Saving Cent by Cent

These 21 tips will teach you how to spend less money on groceries

One of the biggest expenses for families each month, after housing and transportation, is purchasing food. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans spend more than $7,700 per year on groceries and going out to eat. That’s almost $650 per month!

If you aren’t watching your grocery budget, those quick trips to the grocery store to purchase just $20 or $30 worth of food really do add up.

To help you spend less money on groceries, here are 21 tips how to save on groceries every month.

Above is a video of my top 10 tips on how to save money on groceries. If you can’t see the video, head over here to my YouTube channel to watch it.

And after making the video, I compiled this more detailed list of 21 tips how to save money on groceries and household items.

1. Meal Plan

I get asked all the time how to save money on groceries, because I only spend about $400 per month on groceries for our family of five. And the number one tip I share that helps me save the most money on my groceries is to meal plan.

Putting together a meal plan and making sure you know exactly what you’ll need to purchase at the grocery store can help you stick to your grocery budget. You’ll be able to save money because you won’t need to run to the grocery store multiple times per week, and you can just stick to your once a week (or in my case once every two weeks) grocery shopping trip. You’ll also save time because every day you’ll know what to make for dinner and you won’t spend extra time thinking about “What’s for dinner?”

If you aren’t sure how much money to budget for your family, a good starting place is $100 per each person in the family starting at base of $300 per month.

So for a family of four, the budget would be $400 a month. This is just a general starting idea, and of course there are exceptions to this guideline. Some families can get by spending less per month. For others, they will need to spend more if they have family members with allergies or teenagers who are growing and consuming a lot of food.

If you want to get better at meal planning or see how I meal plan, head over to the post 6 Tips How to Successfully Meal Plan. It shows you how I plan my family meals, gives you ideas of how to create a menu plan, and how to prepare meals ahead of time. I also share new dinner ideas on the post.

And you will also like this post with 20 Easy Weeknight Dinners for the Family. If you are like me, I’m always looking for new and easy meal ideas for dinner that my family will love.

For those of you who are busy and want more help with your meal plan, Six Sisters’ Stuff has a weekly meal plan with family-friendly meals for just $48 a year. That turns out to be only $4 per month. Every week you’ll receive an email with 6 main dishes, 2 sides, 2 desserts or 1 snack/treat. You’ll also get a detailed shopping list of what to purchase each week at the store. Head over to Six Sisters’ Stuff to get more details or sign up.

2. Use What’s In Your Pantry, Fridge and Freezer

There are many people who skip this step and head straight to the grocery store. If you don’t know what’s in your pantry, fridge or freezer that can already be used, then you are going to waste money by throwing out food.

As you begin to meal plan, look through your pantry, fridge and freezer to see what you have and what needs to be used up. And build your meal plan based on these items that you have on hand.

If you have food you don’t know how to use in a meal, then use sites such as Allrecipes.com and SuperCook.com. Type in the ingredients you have and it will bring up new recipe ideas with those ingredients. This is a great way to not let food go to waste.

3. Look at Sales Flyers

Also as you meal plan, look at the front and back of the grocery store sales flyers that come in the mail, mark the items that are on sale that you need or will be able to use and place them on your shopping list. Plan your meals based on what is on sale at the grocery store because this will save you money.

For instance, if broccoli is on sale, then make Chicken Broccoli Casserole and also add broccoli as a side dish to one of the other meals. If pork chops are on sale, then make Crock Pot Ranch Pork Chops. And if cheese and tortillas are on sale, then make chicken enchiladas or quesadillas.

When looking at the sales flyers, the front and back page deals are called “loss-leaders,” which means the store actually loses money on the products. The stores are trying to get you into the store to shop because they know people will purchase more products once they set foot in a store.

But remember that just because something is listed in the sales flyer doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a great deal. It’s important to learn the price points of what’s a good deal and what’s not a good deal so you save money.

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