Saving money on groceries can be a very easy way to make some extra room in your budget. It is easy to do and the savings add up fast.
The simplest way to save money on groceries is to avoid impulse buys and only purchase what you need. This is easily accomplished by making a grocery list prior to going to the store and sticking to it. If you have wiggle room in your budget, you can even allow yourself one impulse buy under a certain dollar amount if it helps you keep your sanity and stay on track.
To take this one step further, you should take inventory of what you have leftover in the pantry and fridge from the prior week and see what meals you can put together with those ingredients with the fewest new ones from the store. Not only does this help shrink your list, but it also helps prevent you from wasting groceries from previous shopping trips.
On top of that, this also makes you plan out your meals for the week. Knowing exactly what you are going to eat for the week will make you less likely to get lazy and order take out.
In conjunction with using what you already have in making a meal plan for the week, you can also grab your store’s weekly flyer and see what they have on sale for the week. Using the combination of what you already have plus what is on sale at the store will help maximize your savings for the week.
Another great strategy is using coupons. Although a majority of the coupons are for junk food and new items, there are usually several for every day items that you need such as toothpastes, shampoos, paper towers, and so on. A dollar here and a dollar there will add up over the course of a year.
A little trick with coupons is to not use them right away. More than likely the item that you have a coupon for will go on sale in three or four weeks which will increase your savings more. The idea is that the manufacturers and stores want to keep the sales of the item steady and not have a huge drop off after the majority of folks have already used the coupon for the item.
A third option for saving money on groceries is buying in bulk or buying lots of a particular sale item. Good candidates for this are meats, toilet paper, and paper towels. Of course, this would only be practical if you had the space in your house to store the additional items.
Using all these strategies is an easy way to shave hundreds off your yearly or even monthly grocery bill.