Grocery Shopping Money Saving Tips

A penny saved is a penny earned and in time they do mount up; however, saving dollars means the pile grows faster.

Saving money on your regular trip to the grocery store is often the only place we have to realize any savings at all. Car and house payments must be made; clothes need to be bought and meeting the many needs of growing children is an ongoing challenge.

So we turn to food in order to reduce our expenditures; we’d rather increase our income and, a raise would be much appreciated but often not forthcoming. So we try to do what we can to save on the regular food bill.

There are a few things that we can do to save money when it comes to food.

Let’s start with expenditure that many of us may not even add into our food budget, the morning coffee and maybe donut or muffin that we pick up on the way to work each morning. How much does that cost? Let’s say, to keep the math easy, 2 bucks a week, now multiply that by 5 and you get 10 dollars.

Make coffee at home and use a travel mug. Make your own muffins or better yet, eat breakfast. It only takes a few minutes to fry or boil an egg and make toast.

Now how about lunch? Are you a brown bagger? Or do you go out for lunch? What do you spend on lunch? Let’s keep it simple and say 5 bucks, so if you eat out 5 times per week at 5 bucks a meal that is 25 bucks, plus 10 for the morning and that is 35 bucks that could be going somewhere else.

Try this, keep a log and every time you buy a food item other than your regular groceries write down what you bought and what it cost.

Do this for a month and then add it all up.

When it comes to saving money on grocery shopping, rule number one is never and I mean never go grocery shopping when you are hungry. If you go shopping right after work on payday, then take a snack with you to work that you can eat at your afternoon break. Often some almonds and an apple can keep you going until you get home.

Know the store where you do your grocery shopping, get to known the physical layout and, for example, know where the reduced product bins are. This will save you time and money. These will be items that need to be sued quickly so make sure that you know what you will do with those 4 pounds of overripe bananas before you buy them.

Make a list. Stick to the list. Check off items as you buy them.

Allow yourself time to shop. This way you can read labels and compare prices without worrying about being somewhere else.

Watch for sales, read the store’s flyers when they appear in your mailbox before chucking them in the recycle bin. Do this when you sit down to make your list. Remember, though, if you are not going to use an item, then no matter what the price it is no bargain.

I enjoy my trips to the grocery store, but then I go early in the day when the store is nearly empty and I can leisurely coast up and down the food aisles.

If you want to make significant savings, consider reducing your meat consumption or only buying the meat that is on sale.