10 Real-Life Ways to Save Money on Groceries Without Doing Anything Weird
Inside: the simplest ways to save money on your grocery bill. No coupons, no craziness.
This is less about saving thirty cents on fruit snacks and more about a mindset shift. We’ll focus first on reducing waste, making a practical list, and sticking to a plan. Honestly, the rest is just details.
We all have a food budget. Here’s how to stay under it every week.
1. Think About What You Already Have
Most of us sit down to make a shopping list and just think about what we want. What snacks sound good? What fruit do we feel like this week? What does everyone want for dinner? And all that is fine.
But first, try to start with what you have. What meat is the freezer? What’s ready in the garden? What’s in the deli drawer that you could make a sandwich out of?
This will immediately, no question, reduce your grocery spending because you’re being less wasteful. You paid for all that food. Eat it! Plan around it. And then, start your meal plan.
2. Make a Meal Plan
Wait, isn’t this supposed to be an article about saving money at the grocery store? Yes, and so it is. Meal planning and saving money are so intertwined that you can’t possibly separate them.
The more detailed your meal plan, the better. Planning every dinner is a good start, but breakfasts and lunches are even better. Here’s why this helps:
- it guides your grocery list and keeps you from buying nonsense
- it eliminates the dreaded “what’s for dinner feeling” that leads to ordering takeout
- you buy enough food to make it through the week so you don’t have to make those little impulsive trips
- it allows to you to plan intentional leftover nights so you don’t waste food
Make a plan! Make your shopping list as you write your meal plan down.
3. Make a List of Needs (Not Wants)
Going into the grocery store unprepared is a recipe for disaster.
Remember, your list is not a letter to Santa of all the desires of your heart. It is a list of ingredients that you need to make your meal plan. The end. If you have room in the budget for yummy snacks and sodas, that’s your business. But the meal plan runs the show.
The more detailed your plan, the better! Try writing out your list and organizing it into sections of the store. This saves you time and money because you aren’t tempted by items as you wander around.
Do not, under any circumstances, go into a grocery store intending to browse and just “get the usuals”. I have attempted this many times and always failed. Always! It’s like going into battle just to see what happens.
4. Make a Budget
This can be painful. You need to set how much money you will spend per trip. Only you know the answer to the question, what can I afford to spend on groceries? The important thing is that you know that number, and you stick to it.
Of course, this can be difficult to add up as you put things in your cart. You have a few options:
- Set a monthly budget rather than a weekly budget. If you go over one week, go under the next. (This doesn’t work for me. I’ll just keep going over, week after week!)
- Tell the cashier you no longer want certain things if your total is unexpectedly high. It’s a little embarrassing. But to be honest, it’s not that embarrassing. People do it constantly because they change their minds or notice something wrong with one of their groceries.
- Use a pickup service to watch that total closely and edit if you start to go over.
If you are overspending on food, you can’t skip this step. Pick a number and don’t go over, no matter what. Maybe that means a meal one your plan has to go and you’re serving buttered noodles and carrot sticks for dinner one night. So be it.
Note: As you get a better handle one your food spending, consider adding $10-15 a week or so to the budget to allow you to stock up on sale items. This can quickly go awry, so first focus on not being wasteful and sticking to your need.
5. Consider Grocery Pickup Services
This might sound counter-intuitive, but sometimes, a service you have to pay for will actually save you money. By pickup, I mean service where you order online, pull up to the store and have them load up your car for you.
There are two major cost-saving advantages to grocery pickup:
- There is no impulse shopping. NONE.
- You know exactly your total, and you can add or delete things to hit your budget.
And, of course, it’s convenient!
But there are some downsides as well. In our area, one of the grocery stores that offers it is generally overpriced, so I tend to avoid them except for certain sale items. If grocery pickup forces you to shop at an expensive store, it costs you more than just the pickup fee.
Grocery delivery to your home is almost always much more expensive. If it’s worth it to you, that’s great! But know that you are definitely paying a premium for convenience. There is an exception to this, which is Walmart’s inHome service. You pay a yearly fee and get unlimited grocery delivery to your door and you can’t tip.
6. Compare Prices In-Store
Okay! We have finally made into the actual shopping part. And honestly, the planning is the most important step of all.
