It’s no secret that prices are outrageous these days. Food and gas prices have sky rocketed leaving wallets crippled. Today I’m sharing with you some easy ways that we save money on groceries every month.
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8 Easy Ways To Save Money On Groceries
As a family of 8, our grocery and food bill is easily one of our largest bills each month. If we aren’t careful and stick to a plan and our budget, we can easily spend more than our mortgage a month on food.
Luckily, we have always tried to be frugal when it comes to our food budget. Here’s what we do:
Meal Plan
Each week I try to sit down and create a meal plan for the week. This meal plan is just for dinners, but it makes a heck of a difference when trying to plan, especially with a large family with work and sports schedules.
Writing out a list of meals for the week helps me see what we have on hand versus what we need from the store. This way, when I am grocery shopping I only purchase what I need for the week.
I know people who have done meal plans for every meal for an entire month. I think this would be a great option if you want to get super serious about meal planning and budgeting. For us, weekly planning is what works best. Chose what works best for you and go from there.
Make A Grocery List And Stick To It!
After meal planning is a great time to make a list for the grocery store. If you have a list and stick to just that list you aren’t making unnecessary purchases. This is especially helpful if you are trying to budget and save your money.
Always go into the grocery store with your list, blinders on, and a full belly.
Delivery or Pick Up Service
Along with the grocery list idea comes the delivery or pick up service. This is the option I use most often as again, lots of little kids that I prefer not to take into the grocery store.
I have found that I stick to our budget much better if I am using a delivery/pick up service. I enjoy using both Misfits Market (use my link and save $10 on your first order) and Instacart.
Along with my meal plan, list, and being able to see how much money I am spending with every item added to the cart I can stick to a budget extremely well. This helps me save money by not impulse buying, I don’t have to waste money on gas, and saves me time to do other things I need to get done.
Honestly, this is a super win if you ask me!
Salvage Store
After I do my main shopping at the grocery store/deliver service, I can finish up my pantry item shopping at the salvage store.
My main shopping consists of fresh items like fruits and vegetables, as well as dairy items like milk, creamer, and butter.
We have shopped at a local salvage store for almost the last 9 years. This is a store that consists of mainly pantry items at super discounted prices. I have a blog post here, if you want to read more about it.
Shopping at the salvage store helps us save hundreds of dollars each time we shop. This is easily the number one way we have saved money on groceries for years. I highly recommend finding a salvage store near you if you are trying to save money on groceries.
Shop Sales
Of course, another great way to save on groceries is to shop sales. We get flyers weekly from local grocery stores and they display their sales. Usually it is fresh items like berries that you can purchase buy one get one free. This deals make shopping at the grocery store worth it.
However, if you can find a local farm stand you are going to find prices are much cheaper than the grocery store. Not to mention, you are supporting a local farmer.
Use Store Rewards Cards
Depending on what grocery store you use there is usually a rewards card that you can sign up for.
I know that locally we have a Giant Eagle near us and that we can use our advantage card and use to pay for gas at their gas stations. However, you can also rack up enough to get a percentage off of your groceries as well.
If you are shopping at the same store all the time anyway, it is a great to have their cards to save you a little bit of money each time.
Shop in Bulk
Shopping sales, or even at the salvage store and buying in bulk is a great way to save a little extra money on groceries.
If you can, I also suggest buying meat in bulk as well. Even better if you can purchase from a local farmer.
When you buy your meat in bulk from a local farmer, you are purchasing the whole animal or even a fraction of the animal but it is all one price per pound. We do this and it saves us from buying meat from the store and cuts down on our weekly spending.
Of course there is a bit of a price to pay up front as you are buying in bulk, but again, it saves in the long run. Not to mention you know where your meat came from, what it ate, how and who it was raised by. And it tastes a thousand times better than store bought.
Even if you can’t/don’t want to purchase your meat from a local farmer, shopping sales at a bulk store like Costco or Sam’s Club will help you save money in the long run, and again, cut down on weekly grocery store spending.
Only Shop Once Per Week
If anything, I highly recommend only going to the grocery store once per week. Making multiple trips to the store causes a great deal of unnecessary spending, not just on food but a waste of time and gas as well.
Of course, there are a few more ways to cut down on your grocery bill such as planting a garden or canning your own food, but those also come with added expense. Growing a garden is a great way to cut down on your grocery bill but, again, there are upfront costs. This isn’t something I would do to save money, at first.
Don’t get me wrong, I highly encourage anyone to start a garden, but I wouldn’t tell someone to do so in order to save money. The saving money part doesn’t come until the garden is established and you are consistently harvesting what you plant, which all comes with a learning curve.
Anyway, I hope this list of 8 ways to save money on groceries is as helpful for you as it is for us. Is there anything you would add to this list? I am positive there are many more ways to save money and I would love to hear them!
Until next time,
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