Want to save money at the grocery store? Well, you probably don’t want to shop like I do, then. Still, Carole asked for Ten Ways to Save at the Grocer’s, and I’ll do my best to comply!
1. Plant a garden. If you’re a really smart gardener, you might be able to eliminate hundreds of dollars from your food bill over the course of a season.
2. Flirt with the best gardener in your neighborhood. Neal claims that I have somehow winked and smiled my way into the good graces of our retired neighbor, Mr. Excellent Gardener. I think he’s just generous with the tomatoes and zukes!
3. Learn to preserve. Each year I set a goal of preserving enough tomatoes to last through winter. I haven’t gotten there yet, but I have saved a lot of money with my canning. I won’t even talk about jams, jellies, and fruit in the freezer! Here’s one of the places I go for inspiration.
4. Bake your own treats. You can control the ingredients, you can control the quality, you can control the cost. Plus, there has to be at least a few calories burned when you stir butter and sugar, right?
5. Meal planning. Plan by the week or month or whatever works for you. Having a plan saves money because a plan means you will…
6. Make a list and stick with it. Seriously. Don’t start re-imagining your meal plan. Just get what is on the list. I sometimes imagine I’m the kitchen help (well, sometimes I feel that way!), and if I stray from the list, there will be T.R.O.U.B.L.E. Yes. Grocery shopping requires games at times.
7. Shop alone. I won’t name names, but sometimes when other people accompany me to the grocery store, they stray from the list. That is the kind of behavior that gets the kitchen help in T.R.O.U.B.L.E.!
8. Plan really carefully. If there are expensive ingredients for a meal you want to make, figure out what else you can make with those ingredients. I made an asparagus tart for Easter dinner, and I’ll use the extra asparagus for a quiche on Thursday (boy, I wish it had come from my garden instead of the store!).
9. Buy in-season produce. One hopes that means it is local, which one dreams will mean that it is less expensive.
10. Shop at a quiet time. I don’t like to be angry when I grocery shop; it keeps me from comparing prices. Crowded stores with people who don’t understand the rules and shop like they are the only people in the store and have no clue how to navigate an aisle system make me a little angsty. Okay, a lot angsty. If the store is quiet, I can be smart about my decisions without also fending off the crazies.
Notice I said nothing about coupons. I rarely use them because most of the ones I see are for products I don’t actually need or want. I’m not about to buy a bag of chips because I can get them for fifty cents off. Perhaps this is a bad tactic on my part, but I mainly shop the perimeter, which also means less coupon-prone products, and usually means, in fact, higher priced products (produce, I’m talking about you!).
What are your methods for spending less at the grocery store?
I shop a lot like you. And even though I put coupons on my list I don’t actually use them much. I find I buy things I wouldn’t have otherwise just for the sake of using the coupon and that’s hardly cost effective.
I’m with you on the coupons – I rarely find one for something I actually use. Its mostly fresh foods and store brands and I won’t buy something just to get a discount.
I hate ‘shopping’, but I love grocery stores and I love to grocery shop! My father is also a fanatical grocery shopper, sometimes a 2 a day grocery shopper! It makes my mother nuts. I only wish I had the time for it! But, while my dad goes to multiple stores and markets (the luxury of living in a big city) on a daily basis, I have managed to do the shopping with one stop, shopping for sales. It’s rare that I buy anything that isn’t on sale, and I don’t have time for coupons. Meals are planned around weekly specials and what’s in season. My kids have always been the best fed kids that they know, and they will still brag about it. My big splurge lately is to buy only cage free eggs (my daughters request) and since we live down the road from a farm it’s not that big a deal!
Two words: Trader Joe’s
i’m a perimeter shopper too… we tend not to go into the “middle” much.
🙂