Here are the best tips to keep in mind when going shopping for groceries.
The tried and true tips:
• Make a list of what you need to buy and try to stick to it.
• Look at the sales flyers to see what’s on sale and match up which coupons you have to what’s on sale. Coupon matching websites for you: Coupon Mom & Southern Savers.
• Plan meals around what’s on sale and what you have coupons for. Stock up on items that you use often when they are on sale so that way you pay the least amount for them and you have a stocked pantry so you don’t have to run out to shop for more items.
• Limit your shopping to either once a week, once every other week or once a month, whichever you think works best for you.
• Use coupons from all available sources because they can save you lots of money on groceries, this includes coupons from the newspaper, the Internet, magazines, coupons you can load to your shoppers card, coupons from tear pads in the stores or on the actual product itself and Catalina coupons that print out at the register after you’ve made a purchase.
• Use frugal ingredients and frugal recipes to buy the cheapest food products and still have a healthy and good meal. (Think items like vegetable or tomato juice, rice, pasta, tomato sauce, fresh vegetables that are in season, fresh or canned fruit, flour and yeast to make your own bread and dough, oats, noodles, dried beans in the bag, eggs, gravy mixes or make your own mixes/seasonings, and powdered milk).
• When shopping for meats try to only buy what is already inexpensive or on sale or something you have a coupon for. Meats that tend to be cheaper are hot dogs, sausage, ground beef, chicken legs or pieces, bacon, canned salmon, canned chunk chicken, canned tuna or pouches, or any canned meat products. Sometimes beef bottom round roast, boneless chicken breasts and pork chops go on sale too, wait for these items to go on sale to buy them.
• Canned soup can serve as a meal for either lunch or dinner and you can purchase it on sale for .50 cents or less sometimes. You could serve a grilled cheese or other simple sandwich with the soup, which is a very good frugal meal.
• Always use your shopper’s card which gives you the discounted price on their sale items every week.
• Always check your receipt to make sure the cashier didn’t ring up any purchases incorrectly.
• When going shopping set a limit on how much you are willing to pay, even if you have to pay with cash to make yourself, do it. Let’s say you have a budget of $50 and you want to get two weeks worth of food, take out the cash and put in an envelope or your wallet or purse. Refuse to spend a penny more than that. Browse the store and the ads; only buy what you absolutely need to make meals with.
• Count the meals as you shop along and keep track of how much you’ve purchased by writing the prices down on a scrap sheet of paper. You will be amazed at how far you can stretch the money when forced to do so or when you feel like you have no other option. If you can get away with all the meals you need for the two weeks plus squeeze in junk food or whatever else then fine, but you will be less enticed to when you are forcing yourself to only spend a set amount and you only have that amount to spend for all of your food.
• Ask yourself if you need absolutely everything you’re purchasing for your meals, if there is something that you don’t need or have at home already put the item back.
• Before going shopping take inventory of your pantry to see what you already have. Try to make meals around that. What else do you need to buy if you already have some pasta and sauce? Maybe some meat or cheese to go with it or some vegetables or some other filler. You can always eat pasta and sauce alone too though. To find recipes for ingredients you already have on hand go to Kraft Food & Family, they have an awesome tool you can use where you type in the ingredients you have and it will find a recipe that uses your ingredients.
I remember not very long ago I lived with my grandmother for a little while and I helped her with purchasing food to live on. She only had $80 a month for food, that’s $20 a week. Believe it or not, I helped her stretch that money to cover meals for the whole month. Sometimes at the end of the month I might have to help put in a few dollars here and there for other purchases, but mostly I tried to see how much I could get with what little she had (I was still a teenager and only working a small part time job then, while still going to school). I’m not saying it’s easy, it is indeed fairly hard, but it is possible to save money at the store and live on a very small food budget. Arm yourself with all the necessary information before shopping and you can save a lot. Remember what they say: “Knowledge is power!”
