Despite the fact that inflation consistently elevates the cost of food, buying groceries doesn’t have to break the bank. With these tips, you may be able to save significant amounts of money every month. There are some classic methods that families have used to save money for decades, but the internet has opened up brand new possibilities for how you can save money by taking advantage of modern innovations. Below, we examine some of the best of the “tried and true” as well as new, creative solutions.
Classic Cost-Saving Methods
Your grocery budget has to go a long way to take care of your family. Aside from the daily meals and lunches to-go that get taken to school or work, many families regularly host friends, neighbors, and relatives for meals that are a bit more involved. Therefore, anything you can do to save money without sacrificing flavor can make it much easier to balance your budget every month. The following techniques can make family meals a bit easier to manage.
Cutting Coupons
In the old days, families had to comb through coupon periodicals that came with the daily newspaper and spend hours finding the best deals. While this saved money in exchange for time, there are now actually professional coupon-cutting services that organize and sell these coupons to savvy shoppers. The Krazy Koupon Lady recommends this kind of service to get the best deals without needing to spend hours flipping through oversized newspapers with a pair of scissors.
Buying in Bulk
While most households won’t benefit from buying produce at the same scale as a restaurant, there are many household items that you can buy in bulk rather than piecemeal. For example, you can buy cases of paper towels, toilet paper, dish soap, sponges, toothpaste, deodorant, and other non-perishable essentials that may otherwise rack up your grocery bill if you’re adding a few of them to your shopping trips every week. Canned food and baking ingredients also last a long, long time on your shelves, so the bigger the package you can buy, the better.
Planning Meals
Taking the time to plan your meals on a weekly (or even monthly) basis can help you better organize your shopping trips. You can even cut down on the labor involved by planning meals that use the same ingredients and prepping them all in bulk. For example, you can dice up garlic and onions to save them as soup and sauté starters throughout the week. Similarly, many sauces and dressings are easy to make in larger quantities and last for a week or more, even without preservatives.
Eating Fewer Processed Foods
Processed foods are easy and often taste good, leading many families to buy many of them. While there’s no denying that a box of cookies or a bag of potato chips makes a great snack, they can quickly drive up your grocery bill without supplying much nutrition. Instead, consider replacing processed foods with healthier items usually found around the edges of stores in the produce, dairy, and deli sections. You can even look up helpful snack recipes that you can make at a discount from scratch to keep your family happy.
Online Options to Save Money on Groceries
Online shopping has opened the door to some interesting ways to save money on groceries without losing any quality. Services such as Imperfect Foods have a cross-country reach, but there are even local options that accept SNAP and EBT and sell you produce that’s just as healthy as the supermarkets with discounts ranging from 10–50%.
Having a presence online has also helped local food co-ops spread the word and keep prices down, giving families access to high-quality ingredients at reasonable prices. Further, the internet can open you up to a whole new world of recipes, as families in the same situation as you have tried thousands of them to find the best items for batch cooking. These large-scale cooking options, recommended by online digests such as Delish, store well in the freezer and are ideal for cooking on a budget.
The best part about these ideas is that you can mix and match. If you can’t cut out all the processed snacks that your loved ones crave, then buying them in bulk can cut the costs down. Likewise, meal planning on its own can go a long way in saving money versus eating out or throwing away leftovers due to poor planning. Try these methods for yourself to see how you can bring your budget back in line while keeping everyone full and happy.
Resource Links
“53 Batch Cooking Recipes That Are Perfect for Freezing” via Delish
“17 ways to save money on groceries” via Bankrate