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How to Save Money on Grocery Shopping: 14 Tips

If you want to manage your monthly budget properly, you need to be very careful when it comes to grocery and household shopping. Figure out different ways to cut down on your spending as much as possible. It is one of the best ways to increase your savings every month. 

If you don’t know how to save money on grocery shopping, then we are here to help. In this article, we have put together 14 useful tips that’ll help you to do grocery and household shopping on a budget.

Clip Coupons

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To use this money-saving option, the very first thing you need to do is to sign up for the loyalty program offered by your favorite grocery store. You can increase the amount you save on your monthly and weekly grocery shopping by clipping coupons. It is the best way to learn about additional discounts offered by your concerned grocery store.  

Large-scale grocery stores and supermarkets in the US also roll out weekly newsletters and circulars with special discount coupons and deals. If you come across any discount coupons, cut them out and use them on your next visit for grocery shopping. There are also grocery store apps available these days that offer online reward points and discount coupons.

Buy Items on Sale

One of the biggest benefits of buying from a hypermarket or a supermarket is that you’ll always come across many different types of bundle deals and discount offers. Supermarkets usually run promotions and other types of sales campaigns for marketing purposes for their associated brands. Such type of opportunities let grocery shoppers save money on many different types of items. 

From dairy products and meat to vegetables and snacks, there could be a never-ending variety of products available in price cut promotions. So, make sure you are buying items on sale and saving money on your total grocery bill. It is one of the best tips on how to save money on grocery shopping.

Go in with a List and Stick to It

One of the biggest grocery shopping mistakes that we need to avoid at all costs is walking into a supermarket without having a list of items that you really need to buy. In this way, people end up spending on things that they don’t even need. So, if you really want to save money on grocery shopping, the very first thing you need to do is to make your shopping list.

When making a list, look around your home and add all the items you really need. You can also add a few snacking items and other things you want, but make sure they won’t bust your monthly or weekly grocery shopping budget. No matter how much an item tempts you, try to stick to your grocery shopping list.

Compare Prices With Other Stores

Prices may vary for products offered by the same brand or retailer available at different stores. Some may offer your desired products at cheaper rates while others charge higher prices for the same products. This is why it is better to compare prices between different stores before you go shopping for groceries and household items.

You can also use different apps and online platforms available these days to compare grocery prices. Don’t stick to a single grocery store, hypermarket or supermarket for grocery shopping. Instead, try to visit a different store every time to have a better idea of the price list of multiple places. This way you can determine the difference between rates offered by the stores you’ve visited recently and evaluate yourself. 

Think Before You Buy in Bulk

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Buying in bulk is often associated with saving money. Well, apparently, buying in bulk may look like an excellent way to pay less and shop more, which is the ultimate formula for saving money. But it may not actually be as cost-effective as it may sound. It is a known fact that whenever you buy something in a large quantity, the cost naturally gets lower, which means you are paying a lower price per individual unit. 

The more you buy, the more you save. However, you should be aware of the fact that buying in bulk may not always be a favorable decision for you and sometimes you’d end up buying an excessive amount of things that you don’t actually need for the upcoming week or month. This is why one of the best tips to save money on grocery shopping is to think before you buy in bulk. 

Pay With Cash

We are becoming more and more habitual of using plastic money (debit/credit cards) and other types of digital payment methods. This way we always have access to more money than we actually need. In such a situation, it becomes easy for us to splurge on things that we don’t actually need. 

This is one of the main reasons why paying with cash is considered among the best tips on how to save money on grocery shopping. Having limited cash in hand, it would be easier to stick to your grocery shopping list and you would end up saving your money. 

Shop in Season

There will always be discount seasons and other in-store activities to celebrate a particular occasion like the anniversary of your desired grocery store or supermarket or even a bigger celebration like the Holiday Season when almost every other store and merchandiser in the country comes up with exclusive discounts and offers. 

