Frugal Grocery Shopping Tips: Maybe they aren't all for you but even choosing a few things from this list can help cut your grocery bill on unnecesary things and free up money in your food budget for healthy items.
- Stop buying snack foods. Snacks such as chips and soda can be expensive and provide little nutritional value.
- Beware of marketing traps. Stores place higher priced items at eye level shelves and on end caps since that is where you are more likely to look.
- Avoid convenience foods. Bagged baby carrots are often more than large uncut carrots and a whole cooked chicken is less than one that is already cut up. In situations like this you have to evaluate if time or money is more important at the time of purchase.
- Comparison shop. Always check the "cost per unit" on product shelves. Just because one item is in a larger package does not mean that it contains more product.
- Use coupons but only if it is an item that you need to buy anyway. Coupons don't save us money if they are used to buy a product that we don't need.
- Don't shop when you are hungry, you will likely buy more.
- Plan your weekly menu around what is on sale that week. Checking out sales ads and using the sale items to plan your meals stretches your budget further.
- Stay away from bottled water. Bottled water is costly to your budget and the environment.
- Make a list and stick to it! Resist the urge to deviate from the list unless you find a really great in-store special on an item that you know you will use.
- Learn to like leftovers. Make last night's dinner tomorrow's lunch or get creative and use meal items to recreate another dinner the next night.
Want more? Check back next week for some new ways to save money you may have never thought of!
No comments:
Post a Comment