Easy Ways to Save Money at the Grocery Store

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Groceries are a major expense for many families and individuals.  While this expense is necessary and will never be eliminated, there are many different strategies that can be used to save money at the grocery store.  By using a few of these simple techniques, you will find that you can save money on groceries while still getting the things that you need.

It is a simple fact that every time you go to the grocery store you will spend money.  Unless great self discipline is exercised, every trip will result in one or two unexpected purchases.  To cut down impulse spending at the grocery store, limit your trips to the store.  This solution sounds very simple and it is.  However, to be effective at cutting back on trips to the store, it is important to plan trips carefully.  Make a list and be sure to include all needed items on the list.  This will help to ensure that nothing is forgotten and that additional trips will not be needed to pick up items that were not purchased.

The second strategy to saving money at the grocery store is to make a list.  Having a list makes it easier to say no to unexpected purchases.  A list will focus the shopping trip and will result in fewer impulse buys.  Impulse purchases add up and the simple elimination of these items can save hundreds of dollars each year.

Grocery store ads can be a great money saving tool.  Consult your weekly ads before shopping trips.  Plan your weekly meals around items that are on sale.  If an item is on sale that you know you will need in the next several weeks, stock up while it is on sale.  By shopping sales and using these sales to plan meals and purchases, you can save valuable money without clipping coupons or sacrificing the items that you love.

Never go to the grocery store when you are hungry or rushed.   Go to the store when you will have time to evaluate purchases and needs.  Hunger will always result in many items purchased that are not needed.  When you are in a rush you will not have the time to evaluate prices and find the best deal.

Consider using store brands when possible.  Sometimes name brand products are a higher quality.  Other times you are only paying for the label.  Try a few store brand products and see if any will work for you.  These products can save you quite a bit of money without compromising quality.

There are many different methods that smart shoppers can use to save money at the grocery store.  Apply a few of these strategies into your shopping routine and start saving today.

 

Save Money on Groceries without Coupons

Cut Your Weekly Grocery Bill by 40% – 60% Without Coupons A little-known program is a big part of the answer! The average family of 4 spends around $1000 a month for groceries! You Owe It to Yourself AND Your Family to Take a Second Look at Your Grocery Spending

Save Money On Groceries At Wholesale Clubs And Grocery Stores

Searching to cut your household costs so, you can just pay the bills? Feeling like the only thing left to cut is your monthly grocery bill? You can cut your grocery spending as much as 50 percent if you know where to shop, how to shop, and when to shop.

First, there is usually more than one place to do your grocery shopping every week. Even in the smallest burgs of America, you do have a choice. Grocery stores carry most of the standard food and non-food items, but prices vary from week to week. Wholesale clubs such as Sam’s Club, Costco and Gordon Foods sell food and non-food items in bulk packaging and are found in larger cities and metropolitan areas. These stores normally do not advertise sales, but typically accept manufacturers’ coupons. Convenience stores like Circle K and 7-11 are simply convenient to purchase one or two items and fill up with your favorite beverage while traveling or shopping. These types of stores do not offer sales on grocery items and charge more on standard grocery items. Then there is the online option. Yes, now more national retail chains are offering online shopping; they will either ship the grocery items or have them available for pick up if located nearby.

Knowing where to shop to save the most money on your weekly bill is the most important step. One does not have to buy groceries at the same place week after week and month after month. Even if you must travel a few miles, you may be able to save on your monthly food spending. Retail grocery chains such as Albertson’s, Kroger, Giant Eagle, Publix, Safeway, and others run an ad circular each week advertising select brands for a specific price; many also include their own brand items on sale as well. Check each circular for the items you buy the most and compare the prices. Buying only the items that you need and that are on sale will also save you money. It is important to know the price range for items you buy frequently, so you know which store is offering the best price.

Second, wholesale clubs can be more affordable on items that you use more often or specialty items. Canned food items including soups, beans, and drink mixes are sometimes cheaper to buy in bulk than at your traditional grocery store. When comparison-shopping, do not look at the ticket price alone. Wholesale clubs base their prices on volume (ounces or pounds), which can be found on the shelf price sticker. Compare the volume price to the weekly price at your grocery retailer over the course of a couple weeks since grocery chains vary their prices from week to week.

