Tips for saving at the grocery store?

[Marionnette]

Another thing that I want to add is: Watch those BOGOs! They aren't always great deals!

Most of the time, the BOGO meats are marked up to a price that is more than twice what I can pay per-pound when there's a sale.

BOGO meats also give you the smaller package for *free*, so if you buy 4, 6 or 8 packages then you will pay for the most expensive packages and get the less expensive ones for free.

Couponers need to know their store's policy regarding BOGOs. Some will allow you to apply 2 coupons but others will not permit a coupon to be used on the *free* item. If you cannot use 2 coupons on BOGOs, it's often better to wait for a sale that has the same items but at a reduced price.

One store near me will routinely advertise raspberries/blackberries/blueberries as BOGOs. In the fine print, which they neglect to put on the shelf display, is that you cannot buy one package of blackberries and get a free package of blueberries. You have to buy 2 blackberries (or 2 blueberries, or 2 raspberries).

And in that same vein, BOGOs can lure you into buying more than you will use. One that really gets to me is the BOGO packaged leafy greens. I don't need two bags of kale - ever! But I'll buy one bag of spinach and one bag of kale if they're both included in the sale.

And don't even get me started on the X¢ each WYB 10 or $X off instantly WYB 6 participating items! Those deals are great for super-couponers and people who have room for a stockpile but not everyone needs 10 cans of chicken noodle soup or 6 bottles of pancake syrup!

 

[Teresa Pitman]

My family is vegan, so we buy no meat, dairy or eggs. Definitely saves us money!

Some other tips that help:

Keep track of prices on products you buy routinely so you know when a sale price is actually good. For example, while I do use dried beans, I like the convenience of canned beans. The best price around here is 67 cents a can on sale. When a store advertises that price, I will stock up.

We don't get coupons here in Canada the way you do in the US, and they are rarely for foods we eat when I do see them. But when the store flyers come out (Thursday nights here), I will sit down with them and make a list of the good deals in each store. Then I plan meals for the week based on those deals, and then I decide where I will shop. I price match when I can, but only some of the stores here will price match.

Cook as much as possible from scratch. If you have them, make use of things like slow cookers, bread machines, etc. to automate some of the work. For example, I make overnight oatmeal in the slow cooker all the time - much cheaper than the packages of instant oatmeal and I can add any fruit or flavouring I want. And it takes very little time just to toss the ingredients in the slow cooker.

I use the bread machine for pizza dough about once a week, and also for cinnamon buns, for herbed dinner rolls, for breadsticks, for foccacia, etc., as well as loaves of bread. A simple meal of soup or stew seems a lot more satisfying if you serve it with fresh-baked breadsticks or rolls, and it's quite inexpensive to make (and I always buy the flour and yeast on sale).

Food waste is a big issue for many families. Keep an eye on what you have and what needs to be used up, and adjust your meal plans accordingly. It's one reason I like serving soup with meals - soup is such a great way to use up leftover bits of vegetables!

TP

 

[usnuzuloose]

We have a store here and I go and look in the clearance area for meat. I found a lot of meat from New Years and it was 50% off. Now it is only 2 of us. But it will stretch a long way. So check your stores and see if you can find meat on clearance.

I like to make food and freeze it for other meals. Salads also make great meals with chicken on them as well.

Soups are also good. I love my crockpot and make pulled pork.

 

[disneyjes]

Shop the flyers and make your meal plans based on the sales. Check for discounted meat. Some stores will discount meat expiring that day. You can easily freeze that and be just fine.

 

[KKB]

Look into purchasing a quarter, half or whole cow if there is availability in your area. (we are in Nebraska--LOTS of availability)

Mom bought a cow & our family's Xmas gift is half of itShe has a HUGE deep freeze; I have a garage fridge, so I will just restock from her periodically.

We are doing ground beef, roasts & steaks.

This is cost effective, and at least here, very very high quality. Obviously requires a lot of freezer space.

We like beef, but will supplement with pork & chicken. (I keep trying fish, but it is not going over well no matter what recipe I try--and I am a pretty darn good cook!)

 

[Jake&IzzyLand]

If you go meatless 3 or 4 days a week it will help. 80\20 was 4.29 this week. I had tacos on the menu and meatless crumbles are 2.99 for a pound package. With the taco seasoning, the difference is small. Falafel made of chickpeas in a pita with a quick cucumber sauce is also a favorite. Veggie chili is yummy along with corn bread muffins. Meatless meals are cheaper but also much healthier. Egg and potato scramble with rye toast and applesauce is also a great dinner. If you use frozen chicken tenders, you can get 3 to 4 meals from one bag. Think chicken and rice, chicken noodle soup, chicken quesadillas and enchiladas with Verde sauce. Make banana bread, homemade brownies and oatmeal cookies for snacks. If you like take out pizza, try making your own. Our pizza place is about 15 bucks per pie. Homemade is less than half that. Good luck and try to keep the savings going after your trip!

