Welcome back to Part 2 of this series on my best tips to save money on groceries! (If you missed Part 1, find it here.) Are you ready to up your grocery game? This week I explain how I decide which specific items to buy, in order to get the most bang for my buck. Come back next week (the final week in this series) for tips on how to save money while you’re in the grocery store. Don’t miss out – I’ve saved two of my most essential techniques for last! 

Know Your Limits

Set limits on what you will spend for particular items, or categories of food. This is generally based on what you know will be the best sale prices you will see for those items. For example, various types of meat go on sale for anywhere from $1.40/lb to $1.80/lb. Therefore, my limit for meat is $2.00/lb.

As another example, cereal can be crazy expensive and doesn’t stretch far. So I generally won’t spend more than $1 per box. When I see it at that price, I snatch it up!

The limit can also be according to the standard price of the generic brand. Basic snacks (pretzels, crackers, etc.) run just under $2 per 16oz., so that is my limit for snack items. Because snack foods come in various sizes, I often find myself following my own advice from the next section: doing the math to figure out if the price is worth it for the amount of food in the package!

Do the Math

When I shop, I think in terms of price per unit. Oftentimes buying in bulk is not actually a better deal. For example, I recently bought dry pinto beans. I found that the four pound bag cost $3.50, while the ten pound bag was $10. For some reason, the price per pound was lower for the smaller bag. Also, sometimes a brand name and generic item may have the same price, but the brand name item actually contains a smaller amount than the generic item, making it more expensive per unit. 

Shopping by price per unit will also save you from paying extra for convenience items.  String cheese costs more per pound than standard block or shredded cheese, but it’s the same basic product.  Similarly, applesauce pouches are very expensive compared to a big jar of the same stuff, when you look at how many ounces are in the packages. So don’t be afraid of doing some math to make sure you’re getting the best deal!

Buy things when you don’t need them.

This is counterintuitive, and tricky to put into practice. But it is one of the major ways I save money. I strive to ONLY buy things when they are on sale, which means I have to buy enough to last until the next sale. So when something is a great deal, I try to buy enough to last our family about three months.

If you don’t have a good handle on what your family goes through in that time, I recommend erring on the side of caution until you have a better feel for things. More than once I have ended up with a loathsome amount of some snack that wasn’t as good as it looked. Whoops! But a good starting place would be to buy one or two extra of something you know you will use. If tuna is on sale, and you like tuna salad, rather than buying some just for that week, buy two or three weeks’ worth.

Buy Generic

This may be obvious, but just in case it’s not – buy store brands!  I am 0% brand loyal, meaning I only buy name brand items that are on sale for less than (or the same as) generic items. About the only thing I will pay more for the real deal is Nutella. Those Europeans know how to make a chocolate spread. So maybe I’m 0.1% brand loyal. However, there is usually no significant difference between the much-more-expensive brand name item and the generic item! In many cases, I have found that we actually prefer the store brand over the name brand (ahem…Kraft macaroni…).

Bulk up Your Meals

There are certain staple ingredients that are cheap, filling, and nutritious. I almost always bulk up my meals with one of these – rice, beans, pasta, etc. Stay tuned for more details on this in a future meal-planning post!

Limit Empty Calories

This tip is good for your wallet and your waistline. Junk food is expensive, and doesn’t actually nourish your body. I am not a health nut (I thrive on comfort food and brownies), but I do make a conscious effort to pack our meals and snacks with nutrients.  Figure out what you can and can’t live without. We can take it or leave it when it comes to chips and soda.  But if I don’t have any sweets on hand, we find ourselves making evening ice cream runs more frequently than I’d care to admit. So rather than buy expensive pre-made cookies and candy, I homemake goodies (that usually I can sneak some nutrients into anyway…).

This will look different for every individual and family, but eliminating some empty calories will make a huge impact on your grocery budget!

Zero Waste

A great way to waste money is to throw it in the trash in the form of food. I have been known to eat some pretty strange things in the interest of not wasting food…

Make an effort to use everything you buy.  This will become easier over time as you get to know your family’s food usage, and meal plan regularly (as mentioned above, look for the coming post on meal planning!).

Look Local

This will not be an option for everyone, but there is a local discount grocery store in my area. Shopping there saves me hundreds of dollars in a year. They get overstock or close-dated items from other stores and sell them at rock bottom prices. I only found out about it by word of mouth. So if you’re not aware of one in your area, ask around, or do a quick online search.

Which of these tips are you most likely to try? Comment below! 

See you next week for Part 3, with even more tips on how to save money on groceries!