A comparison of several products between a Costco and Giant grocery store was conducted by AOL Money & Finance, which found many of the bulk products were much less expensive at the wholesale club.

Sample of products compared:

Tropicana Orange Juice, no pulp – Costco savings of $.60/quart Maxwell House coffee – Costco savings of $1.54/pound Fillippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Costco savings of $9.93/quart Nabisco Oreo Cookies – Costco savings of $1.55/pound

 

Be aware that the above savings are for volume pricing only, and these savings do not represent the actual prices. Your state may charge additional fees including sales tax on food or non-food items. Wholesale or warehouse clubs also charge an annual fee, which varies at each club.

When you join and shop at warehouse or wholesale clubs, jot down what you buy, the date purchased and the date the item was completely used or the packaging was thrown away. This will give you an idea how long the product lasts and the cost to replace it on a monthly basis.

Lastly, knowing when to shop or which week has the best sale items is crucial. Typically, retail grocery chains will charge more the first week of every month. Why? Through observation and experience, retailers know this is when most people get their paychecks and Food Stamps are uploaded the first ten days of the month; therefore, people are likely to spend more on groceries. The best time of the month is to shop the third to fourth week when people are running low on cash and need to get through the rest of the month until payday. Oftentimes grocery chains will offer their 10 for $10 sale, which sometimes are good deals. In addition, they are more likely to sell multiple quantities of the same product for a reduced price.

Get more and spend less when you know where to buy groceries, when to shop during the month and how to stretch your budget throughout the month.

Save Money On Groceries: Stocking Up To Save 40-70% On Groceries!

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Saving Money on Groceries – the Price Book- Part III

I add items to my price book gradually. Say this week I’m thinking to buy canned pumpkin. Well I don’t buy that often so it may not be in my book. If I don’t need it right away, the next time I’m at a store I’ll just enter the price into my book and pass it up, and check out other stores as I find myself at them. I only enter a new line for an item when there is a new price to beat, but I always want to know where I can get the lowest regular price, too, in case it’s not on sale when I want it. One store might have the lowest everyday price, but another might have the lowest price when it’s in season and on sale. But typically, I’ll only have one or two entries for each item. When a regular price goes up, I erase the old price and correct it.

After I come home from a grocery shopping trip it’s a good time to spend 5 minutes writing down any new items. For some items, like fresh green beans or canned peas or chicken, your grocery tape may not say the price per pound or list the weight at all, so these in particular you want to catch after your shopping trip and before you discard the information on your food package.

I know everyone thinks they know the cheapest place to get your food, but trust me — you don’t! If you keep a price book and go to all the places in your area, you’ll start to see that you can save an awful lot! Like the white flour I used in the example that I usually purchase for $1; the two regular grocery stores in my town will occasionally have sales, usually before the holidays, but the regular price for white flour is about $2.79. That’s a high price to pay for the convenience of one-stop shopping when I can go to the dollar store once a month and get many items more cheaply there. One trip to buy flour and I save $1.79. It probably costs me less than a quarter in gas to drive there.

Using a price book doesn’t mean you have to always buy the cheapest generic item. Buy generic when it doesn’t matter to you so that you can splurge where it does matter and still have a low grocery budget. I know I can get a pound of coffee for under $3, but I really like the $6-10 a pound coffee! I’ll gladly eat generic pasta, tomato paste, beans, tuna fish, peanut butter, etc. to afford my better coffee, but luckily I can do all this, have my coffee, and still purchase all my groceries for about half the national average.

 

Saving Money on Groceries – the Price Book- Part 2

So for example, here are some entries in my price book, each entered under the appropriate page so that I can find it quickly:

lemons F 3/1.00 R
white flour D 5# 1.00 R
laundry detergent D 40 load 2.75 R

So in other words, I purchased 3 lemons at the flea market for a dollar, a 5# bag of white flour at a dollar store, and also at the dollar store a large jug of laundry detergent that will do 40 loads for $2.75. All these items I got at regular price.