Mark your calendar with these types of occasions and set dates for your grocery and household shopping activity accordingly. You may be able to get your hands on huge discounts and price cuts. It is one of the best ways to do grocery shopping on a budget. All these discount and bundle deal seasons are designed to attract more shoppers than usual. 

Don’t Shop When You’re Hungry

Do have your bellies filled before you go grocery shopping. According to many scientific studies and surveys, grocery shopping on an empty stomach is surely a bad idea. One of the most obvious reasons behind it is that when your stomach is rumbling and you’re craving food, you would probably be making poor decisions that can easily bust your overall budget for grocery and household shopping. 

A group of volunteers participated in research that was based on hungry shoppers. When they were sent to the grocery store on an empty stomach, they ended up buying more high-calorie foods and even spent on things they didn’t even need. 

Try Going Meatless for a Meal

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Eating anything in excess, especially meat, is not good for your health. So, there is no harm in cutting down on your high protein diet consumption for at least a week or two. It is also very good for you if you want to save money on your monthly or weekly groceries. 

Meat is usually more expensive than many different types of fruits and vegetables available in the market. So, if your grocery list has fewer meat items, it would automatically cost you less, allowing you to save money on your overall household shopping bill. Now you know how going meatless for a meal will help you save money on monthly or weekly groceries. 

Buy Store Brands

The branding and marketing tactics have a huge role to play in terms of how supermarkets and hypermarkets arrange and display items on their aisles. They usually put the branded and costly items at a level, which is easily visible to most of the shoppers, so they can easily attract and tempt you. This is why people often end up spending more money on branded products. 

The most preferable solution to this problem is to go for lesser-known and generic brands. If you look around your desired aisle category, you would surely find items by the supermarket’s label or a generic brand, which are quite cheaper than many other branded items. This is how to save money on grocery shopping.

Plan Your Meals for the Week Based on Sale Items

If you come across any promotions and deals for the upcoming weeks in your desired grocery store or supermarket, then you could plan your meal accordingly to focus on buying the items that are on sale. To learn about the different types of discounted deals and sale offers, you can check out the newsletters, websites or mobile apps of the different grocery stores near your home or the supermarkets you frequently visit. 

Sticking to a meal plan that is based around the items you already have and the ones you’ve bought in grocery shopping sales is among the best ways to save money on grocery shopping

Download Some Cashback Apps

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Another great money-saving tactic is to download different cashback apps. In fact, it is how you can shop more to save more. Also, cashback and reward apps are a better alternative to clipping coupons, which now look a little outdated.

The interactive user interface of these online platforms has now made saving money on grocery and household shopping a lot more fun and interesting. There are many different types of cashback apps available these days, such as Capital One Shopping, Earny, and Fetch Reward. These cashback and reward services also allow you to earn credits every time you shop online from different online platforms like Walmart and eBay.

Grocery Shop in the Middle of the Week

It has become a normal practice for large grocery stores and supermarkets to offer products at cheaper rates than usual in the middle of the week. It is mainly because most of these large-scale businesses want to attract shoppers during the weekdays.

There are many different places across the country for grocery and household shopping that offer items at the lowest possible rates on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This is why if you are planning to restock your groceries, you should definitely pick a weekday if you are planning to do some little extra savings. This is one of the best tips on how to save money on grocery shopping.

Skip the Corner Stores When Possible 

If we compare prices between a supermarket and a corner shop, the difference can go up to 20%. Corner stores are also known as convenience stores, which are usually small shops that buy a limited inventory of products. The per-unit price naturally becomes higher as compared to supermarkets, which usually buy large stocks of products at cheaper rates. 

This is one of the most significant reasons why people are usually discouraged to visit corner shops for weekly and monthly runs for grocery and household shopping. Also, at a corner shop, you may also not come across discounted deals and seasonal sale offers that are organized every now and then by larger grocery stores and supermarkets.

We hope the 14 tips on how to save money on grocery shopping that we have shared above will help you manage your household budget in a more effective manner. Thinking about what you can do with your savings? How about buying a pre-owned car? Well, there are many good used car options available for under $5,000 these days.

What do you think?

Written by Spencer K