Here are some strategies to save you up to 50% of your grocery bills. Before you sit down to make a budget and a list, eat first. Don't go shopping when hungry. According to the article, "Save at the Supermarket," by Phil Lempert, published in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of AARP magazine (page 20), cheese at the deli counter, for example, can cost nearly three dollars more per pound than the same type of cheese bought from the dairy case of a supermarket.
There are videos online showing you how to save up to $50 weekly by using grocery coupons. But don't be fooled by coupons that tell you to buy two items for a certain price when the bargain price is the same price as if you bought the two items separately. A good deal is two melons for five dollars when the day before the melons were six dollars for each melon.
The excellent article makes you more aware of the scents of the supermarket, and the common sense you'll be using when you shop. Did you ever walk by the aisle where dark chocolate is displayed on the shelves? Although the candy is double-wrapped, where is that odor of chocolate coming from?
When you pass the bakery, did you ever notice the scent of baked goods, or the smell of freshly brewing coffee in the aisle where coffee cans are sold? It's not coming from an unopened can.
Scents are piped in. If the store is using strategies to inspire you to buy more, you need a common sense strategy to avoid buying on impulse. Just buy what you need, and you can save a lot more than you'd think.
Your first step or strategy on paper is to create a budget. List the maximum you want to spend each week on groceries--food items. That way, everything else will be planned around your budget. If you get an allowance or give yourself an allowance for food, how much is it?
Don't go above it when you shop for food. And use all the grocery coupons you can. Sundays at supermarkets the shelves of food you want may be bare. But on Tuesday, or whatever the delivery day is for that store, you'll notice new items.
You can also see items marked down the day before they expire. Usually they'll have stamped on the package, "freeze or use by a certain date." Don't eat expired foods, but if you buy a small amount of food and consume it the same day you bought it, it's still okay if it's sold the day before it says, "sell by the specific date."
For example, if you get $200 in food stamps, then plan to shop around that budget. The same goes for any other amount of money you want to spend on food. Here's how to stretch the dollars. Assemble your coupons. Make sure the coupons aren't all saved up for food you're not supposed to eat.
Your second step is to take inventory of what is missing from your pantry that you'll need on a steady basis. Check your shelves to find out what you do need, not what you already have. Most people take inventory of what they have. But you make a list of what's needed.
Too many people buy the exact same foods they already have stocked in the pantry. If you have packages of brown rice, don't go to the store and bring home more brown rice just because it's familiar as a memory of what you bought a week ago.
On a piece of paper, index card, or computer printout, list what your needs are for specific meals each day for a week. Make up menus. Then buy what you need to prepare the items on the menu.
Think as much variety as you can afford. Don't buy pasta all the time if you can vary grains with brown rice or whole oat groats, amaranth, millet, or quinoa. Don't keep serving white rice just because it's easy to open a parboiled box of rice.
Think vitamin B nutrition in brown rice. But if you're looking for more protein, choose grains with more protein, like whole oat groats, buckwheat, or grain substitutes such as sweet potato or pea protein if you're on a restricted grain diet.
Take the list with you. Don't wander around the aisles looking to pick up food items at random without knowing how the items will fit your plan or budget. If you discover new food items by chance, you can buy them if they can be adjusted to your food plan and budget. Don't go over your budget.
If you worry about costs, take your calculator to the supermarket or farmer's market. As you choose food items, total the price of everything you have in your shopping cart before you get out of the aisle. Or park your cart where people aren't walking and total up the cost. Does it match your food budget for the week?
Some aisles have more expensive foods than others. For example, if you go to the imported or exotic cheese display case, the prices may be higher than if you buy cheese in the dairy cooler. Compare prices for similar items in different aisles.
When buying fish, know that fresh fish costs anywhere from $8 to $17 and up per pound. But you can buy canned fish packed in water without added salt in some stores, especially stores that have natural food sections. You can also buy frozen fish cheaper than fresh fish. Food from freezer cases such as fish, poultry, or meats usually cost less than the fresh cuts in the meat-cutting department counter, aisle, or cooler.
