Saving money at the grocery store is a great way to use your money more efficiently. Most experts (me included) recommend that your food budget should be between 5-15% of your take home pay. This includes groceries and eating out combined.
My family and I typically stay within that range, and we don’t feel deprived at all. In fact, we eat very well!
However, I know plenty of people who spend much more than that on food. They would absolutely cringe at the thought of keeping their food budget under 15% of their take home pay. But from what I’ve seen, many times this is one of the main items contributing to their overspending problems.
How Much Do You Spend on Food?
One thing that I typically see when reviewing spending habits with someone is that spending on food is usually out of whack. Most of these people are not doing a budget, so they really don’t know how much they’re spending on food.
The result is a lot of wasted money that they could save instead.
Once they start keeping track of their finances, they are usually shocked. They realize that with just a few tweaks they can save quite a bit of money every single month that can go toward savings, paying off debt, bills, or whatever else they need.
5 Ways to Save at the Grocery Store Without Using Coupons
So that’s why I decided to write this article. I want to show you just how a few new habits can help you save lots of money on your grocery bill. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to save money on groceries, but you would be surprised how many people don’t make the effort. They end up spending much more than they should and wasting money that could be better used elsewhere.
Best of all, you don’t have to waste hours of your time searching for coupons for stuff you wouldn’t normally buy if you didn’t have a coupon to begin with!
So without further ado, here are my top 5 tips to save money at the grocery store without using coupons:
Shop at the Right Grocery Stores
I’ve always been amazed at the difference in price between the different grocery store chains. I’ve seen the exact same items vary by as much as 75% between different stores. That includes store brands as well as name brands.
Many times the more expensive stores will run better specials on some items, but even those prices don’t always compare well with the regular price at the cheaper grocery stores.
Personally, I like to do most of our shopping at Sam’s Club and Wal Mart for our groceries. They seem to have the best prices I can find in our area.
Click her for a great article from “The Penny Hoarder” on how to save big at warehouse stores.
Change Up Dinner
Dinner is usually the most expensive meal of the day, but it doesn’t have to be a major production. Instead of fixing multiple dishes to fill up your family’s plates, save your money and do something simple. You could fix a large casserole, a chef’s salad, or even have breakfast for dinner. Using cheap, simple ingredients in simple dishes can save a lot of money on your grocery bill if you do it several times a month.
Use Cash
I’ve always advocated using cash or debit card for everything. Groceries are no different. When you plan your grocery spending as part of a written monthly budget, you simply will not overspend on groceries.
However, when you use a credit card to pay for groceries (or anything else) studies show that you tend to spend 12-18% more than you would have if you had used cash. Also, if you carry a balance on your card from month to month like most people, you’re paying interest on your groceries as well.
Credit cards are a major money waster, even if you pay them off every month.
Financing your food is not cool.
Buy Store Brands
Store brand foods are comparable in quality and taste to brand name foods. In fact, studies prove that most people can’t tell the difference between most generic and brand name foods.
When you make it a habit to reach for the generic foods on the grocery store shelf, you will save anywhere from 10% to as much as 60% on those items. Your kids won’t know the difference if you don’t tell them.
Make a List and Stick To It
Always make a detailed grocery list of everything you need before you go to the grocery store. Once you get to the store, stick to the list. Don’t be swayed by a special or sale unless it’s for something that’s already on your shopping list.
Many times these sale items are at eye level or on an end cap. Grocery stores are set up to get you to make impulse buys and purchase more profitable items, which serves to increase profits for the store. There’s nothing wrong with that. But when you’re a savvy shopper you will be able to avoid the influence of their marketing and buy only the items on your list.
It’s All About Developing Better Habits
Saving money at the grocery store is all about developing good habits. Too many of us go to the grocery store without a list and allow the sophisticated marketing of the grocery retailers take over our brain while we’re there.
That can be a recipe for disaster; or at least a lot of wasted money.
It doesn’t take a lot of effort or sacrifice to implement some of these behaviors into your grocery shopping. But when you do decide to start these new habits your grocery money will go much farther, and that’s a wonderful thing!
Question: Do you do anything special to save money at the grocery store without using coupons? Leave a comment and share it with me and the rest of the CFF community.
Thank-you very much for initiating this course on financial and ethical and moral behavior. We al can eat healthily in our USA nation of abundance without reoccurring to BRUTAL MANIPULATIONS that we witness everyday in our food markets. I do not want to detail the circumstances because there are people who depend on them to survive from day to day. NEVERTHELESS is SHAMEFUL!! PERUCHO OCHO ACHE PA’ TO’
The “pay more with credit cards” – Studies are referred to, but good, scientific studies never seem to materialize. There are a few issues that strike me with the actual studies I’ve seen. Most of them were done with some kind of cash card, simulating credit, vs a paper bill, usually $20. I agree 100% that one might handle these differently. But, does that mean this behavior scales up to an adult budget? I doubt it.
Next, I agree that credit cards are a detriment for those who can’t handle them responsibly. So let’s separate the card users into two groups, those who pay in full each month, and those who carry a balance. The balance carriers are paying interest at an awful rate (18%?) and need to get their financial lives in order. The pay-in-full group is presumably budgeted to be able to do so.
In 2010, Craig Ford, another Christian blogger, wrote an article “Credit Cards Vs. Cash: Do I Really Spend More With Credit?” The punchline was that such a large percent of his annual card spend was for fixed cost items, not impulse type buys, that he agrees the ‘spend more on cards’ doesn’t apply to every card user.
The best analogy I can offer is alcohol. For the alcoholic, there is no safe drinking level, anyone that has a family member who is an alcoholic will tell you, it’s nearly impossible for an alcoholic to be a social drinker. Dave Ramsey and others preach a money message to those who have proven they can’t handle credit. I agree these people should not use cards at all. For the “save 20% of my check up front, and budget the rest” group, the cards offer (a) cash back, $28K in my daughter’s 529 account funded 100% with the card rewards, (b) simplified tracking, just one bill to follow each month, (c) a neat annual summary that highlights all spending categories (our total food bill? $10,000 last year, $8200 in groceries, $1800 restaurants) and last, (d) a bit of purchase protection should your ordered item not show up, or store goes out of business before shipping. (My wife and and friend order custom dressers, $3000 each. Store closed. We got refund from Amex the next week. The friend paid by check and lost her money.)
We shop at a couple specialty stores. It’s amazing how much cheaper dry goods (spices, nuts, etc.) can be at a store that specializes in them.
I’d also throw in ethnic grocery stores where things like soy sauce and tortillas are just normal food and don’t cost a premium for being “exotic” 🙂
Excellent, great tips!!!
I’ve had no problem with store brands over the years and actually prefer some of them! I think beyond that you can save if you’re just not brand loyal in general. Sometimes brand name things are on sale and cost even less than store brand. If you’re not loyal to any brands, you can be more flexible and take advantage of sale prices.
Sales are always great! Sometimes the stores will even take a loss on a product just to get you in the door, so you could potentially pay below cost on some items.