Food costs are one of your largest ongoing expenses. While you obviously need to eat, it would be a great help to your budget if you could reduce the amount that goes toward groceries every month.
The amount that you can save through using the tips below will vary based on where you live and your current habits, but everyone should be able to trim their costs simply by implementing the following ideas. That being said, many of these tips should help you save at least $100 extra on food each month.
Buy Generic
For many items, the difference in quality between name brand and generic options simply isn?t enough to justify the difference in price. In fact, there often is no difference in quality, and you may not be able to tell the two apart if the labels were removed. Buy generic whenever possible and you will quickly see the savings accumulate.
Stay Home One Extra Night
There is nothing wrong with eating dinner out from time to time, but it can be a major budget leak?if done too frequently. For a family of four, a dinner out can easily add up close to $100 when you add in drinks and dessert. Just by skipping one meal out each month you can do a big favor to your food budget.
Waste Not
One of the biggest keys to saving money on your food budget is to not waste what you purchase. For example, things like bread often go to waste when part of the package is used and the rest is left to spoil. Plan your meals carefully to avoid waste, and use your freezer when you aren?t sure if you will have time to eat something before it goes bad.
Shop Smart When Buying Bulk
It can be a benefit to your budget to buy food items in bulk?but only when you think it through carefully. Many people fall into the trap of thinking that everything they buy in bulk must be a good deal ? but that is not necessarily the case. Compare per-weight prices to the prices at your regular grocery store before you purchase large packages of food at the bulk warehouse, and make sure it’s something you will use up before it goes bad.
Go to the Store Once Per Week
It is easy to get into a habit of stopping at the grocery store every day after work, but that shopping method can cost you money in the long run. Make a master list for the week and try to do your grocery shopping just once (maybe on Sunday). You may need to run out for an item or two later on during the week, but limiting your overall number of trips should save you money.
Shop Sales
Keep a close eye on sales that are being offered at your local grocery stores and take advantage of them whenever possible. You will likely receive coupons and sales advertisements in the mail, so take note of the dates and even consider planning your meals around whatever happens to be on sale.
Have you used these tips to save money on your grocery bill? What other tips do you use to save at the grocery store? How often do you go grocery shopping?
Photo courtesy of: Pixabay
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We are not vegetarians, but try to have at least one meatless day per week. It’s healthy and usually less expensive.
While convenience foods like frozen pizza or burritos aren’t always the healthiest, we try to keep some around for those nights we just can’t face cooking. They make it much more likely that we will stay home instead of going out. The key is to keep them for the nights we need them, and not just because we are feeling a little lazy.
Nowadays, I prefer the generics over the branded ones because most generics are equally good as the branded and less expensive. We just have to spend more time in comparing and picking the best generic brands out all the options we have in supermarket. It is really worth it especially seeing how much we can save by the end of the month.