10 Easy Tips on How to Save Money on Groceries

1. Take inventory

Make sure to keep track of what you have on hand. If you find anything that is about to go bad soon and you will not be able to use it all up, try to freeze it.

For example, I have chopped celery and stored it in a freezer bag until I used it for a chicken noodle soup. Make sure to label it with the name and the date, and freeze it laying flat, so that you can stack those bags vertically like books.

Not only does this eliminate food waste, but it also saves you time on the cook day since it is one ingredient already chopped and prepped.

2. Leftovers shelf

Designate a shelf in your refrigerator to any leftovers. This way, they will not get pushed to the back and forgotten. Every time you open the fridge you will be reminded of what you have, so that nothing goes to waste.

3. Using up leftovers

Speaking of leftovers, make sure to use them up. Of course, you can just heat them up and eat them as they are.

Alternatively, you can get creative and turn it into a completely different meal. Even if you have very little left, and you do not want it anytime soon, you can bag it, label it with the name of the dish, date and heating instructions, freeze it and have it next time you have no time to cook instead of going to a drive-through or getting takeout.

4. Meatless meals

Meat, chicken, and fish are the most expensive things right now at the supermarket. In order to save money and stretch your groceries to last even longer, give meatless meals a try!

I made an entire week of meatless meals for my family, and they actually had no idea that they were going vegetarian for a week. There are plenty of great ideas on Pinterest that you can tweak based on your fridge contents.

5. Grocery shopping online

Whether you get them delivered to your home or do grocery pickup, online grocery shopping has so many benefits.

First, you will be less tempted to buy things that were not on your list, such as the rotisserie chicken that you can always smell at the store, or the snack aisle.

Second, as you are putting things in your cart, before you go and check out you have the option of looking at everything again and reconsidering things.

What is especially great is that you see the total and can compare that to your weekly grocery budget. If the sum you are going to spend goes over the budget, you can delete the unnecessary items before hitting checkout.

6. Shop once a week

Whether you shop at one grocery store or a few, make sure to shop once a week and not more. I know we all like to come up with a recipe, find out something is missing for it, and go back to the grocery store to get it.

But, in reality, even if you are going in for a gallon of milk, you are most likely to come out with $50 worth of items you had not been planning to buy. To prevent those unplanned and unnecessary spending, decide on a day to do all of your shopping, and do not give in to the temptation to shop in between.

7. Be creative

If you have one of the ingredients for a recipe missing, do not rush to the store or scratch the whole meal plan.

Instead, think of alternatives you can substitute it with. It is often as simple as a Google search. I was recently baking cookies and had no butter, so I googled what I could use instead, and it turns out applesauce does a great job!

Oftentimes that is how great recipes get created: when you do not have one thing, you try to substitute it for something else, it might change the flavor a little bit, and there you have a brand new family favorite.

8. Breakfast for dinner

Have you noticed the price difference between a breakfast meal and a lunch or a dinner at restaurants? Why do you think that is? The reason is because eggs are so inexpensive.

So when I am at the end of my meal plan and I want to stretch my grocery budget, I always go for breakfast for dinner. My mom would make something called a Spanish tortilla: cut up some potatoes thin and bake them in the oven, sauté some onions and garlic, throw in some eggs and then put it in the oven for eight minutes at 375.

Two of those pans feed my family of five two times. Another option if you are out of money is cereal for dinner. Kids get excited, and you save a lot in the grocery store.

9. No pre-chopped and pre-made foods

I was once serving watermelon for a barbecue I was hosting, so I got a whole watermelon for $5 and chopped it within ten minutes. Had I gone for chopped up watermelon, I would have paid almost $20 for exactly the same amount. The same goes for pre-made dips and pre-cut vegetables.

Always buy all the ingredients and make everything yourself, it will save you a ton of money.

10. Leftovers day

This is by far my favorite tip because it saves me time and a day of cooking. When you are making your meal plan for the week, instead of planning seven dinners, just plan six.

You are more than likely going to have leftovers, so just take them out and lay them out buffet style. I heat everything up in the containers and I put it right on the table.

This allows my family to choose which dish they want to eat again, and they can mix it up, too. I do not have to cook that day, and we clean out the fridge before the next grocery shopping trip – talk about two birds with one stone!

How to save money on groceries

Here are my ten ways to save money on groceries. Which one is your favorite? Do you meal plan and make up budgets, or just go with the flow? Let me know in the comments!