Finances & Money

3 Ways To Reduce Your Grocery Bill

Over the weekend I did my usual Saturday morning grocery shopping. It was a bit spur of the moment, as I decided to stop and get it over with on my way home from the gym. However, while putting away my purchases, time and time again I was reminded that I hadn’t followed my own grocery shopping rules. By not doing so, I had spent money I didn’t need to and likely would have to make a secondary trip to the grocery store.

Meal Plan

Normally I make a list of all the meals I want to make during the week for the family. While I don’t specifically target meals for specific days, I do make sure we have 8-10 meal choices. This gives the family options even on the day before the next grocery shopping trip. I hadn’t done this ahead of my grocery shopping trip, so I tried to do it while actually roaming the aisles. Recounting my logic, I may not have enough meals to get through the week.

Check Cupboards

The end result of my grocery shopping prep work is a complete list of meals, the items I need to make those meals, as well as other discretionary products or household needs. Occasionally some of these things may already be in the cupboard unused from a previous grocery shopping trip. Putting away the groceries, I found 10 or so items that I already had, and had purchased again. I estimated I could have reduced my grocery bill by about $20 had I done my usual prep work.

Stick To The List

If you’ve done the proper grocery shopping prep work, you have a list and may have even estimated the cost of the things on your list. Once inside the grocery store, wandering outside the list is a sure budget buster. In my case, I didn’t even have a list, so I was flying completely blind as to how much my groceries would cost.

Grocery shopping is a popular budget item people try to slash when they’re trying to save money because it’s a weekly expense we all incur. Saving money on groceries has as much to do with proper prep work before going shopping as it does with simply buying less expensive products. By following these rules you can make our grocery shopping more efficient, and get the very most out of your grocery budget.

How about you, Clever Friends, how do you prepare to go grocery shopping?  Could you bring down your bill if you followed these rules?

Brock Kernin

Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children,  Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.