Grocery Hacks: Tips for Saving Money on Your Food Bill

The 2008 economic crisis may have come and gone, but the harsh reality is that most families (both in the US and in the other parts of the world) are still struggling with their finances. And while a lot of magazines and websites advise them to save on energy bills and phone bills, few of the people actually realize that their food bill is quite an important one too.

Obviously, nobody will ever advise you to “quit on eating”, but the truth is that there’s a lot of money to be saved on your food bill too. Which are the “hacks” every family (or individual) on a budget should know about grocery shopping? Read on and find out more!

Plan Ahead

Most of the times, we tend to go out to do our grocery shopping without actually knowing what we want to buy. Thus, we end up tossing into our shopping cart whatever is flashier, more “on sale” or simply looks like a good idea. And when we get back home, we realize we haven’t bought half of the things we were supposed to buy.

Planning ahead and making an actual grocery shopping list will help you save a lot of money. No more extra cereals nobody ever eats and no more running out of paper towels! Even more, with a bit of attention to what you put in your shopping cart (without depriving yourself of the foods necessary for a healthy lifestyle), you can really make that “healthy eating thing” happen as well.

Pay Attention to Coupons

Coupons are, well, both beneficial and not-so-beneficial. On the one hand, they can save you a lot of money (some of them offer huge discounts!). On the other hand though, most of them can be used for products you wouldn’t otherwise buy (very frequently products that would easily qualify as “luxury” or at least “almost luxury”). If you plan on having a fancy dinner, they can save you money. If not though, you will most likely end up spending quite a lot of money on products you wouldn’t have even laid your eyes upon if it weren’t for the coupons themselves.

Discount Stores? Yes, Sir!

OK, a lot of people don’t buy at discount stores because they fear that the quality of products there may not be as great. Sure, that’s true for a lot of the items on the discount store shelves. But so it is for your average supermarket as well. Discount stores are a great way of saving money both on “basics” (such as flour and sugar) and on foods that are a bit “fancier”. Buy your meats, dairy and veggies elsewhere though. They may be a bit more expensive, but at least you’ll get the quality you and your body need.

Don’t Buy Because It’s On Sale

You know how large supermarkets place their “super-offers” on “French wine” right in the middle of the fruit aisle? They place it there so that you can spot it and so that you can see that “it’s on huge sale”. Keep your eyes open to this kind of discounts and make sure you only buy these things if you genuinely need them.