So now that I have these entries, if I go to Sparks Supermarket and I see lemons on sale with a huge special sign at 1.99 for 3, I’m not fooled even though they are marketing it as if this “low” price is indeed unusual. I’ve got my handy book to tell me “the price to beat.” But if I go over to Cost-Less and I see they have laundry detergent that will do 40 loads and it’s $2.50, then I will write a new line right under the other laundry line like so:

laundry det D 40 load 2.75 R
laundry det C 40 load 2.50 R

So do I run all over creation to save a quarter? No. But it doesn’t work that way.
First start keeping your book and be sure to check out every store, stand, co-op, etc. within a comfortable drive of your home and on your way to work or any other route you regularly take for other reasons. The plan is, the place that is the best overall for fresh food prices, you will go to every week. The others stores you will rotate and visit one every week. So pretty much you only have to go to two stores a week, but you might be shopping for different items at five stores over the course of the month. Follow?

I prevent confusion when I shop by keeping separate shopping lists for the different stores. When I need to put an item on my shopping list, I look it up in my price book, and then, say it’s lemons, that would go on the flea market shopping list, while the flour and laundry soap would go on the dollar store list. Without much trouble you’ll get the knack of putting staples like flour on the shopping list before you start running low.

 

Saving Money on Groceries – the Price Book- Part 1

The most useful tool I’ve found for reducing my grocery costs is to keep a “price book.” I first heard about the idea from Amy Dacyzn (pronounced “decision”), author of the Tightwad Gazette. She went from rags to riches (she has 6 kids, too!) by being a tightwad. So no, she’s not writing her gazette anymore, she’s probably getting a professional massage or is in the hot tub (I would hope), but the newsletters were compiled and released into three books and you can probably find them at your library. They are also now in one volume called, The Complete Tightwad Gazette.

Anyway, the price book was invaluable, and it is something you make yourself and it’s FREE! I found I only need about 20 pieces of paper in a small notebook. It has to be small because I want it to fit in my purse so that I always have it with me.

You can organize yours any way that makes sense to you, but I wrote at the tops of my pages:

Notes (This is where I write the key to my shorthand abbreviations, how many cups of flour are in a 5 pound bag, etc.)

Beans
Beverages
Dairy
Fruit
Grains
Herbs & Spices
Meat & Fish
Nuts
Oils, Butter, etc.
Vegetables
Misc.
Cleaners (& shampoo, etc.)
Paper and Plastic Products (& foil, tampons, etc)

So to start, set up your book at home and pull out any grocery tapes you have. This will only take you half an hour at most. It will take you a few weeks to get your price book rolling, but then after that it will be a lot less work, and it’s really not a lot of work to begin with.

For each item you typically buy, you want to write in pencil on a horizontal line in your book:

Item / a letter code for the store you buy it at / the weight, amount or volume / price / and then I like to add a one letter code, R for regular price, S for sale price and C for clearance price, and actually it’s also not a bad idea to put the date if you have room on your page.

 

Save Money On Groceries: Quiz 2 of 2

www.CouponsToFreeGroceries.com Daniel Pereira, author of “Saving Money through Power Shopping” discusses how to save money on groceries through a pop quiz. Vist our site to learn how to get free groceries. Grocery Store, Grocery Store Savings, Grocery, Grocery Savings, Save Money On…

Tips To Save Money On Groceries

Saving money will never go out of style, especially when you put your mind to it. One of the biggest household wastes may be found with the food bill. Yes, everybody has to eat, however, its the food choices and lack of pre-planned meals that can take hundreds of dollars away from you each month. Saving money on your grocery bill is something we all can do, whether it be fifty or hundreds of dollars a month. To stretch your grocery budget, yet never go without, try a few helpful hints to get the most bang from your grocery buck:

1. Avoid processed foods. If you have a hankering for potatoes chips once in awhile, there’s no serious harm to an occasional splurge. However, processed food is not only damaging to the body, it also is some of the most expensive product on the shelves. Pre-packaged side dishes, such as seasoned rice and au grautin potatoes are expensive with package price versus servings, and can be made for a fraction of the cost when you opt for a freshly made meal done from scratch. You may also control the amount of salt and fat in the mix, making your own creation as healthy as you wish.

