Have you ever noticed how your grocery bill is increasing ever so slightly each month?
Yep. You’re not alone.
Grocery prices are increasing each year. It’s therefore crucial that you find ways to save money on groceries.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, families spent over $8,000 on food each year. Add this to the ever increasing grocery costs, and you’ll see why cutting your grocery bill is so important.
If you think couponing is the only way to save money on groceries, I have news for you. While couponing can be beneficial, it costs money.
You can spend a lot of time going through several newspapers, searching for deals, only to find maybe one or two useful ones.
So exactly how to save on groceries without coupons?
Trust me, there are better ways. I’ll show you exactly how to save money on groceries below.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which means I may get a small fee if you sign up through my link. For full disclosure, please read here.
1. Plan Your Meals
The best way to save money on groceries and eat healthy, hands down, is to plan your meals.
Have you ever entered a grocery shop to pick up a few things only to find yourself at the checkout counter with a $75 bill?
Yep.
It’s happened to the best of us.
Don’t just wing it at the shops. Chances are, you’ll not only waste your money, you’ll also grab a lot of impulse purchases at full price.
This is the simple truth: No meal plan = wasted money.
To effectively save on groceries and still eat healthy, plan your meals for the week before you go shopping.
You might ask, “What if I don’t have time to plan meals??”
Fear not. You can get your hands on easy go-to recipes that are both delicious and healthy, where you can make several servings at once.
Try the $5 Meal Plan.
Five dollars a MONTH and you get a detailed meal plan for the entire week, including a shopping list and complete recipes! How amazing is that! An excellent meal plan that will allow you to cook multiple meals in an hour!
You can be confident you will ONLY get the things you need for the week with the cheap and healthy meal plan.
>> Start your 14 day meal plan here!
Alternatively, use my FREE meal planner printable below to help you plan out your shop! Simply sign up and receive exclusive access.
2. Shop Online
Another great way to save money on groceries is online shopping.
Shopping online for your groceries will save you both time and money. A lot of local supermarkets offer online shopping, with the options to Click & Collect or deliver to your home.
It is so much easier to stick to your budget if you have a list in front of you of what you want to order.
And it’s much easier to say no to an impulse purchase online than it is if you’re standing right in front of it on an empty stomach!
You can also save your trolley with your regular weekly purchases, thus making it a quicker process each time you shop.
If you don’t have a local supermarket option available, you can always try a delivery service like HelloFresh or Home Chef.
Meal Plan: The best way to save money on groceries!
3. Buy In Bulk… And Get Paid To Do So
You’d be amazed at how you can get paid to shop.
I mean, do I even have to say anything else?!
Rakuten will pay you cash back when you shop online. And there are over 2000 stores to choose from including Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc.
Picture it now. Load up your shopping cart with all of your grocery essentials, checkout, and BAM, you get 10% cash back.
So simple.
Not nearly enough people take advantage of this super simple way to save money on groceries. You actually make money here.
Are you excited yet? There’s even a free $10 Gift Card just for trying out the site!
How do you redeem your free gift card from Rakuten?
It’s very simple. I’ll show you exactly how.
- Sign up to Rakuten here. You can use either your Facebook account or your email address.
- The next time you want to shop online, go to Rakuten and spend at least $25 within 90 days to redeem your free $10 gift card.
- Check your account. You will have a free $10 bonus.
- Redeem it for a gift card or CASH using THIS LINK.
4. Make Freezer Meals
Bulk prep your food and store it in the freezer for those days when you just don’t feel like spending hours in the kitchen. This is perfect to save on groceries and still eat healthy!
Instead of ordering in food, just whip out one of your pre-cooked meals from the freezer, and you will have a delicious dish ready in no time.
A perfect way to save money on groceries that doesn’t even take extra time.
Make sure you have enough freezer bags and foil pans to correctly label your food in the freezer!
Confused about getting started with freezer meals? Sign up for this FREE WORKSHOP to learn all about prepping meals efficiently and storing them in the freezer.
5. Buy Store Brands
These are also called generic, or home brand items. Most of the time, these are just as good as name-brand products.
