When it comes to making a monthly budget, it can be hard to accurately estimate just how much groceries are going to cost. Whatever our rent or our mortgage payment is may be fixed but how much we eat and what’s actually on sale tends to fluctuate month by month. Although it’s still almost always cheaper to prepare all meals at home instead of going out to eat, the fact of the matter is that many of us still spend too much money at the grocery store. Fortunately, we have some simple tips and tricks to change all that.
From paying more attention to stickers and shelves to getting a little more technological, there are plenty of ways to make life a little easier on your budget. With that in mind, here are 15 tips that could save you around $200 a month on your grocery bill.
1. Before you go to the store, sort out your pantry.
A lot of our food waste (and thus lost money) comes from disorganization in our own home. When we go to the grocery store without a plan and fill our pantries, it’s easy to forget what’s in there and what’s about to go bad. To fix this, re-organize your pantry to allow a section for foods that are on the verge of spoiling—and go through it once a week, moving things into that section as needed! When you go to cook that week, use ingredients from that section first. If this seems too simple, keep in mind that Americans tend to throw out about 25% of their groceries without even using them—that’s a lot of potential savings.
2. Keep your receipts and circle the most expensive items.
We often don’t know how much money we’ve dropped until we get home… and we see a few large ticket items that made the bill go sky-high. To help with this, keep your grocery receipts and circle the most expensive items you buy each week. Are there any alternative products or foods to the ones you’re buying? Though this isn’t always possible, making your own versions of high-end products or substituting for cheaper foods can help put money back in your pocket.
3. Don’t just use the sticker price—use the by weight price!
Grocery store marketing is very tricky. We’ll often get lured in by an attractive price that seems lower on first glance… but upon closer inspection is actually higher per ounce or pound than a similar product right next to it! Though there are tons of reasons for all these price discrepancies, keeping an eye on actual per unit price can help you make the most cost-efficient food decisions possible.
4. Pack mints before you go to the store.
Many of us know the experience of going to the grocery store when we’re hungry (and just how damaging it can be to our wallets). It’s not hard to see why this happens—but there’s actually an easy way to fight this temptation. If you’re feeling hungry when you walk in the store, pop in a couple of mints before you start shopping. Chewing on a mint can actually trick our senses into thinking we’re fuller than we are, and that definitely helps when avoiding all the food temptations surrounding us. The fresh taste may also block some of the delicious scents in the store that make us want to spend more money.
5. Learn the rock-bottom prices of your commonly bought items.
Though it should go without saying, different grocery chains price their items differently depending on many factors. To really save money, it helps to actually know the range of prices for different things you’re going to buy—after all, just because something is “on sale” doesn’t mean it’s actually a good deal. To do this, try to stick to one or two grocery stores and make a note of how far the price swings up and down on certain items. When the food is towards the high end, don’t buy it—simple.
6. Never hit the store without coupons!
Let’s face it: printed coupons can be really inconvenient at the grocery store. Sometimes we forget to bring them, other times we read them incorrectly, other times they don’t have what we want on sale. Still, now that everything is digital, your life can be a whole lot easier. Try visiting websites like coupons.com, redplum.com or smartsource.com to see all kinds of coupons available in your area.
7. Get cash back for your purchases by downloading the right smartphone apps.
For those who don’t already know, there are actually plenty of apps available for iPhone and Android that actually pay you for grocery shopping when you make the right purchases. Though there are many different options available, Ibotta is particularly outstanding and is paired with more than 50 different major retailers. Do your own research on this front as these apps are always in competition with one another.
8. Try to avoid “the pink tax” whenever possible.
You may not have noticed but the products you buy at the grocery store are marketed by gender to a fairly extreme degree. As such, those paying close attention may notice a “pink tax”—essentially an up-charge added to women’s products vs. their male counterparts (so-called for the often pink coloring on the outside of these products). There’s no hard and fast rule here but be aware of these price differences and feel free to cross gender lines whenever necessary to get a cheaper product. For guys out there, this difference may swing the other way when it come to buying razors!
9. Save on fresh meat by avoiding your grocery store meat counter.
Although it can be tempting to have the deli counter slice your meat up for you, you can actually get cheaper and better quality meat if you know where to look. To keep things convenient, making an account at Zaycon Fresh can get you farm-fresh foods in bulk for a fraction of what they cost at the grocery store. The more you know!
10. Be very careful when it comes to 10 for $10-style deals.
10 for $10? Sounds pretty good, right? Well, not always. Although the sound of that phrase does something to the human brain, many 10 for $10 promotions are not even sales at all if you read the fine print. In some cases, the promotion will actually be a price increase on what that product usually costs. In others, it may be a decrease on the price per item—but being forced to buy 10 means you’re actually losing money on something you wouldn’t usually spend on. Don’t get us wrong, sometimes these deals are legitimate. Just make sure you read closely.
11. Sign up for grocery store rewards programs.
Although it probably goes without saying, being loyal to one or two chains of grocery stores and learning the ins and outs of their programs can go a long way towards putting money back in your pocket. Once you learn the rules, you can cater your shopping lists to only or at least mostly hit items that will give you some kind of reward.
12. For a little extra cash, open up your fridge to some market research.
After you’ve bought your food you can actually still make a little bit of a return on it if you’re willing to share your data. To do so, simply sign up for the Nielsen Consumer Panel and download the app. Whenever you go shopping, you can track your purchases through the app, send the data off and earn flexible rewards on many different kinds of products. You might not get rich from it, but it’s a start.
13. Do research on easy cash-back offers to stretch your dollar a little further.
In some special promotions, the store or brand may offer you cash-back directly for your purchases (if you remember to follow up on it, which many don’t). To make this process easier, sign up for websites like Ebates to see exactly what deals are available and to keep everything in the same place. As an added bonus, you’ll get a $10 gift card for free when you sign up.
14. Try getting your prescriptions delivered to save your money from the pharmacy.
Getting prescriptions while you’re out can be a pain in general, but it can be especially annoying if you have medicines that are expensive. To save on the back and forth (and to potentially save a little money off the top, as well), consider signing up for an online prescription delivery service. One example is Try Phil, a company that does a lot of the middleman work of contacting your pharmacy for you. And yes, you do get a sign-up bonus as well.
15. Swap the cart for the basket whenever possible.
As with all these tips, a lot of saving money is just tricking your brain into new constraints. If you’re in the grocery store for just a few things, always go for the basket instead of the cart. As it turns out, just rolling the cart around the store makes you more likely to buy about 40% more than what you need. Carrying a basket may be heavy and inconvenient, but it’ll also be cheaper in the long run!
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