Coupon clipping and planning your meals are a great way to cut your grocery expenses. Unfortunately, both of those activities can take a lot of time. What should you do if you need to reduce your grocery budget but don’t have a lot of time to invest? Following these five quick tips can help you keep your grocery costs down in a hurry.
1. Skip the soda.
Carbonated beverages are almost never economical. Even when they are on sale, they are much more expensive than drink mixes like Kool-Aid. In addition, they offer no nutritional value for your family. If you can avoid buying soda at all, you will certainly save money.
2. Shop the outer edges of the grocery store.
Raw foods like fresh vegetables and dairy products are located on the edges of most grocery stores. You will need to invest more time in preparing these foods, but you can also prepare much more nutritional meals by using these foods.
3. Shop alone.
Shopping with the kids can be really trying. As you are shopping, little hands often start grabbing things and adding them to the mix. The easiest way to avoid this is to leave the kids at home if you can. You can concentrate on making wise food choices if you are on your own.
4. Look for discounted meats. If you pay careful attention, you will notice that the meat department in your favorite grocery store marks down their price of packages of meat as they approach their “sale by” dates. There is nothing wrong with these meats; they just need to be sold and used soon. You can get a great cut of meat for a discounted price by looking for these reduced price stickers.
5. Check out discount stores like Aldi’s. If you don’t mind shopping without the frills of your local grocery store, you can cut a pretty big chunk out of your grocery budget. Green shoppers who already bring their own bags won’t mind. Others, though, may not like the idea of having to pay for the store’s bags. Most of the products at Aldi’s are generic brands, so don’t expect to find your favorite name brands there. You can expect, though, to save a lot.
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Those are some really good tips. One of the best tips to save when grocery shopping is to eat before you go. Never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry. Our stomachs can be very commanding and there’s nothing like being hungry to make you splurge on your groceries.
You can also bundle your purchases. If something is on sale that you use a lot of–stock up!!
Also, make sure you’re signed up for any discount programs offered by your grocer.
They’ll usually send you coupons for the things you buy the most as well.