If you focused on not wasting food and sticking to a list of what you need, you’d save money without even doing anything else.
But, once you’ve hit the store itself, you can take a few more steps to get what’s on your list for less.
- Buy generic. Most of the time, at least. We all have those certain groceries where only the brand name will do, and that’s fine. But if you are like that about everything, you’re setting yourself up for a huge bill. Most store brands offer a money-back guarantee if you don’t like them. And although you might feel awkward about taking someone back and saying you don’t like it, you shouldn’t! If the store has that policy, take advantage of it. But most of the time, you’ll find that generic food items are fine.
- Look for seasonal specials. The cycles that grocery stores follow year after year dictate when certain foods will be on deep discounts. It’s very predictable, and if you plan, you can take advantage of them. For example, baking supplies like flour and sugar are deeply marked down in November and December as shoppers stock up for holiday baking.
- Look for managers specials. Different from seasonal sales, these are markdowns of things they want to move off the shelves quickly. Sometimes, this is meat that needs to be used up quickly, bruised produce, or day-old bakery items. And sometimes it’s just holiday stuff that didn’t sell well and that the store is eager to eliminate.
7. Do Things The Hard Way
As a general rule, the easier something is, the more expensive it is. Bummer, right? And there is definitely a time and a place for things like granola bars, precooked bacon, and ready-to-eat frozen meals. Just keep in mind the more prepared something is, the more it will cost.
Deli meat and breakfast cereal, while convenient, are some of the most expensive things per pound in the grocery store.
More things you can cut from your list:
- Packaged breakfast bars: Homemade muffins or quick bread
- Microwave popcorn: Pop popcorn on the stovetop
- Single-serve yogurt cups: Buy a large container of yogurt and portion it out yourself.
- Instant oatmeal packets: Make oatmeal on the stovetop or in a slow cooker
- Bottled iced tea: Brew your own tea and refrigerate
- Packaged lunch meat: Roast a chicken or turkey breast and slice it yourself
If you’re really looking to stick to a food budget, that’s going to mean doing a lot of cooking from scratch. That’s okay. But don’t go too far. If buying yogurt cups keeps you from hitting up the fast-food drive through in the morning, keep them! You decide,
8. Buy Canned and Frozen Instead of Fresh
I know, I know, fresh produce is supposed to be the best. But here’s the thing… sometimes it’s not! It can be past its peak, bruised in shipping, or criminally overpriced.
Frozen and canned produce, however, is picked when it’s at its freshest and then preserved right at that moment. It holds up really well on its way to the grocery store and on its way to your house. And it’s usually way, way more affordable.
Some excellent choices for frozen foods are:
- peas
- corn
- spinach
- mixed berries (try them in this amazing berry cobbler!)
These are always very fresh and affordable as frozen foods.
9. Buy in Bulk (Cautiously)
If done carefully, bulk shopping can be a huge money saver. The biggest problem with bulk buying is when people buy something they have never tried before and do not like it.
But as long as you stick to tried and true grocery items, buying the bigger package is almost always cheaper. The best bulk deals are found at Costco or other warehouse chains, but regular grocery stores will often have them. Look for general brands marked “economy size” or “family size.”
One big exception to this rule: sales are often on the smaller item. Look for the unit price on the shelf to see which is the better deal.
If you consistently buy in bulk, you’ll have a well-stocked pantry that saves you money day after day.
10. Shop at Discount Grocery Stores
I saved the best for last. You can drastically reduce your grocery bill even if you buy the same things with one very simple change. If you have a discount store like Aldi or Lidl in your area, try it. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the customer service and the food quality.
I do not do this because for me, it’s not worth the drive. My grocery bill is still in good shape. So don’t despair if this one does’t work for you.
Wrapping Up
Getting your grocery budget under control isn’t rocket science, but it can be hard actually to stick to. Just keep in mind that it gets easier as you get used to it and become more comfortable cooking frugal meals.
Taking control of your grocery budget is empowering. You can do this.
By Katie Shaw
Katie lives in Virginia with her husband, three daughters, a chocolate lab, and over thirty chickens. She loves creating simple tutorials for sourdough, bread, and soap. Her recipes, articles, and YouTube videos reach millions of people per year.