Twice a year I like to look over our spending habits and tweak our budget. While I can not do anything about our fixed expenses (utilities, rent, car payment), there is always play room and pennies to save in our variable expenses (gas for cars, presents, non essential household bills).
On a future date I will share how we found hundreds of dollars in our monthly income to pay off debt. Today I would like to share 3 easy ways to save money on your grocery budget. I have found this the easiest way to find extra money in our pockets.
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Save Money On Your Grocery Budget Tip #1
Menu Plan! Seriously I can not recommend menu planning enough. Even if the only tip you take from this article is to menu plan you will see a huge savings on your grocery budget. Check out Menu Planning 101 to learn just how easy it is to start menu planning today.
Save Money On Your Grocery Budget Tip #2
Price Matching is your friend. I can pay $6.99 for a case of pop at the grocery store I decide to shop at or I can pay $3.33 for that exact same case of pop at the exact same grocery store by price matching using the flyer of another store.
Make sure you know the price matching policy of your grocery store you are choosing to shop at. Many stores have very liberal policies and some are a bit more strict. For example at Wal-Mart you can price match pretty much anything and as many items as you want. However at Freshco which is where I choose to grocery shop has a limit of 2 items price matched per bar code. I still choose to shop at Freshco as overall I find their prices much cheaper than Wal-Mart or Loblaws which are my other two local stores.
I use an app called Flipp for all my price matching needs. Flipp makes it super simple to search for items or flyers of your choice and I love that I am able to price match on the go. Every store I have shopped at accepts my Flipp app for price matching. However I have heard some places will only accept the actual flyer. Again know your local grocery store price matching policies before you go. Just give them a call and ask.
Note: You can also save money by using coupons but being in Canada I find couponing to be much harder than my American friends. I tried it for a couple months but personally found my time spent couponing was not worth the little bit I saved. Time is money!
Save Money On Your Grocery Budget Tip #3
Eat! Seriously I can not stress this enough. Even armed with your list from menu planning you can find yourself impulse buying if you are hungry. I know I have been there, done that and got the t-shirt.
If you follow these tips and stick to your list you will quickly realize just how much money you were throwing away when it came to your grocery budget. Armed with my grocery list, a full belly and not browsing the aisles I have managed to trim $300 from our monthly grocery budget.
Comment Time: Share one of your money saving tips with me in the comment section below. Who knows, it may show up in a future blog post.