How To Save Money At The Grocery Store: 10 Sneaky Tips You Need To Know
With a family of four potentially spending up to $13,272 a year on groceries an immense amount of a home’s income goes to food. Most families are without a doubt are wondering how to save money at the grocery store.
Surprisingly it is a lot easier to save money on groceries than many would think and we are here to show you how to make a plan to cut down on wasted food and cut way down on spending.
1. Making The Cut
We have all noted the generic brands and questioned their quality when considered against the big names. Well, don’t you worry, according to consumer reports a large number of store brands meet or beat the big guys.
Is the savings had just by switching to store brands, around 20-25% to be exact.
2. Take A Look At Unit Pricing
At first look, varying items may seem to save money. Something that costs $7 is going to look like it costs less than $8. But you need to consider the amount you are getting in each package.
By doing that you can determine the “price per unit”. If that $8 item has 12 ounces of product, that is approximately 66 cents per ounce, and say the $7 product has 9 ounces, it will come out to 77 cents per ounce.
It is worth it to take a moment to compare these numbers, it will add up by the end of your shopping trips.
3. Having A List Always Helps
This is one of the easiest ways to save a good amount of money. You can put this into action before ever even looking at sales or trying to figure out the pricing in the store.
There are countless apps now to assist with your needs and items as you use them at home to make a list for the next time you go shopping.
Meal Plans
Pairing well with a list is devising a meal plan. If you make a plan for the week you can get a really clear idea of what type of spending you will do and where you can easily cut costs.
Another benefit of meal planning is that when you are making a list you are assured that any item on the list has a purpose. You are not being wasteful with the items that you are buying.
You will not purchase more than you need and end up wasting produce or other items.
4. Wait Until Meat is On Sale
The best day is almost always Tuesday. Many people believe that when it comes to meat, discounted means “lower quality”. In this case, it does not mean that at all. It does mean, however, that it needs to be consumed sooner.
Right after the weekend the meats are discounted, the week starts slow and the product needs to be unloaded.
5. Schedule Your Shopping
A good strategy is to, of course, keep an eye on sales cycles. One easy way is to follow something like the Kroger weekly ad.
However, that is not your only option, if you make note of some of the most often purchased items in your cart you can get an idea of when items go on sale.
In addition, many big box retailers routinely issue discounts online, so when you are browsing the internet, be on the look out for items like sams club promo codes, which can provide hefty discounts when shopping online.
6. Consider Frozen Options
Looking over frozen choices for certain foods can end up saving a lot of money. This is especially true for baked goods that can go stale or even bad in short periods.
Snack items, that many people are often a little less picky about, are a huge money saver. For example, at Costco, a fresh box of cookies is $7.99 and that is a 24 count. A frozen box is $34.99 but you get 180!
Returning to the cost per unit topic, the fresh box is 33 cents per unit whereas the frozen box is only 18 cents and you can store it for a much longer time.
7. Down and Out
A couple more strategic moves are keeping track of exactly where you are placing both your path of shopping as well as your eyes once you get there.
Stores know to put the most expensive items near your eye level. This will makes sure that they are the first things you see and the most likely things to purchase.
Don’t grab them right away before looking over the shelf for the rest of the items.
Rather than shopping primarily at the inner aisles try to focus on the outer edges of the store.
8. Bulk Bags
Especially for larger families, needing to feed the troops, bulk cases are a perfect solution. Be careful with what and how much exactly you are purchasing, however.
These choices are a very easy way to save money but don’t default to them just because bulk can get large numbers for lower costs. If you don’t think you need all of it, most likely you will lose money.
Of course, certain bulk items like water and paper goods can always be a good choice, they don’t have the same shelf-life issues that you will run into with grocery products. You can also purchase new-to-market F&B products in bulk via a B2B cross-border trade platform.
9. How to Save Money at the Grocery Store With Programs and “Programs”
There are two types of programs that can be taken advantage of, ones that initially save with purchase and those that provide money back after purchase. With the proper planning, you can take advantage of both.
There are several cashback apps, some exclusively for groceries and others for a range of purchases. Each of the apps has differing terms and requirements so it is wise to check them before using each.
Most grocery stores will have a loyalty program that you can sign up for. These programs offer discounts not available to others, you don’t even need to clip coupons for these.
At this point, many stores also have an app for smartphones linked to loyalty programs. These alert about discounts and allow for the loading of coupons onto membership cards.
By using these you will get specialized access to even more affordable groceries.
10. Organic or Not
Just as important as knowing the benefit of organic produce is knowing what items don’t necessarily need to be purchased as organic. This can help save money as well.
Because of the low levels of pesticide residue left on the plants, these fruits and vegetables do not necessarily need to be purchased as organic;
Kiwi
Avocados
Honeydew
Sweet Corn
Cabbage
Pineapple
Mushrooms
Onions
Broccoli
Papaya
Eggplant
Asparagus
With such a large selection of produce available to buy without having to go organic, you can save a large amount of money before your shopping is done.
Money-Saving Plan to Make A Happier Home
Take this strategy, these steps, and now you know exactly how to save money at the grocery store. You know more than just how to save money you know how to build a healthy attitude towards food use!
If you have found help here be sure to browse our online magazine for some more healthy lifestyle tips!