Penny pinchers, super couponers and frugal people are always looking for ways to save money here or there. Many people find that groceries take up a huge chunk of their monthly expenses. Luckily, groceries are one monthly expenses that you have total and complete control over unlike gas, water or electricity type bills. With groceries being such a big part of your budget, it’s nice to find simple ways to save. Here are tips to lower your grocery bill starting this month! Some of these won’t be new ideas but they might just get your creative saving brain thinking more intentionally as you shop.
1. Plan A Weekly Menu
- Planning a weekly menu can be as simple as printing my free “Menu Planning Sheet” and heading over to Pinterest. You can pick 7 meals you’ve pinned and load them onto your sheet writing down everything you need. (To make it easier when you go to cook, make a “This Week’s Menu” board and load your pins. Next week delete them and replace them with your new pins.)
- If that’s too much for you, consider signing up for Emeals. Emeals is an online menu planning subscription that provides you a simple print out each week of recipes and shopping lists taking all the thinking out of meal planning. They have almost every diet plan known to man so you can tailor to families dietary needs. I have had a subscription for about 1.5 years now. (Here’s my post on Emeals if you want to know more)
2. Shop With an Accurate List
- Shopping with an accurate list is different from shopping with just a list. I can start a list of random needs on my phone but I will forget something important.
- Shopping with an accurate list requires a little organization so that you know what you are out of and what you need to buy to eat the whole week.
- Make your list in a quiet place so you can concentrate and make it accurate. (Even if that means locking yourself in the bathroom for 15 minutes).
- Use your weekly menu plan to write down everything you need to make meals for each person, each day, in-between your shopping trips.
- To keep tabs on what’s in your pantry and what you run out of, feel free to print out my cleaning product inventory sheet that you can hang on your cabinet.
- You can also print this toiletry supply inventory to stay on top of what you need when you run out. If you slide them in a clear plastic report cover and use a dry erase marker you only have to print them once!
- These print out’s originally came from my eBook: The Organized & Efficient House Spouse: Organization & Cleaning Strategies for Your Unique Home, Family & Personality
(This link Amazon affiliate link to my book which means I earn a small percentage of the sale to support the blog.)
3. Buy Store Brand
- If you aren’t into couponing, buying store brands as much as possible can save you some big bucks.
- Usually the products are just a tasty without the big sticker price.
4. DON’T- Buy One Get One Free
- Wait! What? DON’T BOGO? It’s FREE.
- Maybe it’s not free.
- In stores like Publix their buy one get one deals actually mean that the items ring up half price. You don’t actually have to get 2. You can get 1 at 50% off.
- Check with your grocery store’s manager to see if buying one means your paying full price and getting two items or if you can simply pick one up at half price.
- I save a ton of money this way especially if I have a coupon for the item!
5. Control Family Snacking
- One way that grocery bills add up fast is just on random snacks. If your family eats a ton of snacks and you find they don’t eat well at meals, cut back on the snack shopping. Pick one package of each person’s favorite snack and ration it. Let them know that once it’s gone, they have to wait til next shopping day.
- Split snacks up into single serve baggies so they control how much they snack. I’m not going to lie, I have burned through a half a bag of kettle chips just watching TV and not even noticed. Single serve bags really help!
- Up & Up brand has these awesome pre-measured snack bags so you don’t even need to use a measuring cup to divide the snacks up.
6. Only Buy Food Items With Your Grocery Budget
- I learned about a year ago that in order to keep my grocery budget under control I needed to make a separate budget line items labeled “Hygiene & Cleaning”. This prevented me from spending a chunk of my grocery budget on $15 packs of toilet paper or cleaning products.
7. Take a Drink With You (Preferably non-alcoholic)
- I find that I don’t always have time to eat before I head to the store so I bring an iced coffee or smoothie I enjoy along. That helps me avoid the whole “don’t shop while you’re hungry” thing.
8. Don’t Shop With Your Kids
- Kids add extra…distractions to shopping.
- Between begging to buy stuff you don’t need and them acting like kids, toddlers or babies, it can be hard to focus on what you do need.
- I have found it’s easier to stick with my list when I can go alone.
9. Take Your Spouse With You
- IF AND ONLY IF YOUR SPOUSE IS A SAVER.
- If in your relationship you are the spender and your spouse is the saver, bring them along. If you both like to spend money, leave them out. They may make things worse.
- In my case, my husband is the saver and I’m the spender. When I go to the grocery store with him, he keeps me accountable to what’s on the list and keeps me from making impulsive shopping mistakes.
10. Grab Some Coupons
- Check out your grocery store’s website for free printable store coupons.
- Also run your shopping list items through a site like Coupons.com (this is my coupon.com Brandcaster link) to be sure you aren’t missing any extra savings on what you are already planning to buy. (Don’t let couponing lead you to “try” stuff not on your list just because you have a coupon.)
I hope these tips to lower your grocery bill have given you some new ideas to work with. Everyone has to eat, but what you buy and what you spend is totally up to you. Please feel free to share any tips to lower your grocery bill that you have had success with in the comments section below!
Want help figuring out what you should spend on groceries? Check out this post!
Kim’s is the party planning, cupcake loving, celebration catalyst behind the Thrifty Little Mom Blog. Kim was a pro event planner for over 7 years before she became a full-time blogger. Kim is the author of: Live, Save, Spend, Repeat: The Life You Want with the Money You Have. She’s been featured on Time.com, Money.com, Good Housekeeping, Women’s Day and more! Kim aims to inspire you to create parties, celebrations and gatherings that everyone loves!
