Do you want to save money on groceries but not a fan of clipping coupons?
Do you always end up spending more money than you planned?
Let’s face it. Grocery shopping is a part of life. It’s a necessity. We need food to eat to live.
But what we don’t need is to spend a fortune on it.
Here are 5 ways you can save money at the grocery store:
- Meal Plan – Before you go shopping, plan your meals. That way, you only buy what you need. If you want to save even more, check the store flyers for sales and plan your meals accordingly. For example, if sweet potatoes are on sale and not russet potatoes, use sweet potatoes in your meal plan.
- Set a food budget – Decide beforehand how much you’re willing to spend on groceries and create a budget for it. Once you’re at the grocery store, use your calculator on your phone to keep track of how much each item costs. Once you’ve reached your budget limit, stop shopping and check out.
- Pay with cash – Avoid paying with a credit card. There’s no emotional attachment when you swipe with a card as when you have to hand over cash. You don’t see the money leaving you when you use a credit card as you do with cash. It’s not as painful. So paying with cash keeps you from spending too much and you are more likely to stick within your budget.
- Go Generic – Buy generic brands to save money. Most of the time, you’re only paying for the brand name and the packaging but the ingredients are the same. They’re usually made at the same facility and then just packaged differently. So go generic whenever you can. I’ve done it and have not noticed any difference in taste quality. It just costs less. So pack on the savings with generic brands.
- Don’t go hungry – We all know that we should never go grocery shopping hungry. Why? Because when we’re hungry, all we’re thinking of is food, so we tend to pick up more items than planned even though we may have a list. So make sure you have a meal before you go, to avoid picking up unnecessary items and end up overspending.
Grocery shopping can cause us to spend way more money than we planned and go over our budget.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
By implementing these 5 tips we can save a lot of money on groceries before we even set foot inside the store.
Do you have any other tips on saving money at the grocery store that you would like to share?
Please leave them in the comments below.