3 Easy Ways to Save on Your Grocery Bill

Food prices have gotten expensive, making it hard to save money. Prices on even generic items have risen, so you are forced to decided between the brand name or generic. Luckily, through out my life, I have learned 3 tips that have helped me save money on my groceries each week!

One way I have saved money is to take inventory. It is possible to have 4 boxes of pasta and no pasta sauce! Guess I won't be adding pasta to list, and pasta sauce makes an appearance to the list. Ya gotta have sauce to go with your pasta, right? Go into your cupboards or pantry and see what you have and what you don't have. This will help you decided if you need another box of cereal or if you need to scratch crackers-like the ones that have gone stale in the pantry- off the list.

Planning your menu at least a week in advance. Some families plan their menus several weeks in advance- which makes me question my sanity, since I can't even plan what I'm wearing tomorrow! I'm getting off topic. Sorry! Planning your menu for the next week or so allows you to figure out what you'll need and what you already have. If you're going to be eating a lot of pasta, picking up another box of pasta to go along with those 4 boxes you have in your pantry keeps you from running back to the store just before dinner to grab that box you thought you didn't need. It also keeps you from over-buying on items you might not even use.

This next tip really helped me save money and stop me from impulse buying- purchasing only what I needed and what was on the list. I had a nasty habit of picking up a bag of Cheetos or a box of unhealthy fish sticks only because I was craving it at the moment. When you buy groceries weekly, those impulse buys can REALLY add up quickly. So, if you can resist that delicious bar of Hershey's chocolate that seems to be calling your name from the candy aisle, stick to your list. You will notice that those phantom snacks will stop ending up in the basket and on your receipt. Should I also mention that you should never shop when you're hungry?

You'll notice that I did NOT mention coupons. That is because we don't really use a lot of coupons and still are able to keep our weekly grocery bill just below $100. Some weeks it might be a tad bit more because we forgot to pick up a couple of things last week, but it isn't very often.


What are some unique ways you save on groceries?