How to Cut Your Grocery Bill: 5 Ways to Save Money on Groceries

We are starting with a clean slate because there is nothing more wasteful than to keep buying and buying food that goes to waste. Not only are you wasting food, but you're wasting money.

After you've cleaned out your current stock of food, you're ready for step one.

1. Meal planning

The first thing we want to do is meal planning. Ask everyone in your household what they want to eat. If you have a crock pot, I highly recommend gathering crock pot recipes. I love them because you throw everything in there in the morning and you'll come home to a lovely home-cooked meal.  

Go on YouTube, Pinterest, and Google for some recipe ideas, then make a list. Make your plan with recipes that your family will eat during the week.

I use a meal planning template to help me with meal planning. Check out Pinterest for other free printables to make saving money on groceries easy for you to see. 

Write out the meals you will have for the week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

2. Make a grocery list

Now it's time to move on to the second step, which is to make your grocery list based on the meals you're going to make. Have a list and work off that list, knowing that each of these items will go into a meal for that week. You will use all your food and not waste any money.

3. Buy generic and buy from the bin section

The third tip for saving money on groceries is buying generic when possible. I can't tell the difference between a name-brand food item and a non-name-brand food item. It's so much cheaper to buy generic. There are some rare cases where the name brand is cheaper than the generic, so in that case, go with what's cheaper. 

If your grocery store has a bin section, I highly recommend buying anything you can eat from bin sections because it will be a lot cheaper. When you buy your sugars, flour, and pasta, you're paying for the packaging, the box, and the advertising, which will cost you more. You're not paying for anything when you buy from the bin section.

I bought storage containers from Dollar Tree and used them to store bin items.

4. Buy frozen foods

The fourth tip is to not skip the frozen food section in your grocery store. You probably think that's where all the junk food or ice cream is. While that is true, I buy most of my fruits and vegetables in the frozen section. I buy the majority of my veggies in the frozen fruit section. 

I don't have to worry about using frozen vegetables right away and having them go bad. I can just put the unused portion back in my freezer. 

You're also getting the vegetables at their peak freshness. Just make sure you check the expiration date and that you're properly freezing them. For frozen fruit, I make smoothies or salads like strawberry pretzel salad. 

5. Buy in bulk

The fifth tip that I have is to buy in bulk. You may think, what if I live by myself or it's just another person and me? I live in a two-person household. 

It's just my husband and me. At first, we didn't want a Costco membership because we thought we would not buy that much. For the most part, when you buy in bulk, it will be cheaper per ounce. 

I recommend buying bulk dry goods, like rice, beans, flour, sugars, etc. It's going to last a long time, so do your research and be sure to store it properly. Then keep what you use handy and store the rest elsewhere.

If you live in a smaller household as I do, maybe see if you have a friend, a family member, or a coworker willing to share with you.

How to cut your grocery bill

Keep these tips in mind when you go grocery shopping to cut the grocery bill. I learned through trial and error when my husband and I started; that we would always waste money on produce; it would go bad, and we had to rebuy it.

Now we aren't wasting food, and we're not wasting money, especially with the high price of food. It takes practice, but you can use these ways to save money on groceries every time you go grocery shopping.