2. When you make a meal, be sure to cook the entire batch and store the excess in your freezer. When storing a large meal, such as pasta or meat products, it’s easier to defrost if you store only the portions you are likely to use for the next meal. Freezer bags are fine for vegetables or breads, however, you may wish to invest in a Lock N’ Lock brand of airtight storage bins to capture the freshness and taste. When you defrost the container, the food will snap back to it’s original form if you refrain from using a microwave. Rather, pull you meal plans from the freezer the day before you need them to ensure the contents are not overcooked with defrosting.

3. To save money on costly cans of single serving soups, try making your own soup from fresh vegetables and a soup starter bullion. The home made soup whips up easily in a crock pot and can be stretched for a couple of days in the fridge. Home made soup gives you full charge of every flavor and seasoning, making a hot and hearty treat even better than what you can find in a restaurant. Having a light lunch with a bowl of soup not only saves you at the checkout line, but also does wonders for your waist line.

4. Buying in bulk may seem like you are paying more for your grocery store visit, but the savings at the end of the month can be drastic. Warehouse shopping, such as Costco and Sam’s Club, offer bulk-rate groceries and also extend consumer incentives on an annual cash back program at the end of the year. Cereal boxes are double and triple the size as compared to your local grocer, costing a mere fraction more that what the retail chains are charging.

5. Coupons are a great way to keep the grocery bill down with discounts and “two-fer” specials. The key to saving with coupons is to restrict their usage only to items that you normally would purchase anyway. The marketing campaign behind coupons is to offer an incentive to consumers to try a new product, however, if that product was not on your grocery list or deemed as an essential, you will have spent more than your budget by using the coupon. Clipping coupons can indeed knock $10 and more from your grocery bill, just be sure to use wisdom and discretion when shopping.

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Saving Money with Grocery Coupons

You know what is on the spotlight nowadays? Why, its grocery coupons to print? Even Oprah Winfrey can speak good things and good opportunities about free grocery coupons on her site. This is because coupons are real money savers and they have been really helpful in fighting the rising costs of grocery items. So, take this piece of advice, start checking out the printable grocery coupons that you can use next time you go shopping for your food supplies and other grocery needs.

Why Coupons for Groceries?

You probably ignore the idea first. However, you will be amazed that by doing certain strategies in collecting and availing the value of coupons you will cut the costs of your grocery bill. To get started with your ultimate guide in shopping using your free grocery coupons, learn to plan your meals and include on your shopping lists the items that are featured on your coupons. To have a good guide, you can get some fliers from the nearest grocery store that will serve as your basis in completing your grocery list.

You have to be very particular with the brands on sale, too. Try to be flexible with the items you want to purchase and this can be done by careful planning. A detailed plan is a must because if you just hit the supermarket out of whim it will totally ruin your plan and get frustrated. Take note, with grocery coupons and other fre coupons on your hands, you can also fight back impulse buying. Also try restaurant coupons e.g. Domino’s and Pizza Hut coupons to save money while you eat.

Consumers nowadays are becoming smart and you are lucky to become one of them. You have discovered that you can have as many printable grocery coupons and use it to make various purchases. The internet has a long list of sites that provide free grocery coupons apart from the ones you get from your newspapers and magazines.

Pritable Grocery Store Coupons Yield Profits

Collecting coupons to save money is not just about cutting out coupons from your newspaper. It is about being disciplined and living a frugal lifestyle during these times of economic difficulties. There are more coupons out there that you need to grab for your own benefits. Not only will you save a lot of money but you can also make it as your source of extra income. Yes, after enjoying the lower costs of your bills and flowing supplies of grocery items, it is time to become business-minded. You are aware that you don’t actually need a huge sum of capital to start a business because you already saved enough with your coupons. So be frugal and find some nice grocery coupons to print.

There is no doubt that having grocery coupons in your possession is already one way to reduce your bills and cut off your expenses whenever you do your shopping. Stores in your areas would give you more good deals by presenting to them the coupons you have gathered and enjoy as much as 30%-70% off from your bill. It is only a huge bonus to use your coupons in starting a small business that can possibly turn into a lucrative one.

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