I don’t know about you, but a huge part of my weekly and monthly budgets is spent on food. After housing costs my biggest expense each month is spent on food. Grocery shopping, take-out food and dining out in restaurants can add up to a lot of money on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Of course grocery shopping is the most cost efficient option for our monthly budget, but ordering take-out food is the most convenient option, and dining out in restaurants is definitely the most fun option, but unfortunately it is also the least budget friendly option.
Even though grocery shopping is the most cost efficient and budget friendly food option, it is only efficient if you know how to (or are willing to make the effort to) cook. If we buy groceries and then they never become ingredients in a meal, the cost of groceries can end up being a waste of money if we just end up throwing them in the garbage because they are unused. MSN Money recently published an article that gives shoppers tips to help them save money while grocery shopping.
Here are some helpful tips from MSN on how to save money at the grocery store:
1. Shop on the same day. Most stores start their weekly sales on the same day every week. If the new weekly flyer at your grocery store comes out every Saturday then we can plan our shopping around that day. There is no point in shopping on Monday and Friday of the same week because the sales will be the exact same on both days.
2. You Don’t Have to Buy No Name Brands. Sometimes buying a no name product brand is cheaper in cost, but the quality is not always up to par. Buying no name brands can actually end up costing us more money because when the quality of the no name brand is not good we may end up going back to the grocery store and buying the name brand product with the higher quality. I always buy name brand condiments and canned goods such as Heinz Ketchup and Campbell’s Soup because the quality of the no name brand is just not tasty.
3. The Family Size is Not Always Cheaper. Buying in bulk can definitely be cost efficient, but only if we have enough people in our family to use the product. As DINKS buying the family sizes of products that expire may not be cost efficient because we may end up wasting the unused products and produce. Buying in bulk is most efficient for everyday products that do not expire such as toilet paper, laundry detergent, paper towels, and dish soap.
4. Think Outside the Box (or the Paper). Checking our weekly store flyer for deals and discounts on our items is a great way to save money. However, deals and discounts may persuade us to buy items that we don’t actually need. Discounts are only a good deal if we need the product; otherwise we are just spending money that we could otherwise save. Not all discounts are published in the weekly flyer. I very often find some of my favourite items on sale just by cruising up and down the aisles at the supermarket.
How do you save money at the grocery store?
Photo by Polycart
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Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
I was never great at keeping up with couponing, but I used to have a fair bit of luck when I used websites like Coupon Mom and the Grocery Game. I’d also read a few blogs who would extreme coupon at the stores in my general area (Southern California) and several times they told me about grocery stores offering free $10 gift cards for spending X amount of dollars. Totally worth it to me because I would plan to wait on grocery shopping until the promotion was happening, and then score a free $10 :)
I save the most by staying OUT of the store. I plan ahead with a list, and shop only once per week. By not running back to the store multiples times per week (or sending my husband who’s gullible to the store’s sale tactics), we avoid impulse buys and overspending.
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