How to Cut Down on Your Grocery Bill
- 1). Plan a list according to your budget. How much are you able to spend each week on groceries? Prioritize a list of the most important items you need for the week to the least important things. When you are at the grocery store you can put the prices next to the items and add them up with a calculator. This way you are sure not to go over your budget.
- 2). Get out a notebook and plan all of your meals for the week. Make sure you have some snacks and dessert on the list. Then take your notebook to your pantry and cross off the items you have. The items that are remaining are the only ones you need to pick up at the store.
- 3). Bring a grocery list and stick to it. This takes dedication. You must train your eyes to only look for items that are on your grocery list for the week. Straying from the list will cause you to take home food that you really don't need to get through the week. So you will have left over food and you would have spent more money.
- 4). Eat before you go to the grocery store. Making sure your stomach is full before you go to the grocery store will ensure that you don't buy any items out of hunger. Everything at the grocery store looks good when you are hungry. That means you end up buying more.
- 5). Use coupons. You can click out coupons from your Sunday paper or you can print them out online. There are membership sites like MyPoints that have coupons you can print out or there are free sites you don't have to join like couponmom.com. Coupon Mom lets you print out coupons without even registering. Coupons are a great way to cut down on your grocery bill because they are real cents and dollars off.
- 6). Combine coupons with sale items. The biggest way to cut back on your grocery spending is to use your coupons when an item is on sale. For example, if you see Ajax dish soap is $1.39 a bottle and you have a coupons for $.50 off, you should wait until the Ajax is on sale to buy it. The Ajax will go on sale for $.99 and your coupon will most likely be doubled to $1 off. You will be getting the Ajax for free.