I am passionate about bargain-hunting for groceries. Often when I come home from grocery shopping, I excitedly ask my husband, “Guess how much I paid for this?!” Or one time I was sharing my passion with a friend, and explained it this way: I see it as a game between me and the store, and I want to win. It’s like “The Price is Right” – how much food can I get without going over budget?

Our two toddlers eat like teenagers, but I have been able to maintain a tighter grocery budget than any other budget-coach I have seen on the internet (including Dave Ramsey!). We have a variety of healthy meals, and trust me, no one ever goes hungry! Over the next few weeks, I want to share my process for squeezing the most out of my grocery budget.

This week, I will focus on general principles. Next week I will discuss how I determine which specific items to buy for maximum savings.

Budget Monthly

Step one to the whole process is to set a budget and stick to it. I have been helped tremendously by having a monthly (rather than weekly) budget. At the beginning of each month, I withdraw my budget in cash. This makes it easier for me to keep track of how much I have spent, and how much I have remaining for the month. Having the full monthly amount gives me more flexibility and allows me to capitalize on sale prices (more on this below).

Know Your Family

Many of the principles that follow hinge on knowing your family (or yourself if you are shopping for one!). Pay attention to what you eat regularly.  Every family will have meals, snacks, or other foods that are a part of their regular rotation. Know what pantry staples you are guaranteed to use over time.  Figure out how much produce and perishable items you go through in a week’s time.  Know what snacks will be gobbled up again and again, and which ones are more appealing when you don’t have them all the time.  You will understand the importance of this as you read on!

Know Your Stores

Familiarize yourself with the stores available in your area. Shop around. Look at staple items in each store, and compare prices. This will help you determine which store generally has lower base prices.

Shop the Sales

Each week, look at the ads for your local stores. Generally, store ads run Wednesday-Tuesday (a new ad will be published on Wednesday, and those prices will be good through the following Tuesday). But beware that some stores will run specials within those ads that are only good for certain days (usually the weekend).

Keep your eye out for highlighted items, especially on the first page of the ad, or a sidebar-type insert. These are the deals they are hoping will draw people into their store, which means they are often the best (or close to) prices you will see for those items.

As I’m looking through an ad, I like to make a list of items that are a good price that I might buy that week. That way, I don’t have to look back through the whole ad if I can’t remember how much apples are at King Soopers this week.

Shop Multiple Stores

No one store has the best prices on everything. How I wish it were so. But especially in any given week, one store may have a spectacular price on cheese, while another store has the best price on eggs, and so on. I generally hit at least two stores for groceries, so I can take advantage of their best deals that week.

Get the App

Paper coupons are dead. Maybe everyone knows this already. But digital coupons are the happening thing. Both the stores I frequent have apps where I can add digital coupons to my shoppers card, so that when I put my loyalty number in at checkout, the coupons are automatically taken off my purchase total.

Store apps contain a wealth of other information as well. I use the apps to view weekly sale prices and specials. Some will have a full inventory of items, so you can search and find the price of any item at any time.

In addition to the store apps, I have a separate app for my grocery list. I can keep separate lists for as many stores as I want. But most importantly, I can input the prices of items, and it keeps a running total for each list at each store. So I know before I go to the store exactly how much I will be spending, and can make sure I am within budget!

What are your favorite ways to save money on groceries? Leave a comment below! 

See you next week for Part 2!