Last month I challenged myself to cut my grocery bill by 10%. The reason for the reduction was to give our family extra money for stockpiling. I ended up cutting almost 20% from our bill, but part of that was because we all got sick and no one made it to the store!
As promised, here are some simple tips to help trim your grocery bill each month.
Match Sales with Coupons
Ten years ago this was a lot of work! But today, with so many blogs doing grocery store match-ups and coupons there is no reason you can’t get things for free or nearly free at your local store. This tip requires some strategic shopping and usually involves shopping at several stores to get the super deals, but if you have the time it is worth it! If you are a true coupon newbie, check out the Getting Started with Coupons Discussion in the Frugal Living Community.
Menu Plan
A simple menu plan will save you hundreds of dollars a year on groceries. Even if you don’t like structure, you can create a menu list for each week. You don’t have to assign meals to specific days, but rather come up with 5 meals you want to make that week. Make sure you have the ingredients for those meals before the week begins. You can wait until the night before to decide your dinner by looking at your menu list. You know what they say, “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
Cut the Meat
Did you know that the USDA Food pyramid only recommends 2 -3 servings of Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs, and Nuts a day? A serving size of meat is 2-3 ounces! Given those guidelines a pound of beef could easily feed a family of five. Consider substituting beans for meat or using beans to stretch the meat in two to three meals a week. Beans are cheap, healthy, and taste great if you make them correctly. Meat is expensive and is harder to find on sale. By reducing your meat you can reduce your grocery bill.
Buy Generic
Many, many years ago my husband worked in the produce department at a grocery store. This store sold two brands of milk, one was a “name brand” and the other was a store brand. People would pay $1 more a gallon because they believed the name brand tasted better. My husband learned that both brands were made and bottled at the same factory! It was the exact same milk! If you can’t get a deal on name brand items consider switching to generic. Most of the time these items are just as good, they just don’t spend millions of dollars in advertising so their price is lower.
Take a Calculator to the Grocery Store
Think you are getting a great deal? Get out your calculator and make sure. Many times a certain size item is on sale and has a coupon, but there might be a similar item in a different size without a coupon. You can only know which is cheaper by finding out the cost per ounce. While this is usually on the shelf, if you have a coupon this changes the equation. Before you buy, do the math.
Coming up next week: 5 Simple Ways to Menu Plan
photo credit: The Consumerist
Andrea @ Simple Organized Living says
So I officially do everything on your list!!! Yippee!
I also try to cook from my pantry as often as possible. I use coupons and sales to stock up and keep our pantry and freezer full all the time.
Great post!
stacey says
Great advice! I have had people argue with me about generic and name brand stuff. I just laugh because I know it’s made by the same company.
Cassie From The Thrifty Couple says
Great Tips Toni! We also cut down our meat by adding rice. We did a blog post about using rice for 1/2 the ground beef:
http://thethriftycouple.com/2010/08/25/daily-dose-of-thrifty-substitute-rice-for-half-the-ground-beef-in-your-recipes/
As far as generic goes – it really is a great idea, but we have a daughter with a deadly peanut and tree nut allergy and after reading most generic labels, foods are all processed in the same facilities as peanuts and tree nuts.
We started out buying generic, but after discovering this allergy, we had to start buying name brand and our grocery bill spiked!! That is when we became serious about using coupons, and now we spend much less as a family of 6 on name brand than we did as a small family on generics. It is funny how life’s obstacles can actually be a blessing. That was over 7 years ago!
Another blessing from her allergy – our eating is much more healthy as many candy and sweets are not even allowed in the house! Our peanut allergy girl loves to munch on fruits and veggies all day. But it has forced us all to eat our fruits and veggies!
Cassie From The Thrifty Couple says
And…. since I left my last comment on eating lots of fruits and veggies, which can get very pricey, we participate in a local produce co-op and actually able to get an entire basket of organic produce for $25 and a conventional basket of produce for $15. It is a great way to go to get really fresh produce pretty cheap!
TheHappyHousewife says
Cassie-
Thanks for bringing up the point about allergies. We are fortunate that we don’t have to deal with food allergies in our family. It sounds like you have done a great job turning an obstacle into an opportunity!
Toni
Tonya says
There’s a great iPhone/iPod Touch 99 cent app called AppBox Pro which is actually about 30 apps in one. One of them is called Price Grabber which compares unit/price to unit/price. I use it most frequently in Sam’s Club where prices LOOK like they’re better from one item compared to another but often is not.
Anne says
Great tips! Regarding generics, I met someone who worked in a bread factory, and he said that as the finished bread came through the last conveyor belt, the belt was separated into 3 different chutes for packaging: in one chute, the bread went into an expensive label bag, in the next, a moderately expensive brand, and the third into a generic bag. The packaging was absolutely the only difference in the price! OTOH, not all generics are like that; there are some that have differences in quality or taste, but I have always been satisfied with generics personally.
L2L says
I think the one place I have noticed a difference with generics are the cream of soups and I am one of those people who pay top dollar for my milk because it is local and the cows are free range and since we live at the beach I go to our local seafood market because it goes right from the nets to their coolers!! But I do generic for medicines and snacks but not toilet paper cause I like the aloe type, lol. I did however get a CVS card thingy that you suggested Toni, I’m looking forward to using that for my toiletries in the future, keep the great ideas coming!!!
Wendy (The Local Cook) says
great tips! I have noticed a real decrease in food spending now that I try to make things from scratch. Well, other than the days we get $5 pizza 😉
FindSavings says
I appreciate the tips. Is there a good coupon site for the grocery stores that you would recommend? I do many of the things you mention except the coupons. I think because of how time consuming it can be. However, I really do want to give it a try to see the difference.
Brandie Wentworth says
Great tips.Pretty much the only things I don’t buy generic are dish soap and soup. I have to use Dawn, probably in my head, but I really think it’s the only one that cleans well and to me generic soup is extremely salty.
Mona says
FindSavings – For coupon sites I like coupons.com and then most stores now have sites to load coupons right onto your card like fred meyer and qfc. Many blogs on couponing also list printable coupons to go along with their match-ups. 🙂 Some local to the pacific northwest that I like are thecouponproject.com and couponconnections.com
Heather says
Thanks for the reminders! I do most of them I believe… but always good to have a review. Now that school starts again in a week or so, I can menu plan better! Time to save again!
ologsinquito at Organic at Aldi says
We eat primarily organic food, and I am actually spending less per week on this than on all the junk I used to buy. Aldi is one place that I love. Although the organic selection is limited, the price is great.