Frugal Mom Grocery Shopping | Save on Groceries

Frugal Living Tip: Groceries

This is definitely one place where lots of money can be
saved. Check back at your budget and see how much
you’ve allotted for groceries. Whether it’s one hundred
dollars of three hundred dollars, it’s important to not go
over that amount. Be sure to bring a calculator to the
store to keep track of your expenses. A good rule of thumb
is just put the price on the tag in the calculator and watch
that total then you’ll end up saving more at the end once
you use your coupons and special discounts. Be sure to
add everything into the calculator so there are no
surprises at the checkout counter!

Before you get going into saving money tips at the grocery
store, think about how often you like to shop. Do you like
to shop each week, daily, twice a month, once a month?
Determine this before going forward.

If you like to shop once a week, take the total amount for
groceries that you have budgeted for the month and
divide that by the number of weeks in that month. That is
how much you can spend at the store each week.

If you have two hundred dollars a month for groceries,
and four weeks in the month, you have fifty dollars a week
for groceries. Another tip: if you have fifty dollars to
spend and only use forty-five dollars, take the extra five
dollars and put that into savings. Don’t save it to buy
more groceries or think that you can go get a burger and
fries. Be frugal and save it!

The first step is to make an inventory of all the groceries
you currently have. If you can do this on the computer,
it’ll be helpful to update regularly. Create three columns:
Item, Amount, and Purchase.

Put a list of all the products you have in the “Item”
column and how many of each item you have in the
“Amount” column. The “Purchase” column is where you
can place a checkmark when you run out of the entire
item or you get very close to being out and you need to
pick it up the next time you go shopping. Keep this list
near the pantry or cabinet where you have all your
groceries. Make the same type of list for your refrigerator
as well.

Next, there are several websites on the Internet that will
help you determine the best place for shopping for
groceries whether it is online or at an actual grocery store.

Once you find one that you like, try it out for at least a
month to see if it’s going to work for you. These sites will
tell you what the sales in certain stores are and if there are
good deals out there for stocking up on groceries. It only
takes about half an hour to go through the lists to figure
out which products you need and where you need to
purchase them.

Another step is to clip coupons. I recommend having the
Sunday paper delivered to your house each week. In the
long run, you will be saving a lot more than the
subscription price is worth.

Most of the websites you find will have final prices on
their lists determined by you using coupons in your
shopping. Take the time to clip coupons and create a good
system for you for sorting them. Some sort by the date of
the paper, some just sort the coupons by their type.
Whichever works for you is what you should do. Be sure to
also check to see if a store doubles coupons. You save even
more when stores do that for you.

Finally, you should join the grocery store’s frequent
shoppers club. Most are free and you get bonus coupons
and deals by having the card when you checkout. With
the way stores can keep track of what you purchase each
time you visit them, they will begin to send you coupons
based on your past purchases and when you checkout,
they will print you off extra coupons for you to use on
your next trip.

Now that you have a list of deals, clipped coupons, a
frequent shopper’s club card and a list of what you need
from the store, it’s time to sit down before leaving the
house. Look over everything on your list, go ahead and get
coupons ready and make sure you know exactly what you
are going for while at the store. Going to the store without
a list is detrimental to the entire process of living frugally.

Now that you are at the store, take your time. A good rule
of thumb is to have a calculator or extra paper to
determine what your best deal is. Have the ad from the
paper as well to check out any special deals that are going
on. Some stores have listed in their ads if you buy ten of
these certain products, you will get three dollars off at
checkout. The important thing with this is to look at the
list carefully. If you need the products listed and they are
cheaper than their counterparts, then it is worth it to get
all those items.

Another thing to consider deals with the frequent
shoppers club card. All over the store there will be signs
stating that with your card, this item is “Buy 10 for $10.”
So each item is one dollar each. For that particular item,
this may be a good buy. But if you take a look at the
generic item right beside it that is regularly priced at
eighty-nine cents each, that is the better deal to go with.
Don’t always be fooled by the signs.

Ever been told it’s better to by the family size of an item?
Don’t be fooled here either. When you see that you can
purchase a family size box of granola box where you get
thirty-six granola bars for five dollars, you might think
that’s a good deal.

But then you see that you can get one box of granola bars
with ten bars in each box for one dollar each. If you do the
math, you can either get thirty-six granola bars for five
dollars or get fifty granola bars for five dollars.

While this might be the case here, in other places, it’s
more beneficial to purchase the family size. For example,
frozen French fries. For one, these can be frozen so even if
you are single, these will last awhile. If you look at the
smaller bag of fries, you might get fifteen ounces for $1.99,
but you can purchase the family size of forty-five ounces
for $2.99 so for one dollar more, you get thirty more
ounces.

When buying groceries, in most cases, buying generic is
the exact same as buying the name brand product. Try it
and see if you don’t notice a difference or lack thereof.
Generic is usually approximately thirty percent cheaper
than name brand if not cheaper.

Again, you do have to look at in-store specials and
coupons before determining exactly which product to buy.
You will probably begin spending longer in the grocery
store than before, but if it’s worth it to save twenty
percent, thirty percent or more, then it’s worth the extra
time.

One other thing to consider is getting a membership to a
wholesale club where you can buy in larger quantities and
save money on the things you purchase the most. You’ll
save more than what you pay for the membership. It’s
helpful to have a place to be able to store the extra you
have on hand and possibly another freezer or refrigerator.

If you don’t have room or can’t afford another freezer, see
if friends of yours have extra room in their freezer that
they wouldn’t mind letting you borrow. You tend to save
twenty to thirty percent when you buy in bulk and it is
beneficial when you have a large family or only wish to go
shopping for certain items a few times a year.

Another part of the grocery scenario is what to do when
you get home. One reason people spend extra money
eating out is they fail to plan ahead. A good tip is to pick
one day a week and spend it cooking meals for the week.

It’s very easy to make several casseroles and freeze them
and on any given day, all you need to do is pull the
casserole out in the morning and it’ll be thawed out by
the time you come home for dinner, ready to pop into the
oven and cook while you wind down. Think about using
recipes for the crock-pot that cook all day while you’re
gone (or even while you’re at home) and it’s ready for
dinnertime.