
1. Eat Better and Healthier.
The rising cost of groceries may actually help some of us change exactly how we eat. If you’re accustomed to mindless snacking throughout the day now is a good time to curb that habit a little bit. You’ll be surprised at how you can easily shave $15-$20 dollars off of your next grocery store run.
It may also help to shop the outer parts of the grocery store. Often times this area of the store has the healthier options for us. The inside aisles are where the snacks, junk food, and chemically laden products are shelved. Instead of loading your cart up with many items from these aisles try shopping from these sections first.
2. Plan Ahead.
If you desire to shop on a budget you need a plan before you head to your grocery store. Visit your store’s website to see a list of sales on products that you need or use frequently. Flipp is also a great way to check the circulars for many grocery stores. If your local store has a app you can also use it to check their circular or access any of their digital coupons.
Planning your meals, snacks, and desserts ahead of time will help you to buy only the things that you need eliminating overspending and useless pantry items. Before I incorporated meal planning into my weekly routine I would buy multiple bottles of barbeque sauce, mustard, rice, and can goods that were just adding up with no recipe for them to be used. I stopped this bad habit by taking the time to create a meal plan for one week at a time. I make sure to include breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and my Sunday baking supplies into this plan. It helps me to shop once a week the way that I like and avoid overspending.
You can find a ton of meal ideas on Pinterest and YouTube. Keep your meal plans fun by recreating some of your favorite restaurant items at home. I’ve mastered Ree Drummonds recipe for lo-mein noodles and it is just as delicious as the version that I order at our local Chinese restaurant. Be realistic with how much time you have to cook each day and plan your meals according to your budget.
3. Buy Store Brands.
Many of the store brand products that we see in stores are made in the same warehouses with many of their well known competitors. My advice is to always read the labels. Organic store brands are always just as good as the well known brands. If you order your groceries for pick up or delivery you can read the product reviews from other customers if you are unsure about store the brands products quality. You can save big at the grocery store by selecting quality store brand items.
4. Shop in Season Produce.
This is a suggestion that I haven’t always followed in my home because I was shopping just for what we wanted at the time. However, I’ve learned that when I shop in season for fresh fruit and vegetables they are cheaper, on sale, and they also taste better. There are certain foods that are tastier when they are fresh, but frozen options can taste just as good and are cheaper.
Frozen broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, and corn taste find in meals. They can be purchased much cheaper than when you select them in the produce section. If you like to use fruit to make smoothies or popsicles and slushies like I do for my family, frozen fruit can be used is cheaper and just as good. Consider these options when you are shopping on a budget.
5. Check Unit Prices.
This is a tip that I learned from shopping with my husband. You don’t always get a better deal because of a cheaper price when you purchase certain items at the grocery store. It’s sometimes more helpful to look at the unit price because it will tell you how much an item is per once or per pound. Use this method to decide if you are actually paying less and getting more or the same product or paying more and getting less product with low quality.
I find this method to be helpful for me when I shop at warehouse club stores like Sam’s. Everything is not a deal! I try to check unit prices before spending $20 on a box of juice boxes. It just may be cheaper to buy two or three of the smaller boxes of juice at my local grocery store. This method is helpful when shopping for meat as well. Always check the price per pound when you’re trying to save on your next shopping trips.
I hope these tips have been helpful for you. How do you save money at the grocery store? Leave me a comment below!
