Groceries are a huge part of a family's budget. What are your best practices to reduce the cost of your family's groceries?

 

Ah, groceries.  Food costs truly are one of the biggest expenses in a family's budget.  Aside from rent, food is often our next biggest bill! The good news is that there are many small ways to affect big changes in the amount you spend feeding your family.

My number one tip for saving money on your food budget is a small notebook, which I call my Shopping Notebook.  It's a cheap little notebook, spiral-bound, small enough to fit in my purse.  I carry this notebook with me every time I shop, and make a note of everything I regularly purchase, along with its price.  This way, when I see a sale on say, chicken legs, I can check my notebook to see if this is actually a good price, or if the ad is just trying to trick me into paying regular price (or worse!) for the chicken.  Oftentimes, store ads are written in such a way as to confuse the shopper so they won't notice that the price listed is a good price, not just a sale price.

Cereal sales are notorious for this.  The huge cereal sale that a lot of stores hold around the beginning of the school year is usually for a box only around 60% as big as the ones they usually carry.  When you write down the item and the price in your notebook, also note the number of ounces.  This way, when cereal is on sale for only $X a box, you can be the one who notices that while it may be a good price for a box of cereal, but it's a terrible price for that size of box.

It will take some time to get everything written in your Shopping Notebook, but it is well worth it!

When you see a great price, stock up!  Not just one or two extra boxes, but 20, 30, or 100!  If you know what a good price is for an item your family regularly eats, than buying lots now at ultra low prices will save you a substantial amount of money down the road.

Plan ahead.  Plan what you will eat, which will cut down on last-minute grocery store trips - often right before dinner and chock full of impulse items.  Plan what you will buy, which will cut down on buying something you didn't need anyway, or forgetting to buy what you actually did need - sometimes necessitating yet another trip to the store!

Another tip is to shop less often. Fewer trips means less spending. Even if you were disciplined enough to go into the grocery store and only buy what is on your list, you would still be wasting money in gas (and time!) with each extra shopping trip.  As it is, though, most of us end up with several items in our carts that weren't on our list, or in our budget.  If you spend $10 extra every time you shop, then shopping monthly instead of weekly will save you $30.   Shopping less means spending less.

A few more quick tips: First, don't be afraid to buy nearly expired food.  They couldn't sell it if it weren't safe.  Buy it, freeze it, and use it at your leisure.  Second, don't buy name brand if there is a store brand to choose.  Often there are three or more brands to choose from.  Trust me, a cheese cracker is a cheese cracker.  Tomato sauce is tomato sauce.  Don't feel tied to a brand because it's what your mom bought, or what you've always bought.

Let's recap.

Plan ahead.
Make a list.
Make fewer trips to the store.
Don't be afraid to buy off-brands or nearly expired food.
Know a good price when you see one.
Stock up.


Kate