Saving Money on Your Groceries
Save some money on your next trip to the grocery store with these tips!
The average grocery expense for a three or four person family in 2005 was $110, according to a Food Marketing Institute survey. The rising cost of oil is affecting how much we pay for everything, so the cost of groceries is also rising. We have to eat, so food is a “necessary” item, but it is also a variable expense, meaning consumers have some control over how much they have to spend on the outlay. When I was a stay-at-home mom, I learned tricks to save money on all our adjustable expenses. Many weeks I could feed our family of four on $40.
The average shopper makes 12 impulse purchases at the grocery store. Corporate marketing gurus have all kinds of tactics to try to separate you from your hard-earned money every time you walk into a store. Limit your purchases to what you “need” as opposed to what you “have,” and you may save calories in addition to a few dollars.
1. Have a plan One of the best ways to save money occurs before you ever leave the house. Write down what you plan on cooking for the week. Look at your supply of staples, like bread, butter, splenda (does anyone use sugar anymore?)and snacks for school. Walking into a store with a plan helps keep you from ending up with 20 items you didn’t plan on buying.
2. Use up what you have Look in your cupboards to plan meals for the week. You know that can of cranberry sauce in the back corner, left over from Thanksgiving? How about making slow-cooker cranberry chicken? Some recipe search engines, like http://www.recipezaar.com/ allow you to base a meal on one ingredient.
3. Clip your coupons Combine a sale with a coupon for huge savings. Our local grocery store doubles coupons up to $.99. Another store doesn’t double, but they also don’t have a union, so their overall prices are lower to begin with. Sit down with the sales circular before you leave for the store, so you can pull the coupons you need for your trip. One example of great savings: the kids love Sweet n’ Salty bars. The local Acme had them 5 for $5. I had coupons for $.75 off of two boxes; that’s less than $.65 per box.
Yes, it’s true, I used to “dumpster dive” for coupons from Sunday papers at our local newspaper recycling drop-off center. I was too cheap to pay for the paper. I would end up with stacks of coupons and used them at one store that doubled up to one dollar.
4. Stick to the Outer Perimeter of the Store Your staples are all on the outer edge of the store; meat, dairy, fruit and veggies. The stuff in the middle tends to be processed junk, anyway. Do you really need to pay $4 for that soda that is just going to add calories and chemicals to your diet?
5. Cook From Scratch I don’t understand how someone will pay $6 for some meal-in-a-box that won’t feed 2 hungry people. Cooking from scratch can save a ton of your weekly grocery budget. Cook up a few meals in advance for the week. Make a big pot of stew or chili to nibble on for the week.
6. Skip the super-expensive Lunchables. There’s nothing wrong with a kid eating a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich. Additionally, have you ever looked at the nutrition information on these things? With more sodium and fat than an adult should eat in an entire day, I wouldn’t feed it to my dog, let alone my children!
7. Before You Check Out Do a final scan of your shopping cart. I guarantee something got in there that wasn’t on your original list, or something you don’t “need.”
Some books you may want to get for more information:
Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy This is a very good “introductory” book about saving money and living on a budget. If you think your spending is out of control, this is a good place to start, but not really for experienced black-belt tightwads.
The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn This is for all you more advanced penny-pinchers! Blackbelt savings tips. This woman managed to get their family expenses to $30,000 for a family of eight.