Beke says
I have five boys, so planning is essential.
I have found for us planning for as many days as possible saves the most money. I can shave $100 if I plan for two weeks vs one week.
It is essential to plan meals that utilize the same type of ingredients. When planning for two weeks I can fit more Mexican food ingredients in, which I have found typically yeilds cheaper meals.
But when planning for two weeks I can spread those meals out over days so that we don’t get burn out.
Also planning into the weeks cheap nights like once a week doing a soup or gumbo or type of sandwich meal. Especially if there is something special in one of the weeks like a birthday to help offset the cost of a more expensive meal.
Kim Anderson says
Beke, thanks so much for sharing all these awesome tips! Those are really great ideas!
Taren says
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Leiann Lynn Rose Spontaneo says
Thanks for the meal planning sheet! It really brings it down to what is really in need and what to do without. I want to be known as the “frugal queen” one day… There is one thing I have a tough time with…When I go shopping with my coupon binder, there are never any sales that I may use WITH the coupons I have unlike so many other ladies can where they shop. Do you ever have this problem? Thanks!
Kim Anderson says
Leiann, I really don’t use coupons very often for this exact reason. I’ve started shopping at Aldi’s recently, just because they are “bringing it” in the value and quality options competition. I also shop at Super Target because you don’t have to rely on coupon/sale matchups to save money. You can go to target.com/coupons and see what kind of printable coupons they have and if they match something you plan to buy, print it. Then go to a site like coupons.com and see if they have any coupons for the same items. If they do (and your Target coupon printed doesn’t say “Manufacturer Coupon at the top) then you can print that and use it too. If you use a Target debit card (which links to checking account) you get 5% off your ENTIRE purchase. Then they have an app called Cartwheel that’s EXCLUSIVE to Target. You can scan the items in your cart and potentially find coupons on that app for up to 50% off and add them to your “cartwheel” and when you get the register give them all your coupons and then have them scan your cartwheel barcode on your phone last. They regularly give 5% off regular everyday things like milk, bread and any of their market pantry or archer farms off-brand items. So those items are already cheap because they are off-brand and then that app gives you an even bigger discount. I often find they are cheaper than even Walmart. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have more questions!
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup says
Love #9! I usually bring my hubby because not only is he frugal, but he pushes the cart and does the lifting! 🙂
Regarding #5, I make most of our snacks homemade. Not only does this save $, but they are usually healthier.
Thanks for sharing these great tips!
Kim Anderson says
Heather, I my husband is the same way but he hates shopping. Therefore it’s hard for me to convince him to go. I’ve been trying to get into making more of our snacks. My husband loves tortilla chips and I have a few recipes for making those myself except that I’m not sure it’s cheaper so I’m not positive I can do that. Thanks for taking the time to share!
Morgan says
Hi! Thanks for sharing! This is the second time I’ve been brought to this site and read through both times. I meal plan and am able to shop at our base commissary and use coupons. I wish I was an extreme couponer! We still seem to spend so much. But maybe my expectations are higher than they should be. Ill keep working at it! Budget and expectations. Haha. Have a great day!
Kim Anderson says
One of the best shopping tips and explanations I’ve read about how to save money without being a super coupon-er is from Ruth Soukup at Living Well Spending Less. This is a really good post and one that you should try if you’ve never tried to make a rock-bottom-price-list. I don’t know how shopping at base works so it may not work for you. What makes a commissary different? http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2014/09/26/create-rock-bottom-price-list
Camille says
This is great! Definitely need to shop more with my hubby, he’s the saver!! Thanks for the tips!
Kim Anderson says
Thanks Camille! Glad you found some thrifty inspiration from the post.
Fatima says
Great tips! I just did a post on how meal planning has helped me save on my budget! Good stuff 🙂
Kim Anderson says
When I don’t do a meal plan I go to the store 2 extra times per week which always puts me over. Meal planning is a must! Please share a link to your post!
Amy Lou says
That’s a great tip about the BOGO sales! I had no idea that some stores would do it differently and that you could actually just buy one for half price! I always assumed that meant you had to buy one and the full price and then the second is free! Great tip! I also am fairly new to using coupons but I have always bought the off-brand products that are cheaper so I have to say I’ve been disappointed many times when I bring a coupon for an item I need but when I get to the store I realize buying the name brand item with the coupon is actually still going to cost more than the off-brand I usually buy anyway. So I ditch the coupon and go back to my off-brand! I have to say it’s very discouraging for someone trying to use coupons to save money!
Kim Anderson says
Amy lou, I feel your pain. That’s why the coupon generally has to be $1 or more off of 1 item for me to even clip it. Now, if you live near a Super Target I highly recommend shopping there because they love their off-brand (Up & Up) and they regularly have coupons for them. Check out my post on how to stack up savings at Super Target if you want to see. You can use their printable coupons from their website, a phone app called cartwheel, mobile coupons and manufacturer coupons + if you have the Target debit card you get an extra 5% off the whole purchase + $0.05 per reusable bag you bring. It’s kind of crazy. https://thriftylittlemom.com/2013/07/22/targets-cartwheel-a-new-extra-way-to-save/
luis says
ur tips were helpful thanks 4 ur tips!!!!!!!!!!!