Often, the same companies and brands who make the higher priced ‘name-brand’ products have contracts with supermarkets to be the generic brand suppliers.
This is therefore the perfect way to save money on groceries – you will get items for a fraction of the price, AND you might even get the same quality as a much more expensive item!
I always buy staple items like flour, bread, canned goods and medications in store brands.
6. Eat Before You Shop
This is not a myth.
In fact, this might be the most clever way to save money on groceries in this entire post.
There is so much research out there confirming that you are more likely to impulsively buy high-calorie fatty foods, like chips, candy or fast food, when you shop hungry.
And this impulse buying is exactly what we are trying to cut down.
So the next time you go grocery shopping, have a snack beforehand. You’ll avoid all those unhealthy temptations and learn how to save money on groceries at the same time!
7. Don’t Waste Food. Plan For Leftovers Instead
This is the golden rule that has really helped slash my grocery budget. Saving money on groceries means not wasting food!
If you see any fruit or vegetables start to go bad, put them in a freezer bag and store in your freezer until you can use it.
This is perfect if you have bananas or berries – you can even use the frozen fruit for smoothies.
When making your meals, plan for portion sizes that allow you to have leftovers. This is such a nifty hack to stretch your grocery budget and save money on groceries.
You can easily eat the leftovers for lunch the next day or pack them into the freezer – you can heat it up on days you don’t feel like cooking.
Win-win!
To plan for leftovers and learn how to save money on groceries, you need to be effective at meal prepping and buying enough quantities of groceries to allow you to make multiple portion sizes.
>> Check out the $5 Meal Plan and Rakuten for bulk shopping if you haven’t already done so!
Avoid packaged snacks. Homemade snacks are cheaper and healthier!
8. Avoid Packaged Snacks
This one is hard. The convenience of prepackaged snacks, protein bars and nut mixes is SO TEMPTING.
Especially when you have kids.
But I always end up feeling like this is such a waste of money. Especially when you can buy a bulk bag of trail mix and just divide it into individual serving sizes yourself.
I’m weird. I like very specific combinations in my nut mixes. So it has worked out better for me to buy these in bulk and mix and match exactly how I want it.
Try this yourself and see what a difference it makes in your grocery budget – you save on groceries and still eat healthy!
Save Money On Groceries: Conclusion
There are plenty of ways to save money on groceries! All you have to do is pick the ones that work best for you. I hope this post has inspired you to save money on groceries the next time you shop!
Once you start to save money on groceries, you’ll find there are other areas of your life you can apply these budgeting principles to.
Check out these budgeting articles for more information:
- 30 Day No Spend Challenge: Start Saving Money Today!
- Budgeting Tips For Beginners: The Complete How-To Guide
Also, don’t forget about my FREE meal planner and Shopping List printable. These have been essential in helping me stay within my grocery budget each week.
Complete the form below and grab your FREE copy instantly.
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Great list! Shopping when hungry is the worst thing you can do!!! Everything looks sooooo good 🙂
These shopping hacks are very helpful! I learned to buy the store brands (they are cheap and have the same quality!) and now prefers shopping online.
interesting tips. i love packaged trail mix or animal crackers. we will buy a costco sized box and have it in the living room when we watch tv at night.
Great tips! We love grocery shopping online, makes it so easy to plan our meals for the week. I so wish we could buy in bulk but being in a small apartment it’s not an option, but will definitely be using the other ideas you’ve mentioned.
This article came just on time! I was just complaining about our grocery bill yesterday. Can’t wait to apply these tips.
Great tips. I do meal planing and online shopping. Saves me time, money and keeps me sane honestly.
I Love this! I always try to meal plan so that i don’t end up waiting any food, Never thought about eating before I shop inpacting how i feel about my shopping… Ill try this, then maybe i wont by chocolate haha
Love the idea of freezer meals .. will try that for sure
Shopping online has helped me save money. Not being able to walk the aisles and add extra stuff means more money in my pocket.
Great! These tips are amazing. I think I might start freezing meals and start online shopping.