Make sure if you buy frozen food that the animal protein is flash-frozen. Then thaw it in your refrigerator, not on your sink counter. If you soak frozen fish in milk overnight in the fridge, it will taste less fishy. Eat more vegetables on sale in the periphery of the store.
Not all vegetables are expensive. Also look at farmer's markets and community urban gardens to buy produce such as fruit and vegetables. The most expensive in the supermarket may be the organic counter, but at farmer's markets and community urban gardens, produce usually is cheaper.
If you buy ground meat, the frozen ground beef, for example, costs around 25 percent less than fresh ground beef. But know what you're buying. Make sure it's vacuum-packed. Or try meat substitutes for a change made from plant protein that costs less than meat.
Try unsalted vegetable protein. You also can make vegetable burgers and meatless balls from lentils, tomato paste, and oatmeal or lentils and brown rice with nuts and seeds added as well as spices.
Do you know what Select Beef is? The USDA marks three categories of beef cuts. Prime is most expensive. Choice is somewhere in the middle. And Select is the cheapest category of meat. But did you know that Select has the least fat in the meat?
People pay more for fattier or more marbled meats. If you buy Select (the cheapest) category of meat, it will have the least fat and be the toughest to chew. To tenderize it, you can let it soak in your special marinade until it's tender. Mix various herbs with sweet and sour ingredients until you tenderize the meat to your preference before cooking.
The reason the Prime is most expensive is that it's the least tough meat with the most fat or marbling. Select category is the cheapest-priced meat because it's toughest to chew and has the least fat.
The spice rack is expensive. You can dry herbs in the oven and grind spices from larger chunks you can buy at ethnic groceries. But if you're trying to stick to a budget, growing fresh herbs in flower pots even indoors is possible.
When it comes to eggs, some stores charge more for brown eggs. Which brands belong to the store at which you're shopping? Try the eggs that are the store brands, if they carry them.
Store brands are cheaper than the brands you see advertised on TV or radio or in magazines and newspapers. Try the store brands. You can save up to 30 percent buying store brands. Did you know that most of the store brands have a money-back guarantee?
If you want to save money on breakfasts, make your own cereal. Buy the raw ingredients and mix your own cereals from the bulk cereal aisles. Why spend a fortune on a brand-name cereal? Just buy the raw ingredients from the bulk bins. then add whatever sweeteners or none. At least when you mix and match your own cereal ingredients, you can read the ingredients on the bulk bin. Don't buy the cereals with added oils and sugars.
For example, if you want granola, mix oatmeal, raisins, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, sesame seeds, and any other ingredients such as berries. Then bake in your oven until lightly brown. That way you'll avoid all the added oils and sugars.
Don't be fooled by names for sugars that sound strange. Sugar is sugar. The box may say evaporated cane juice or crystals, but it's sugar, not raw sugar cane plant to chew on. Instead of buying granola with added soybean or canola oil, mix and make your own granola without added oils or sugar.
Use fresh fruit. Make a muesli, which is uncooked granola as compared with oatmeal baked with other ingredients as found in store packaged or bulk granola. Anything prepared in the bulk like nuts, trail mixes, or granola can be expensive compared to making your own from fruit, nuts, seeds, and oatmeal.
If your supermarket has generic cereals, they usually come packed in plastic bags or in bulk. Sometimes the bag-packed generics cost less than the boxed cereals. Single-serving packets of cereals or any other food items such as nuts cost more than bulk items. The large boxes of oatmeal in the cylinder boxes generally cost less than the single-serving packets.
When buying produce, the evenly chopped, prepped, and packaged vegetables that tell you they've washed the particular item usually is more expensive than the vegetables that have not been washed and cut. You'll have to decide whether you can cut the produce up when you get it home and then package it in those vacuum bags yourself to extend the shelf life in your refrigerator. If you cut a piece off a head of cabbage and put it back in your vegetable bin in the refrigerator, it will lose vitamins and nutrients quickly.
