How to Save Money on Groceries

Groceries are a necessary expense. Unlike clothing or toys or electronics you cannot simply "Buy Less" of them. You and your family need to eat - every week - and you need to make sure that you are buying filling, nutritious food.

That is the main thing to watch out for when trying to save money on groceries. You have to ensure that you continue to purchase nutritious food. Many very cheap food are high in sodium or fat and very low in vitamins and other nutrients.

Here are a few tips for saving money on your next trip to the grocery store:

• Buy larger packages of food
  - Obviously this is only possible and reasonable if you can eat what you buy before it goes bad. Food that has a long shelf life (pasta, rice, some sauces, noodles, cereal, etc.) can be bought in larger packages which are usually cheaper than buying several small packages. The same can be said for many drinks. A large bottle or carton of milk, juice of pop is typically cheaper by volume than a smaller one. You'll have to be careful with expiration dates in those cases however.
  
  
• Stay away from "snack size" or "individual" portions where possible
  - This is similar to the last tip. While snack size portions may be easier and faster, they often cost a great deal more per unit.
  
  
• Buy staples only when they are on sale
  - This works great for long shelf like foods as well as with non-foods like paper towel, toilet paper, detergent and so on. You will eventually need to replace these items, so there's no harm in stocking up when the are on sale. Buying three bottles of detergent on sale will prevent you from buying it at full price when you've run out.
  
  
• Try generic brands
  - Sometimes you'll find there is a legitimate quality difference between a brand name product and a generic "no name" brand. If that's the case, you should buy the one you prefer, providing you can afford it. We're still trying to live well here, not just save money. However, sometimes you'll find that the generic brands are just as good - or better - than the name brands. They're almost always cheaper too.
  
  
• Bring a calculator with you
  - This is easier now that most cell phones have calculators built in. You can use the calculator to figure out which products are the best value. If one product is $2.99 for 143 grams and another is $3.99 for 197 grams, you may assume that the $2.99 product is a better deal. A calculator can help you figure out that is not true. Also, check the actual weight or volume of the product (written on the box) rather than using your eye to figure out which container is bigger. Very often packaging is deceptive and a larger container could be holding less product inside.
  
  
• Make a shopping list and stick to is
  - Impulse buying is expensive. There are many times when I've left the supermarket with many items I didn't expect to buy. Those extra items ran up my bill and caused me to break my budget. Make a list before you head to the store and only buy what is on it.
  
  
• Buy food that you have to cook
  - Like snack sized items, prepared food is much more convenient. It is easier and faster to put an already prepared meal into the microwave or oven than it is to spend the time it takes to prepare a meal. However, prepared meals are almost always more expensive. If you have the time, it's usually cheaper to buy the ingredients and make a simple meal yourself than it is to buy something that is already prepared. And for those days when you don't have time? You can buy some prepared, frozen foods in case of an "emergency." Just buy them when they're on sale and only use them when needed.
  
  
• Shop around
  - It's a little more difficult and time consuming, but the Internet and mailed flyers can help. Those ads and flyers for local grocery stores you throw out every week as "junk mail?" Keep them. Sometimes certain foods are cheaper at certain stores. As you're making your list look at the flyers and look online to see if anything you need is on sale. This may put you in a situation where one store has cheaper fruit and another has chicken on sale and another has a special on paper towel. In those cases it's time to get out the calculator again. Figure out how much time and gas you would spend driving to each different store and see if it's worth it. Depending on how far you live from the store, sometimes it is.
  
  
• Avoid "convenience" stores
  - As discussed earlier, convenient usually equals more expensive. If you've run out of milk, avoid the temptation to stop at a convenience store/corner store on the way home from work. You'll be paying extra for the easy trip. Instead, keep track of how much of each product your family uses in a week. Write it down. You'll only need to do it for a few weeks before you're pretty good at predicting how much you'll need to buy on each trip to the grocery store. That way you won't run out early and you won't end up paying extra.
  
  
• Shop only at designated times
  - Convenience again equals expensive. Choose a time when you will do grocery shopping. Either once a week or once every two weeks, or whatever suits you. Stick to it. On that day head to the store(s) with your list in hand. This will prevent you from making spur of the moment purchases that will only cost you extra money.
  
  
• Only buy what you'll need
  - This is similar to a few of the tips above. If you're in the store and you see a great deal on a product that isn't on your list, stop and think about it. Would you be buying this product if it wasn't on sale? Will you be able to use it before it goes bad? If it's a staple that you haven't run out of and it's truly a good deal, buy it. If it's not something you would regularly buy, consider letting it pass. Saving money by buying something extra isn't saving money. You're still spending more.

Hopefully these tips will help you out. Again, please remember that buying nutritious food wherever possible should be your number one priority, before buying cheap. Quite often you will find that the two things go together.

If you have any other tips, please share them in the comments.