How to save money with groceries…
Grocery shopping accounts for one of our biggest outgoings behind childcare and our mortgage. I regularly like to challenge myself to save money on grocery shopping.
It is very easy to stockpile our cupboards and not keep on top of using those store cupboard ingredients.
1. Organise your cupboards
The first essential step to save money on your grocery shopping is to take stock of what you have already.
It’s time to sort out your fridge, freezer and cupboards. Put anything in the bin which is out of date. Donate anything in date which you know that you will never use.
Organise your space into categories which work for you. Put spices together, condiments together, cereals together, baking stuff together, and so on. We eat a lot of meals which have tomatoes in them so I group our tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, and tomato passata together. This means that when I open the cupboard it is easy to see what you have available.
Now this doesn’t mean you need a grand butlers pantry. Our food is organised over a variety of spaces and we have experimented a lot to see what works.
The reason why you need to organise your food is that you are going to meal plan from your cupboard first.
2. Meal plan
Meal planning might seem an obvious answer but the key is to meal plan from what you have. Pick out some expensive ingredients which have been in your stock for a while. Try and combine these with some basics like pasta, tomato or rice.
Next, take a pen and paper and come up with some ideas for meals. The key is to reduce the number of new grocery items which are coming into your house so you can save some money.
If you are stuck for ideas there are tonnes of ideas to be found on the internet. You could try a site like Supercook.
3. Shop smart
Some people prefer to hunt out the yellow sticker items, some people swear by online grocery shopping, and others shop locally. There is no right answer, it all depends where you live and how diligent your shopping habits are.
I personally prefer to online grocery shop to save money. This is because I have complete control over my budget. I can adjust it as necessary and only shop for priority items.
I have experimented with various combinations of shopping and always come back to online grocery shopping to save money.
4. Swap down a brand
Experiment with swapping down your brand name items and see what money you can save. A lot of this is shown on the BBC Show – Eat Well for Less?
For example, if you normally spend 60p on a tin of the most expensive brand tomatoes the cheapest version is 28p – apply this practice against everything you buy and you are set to save a lot of money on your grocery shopping.
5. Challenge yourself on your budget
A good way to save some money on your grocery shopping is to simply reduce your budget. Experiment with the numbers but see what a 10% budget reduction could do for your money saving. You then need to re-prioritize your shopping list to get it to fit your reduced budget.
For example, I often have a list of treat items which I know are not essential if a budget reduction is needed.
I hope these 5 ways to save money on grocery shopping have been helpful. Come and share your money-saving tips on our Facebook Group.
