Buying food at the grocery store and cooking at home is not only the healthier option but can also save you a lot of money over the long term. Households will start budgeting or tracking expenses to see where all of their money is going or to try and find places they can cut back. Many are amazed by how much money they are spending on groceries each month. Here are some of our favorite ways to save money on groceries.
- Shop only for a week at a time.
- Create a shopping list.
- Plan out your meals for the week.
- Use curbside pickup and order online.
- Buy store brands when possible.
- Use coupons.
- Store rewards or loyalty programs.
- Use a cash back app.
Shop only for a week at a time.
This may seem counterintuitive. Won’t I save more money if I shop less frequently? It is possible but in my experience doing a large grocery shopping trip once every two or three weeks usually results in buying more food than you need and creates more food waste as fresh produce tends to go bad during that period.
Create a shopping list.
Going grocery shopping without a list of only the things you need is a good way to bring home whatever snack item was on the end cap that week. So whether you use an app or a pen and paper, create a grocery list before shopping and stick to it.
Plan out your meals for the week.
Creating your grocery list based on meals that you are planning to have this week will help you avoid getting excess food that you don’t need. Not only is this a great way to help you get only the food you need, but will also help you save time since all of your meals will already be planned out for the week ahead of time.
Use curbside pickup and order online.
This option may not be available everywhere yet, but it is definitely becoming more common. Not only is this a huge time saver, but being able to order your groceries online or through an app and having the store shop for them and bring them out to your car will save you from a lot of impulse buys. You won’t have the temptation to buy things not on your list since you will not be walking around the store. This option also makes it more convenient to compare prices on different brands as you can easily search for the product and see them all side by side.
Buy store brands when possible.
Compare prices on the products you are buying. It is not always the case but a lot of the time you will not even be able to tell the difference between the name brand and the store brand. Don’t get into the habit of just grabbing the same brand product you always have just because it is the one you always buy without comparing prices.
Use coupons.
This is an old one but a good one and with the ability to order groceries online at more and more places it is making it even easier to check for coupons online. Be cautious with this one as some people tend to fall for the trap of buying things they don’t need because they have a coupon.
Store rewards or loyalty programs.
Most grocery stores today have their own rewards or loyalty program that you can sign up for free and get member only discounts without having to use coupons.
Use a cash back app.
There are multiple different apps now such as ibotta that will give you real cash back for buying groceries simply by submitting your receipt.
Saving money on groceries doesn’t need to be complicated. By utilizing a couple of these tips you could lower your grocery bill and put that extra money towards your goals.
