How to Save Money on Groceries Without Coupons: 3 Simple Tips

1. Create meal themes

One of the key ways to save money at the grocery store is to create a grocery list based on a meal plan. One thing that has revolutionized my meal planning process is having a theme for each night. In our house, we do meatless Monday, taco Tuesday, and hamburger hump day Wednesdays.

On Thursday nights we have breakfast foods. Friday nights we have pizza with vegetable toppings. We have quesadillas on Saturday and salmon or another type of fish on Sunday.

I’m sharing my themes to give you some ideas and a better understanding of how this works. You can and should customize your meal themes for your family based on your own eating habits and preferences. Having set themes will help you make your meal plans easily. That will make your grocery list very specific.

Knowing exactly what you’re going to eat will allow you to limit what you buy. It will also help you avoid impulse purchases. The less time you spend in the grocery store the less money you’re going to spend in the grocery store.

2. Comparison shop using an app

Most major chain grocery stores have apps that allow you to see the prices and sales for featured items for the week. I usually shop between two grocery stores. If I’m shopping at one store and I see an item that I think I can get cheaper at the other store, I check the app.

This way I don’t have to drive all the way to the other store to price compare. I just open the app on my phone and check the prices there. I’ll make a list of all the items that are cheaper at the second store. When I get there I know exactly what I’m buying so I can be in and out without any fuss.

3. Shop from home

Check to see if the grocery store that you buy from offers a shop-from-home option. This allows you to go online, in the app, or on your computer, and order all the food you need using the grocery list you created using your simplified meal plan. The store will gather every item on your list and bag them up.

This way all you need to do is go pick them up. This saves you time but it also saves you money. It saves you from walking through the aisles at the supermarket and falling victim to the temptation to buy a bunch of food you don’t need. It’s so easy to overbuy and overspend when you’re walking through the store looking at all the things you want but don’t need.

Most stores will charge a fee for this service, but a lot of them will waive the fee if you spend over $50. Take some time and check with your local supermarket to see if they offer the shop-from-home option. Stores are set up in ways that tempt customers to buy more. There’s no need to put yourself in the vulnerable position of being tempted to spend unnecessarily.

How to save money on groceries

Putting these tips into practice will help you save money and avoid wasting food. Use these tips as tools to help you plan and prevent unnecessary spending. Do you have tricks for saving at the grocery store? Did you find my advice to be helpful? Leave me a comment and let me know.