How to save money on groceries (and eat well at the same time)

Oh, grocery budget. How we insult you so.

I don’t know about you, but for my wife and me, the one hardest part of our budget to stick to is the groceries!

So how do you save on groceries?

Good question. I am writing this article for myself as well as for you – this is an ongoing battle that we must fight. But over the years, we’ve definitely found something that works for us, and I think they can help you too!

In fact, we were able to cut our grocery budget. even when adding 2 children to our family…

Set a realistic goal for your grocery budget

First things first, you don’t want to start tuning in to failure. If you’re spending $ 1,000 a month on groceries, you’re not going to cut them to $ 200 overnight.

If you want to start saving on food, be realistic about your goals.

For example, here are a few completely unrealistic goals (which unfortunately I’ve seen promoted by other bloggers):

1. Feed a family of 5 for $ 150 per month. Of course, it is possible, it is technically possible, and I do not deny that it is possible. But for this you will have to live in rather unique conditions. It’s like living on a farm and growing most of your food, or following a diet of rice and ramen.
2. Cut your food budget by 80%. Again, technically possible, but right now you’re going to have to spend huge amounts on food. For example, go outside 3 times a day or use the services of a personal chef. If I were spending $ 3,000 a month on food, I would probably easily find a way to cut that amount by 80% too …

How to save on groceries

1. Plan ahead and make a list

In the days when we had no children, we lived in a condominium next to a higher-level grocery store. We also had the opportunity (no children) to come home after work with no plans and no idea what we would eat.

So we went to the grocery store and bought something to make dinner (that is, on days when we just didn’t go for takeout).

The problem is, we can never leave this store for less than $ 50. I don’t even know what we bought. There was always something that caught the eye that we just needed – some kind of trail mix, or a new brand of chips, or fresh guacamole …

We never learned our lesson when there were only two of us, but luckily when we had kids we had to plan ahead. Kids don’t wait for you to figure out what sounds good for dinner.

I hope you can learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. If you want to seriously save on products:

• Don’t shop without a list
• Know what you are going to buy before you get to the store
• The fewer trips the better – try to go grocery shopping only once a week if you can.

If we just followed these few tips when there were only two of us, it would save us hundreds of dollars! I can’t imagine what our grocery budget would be if we still went to the grocery store randomly whenever we wanted, without a plan.

2. Make rotating sales and use the freezer

Here’s a little secret. Okay, this is not a secret, you just need to notice a pattern.

The meat goes on sale ALL THE TIME.

For one week, you can buy ground beef for $ 2.99 a pound. Chicken is $ 2 a pound next week. Next week, pork is selling for what pork is selling for (not a pork fanatic … we don’t buy much of it).

The point is, sales change every 3-4 weeks, so when the chicken goes on sale, buy the chicken for 3-4 weeks and freeze what you don’t need this week. Then, take a piece of beef out of the freezer you bought the week before and cook a few meals.

Most people make a meal plan for the week and only buy what they need for that week. So they can put one item up for sale and pay full price for the rest. If you think a little ahead and have a freezer, you can always buy something that is on sale and still have variety throughout the week.

I used meat as an example because it tends to make up the bulk of the grocery budget, but it works for pretty much everything. Thus, we buy frozen fruits, vegetables and almost everything else that is stored for more than a week.

3. Meal plan, meal plan, meal plan

This goes hand-in-hand with upfront planning and scheduling. In addition to this, you can save a lot of money on groceries if you plan your meals ahead of time, and drawing up an easily changing meal plan.

I’m as much a fan of a good Pinterest recipe as any other guy (okay, my wife finds all Pinterest recipes). And it’s great to try new things from time to time. But trying new things all the time is usually expensive. There are always at least one or two ingredients that you don’t have, so you need to add them to your shopping list. And if you have leftovers of these ingredients, you won’t know what to do with them, and they will lie forever in your pantry until they go bad.

So while we try new recipes from time to time, for the most part we have a stable 10-15 meals that we come back again and again with little variations.

It doesn’t have to be boring. I have some dietary restrictions, so we mainly stick to meat and vegetables. You might think that after a while this will get pretty boring. But there are a million ways to combine vegetables in a stir-fry, or to cook a stir-fry in a slow cooker, etc.

One of my friends, Rich, said that he and his wife used to spend over $ 700 a month on groceries (just for two!), But by learning how to cook, they were able to slash their bills dramatically. It’s amazing how much you can save just by planning ahead.

4. Shop at Aldi (or other discount stores).

I’m not going to lie. Shopping at Aldi has changed our lives. Without changing the products we bought, we are cutting our budget by $ 100 per month just by making the most of our shopping at Aldi. It’s just a lot cheaper than any other grocery store in the area.

I was against this, my wife had to drag me aboard. I hated their shopping trolley system (put a quarter down, take a cart), tiny aisles and crowded shelves. But after shopping there, I have to admit that it is the mainstay of German efficiency. They have great quality products at insanely low prices.

If you don’t have Aldi near you, buying from other discount stores is also a good option. Compare prices at Costco, Sams, even Wal-Mart. The key is to find a place to do the bulk of your grocery shopping so that you don’t go to 4 or 5 different stores (see # 1).

5. Save on groceries by buying in bulk

For any staple foods in the grocery store, try to buy in bulk whenever you can. Rice and beans are a good example. We also buy trailer mix from the wholesale section (and maybe some chocolate covered products from time to time …)

Word of warning – they have pre-packed containers next to bulk material silos. But check the prices, it is usually more expensive per pound to buy in this package than the same product inches from the bulk basket!

6. Keep track of what you are Actually There is

Americans throw away about a pound of food per person per day, which is the equivalent of about a third of the daily calorie intake! Can you imagine the savings on groceries if Americans in general stopped wasting all that food?

If you are generally concerned about saving on groceries, keeping track of what you eat (or more accurately, throw away) can go a long way in lowering your grocery budget.

This brings us back to planning ahead and trying to stick to buying products that can be used in different ways.

We are by no means perfect in our household, but we have found that the simpler our diet, the less waste we have. We don’t buy many disposable ingredients, but instead focus our shopping list on fruits, vegetables and meats that we can use in different ways so that nothing goes to waste.

I have to give credit to my wife – she is the queen who makes sure nothing goes to waste and gets creative when necessary to use everything before it goes bad.

7. Order online (or not bring children)

If you plan ahead, make a list and still leave the store with things you don’t really need, then there is another strategy you can use.

Many grocery stores now allow you to order online and simply drive to the side of the road. This way, you don’t have to wander the aisles and be tempted to add “more” to your shopping cart.

And if you have kids like ours, they love to randomly throw things in the basket when you’re not looking. We returned home more than once with something we didn’t even know we had bought. Besides saving money, the ability to pick up groceries without getting the kids out of the car sounds like a dream!

Saving money on groceries doesn’t have to be difficult

Keeping your grocery budget in check can be tricky. But our family is living proof that if you have the habit of planning ahead and following the system, you can save money without sacrificing nutrition or quality nutrition.

With these simple tips, you can save on grocery bills every month without going on a diet of beans and rice!

What about you – what strategies do you use to save money on products?