Want to reduce your grocery spending? Learn how to save money on groceries with these 4 easy tips. Great practical advice that anyone can easily follow!
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Mare left this comment yesterday here on my blog:
I just stumbled on to your article and I have to say your tips are so helpful! I have no clue how to shop for food on a budget and looking at my monthly food bill I spend about 800. 00 a month for two adults and a 15 year old daughter. The go without is my new motto.thank you ! I am planning this weeks breakfast lunch and dinner for the next 5 days which means I can only spend 40.00 !! ?? Is that really possible? I will check back in and let you know how I did. Pulling recipes and food list. Btw I live in CA where most people spend over 60 percent of their take home pay on housing!!!!!
I get this kind of comment/question frequently here at the Thrifty Frugal Mom and thought it might be helpful if I just replied to her comment in the form of a blog post so everyone could benefit.
First of all, I love Mare’s attitude! She is determined to make a change and having a good attitude is at least half of what is going to make this successful. I also like the way she is starting a menu plan. While that is not absolutely necessary to trim your budget it is definitely incredibly helpful. If you know what you need to buy to make the meals you want to make, it will help you keep from spending extra on things that you don’t really need. Even better, if you can plan your meals around things that you already have on hand or on things that are on sale you’ll find yourself saving even more!
Here are 4 other tips that I’d recommend following if you want to successfully begin to reduce your grocery spending.
How to Save Money on Groceries- 4 Tips to Reduce Your Spending
1. Start Slow
It’s easy to get overly excited and want to try to cut your spending in half immediately. While it’s good to be motivated, you have to remember that it takes time to implement a new way of thinking/spending. If you try to reduce your grocery budget too fast, chances are you’ll run out of steam and become discouraged. Give yourself time, start slow and you’ll have a better chance at being successful at changing your spending long term.
2. Be Realistic
In order to not get discouraged, it is important that you set a realistic goal for how you can improve your grocery budget. (And yes, you really do need to set a grocery budget in order to decrease your spending!) If you are spending $800/mo. now, try to see if you can shave off $50 to $100 this month just by being mindful of what you purchase. If that goes well, then next month you can try to reduce it some more and eventually you’ll get to the amount that works well for you.
Looking for some ideas on how to trim your grocery costs? Check out these posts:
In addition, these easy-to-use money saving apps are one of my favorite ways to save on groceries and household supplies. Many times they even offer savings on any brand of a product such as milk, bread, fruit, diapers and more!
- Ibotta
- Fetch Rewards (use referral code GE0EG to get $2.00 in free points!)
– This one is the absolute easiest to use…you just scan your receipt and that’s it. I’ve only used it for a couple of weeks and I already have earned $9 in Amazon gift cards! - Saving Star
- Checkout 51 (sign up and get $2 when you redeem your first offer!)
- Shopkick (get $2.50 in free kicks just for signing up!)
– This one isn’t really a grocery app per se, but I like to use it when I’m at the grocery store to earn points (or kicks as they call them) that I can redeem for gift cards. It only takes a couple of extra minutes and if I’m not pushed for time it’s worth it for me!
3. Extend Grace to Yourself
As you are learning what works for you in trimming your grocery budget, you are bound to make mistakes. You might even fail miserably and not save a dollar! Extend grace to yourself. It’s okay if you mess up- it’s part of the learning process! And while it might be disappointing and even frustrating to not have your budget work out like you had hoped, it’s really not the end of the world. Keep a good attitude. Keep trying. Don’t give up! You can do this!
4. Find a Coupon Match-ups Blog
A lot of people think that couponing isn’t worth their time, but I beg to differ! The first 6 months of this year alone I saved over $800 with coupons! Obviously, I spend more than a couple of minutes a week focused on couponing to get that kind of savings, but with just a few minutes a week, you can easily save at least several dollars.
I recommend finding a good blog that does coupon match-ups for the stores you shop at. This will make it easy for you to find the best deals without spending a lot of time doing it. To find a blog, simply Google something like “coupon match-ups and the store name”. Then before you do your grocery shopping, check out the coupon match-ups to see what things you can get at rock bottom prices, print any coupons you want to use and then enjoy saving!
