How to Save Money on Food in the Supermarket

There are practical and easy ways to save money on your food bill. With commonsense ideas you can cut your costs and still feed your family nutritious meals. When you buy food that is pre-made, pre-cut, and pre-packaged, you are paying more for the same food you can prepare yourself. In a Consumer Reports comparison shopping test, the person who bought readily prepared food spent almost $80 more, than the person who did the work to chop and prepare the food themselves. Buying convenience packaged food can add significantly to your grocery bill.
Before you buy single serving sizes, bagged vegetables, pre-sliced cheese and ready made salads, compare the cost this convenience may add up for you. If you can save $80 on your food bill by chopping and preparing yourself, how long will it take you? Now think about how long it will take you to earn $80 after taxes? It might start to seem worthwhile to do the work and save the money.

Another way to save is to look at the cost per unit prices.
The supermarket shelves list the price for the item and to the left bottom is the unit price. When you are looking to buy an item in the store, look at the per unit price and you can easily compare brands and sizes so you will know which item is giving you the better value. The trick is to make sure the unit prices are talking about the same unit. For example, make sure if one unit pirce is per ounce, that another brand is using per ounce, and not per quart prices. This way you can easily see which products will you can save money on. Sometimes bigger quantity isn't a cost savings

Buying store brands can usually save you money on the same products. Sometimes generic products are made by the brand name company they are sitting next to on the shelf. It has beeen extimated that you can save almost 33% by buying store brands instead of name brands.

You will also realize savings on your food shopping bill when you try to buy what you need, and avoid excess food purchases and leftovers. In a study done by the U.S. Dept of Agriculture, they found that Americans throw away more than 1 pound of groceries per day. Food sitting in the refrigerator waiting to spoil is a waste of food and a waste of money. Try to anticpate and schedule when you will be making the food you buy. When you buy vegetables try eating them soon after you purchase them to avoid the spoilage factor. If you make a larger quantity of food than you will be eating, freeze the extra right away to keep it as fresh as possible for your next use. Try to turn those leftovers into other creations so that you get more meals from the food, instead of having to toss it. When you have leftovers, but don’t know what to do with them, you can go online, type the food into the searchs bar or go to a recipe website and get ideas of constructive and easy ways to turn those leftovers into a delicious meal.

Every week the local supermarkets send out flyers, or you can check online flyers. Check these flyers to compare who has the best deal for the week for the food you need. With the price of gas, it usually doesn’t pay to run from store to store, but one of the markets is bound to have sales on the items you are looking to purchase for the week. Be aware, when supermarkets advertise a low price on one item, they make mark up another item that you are not aware of, and your savings may not be as good as you first believe. The savings depends on what you are buying. As with everything, you need to be an alert buyer to achieve the greatest savings.

When the food store is having sales on canned goods, stocking up on the food you use will save you money. Canned goods have a longer expiration date so you have more time to use it.

Items that are sold in bulk can save you money, but you have to do the calculations to make sure it really is worth it. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. You also want to make sure will actually be using the quantity you are buying, otherwise you will have more waste and could have possibly overspent based on what you actually ended up using.

Sometimes you can buy reduced fruits and vegetables that the supermarket is looking to get rid of because of imperfections. This is a great way to use vegetables in a soup or fruits in a pie. Dented cans will also save you money, look for the place your supermarket keeps the marked down food.

When you are standing in the aisle of the supermarket, very often the items below and above eye level will be cheaper. This is because the manufacturers know people who are in a hurry will grab the items at easy reach and can profit more from the non price comparing customers.

Don’t be shy. If there is a cut of meat that you are not sure how to cook, ask the butcher. They will be happy tell you jhow to cook it for the best taste. Cooking it the right way can make all the difference in taste, and save you money because the meal worked out well. Cooking mistakes can be costly.

Snacks, chips, cookies add up in calories and cost. If you can make the cookies or cake yourself you will see a major savings in your grocery bill.


Buy what is on sale, and freeze it. If meat is on sale as an example, you can either freeze it right away, or make it and freeze it so it is ready for you to serve. If you figure out your meals around the products that are on sale, you can eat for less for the month. As far as freezing meat, the U.S. Dept of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service advises you to store meat in heavy duty aluminum foil, freezer paper, or plastic freezer wrap to keep is fresher. It is safe to keep the meat and chicken in the supermarket packaging, however it is not air tight, so its freshness will not keep as long. When thawing meat it is best to defrost it in the refrigerator on a plate at the bottom of the shelf so the meat juices don’t contaminate on other foods as it drips.
Properly defrosting frozen foods will keep your food tastier. Preventing dripping on other food, will help you avoid throwing out contaminated food.