 

[tnd]

If you are trying to save temporarily, do you have things in the freezer you could use? I am a sale shopper, but I find my freezer is totally full half the time from all my "deals". I am going to try to eat what is in the freezer for a month and I bet I will save a bunch of money.

At the grocery store, I buy around the outside aisles only. I do not use most pre-packaged products, so I don't really coupon. I do use my store's online coupons, so I save money that way. I only buy produce that is on sale. I also almost always buy store brands too.

 

[Chrelaine]

We are a family of 3 and we spend about $400-500/month for groceries/paper goods, sometimes lower. I use coupons a lot to save money. It takes some time but does really add up to savings as long as you combine them with sales. I look at them as little gift certificates. There are plenty of websites that help with coupon matchups. I use Iamthatlady.com because she does stores in my area.

In my area we have BJs Warehouse clubs. They take coupons and put out their own coupons. You can stack those coupons. For instance, on a 3 pack of shave gel, I can use 3 manufacturer's single shave gel coupons and 1 BJs coupon. I save quite a bit there. You definitely need to know your prices, and what your family will use, for warehouse clubs to be worth it. Buying a 3 pack is great, but not if you'll waste 2 because you never got around to using them (This happened to us with ketchup.) I have found that we pay for our membership each year a few times over in savings. It was even better when we were buying diapers and formula. Target is great with coupons/Cartwheel. I have started buying a lot of things there and using my Redcard for added savings. Every penny helps when budgeting.

Menu planning has also really helped me decrease our grocery bill. I plan meals for the week around what I have in the freezer and only buy the items to complete recipes. Also, I stock up on the items I need for my favorite recipes when they go on sale and make sure they are always on hand.

 

[amyy]

I recently started following the blog Don't Waste the Crumbs (she has a FB page too) and have picked up some good ideas. I also bought a small dry erase board for the fridge to remind us what was in there. Sounds silly but we were throwing away a lot of food that I know added up.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

So you have 8 weeks to make this all happen. I would make a few simple meals over the course of the 8 weeks. Breakfast for dinner is cheap. Pancakes or scrambled eggs, sausage and toast. Make chili then the next night have chili on a baked potato. Then another night do chili dogs. Pasta meals are cheap.

I agree with PP BJ's is a great place. Was just there today and my receipt showed I have saved $92 so far this year. Great way to start the year off and we are only 10 days into the new year. My year end savings last year was over $700. I always stock up on my paper products, laundry stuff, bath soap ect. by using BJ coupons stacked with MFG coupons. Then in the winter I only have to shop for perishables.

 

[bigbabyblues]

My husband does our grocery shopping. We loosely plan a menu before he goes, but he will change it if he sees a good deal on something. He stocks up on frozen veggies when they ar 10/$10, or other things we use that are a good deal. We have two typical refrigerator/freezers and a chest freezer in the garage. If we really need to watch the spending, he takes cash, keeps track of the price of everything he puts in thr cart, and if he gets to the amount of money he has, something has to go back (usually the extra stuff he finds). He knows that Kroger (an hour away but on his way home from work) is our best bet for most things, but certain things we buy are cheaper at Walmart (only store in our town). Kroger sends us coupons on things we buy often, and that helps. We buy our meat from a local butcher shop; it is about the same price but tastes much better.

If this is a temporary thing, go through your pantry, cabinets, freezer, whatever you have, and make a list of everything you find. Look over the list, and see what meals you can make from what you already have, or what you can pick up small things to add to what you already have to make meals.

 

[aliceindisneyland]

Don't eat out at all until your trip. You will appreciate (or get sick from ) the junk food and splurges on your trip that much more!

A lot of people list eating out as a separate category from their grocery budget, but if you merge the categories you will suddenly become very jealous of your grocery budget money and not want to waste a big chunk of it on take out.

If you want pizza, make it. I make two large pizzas with mostly organic ingredients/meats and it costs under $5 total. The same amount of takeout pizza costs us $19, and the ingredients are pure junk. Rinse and repeat for hamburgers, rotisserie or fried chicken, ice cream....

If you're stuck out at an activity and everyone is starving, run into the nearest grocery store and buy a bunch of bananas and a bag of apples. It's cheaper, healthier, more filling, and faster than a drive thru, and you will probably have some left over that you can use for other snacks.

