You can save money when you buy groceries.

I wanted to share again some ways to save money with grocery bills. While it is not exciting, getting the best foods for your money is a great for your lng term health and finances.

How We Maximize Our Grocery Shopping

Sit down and make a shopping list.

This seems really elementary, but it is the most important step. Can’t figure how to make a good food list? Try working backwards. Think of the meals you like to have this month. Do you like spaghetti, chicken wings, or tacos? Break the meals down until you have a list of items. A shopping list also helps in keeping you from overspending.

Use a price book.

Many people think of price book and think it’s overly tedious and don’t think it’s time well spent.  It’s actually easy to start a price book and it can simplify your shopping trips and save you some money.

Buy for the month (or longer).

Our goal is to go a big grocery shop once a month. We’re not crazy about grocery shopping, so we try to make this as less painful as possible. We use Costco for our bulk items, like dry goods. Wal-Mart typically has the cheapest prices on some more perishable items. Occassionaly Target and Harris Teeter will have some items on sale and we stock up.

Buy meat in bulk and freeze.

We try to get a good amount of meat on sale, divide it up for sevral meal, and then freeze it. That tip drops the cost per pound down. When we get home, for example, I have broken down ground beef  into several bags for meatloaf, spaghetti, tacos, hamburger helper, etc.

Take advantage of sales that you’d actually buy without the sale.

Sometimes I want to buy something because it’s on sale. It’s not something that we use a lot or even at all. When you do that you’re not really saving money, you’re spending more. It’s not bad if you do this once a shopping trip if you want to expand your menu, but if you’re on a tight budget, try to minimize this.

Making it yourself can save you money.

We do grab a few prepackaged meals for when we’re time crunch, but otherwise we just cook it ourselves.

Cut the junk food snacks down.

Sometimes grabbing 5 cans of Pringles is a bit too much. Don’t completely stop getting them, just cut down. Your waist and wallet will be grateful.

Eat leftovers.

Some of the best food I ate was leftovers; pastas taste better the next day. Be reasonable, though, and don’t keep things in the fridge until they grow stuff. Be safe and eat it within the next 2 days. If not, dump it.

Your Thoughts on Saving Money with Groceries

Please feel free to leave your tips on how you save money with your grocery bills in the comments section. We can learn from one another.

Photo Credit: iboy_daniel

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