What have you found helpful to reduce your grocery spending?
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Su Wa says
I actually was forced to cut my food spending (no budget and had no problem spending $500-$700 a month for two young adults and 1 elderly person who ate like a bird!)
I lost my job in 2011 and my health deteriorated where I can’t work and I ended up on welfare. Well, needless to say, the first 6 mos we ran out of food after 2 1/2 weeks! Determined to make $200 a month work for two (my Mom passed 2012), I think I finally got the hang of it.
I know my situation is different and I was forced to make the change but I have learned that I was spending waaaay too much money or food that we didn’t need and sometimes didn’t really want. I threw a lot of food away, which is a sin in itself!
I have found that starting with food I already have on hand and planning my meals was a HUGE help!
I haven’t started couponing yet. Every time I start I get frustrated and end up backing out of the website that promised me “coupons” and yet it took 20 minutes and 100 pages to get to the actual coupon page and by that time I was too angry to continue!!
I’m going to take your suggestion and hopefully will have better results with couponing. I’m sure it will help me have some money left over for me to splurge on something I haven’t been able to get for a long time.
Thank you again!
ThriftyFrugalMom says
Wow, Su, I am so blessed by your attitude! Instead of saying, “There is no way that this is going to work”, you found a way to make it work and learned and thrived in the process! Yes, I also find that planning meals around what I already have on hand makes a big difference.
As for the couponing thing, it does take a bit to get the hang of it and to make it work. But if you can find a good coupon blog, that will make a world of difference for you I think. (I like Forthemommas.com, but depending where you live and what stores you shop at, that might not help too much.) Start with just one store and figure out how to use coupons there, what their policy is etc. Once you get that down, then branch out to a second store. Even drugstores like CVS and Rite Aid can save you a bundle when you use coupons. Not as much on food items, but things like toothpaste and toiletries.
Hope you can get it to work out for you! And thanks for the inspiration…your comment blessed me.
Ashley says
These are some awesome tips! I especially like that you mentioned starting small and giving yourself grace – those can be hard things to remember sometimes!
ThriftyFrugalMom says
They definitely are, Ashley! I tend to be one of those people that is all or none and so it’s easy for me to forget that I sometimes just need to pass up on a deal.
Allison says
We started to really look at our budget when we found out we’re were expecting our first child. I do most of the things you’ve mentioned and I have significantly decreased our grocery spending every month! I even look forward to menu planning by trying at least one new recipe a week! And I try to beat my total bill from the week before (I know that won’t always be possible but it makes it into a game that is fun instead of a chore). One thing I do in addition to your list is use our grocery stores’ mobile app. A lot of stores have their own apps that you can use to load coupons into your loyalty card. I use it in combination with Ibotta and I often get double the savings!
ThriftyFrugalMom says
Allison, I’m not sure why I didn’t see your comment until now. So sorry for the slow reply! :/ I love how you try to beat your total bill from the week before. You are so right that doing things like that to “make it a game” can make such a difference! And I’ve found that trying at least one or two new recipes a week really helps me not get into a menu slump too.
Thanks for mentioning the grocery store app idea. The store I typically shop at (Giant Foods) has something similar where you can create an account online and add coupons to your store loyalty card. I always hesitate mentioning things like that though because I’m not sure how many other stores do that kind of thing. But maybe it’s actually pretty common? At any rate, you are so right that it does really increase your savings! Just today I was able to save an additional $5 with those load-to-card coupons. It really does help!
Mihika says
What a thorough article, thanks for sharing!
I am often pulling out my calculator to figure out where the deal actually is on the supermarket shelves. Sales tags can be misleading! Your advice on becoming familiar with the prices of items you purchase frequently is spot on. Equally important is valuing your time: is it worth the $0.05/kg discount if it means you have to go out of your way to travel to a store to achieve those savings?
ThriftyFrugalMom says
Yes, you are right. It’s definitely important to figure out if it’s worth your time to make a trip just for a couple of cheap items or just to save a couple of dollars- because sometimes it is really just not worth it because of the amount of time spent. Thanks for that!