As I have discussed in the past its expensive to feed a family of five these days, with food producers lowering the amount of foods in the packaging and racking the prices up higher it makes it even harder to find the right amounts of food for a decent price. Groceries is one of my biggest expenses at over $500.00 a month, this is also due to the fact that I never want to run out of food and I like to buy big quantities of stuff when it is on sale. Many people will claim that cooking is cheaper than eating out and I agree, unless you are just getting started cooking and looking for healthy foods. This is where the grocery store will rack up, healthy foods cost much more than the fat providing foods. For example I can grab a microwave meal for $1.50 per person making my grocery bill cheap, however this is not what I want for my family and I enjoy taste since I worked as a chef for a good bit of time.
These are some of my favorite tips that have been collected over the years, and I hope that you will find them useful.
- Always use a list. If you go to the grocery store without a list you are throwing your money away, if you do not want your money send it this way. Make sure you have a solid list that has everything you will need on the week. Make sure you are creating this list during the week so that you are not forgetting anything.
- Stick to your list. If you do not stick to your list you will add anywhere from $50.00 to $100.00 to your grocery bill it’s when you deviate from your list you make bad decisions and end up buying other things you do not need. I get calls when I am at the grocery store from my wife and if she asks for something not on the list she has to explain why, it’s not that I am being inconsiderate I am just trying to justify buying it on this trip.
- Plan out a weekly menu. This will help you make sure your list is complete and that you will have enough food to serve your family dinner for the week, sometimes I will make my list and decide to have the same thing the next week so I can shop once and just duplicate my list.
- Don’t go to the store when you are hungry. I am sure you hear this all the time but it is true: when you are hungry you will end up buying junk. You will spend more and grocery stores know this, sometimes you will find people with “samples” setup trying to get you to try it, one reason is they know if you are hungry and you try it you will buy it.
- Have a budget. Do not just walk into the store with your list and say “it will cost me whatever it takes to get this list”. You need to have a limit it will help you keep up your mindfulness while you shop and will get you looking for a lower cost replacement for an item.
- Keep a running total. This goes hand and hand with tip #5, if you want to stay in your budget you have to know what your already at. If you are close to your budget but you see something on sale you would like to stock up on is it a good deal if you are going to go over your budget? I do not think so. I always round-up when I put something in my basket for my running total this allows me to calculate tax without doing anything crazy. I only round to the nearest $0.50 and only up so a $1.49 item is $1.50 but a $1.51 item is $2.00.
- Keep a list on your fridge. When you run out of something do not leave it in your memory write it down right away that way you will not forget and have to make a trip to the store.
- Make a checklist for your pantry. Make a list of everything you normally stock in your pantry or you would like to stock in your pantry. Keep it posted on the pantry door. I keep a little white board and it has my list on it and when I add to the pantry I put a little mark and when I take from it I remove a mark. This way I can quickly look and decide what I need for the pantry each week.
- Keep easy meals on hand. Make sure you have easy meals that you can whip up when you are feeling lazy, it could be spaghetti or something like this. A lot of my money used to go to the restaurants on my lazy days when I get home from a hard days work and do not want to cook.
- Buy in bulk but only when it makes sense. If you can save money over the course of a month or two, plan to do so. But be sure you will use every bit of it before it goes bad, buying in bulk is more expensive when you do not use it all. When I first got out of the restaurant business I did this mistake a lot because I was used to having items around that we used a lot and I still use a lot just not in the same quantities.
- Keep a price list. Use it when you know when bulk or sale items are good deals, it will also let you comparison shop between stores. If you do not know what milk costs at multiple stores how do you know where to get it cheaper. Use your receipts and create a price list of every common item you buy.
- Buy frozen veggies. While fresh veggies are better, frozen veggies will keep longer and are quicker to use (you do not have to chop them up). I use it for diced onions and things like this as well because I do not have to keep them around now.
- Update your list when you are running low not out. Do not wait until you run out of something because it could cause extra trips to the store, when you see you are low on an item go ahead and put it on the list. This way it can be caught in the next trip to the store. When determining what is low you have to think about your consumption rate. If you do not buy it this week can you make it to next week. If the answer is no then you are low.
