How to save money on groceries: 10 Effective and Easy-to-follow tips

How to save money on groceries

With corona-virus pandemic wreaking havoc around the world and inevitable financial crisis that will come after it. There has never been a better time to educate yourself on how to save money on groceries.

Groceries stores are expensive, and shrewd marketing and psychological tricks will leave you with an empty wallet without even realizing it.

We all have to eat though, so there is no way you can avoid buying in the groceries store, but what each one of us can do is cut the expenses and save money on groceries by following simple and effective rules when it comes
to shopping in groceries stores.

We have prepared for you a list of 10 effective and easy to follow tips that will save you tons of money!

1. Learn the sales cycles

This is a a win win situation. You will save your money and yet still be able to buy your favorite items.
Of course you need to put just a little bit of effort, start tracking when your favorite item go on sale and how much the price drops.

Pay attention to those sales to recognize a trend, write down the data you collected in notebook or on your smartphone. Your detective work will do wonders.

2. Shop the farmers market at the end of the day

Pay a visit to your local farmers market toward closing time. They don’t want their food to go to waste, so this can be potential deal that is beneficial to both sides.

With a reasonable and fair offer they will sell their products, make some profit, and you will go home with delicious fresh veggies and fruits you bought for a fraction of the price you would pay in grocery store.

3. Consider Buying Generic Items

We all have our favorites, you may like a particular brand of cereal or milk, but the generic options are usually cheaper and taste just as good as name brands.

A group of Consumer Reports “taste testers” found that most store brands measure up to the name brands in taste and quality—and they’re usually 15–30% lower in price!

You are still not sold on this?

Well, study by the National Bureau of Economic Research regarding buying items like salt, sugar or baking soda showed that chefs were more likely to opt for generic brands. If it’s ok for food experts it should be ok for you and me, right? The study concluded that if more consumers purchased store brands, we could save roughly $44 billion.

Best way you can make some balance here is to buy food staples like flour, sugar, cooking oil and butter and canned and frozen products from generic brands. From name brands you can buy meat and paper products since these are non negotiable for most people.

4. Shop Monthly

The math is clear on this subject, the more you shop, the more you will succumb to impulse buys.
So to minimize risk try to shop only once per month. Of course this is not some rigid measure since you still need to take in account coupons and sales you need to utilize. But the message is to avoid stores as much as possible.

5. Don’t be afraid of coupons

This is another great way to save lots of money. Check out store’s circular to find out what’s being promoted, then check out sites like coupons.com for great deals. Combining these two can double your savings. Make it a habit to check this on a weekly basis. We guarantee you will save a lots of money.

6. Try to eat with the seasons

It’s common sense, eat the produce that’s in season. It is fresh, tastes infinitely better and it will save you money. Out-of-season produce travels far, which are costs you end up paying for.

7. Take the time to make a grocery list

It is vital that you write a grocery list before you go shopping. There are two reasons why this is beneficial, not only will it make sure you don’t forget to buy things you really need , it will also deter you from buying something you really don’t need.

8. Reconsider buying bottled water

There is a reason bottled water is a billion dollar industry, that reason is you. Average 16 oz.bottle costs about a dollar, when you take in account that recommended daily intake is about four of these bottles a day you will spend $120 dollars a month.

And this is something you can get for free from your faucet. It’s simple as that!

9. Look High and Low for Savings, eye-level shelves stock the priciest items

We consumers often fall for marketing and psychological tricks that are designed specifically for us. It’s nothing to be ashamed of since those tricks target our innate instincts. But we can to some extent reduce efficiency of such tricks by educating ourselves about them.

For example stores often stock the most expensive items and brands at eye level, and place the cheaper items and brands on the higher and lower shelves.
Now that you are aware of this you will check all the store shelves for potential savings.

10. Stay away from the prepared foods

While prepackaged and prepared food can be convenient and great time-saver it is also very expensive compared to non-prepared items.
So whenever possible make your food from scratch, from basic ingredients.

Not only will you save tons of money, you will be sure you eat healthy, fresh and quality food.

So now that you know how to save money on groceries all you need is will and discipline to convert this 1o tips into hundreds of dollars per month.