Cutting Your Grocery Bill

This post is part of a budgeting series. See All the steps below:

Budgets, Where To Start?
The Other Half of the Budget
The Nitty Gritty
Budget Deficit
Keep Those Dollars In Your Pocket
I Need Extra Income
Irregular Incomes

Over the past few weeks, we have been going over budgets. Now we are focusing on cutting some of your expenses so they fit within a balanced budget. This week we will focus on ways to cut your grocery bill. Here is a list of ideas that you can implement to save money in this area.

Photo Credit: Nick Sherman via Compfight cc

1. Shop at Cheaper Stores.

If you are truly struggling with your budget, but are spending hundreds of dollars each week on groceries, re-evaluate where you are shopping. Many of the cheaper stores still have the same quality of items as other stores, but at half the price! Even if you are a little leery about the quality, just try it for a week’s worth of groceries, or even just for one meal’s worth. If you don’t like it you can always go back to where you where shopping before, but at least you will know whether a cheaper store works for you. Some stores in my area are Aldi and Costco, but there are many discount grocery chains nationwide.

2. Check your local ads for sales & pric-ematch

Even if you live in a rural area, you should receive ads for your stores in your nearest large city. Look through the ads and try to buy items that are on sale. Beware of items that seem on sale, but are really listed at their usual price. You will have to pay attention to your previous receipts to notice this, but most items in the ads are truly on sale. Try to come up with meals that include the items on sale. You could even make a game of it and see if you can come up with a week’s worth of meals using only the items on sale. Make sure to look at the ads for all the different local stores. Some stores will price-match other stores’ ads. You will need to check with your store and see if they do this. Some stores require you to bring in the competitor’s ad with you, so make sure you find out what your store requires to price-match. If none of your local stores price-match, try to stick to one, maybe two stores and buy items on sale.

3. Coupons

I know, I know, no one has the energy to be a crazy coupon-aholic like the people on Extreme Couponers, but you don’t have to be addicted to use a coupon. Check your local paper for coupons or look online. There are many sites that offer coupons that you can print right at home. Look through the coupons and see if there are any for items that you already buy. Why not save money if you are already buying it? If there are no coupons for items you already buy, are there coupons for items you might consider buying? You don’t have to change your eating habits immensely, but evaluating whether coupons can help lower your grocery bill is worth a shot.

4. Buy cheaper items.

If you have tried all of the methods above and are still unable to lower your grocery bill, you may need to take ‘drastic’ measures. There are some people who have been so motivated to get their budget under control that they have lived on a diet of Ramen noodles, rice and beans. Now hopefully, you don’t have to go that drastic with your grocery budget, but is there a middle ground? Are you buying T-bone steaks and fancy wines? Until you have your budget a bit more under control, consider buying cheaper items than you normally buy. Also, while you are shopping, look for deals. Some stores don’t put all their deals in their ads, but still offer random discounts on items. For example, you may find a deal for 10 pork chops for $10 when they are usually priced at $2 each. Often, stores will discount items when they are close to expiring. If you purchase these items that are due to expire in a few days, you can take them home and cook them that night or freeze them to be thawed and cooked later.

So, have you come up with ideas for cutting your grocery bill? What ideas do you think will work best for you? Do you have other grocery-saving ideas that weren’t discussed here? Feel free to comment and be sure to come back for the next post for more ways to save money.

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