- Get out your crock pot. You can make some cheap dinners in your crock pot, and you can just throw somethings into it in the morning and come up to dinner.
- Clip coupons. Yes they can end up being a pain to keep up with and knowing what coupons you have but it can save you a lot of money (around 10 to 20% off your bottom line) Make sure you look everywhere for them. I subscribe to the Sunday paper which will normally pay for itself with the coupons I get.
- Only use coupons for items you where going to buy anyways. I have found many times a coupon that looks like it will save you a good deal of money, but if you did not need or was not buying the item you are spending more. Also I avoid the buy 2 and save a dollar unless I needed two. However normally if I needed two it might be a good candidate for bulk shopping.
- Look for specials. Every store has specials and if you are not looking at them your wasting money. I also look for specials on meat, normally they are a few days from the “sell by” date and remember I have a freezer so its okay.
- Use the store brands. Brand names are no better than generic brands. Remember they are spending a lot of money to promote the brand which increases your costs. In 99% of cases you will not notice a difference.
- Use the Hispanic isles. A lot of times when I need a spice I check the Hispanic isles because you can find your spices a lot cheaper. For example I can buy dry thyme for $1.00 vs $4.00 from McCormick. It’s amazing what you will find on these great isles that can save you a lot of money.
- Cut back on “one-item” trips. How many times have you went in for one item and came out with 20? These also waste gas and you will end up spending more. If you keep a good list and plan you should never be doing these.
- When there’s a sale buy a lot. Sale items are great and if it’s an item you use a lot even better, go ahead and buy extra if your budget will let you.
- Comparison shop. Look at different brands including store brands. There is often a significant different. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples however, as a lot of times one might look cheaper but it’s less food. Make sure you are going ounce for ounce.
- Avoid trips to the corner store. These are very expensive stores and will quickly eat your money, I know sometimes when you do forget something the gas station is closer but you will probably pay double to triple the costs.
- Use everything possible. If you have some leftover ingredients make sure you use them, do not throw them away as the more you can stretch your food the less you will have to spend.
- Do not waste leftovers. Plan a leftover night and make sure you are eating everything you cook. If you are not eating everything you cook you are cooking too much and hence buying too much. Cut down on what you cook.
- Shop alone. When you bring people with you there are more chances you will end up buying something not on your list. It is not fun to tell your kids no to something either and saying it over and over will make you want to hurry your shopping and you will not pay attention as much to what you are buying. You will spend more than you should if you do not shop alone.
- Store savings cards save you money. These little gems can save you a lot of money over time. However avoid cards that give points look for cards that offer immediate savings.
- Pay attention to sale items. I have seen several times an item appears to be on sale but you must have a specific coupon or buy $X amount of groceries before it is on sale. Make sure you have that coupon and meet the requirements of the sale or do not put it in your basket.
- Prepare your grocery list by section. Avoid walking all over the grocery store because you forgot one item. Make sure you plan your list in the order you are shopping it makes it easier to make sure you got everything you need and you do not have to backtrack to find something.
- Check your receipt. Make sure your prices scanned correctly, make sure your coupons scanned correctly and make sure nothing was double scanned. Sales items have a tendency to be wrong in the computer the only way you will find this is if you pay attention.
- Use farmer’s markets. You can get excellent fresh produce, normally less expensive and you are only buying veggies that are in season, out of season veggies cost a lot more money and normally taste worse.
- Reach up or Kneel down. The highest markup products are chest high because the store wants to sell them to you, look high and low to find what you need and compare prices. Sometimes you can save a lot of money by looking lower.
- Double those coupons. Shop on days that double or triple your coupons it will make you save a lot more money.
- Discount Store Syndrome. Just because you are in a discount store does not mean what you are buying is discounted.
- Watch this website. I will be trying to update you with more tips and tricks on money-saving ideas and recipes that will save you money, the only way you will find them is if you watch this site.
