8 Tips For How To Save Money On Food Shopping
Groceries contribute to a sizeable percentage of domestic expenses. One of the simplest ways to save money spent on food in your house is to reduce your spending on groceries. You can make spending on groceries more affordable by observing the following simple tips:
Plan Your Meals
Plan weekly or monthly menus in advance to take advantage of bulk buying. Meal planning will also help you avoid eating from takeaways or fast food outlets at the last minute. You can cook some main dishes and freeze the extras for use when you are not in the mood to cook.
Whenever you have food that is about to expire, come up with a recipe that will allow you to use the available ingredients. Reducing wastage reduces your visits to the grocery store, thus saves you money.
See the article about meal planning here for more details
Prepare A Shopping List
Prepare a shopping list to guide you during meal planning to avoid overspending. A list helps you avoid impulse buying. You can use the traditional pen and paper or modern apps on your smartphone. A shopping list is vital to have when you head out to buy groceries. If you are on a limited budget then you must try to exercise discipline during shopping and stick to the list.
Avoid buying anything not on your list, even if it is being offered at a discounted price since this will make you leave out items you have on your list to purchase. Obviously though it something is on the list and one brand is on offer compared to the one you were going to buy, then make the swap.
It’s worth noting that not all special offers are a good deal, if you buy something regularly you may find that the price of something on special offer has had the price raised beforehand and then dropped back to its normal price. Also, sometimes you find that a larger pack size works out cheaper because the manufacturer or supermarket has one pack size on offer and not another.
Fakeaway Not Takeaway
Takeaways can be expensive, especially if you have a family but if you want the treat without the cost then there are websites that have recipes mimicking many fast food favourites. Many of the ones I found were based around slimming and dieting programmes as the aim was to reduce the calorie count without losing the flavour but there were a lot of other recipes for homemade versions of takeaways and fast foods.
Shop Online
Shop for groceries online to help you compare prices among suppliers and save time spent during shopping. Almost all supermarkets offer an online delivery service for a small charge – this can often work out cheaper than the cost of fuel or bus ticket, especially if you choose off-peak times. Also, it’s worth checking to see if there is a monthly or annual delivery package if you regularly use the same supermarket as the monthly cost is often less than the cost of paying separately for 2 home deliveries a month.
Shopping online also takes away the temptation to overspend when you see special offers dotted around the supermarket. An additional bonus is you won’t have to put up with the pester power of your children if you have them as they won’t see all the things they ‘need’.
Consider Buying Groceries Directly From Farmers
You will get fresher supplies at a lower price when you shop for groceries at your local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) association during some seasons of the year compared to buying at grocery shops. You are only required to pay a small amount of money to the CSA upfront, and then you will be picking fresh produce directly from farmers throughout the season. Additionally, you can form alliances with close neighbours and friends to enable you to buy in bulk and later on share the grocery purchase. In such arrangements, you bear the cost of transport which make the purchase cheaper.
Switch Brands
Save money by buying cheap groceries from store brands or brands that are currently on sale. Most people are sceptical of store brands since they are often packaged in a basic way and ‘look cheap’ compared to other brands. Store brands offer similar quality to other better-known brands and are only lacking in the promotion.
Store brand goods are often processed and packed by the same companies trading in name brands. Supermarket brands are cheaper since they don’t need to spend money on promoting the brand. Thus, the saving is passed on to the consumer.
Most supermarkets have two levels of their own branded products. One will be ‘Value’ or ‘Basic’ in the most basic packaging, the next level up will be a bit more expensive and have a bit better design to the packaging.
If you have never tried supermarket own branded products I’d recommend trying a few swaps and seeing if you can tell the difference, if it’s something you really don’t like then go up a level – some people report noticing no difference on certain items but can’t stand others. It’s all down to personal taste but if you take away the brand snobbery then you may be surprised at how much money you can save.
Coupons / Vouchers
There are lots of coupons readily available in magazines on food packets and online. Coupon clipping can be quite addictive once you start. Some extreme ‘couponers’ manage to save a huge amount on their shopping although this seems to be more common in America than in the UK you can still make a saving.
There are many websites where you can sign up to find printable coupons. Just type in a search for free coupons.
Always check any coupons you have against your shopping list to make sure you take full advantage of the discounts available. Also, don’t be fooled into thinking that because you have a coupon it will be of much benefit to you – if the coupon is for a brand of product that you don’t normally buy because it’s 3 times the cost of the one you normally do then it might not be much use to you, but if it’s something that’s normally only slightly more expensive and you only buy as a treat when it’s on offer then go ahead.
Loyalty Cards
Make sure that if you shop at a store that has a loyalty card programme you collect the points, it may only be a small amount at a time but they all add up over time and can be used as discounts off future shopping bills or days out.
Cashback / Reward Credit Cards
If you have a cashback credit card then instead of paying in cash, pay by card and transfer the cash to your card account as soon as possible afterwards. These types are cards are good as they give you back a small percentage of your spending as a reward. Although be careful to make sure you can pay off the balance in full when it becomes due otherwise the interest charges will far outweigh the reward given as cashback.
