Today’s savvy consumer is of course looking for deals at the grocery store but doesn’t want to have to cook everything from scratch, stuff their purse or wallet with coupons or always purchase every fruit and vegetable only when it’s in season. Those people that want to save a few bucks on the groceries but don’t want to be a slave to couponing and super frugality, the tips that we put together today are going to be a welcome find. Read them before making your next grocery run and we guarantee that you’ll see a few extra bucks at the very least. Enjoy
One of the best things that you can do to keep from overspending at the grocery store is to simply use a grocery shopping list. By knowing exactly what you need you’ll save money and time on repeat trips and even better shopping lists will actually help keep your impulse purchases down. The old-school way of keeping a grocery list is still okay, and you can have one magnetized to your fridge so that you can update it as you run out. On the other hand, today’s smartphones offer plenty of grocery apps that keep track of your groceries as you go and allow you to update your grocery list from anywhere, anytime that you think about something you need.
One of the things that people waste the most money on is spoiled food. In fact, on average most consumers toss nearly 20% of the fresh fruit and produce in the garbage because they don’t eat it in time and it spoils. The easiest way to avoid this is to use any fresh fruits and produce as fast as you can, timing salads in the beginning of the week for example to make sure that your tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and other vegetables don’t go bad.
Some people actually have a ‘leftover day’ once a week to use up all of the food that’s been sitting in the fridge. Having an extra-large freezer to freeze leftovers is a great idea as well but probably the best thing to do is just to make less food if you find that you keep having leftovers after every meal.
This tip has been around for ages; always avoid going grocery shopping when you’re hungry. The reason for this is simply that, on an empty stomach, practically everything you see is going to look delicious and yummy and find its way into your shopping cart. It’s also much easier to grab something extra that you normally wouldn’t buy so that you have something to tide you over on the ride home from the store. One of the best ways to avoid this is to eat before you go grocery shopping and definitely make sure that the kids have been fed if you’re going to go with them.
Making your own lunch at home and bringing it to work can save an enormous amount of money and, in most cases, the food that you bring from home is going to be much healthier than anything that you get eating out. If you work in an office that has a refrigerator and microwave, you can easily bring leftovers from home to have for lunch and even leave sandwich making ingredients at your work so that you can make a sandwich right there on your lunch break.
Although these days coupon collecting seems to be all the rage, the simple fact is that many people use coupons on products that they normally wouldn’t even buy. If you normally wouldn’t purchase something, using a coupon to purchase it at a lower price simply makes docents. As far as where you can find coupons, always check the back of your gross receipt, check online and check the Sunday newspaper. Not only that but many grocery stores have their own apps and mobile websites these days where they offer their own specials and coupons that you can use with your smart phone.
If you see something on sale that your family has never eaten before, purchase a little bit first to see what their reaction is before spending a lot of money on a huge amount that ends up getting thrown away because nobody likes it.
As for convenience foods, think about what the actual cost of convenience is and keep in mind that, in most cases, making something yourself rather than from a package is going to cost significantly less. For example, while it’s extremely easy to pour hot water over a pre-measured package of oatmeal, microwaving a bowl of regular oatmeal and adding your own honey and cinnamon to it is much cheaper.
We’re going to be bringing you another blog on how to save on groceries next week as well so make sure to bookmark our website and come back to visit us again soon. In the meantime, use the tips above to start saving on your grocery bills as early as your next trip to the grocery store. Good luck and we’ll see you back your soon.