Author Archives: Jason Butler

Hello everyone. Last week I wrote a post on capping grocery expenses. Today I want to go in depth about some shopping tips. Feeding yourself and your significant other is the most important thing you must do. Without food, humans won’t survive. Food isn’t free, though. If you don’t work or have money, you won’t be able to eat. Being creative with your money will have more than enough food to feed your family. That way you’ll be able to go grocery shopping fewer times each month. Below are three tips to help you have enough cash to provide you to put food on your table.

Buy items in bulk

Many times buying in bulk is much cheaper than buying items in smaller quantities. The more things you buy, the cheaper things are when you think of them in terms of the quantity you’re receiving. An example would be a variety bag of potato chips with a count of 6 or a count of 14. You will pay more for count of 14 up front, but the price per bag of chips will be lower. One thing that you have to do is be careful. When you purchase things in bulk make sure that you pay attention to the expiration dates. You don’t want to buy anything that will expire soon.

Coupons

The second tip is to use coupons. Coupons are a great way to save money at the store. Using them the right way can help you get items for a really low price. Sometimes you may be able to even get things for free. You can use the coupons with items that are currently on sale. Depending on which store you shop at, you may be able to stack the store and manufacturer coupons to get a better price. You can print coupons from the food manufacturer’s website, or you can get them when you purchase the Sunday paper. I usually create my grocery list and then look for coupons that I can use.

Stockpile

The final tip is to stockpile items. Stockpiles are good to have because they allow you to get some items once a month or less. Some things you don’t need to buy every week Items like deodorant, canned veggies, tissue, and toothpaste are things that you can stockpile when the price is low. Things like chips, pop tarts, and frozen veggies should be bought in low amounts that you know you will be able to eat before they expire. You don’t want to be stuck with a bunch of food that’s expired. That would be a waste of money. The price of the items in the store will help you to decide if it’s time to stockpile or not. You should also think about the amount of space that you have in your fridge and cabinets.

Buying in bulk, using coupons and stockpiling things are three creative grocery shopping tips. By doing them, you will be able to save money on your food for you and your significant other.

Groceries can be pretty expensive. People spend a lot of money for food. If they are not careful, they can go overboard with that spending. Today, I want to go over a few ways that we cap our spending on our groceries. Any Dink can follow these tips. Let’s begin with the first one.

Budget

By now everyone should know what a budget is. You probably have one for different things that you spend on such as bills or entertainment. I want to ask you one simple question. Do you have one for your grocery expenses? If not, you should consider creating one soon. Many folks go grocery shopping every week. If you go weekly, a good amount to spend in the store would be $50. I’m sure that you can get enough food per week with fifty bucks.

What to eat

The next thing that you need to do is figure out what you want to eat. Are you on a diet? Do you like cooking? Do you shop at a particular store that only sells certain items? Those are just a few questions that you should eat. When I go grocery shopping, I try to get healthy food most of the time. Sometimes it’s easy for me to figure out what I want to eat for the week. Other times, it’s not easy because I may be fresh out of ideas.  Take about thirty minutes or an hour to think about what you want to eat.

Grocery list

After you’ve figured out what you want to eat, it’s time to create a grocery list. Your list should contain items for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Having a grocery list will help to keep your spending at the 50 dollar budget. If you have a favorite brand of something, you will want to include that as well.  My grocery list isn’t usually too much. I typically shop at Trader Joe’s, Kroger and Walmart. My list for Trader Joe’s usually includes the following items: ground turkey, frozen mango’s, frozen blueberries, creamed honey, artichokes and crumbled feta cheese Those things would be under the 50 dollar budget.

Coupons

This is the secret weapon right here. You must bring some coupons to the store with you. They save money. I’ve been using coupons frequently for the last three months. I’ve noticed the savings. I’m sure that the same thing will happen to you too. There are several places where you can find coupons. The Sunday paper is always a good choice. You can also check on some of the food company’s websites. Don’t miss out on the savings.

Not shopping when hungry

This final tip is critical. I’ve made this mistake before and will never do it again. Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry. If you do that, there is a good chance you will go over your budget. When you’re hungry, you’re more likely to just start grabbing items whether they are on your list or not. Before you go shopping, make sure you eat something beforehand.

What have you done to cap your grocery expenses?

Hello, everyone. You are not alone if you are looking for ways to spend less on groceries these days. Grocery bills account for a significant chunk of monthly household expenditures, and many families are looking for ways to meet their nutritional needs while still cutting back. Here are some tips to help you cut back on this major household expense.

Nourishment, not entertainment

In our modern culture, food and advertising have combined to create a food is entertainment mentality. Certain colors of packaging, for example, are used by food markets to get people to buy their product over another product.

For you the shopper, recognizing that foods nutritional value, not its packaging is what influences your buying decision is a significant step in the money saving direction. With this mindset, it’s a no-brainer as to whether you buy the sack of potatoes or the bag of potato chips.

Cook at home

You may be thinking that cooking at home means more grocery shopping and therefore more grocery expense. This is true. You will spend more on groceries if you start eating in all the time instead of eating out. You will spend less on food overall if you don’t do this because you will be spending money on groceries that you’d normally spend on eating out. Yes, your grocery bill will be more, buy your food bill will be less. I’ve been cooking at home for several years now. I know for a fact that I’ve saved a couple of thousand dollars.

Consider two people going out for a nice dinner that isn’t too expensive, say $30 for two. Now take that $30 to a grocery store, you can buy food for more than one meal for two, so try to make it a habit to cook and eat in for at least one meal every day and work up to eating out being the exception rather than the rule.

Whole food

When you buy food that has been altered from its original state (dried, cooked, frozen, sugared, juiced) you are paying for those items to be processed that way. Buying food as close to its natural state is very important. Whole fish filets, for instance, are cheaper per meal than frozen fish sticks. Flour is in terms of how many loaves of bread you can make from it, cheaper than pre-baked, store bought bread. Fresh apples are less expensive than frozen apple pie. Before you buy food, think about how far it’s come from its original state.

Amounts cost

It’s not just the dollar or cents amounts that make the difference between an affordable food and a too expensive one. For instance, you may be comparing a bag of dry pinto beans with a can of pinto beans. The can is $0.80, and the bag is $1.10. The canned beans are cheaper, actually, you may think, it. The bag of dried beans will give you at least seven cups of cooked beans for $1.10, whereas the can will only give you two cups for $0.80. Once again, greater processing such as canning requires more steps and labor than drying and bagging. This translates to a greater expense. As you can see, saving money on groceries is a lot about mentality Coupons and sales are great and can help, but getting your mind on how food works and how to make it work for you is key.