If I wanted to knock 25% off my grocery budget, I'd make sure there were no packaged items in my grocery cart, no soda, no juice, no milk, no bottled anything whether water or beer or juice boxes, no cereal. (I'm not saying OP eats junk food; convenience foods have a way of being...convenient -- for all of us!)

If it didn't grow in the ground or stand on the ground just before it got to the grocery store, skip it.

 

[pampam]

I have a small garden that gives copious veggies. What I can't grow, I will buy in bulk. Most of my veggies and fruit for the winter is put down in the freezer, and my shopping during winter months is minimal. In winter I only buy stuff for a salad, milk, bread, butter, oil, whatever meat is on that I'd like fresh,etc. We eat from the freezer for months at a time. When the freezers are starting to empty, fresh produce is in season, and I start all over again. It is a busy time during the summer to do all this, but in the winter it's quite slow. Also I know where my fruits and veggies come from. I like to support the local farmers where I can.

 

[tvguy]

I guess if you keep on top of a freezer it could work. I just know too many people who either forget about stuff at the bottom of the freeze and have to throw it out, have their freezer get unplugged or break and have to throw out hundreds of dollars of food.

We have a 24 cubic foot side by side refrigerator and I know how much forgotten stuff we have had to throw out. Cleaning out my parent house, I found a 5 year old turkey in the freezer portion of her fridge, and I know my mom would have eventually cooked it. Growing up in the depression, she grew up with the mindset that frozen food will stay good until defrosted.

 

[KKB]

I guess if you keep on top of a freezer it could work. I just know too many people who either forget about stuff at the bottom of the freeze and have to throw it out, have their freezer get unplugged or break and have to throw out hundreds of dollars of food.

We have a 24 cubic foot side by side refrigerator and I know how much forgotten stuff we have had to throw out. Cleaning out my parent house, I found a 5 year old turkey in the freezer portion of her fridge, and I know my mom would have eventually cooked it. Growing up in the depression, she grew up with the mindset that frozen food will stay good until defrosted.

I do--and I bet I still go through & rotate every 6-8 weeks to avoid waste.

 

[kymom99]

I do--and I bet I still go through & rotate every 6-8 weeks to avoid waste.

Great idea!

 

[tvguy]

I do--and I bet I still go through & rotate every 6-8 weeks to avoid waste.

My Aunt did that, but the item she wanted always ended up at the bottom of the chest freezer where she couldn't find or reach it (she was 5' tall) or one of her 5 kids would take something and not mark it off.
But the stuff she expected to use in 6 to 8 weeks was moved to one of the 2 upstairs freezers. The deep freeze in the basement was filled with berries she had picked and fish caught by my uncle during the summer, and used through the winter........stuff she expected to last the next 6 to 9 months until the next berry harvest or fishing season. Everything else was basically purchased week to week.

 

[dpswift]

Lately I have been doing my shopping at Target and Walmart. Out Target has produce and meat but no bakery or deli Our Walmart is a supercenter. I have found that groceries are much more reasonably priced. They quite often have marked down meats.

Walmart has great cooked chickens and large ready to bake pizzas reasonably priced.

 

[lauradis]

I vote for aldi's too.. great store, for saving money. I go about once a week with a list, on my way home from work.

The easiest way to save money on food is eat less, make a food plan, cut out as much processed convenience foods, limit the junk food and soda.

Small changes add up to a lot over time.

I don't follow the coupon, run to every store anymore, its madness and tiring, plus you have more chances to spend more going into a store.

One bag of chips, one 12 pack of soda is 8.99 week times 52 weeks in year $467.48 (avg price of brand name lays and coke)

Try to ditch cereal, pre-made waffles etc they are really expensive. Eggos run around $5 for 24. I can make atleast 100 mickey chochip waffles for that price.

Sunday mornings I make enough waffles (mickey waffles) and muffins to feed small army for 2 weeks and freeze them.

http://www.iamthatlady.com/25-meals-for-under-150-at-aldi/

http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2014/03/a-2-week-aldi-meal-plan.html

It really is about having a plan and the effort you put into it.

 

[dpswift]

I guess if you keep on top of a freezer it could work. I just know too many people who either forget about stuff at the bottom of the freeze and have to throw it out, have their freezer get unplugged or break and have to throw out hundreds of dollars of food.

We have a 24 cubic foot side by side refrigerator and I know how much forgotten stuff we have had to throw out. Cleaning out my parent house, I found a 5 year old turkey in the freezer portion of her fridge, and I know my mom would have eventually cooked it. Growing up in the depression, she grew up with the mindset that frozen food will stay good until defrosted.

I understand what you are saying. I spend more keeping the freezer going than I have saved. I also have some very old food in there that needs to be tossed. As far as a 5 year old turkey I had one that was about 3 yrs old. I cooked it for my dogs.