It pays to buy those bags where you can apply a vacuum to get the air out. That way, the produce will last longer and stay crisp. Decide if you want a bag or assorted produce or want to bag fresh produce yourself, that's cheaper, from a farmer's market. Then, driving to a farmer's market may be more expensive than your supermarket on the corner.
Coupons and coupon saving exchange clubs that don't ask for fees may be a way of saving on grocery bills. Some people complain that the coupons are usually on foods you would not normally eat if you're on a special diet such as low salt, vegan, raw foods diet, or gluten-free. Remember that supermarkets and food manufacturers want you to buy their food.
The higher price doesn't necessarily mean the food is better. For example, the use of hormones in poultry has been off the books since 1960. So why should you pay more for eggs advertising that they don't give hormones to their chickens? It's against the law to do so. Egg packages saying the chickens are free range has no meaning. How free is the range--a few feet? There's no way for you to tell unless you visited their farm or ranch.
You could look for organic eggs. You could read vegetarian-fed hens on a package and realize that chickens are supposed to eat vegetarian. The days are gone when chickens were fed meat by-products, or at least you hope they are. What you should look for is the "certified humane" icon on a package of eggs. But how many egg cartons have you seen lately at your supermarket actually marked, "certified humane?"
When you buy beef, how do you know what USDA-certified organic beef really means? Were the cattle fed grass like they should eat? Or did they get fattened on grain?
Beef that's cheaper also can be grass-fed. Did you know that grass-fed beef has less fat and more omega 3 fatty acids as well as more vitamin E than grain-fed beef? Whether what the cows were fed is organic or not, find out whether they ate grass or grain.
When it comes to fish, buy what's low in mercury. Buy sardines packed in water without added salt. The price varies. So buy when it's on sale. Some supermarkets have a sale for example, four cans for a dollar. Then the price goes up to $1.19. The next week the price is $1.29, and finally back to $1.59. So look in the paper for the add that says the same sardines are on sale.
Don't bother with fish marked "organic fish." Look at what the USDA says. There's no standard for organic seafood. Other countries have standards for organic sea food. Don't pay extra for fresh wild caught fish if you're trying to avoid farmed fish because canned salmon comes from the overrun of wild-caught salmon. Don't be afraid to buy the low-mercury canned fish where the can is labeled wild-caught.
When it comes to milk, ask whether the brand is free from hormones. Most brands are free from hormones. Make a list of the brands that are hormone-free. Organic milk may cost more than regular milk. Find out what organic milk means by writing to the manufacturer.
Does it mean the cows or goats were fed organic grass or grain? Then decide whether you want to buy the more expensive organic milk or the regular milk that you've verified doesn't have hormones either. Check out the product and put what you want on your list.
That's the way to save up to 50% on grocery shopping. You make a list of what you want and you keep it within the budget. It's like making two columns on a sheet of paper--debit and credit, for example. One side of the list names the product. The other side names the price. You buy when there's a sale.
Just bring your calculator to the store when you shop. And shop when you're not hungry and when there's not too many people in the store. Your goal is to customize, tailor, and match your budget to your needs....The strategy is listing what's missing, not what you already have in your house when it comes to food or anything else.
Supermarkets are organized to motivate you to spend your money fast. The items on sale sometimes are at the front of the store or at the end of aisles. Sometimes vegetables or fruit about to go bad are put in front of the store so you see them as you walk in, for example, over-ripe avocados still good for a day or two.
Never assume items in front of the store automatically are on sale or are a bargain. Do you have any idea how much the manufacturers and distributors pay to have the supermarket put their products on display at the front so you see the items as you walk into the store? Here are some helpful sites to help you with your shopping strategy to save money.
Grocery store coupons have the most value, according to the uTube video interview below. Can you save $50 a week with grocery coupons? Some shoppers do save that much. Here's a uTube video below on using grocery coupons. Check out The Coupon Mom™ site.
Resources
Grocery Shopping Strategies: 10 Basic Rules — Kingdom First Mom
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