Awesome money saving tips! Usig left overs is not only money saving but also lessens our waste
Great tips! I always plan my meals and bring a list with me to the grocery store so that I’m not buying spontaneous items.
Oh I will definitely keep these tips in mind. It’s best to save up money on groceries. Thanks for sharing!
I love buying groceries online. Not only does it save time. It keeps me from making impulse buys which saves money too!
Love all the tips you shared in this article. Eating before you go shopping is one of the best advice. A few times I’ve been to shopping when I was hungry and the instinct of eating made me load the shopping cart with things which I didn’t really need. Once I understood this psychology I never go shopping again when I’m hungry and that really helped me to buy only what I need.
Great tips! I’m guilty of many of these things myself
Here you give me so many things to learn for clever shopping at groceries. Thanks for sharing! Those are great tips
I’m always looking to save money on groceries!! Thanks for the tips!
I have to agree, the hardest one to curb spending on is the pre-packaged snacks! But I’ve come across so many easy and delicious recipes for healthier snacks recently so I’ll try those instead.
im minimizing interactions with people so i go for shopping online. however, sometimes i love to do groceries by myself so that I am sure of the products I buy. I do groceries twice a month. Thank you for these tips. very helpful during these times…
Wow these are some excellent tips. I’d like to plan my meals I like to do a list but I don’t like to buy online because I am a very a specific person and sometimes when you buy online and they deliver you the groceries they are not what you expected
These are really great and very helpful. Another awesome tip that really worth it. Thank you!
These are such great tips! I will definitely incorporate the freezer meals tip. It will save me so much time
I agree that couponing does not really save money. Most of what I buy doesn’t have coupons anyway. I have also never heard of Rakutin. I am very interested in looking into it.
What great suggestions, I’ve been planning my meals for a while now and it really does help bring the cost down
We have started to decrease the amount of packaged foods we eat. It is great for our waistlines and wallets.
These are really helpful tips. Meal planning is one of my favorite ways to save money.
Wow! You have packed so many helpful tips into this one article! Pinning for future reference! But I must say …I’ll be checking out Rakuten after reading your post!! Thanks for sharing your insight.
These are really great tips! I’ve share this with a friend and now we are praticing all of them, we even made a list!
i have to believe buying groceries online is NOT a way of saving money. due to my lung disease i cannot go to the stores. so i have to buy everything online. with instacart, there are fees for everything plus a tip plus prices are higher than if you could use your rewards card.
When we would go to the store we always ate before we went. I miss those days, and I find meal planning to be challenging when the stores are out of so many things. I preorder to find out they are out half my stuff.
Packaged snacks are the worse when it comes to spending too much money.
I will keep these in mind for sure. I do love to save when I can! We do waste food though. We aren’t big on leftovers but I just try to not make as much the first time around so there isn’t much left.
Thank you for this. Our crazy life kept me from meal planning and not knowing when we were eating together, or what to cook. Thanks to Covid-19 slowing our life down, I’ve gotten better at meal planning. So many great tips!!
I really need to get better about meal planning. I’ve started slacking and we end up having weird amounts of leftovers or wasting. Thanks for the tips!
I love to shop online so that I can get all of my ingredients for a new recipe!
I love these tips. I think my favorite is not buying pre-packaged snacks. I usually buy snack bags and get snacks at Sams. I portion out the snacks so my kids don’t go overboard when they have one. It helps with the budget big time.
Great tips! Having a list/meal planning is crucial. We use a lot of leftovers and remake them into new meals. Another hint: Don’t shop when you are hungry and never, ever, take your husband!
Can’t agree more. I have been planning my meals in advance and grocery shopping online according to that. And that has really helped control the grocery bills.
I do plan our meals, especially this quarantine period when I want to cut down expenses and avoid going out often. Actually, I plan meals for around 10 days, it really helps in cutting down expenses too!
I do plan my meals, but didn’t know about the $5 meal plan. I will have to check that out. Thanks for the great tips!
Great tips! Meal planning definitely helps
Good tips! Thank you!
Planning my meals in advance has been a godsend! I wish I had more room in my freezer to make meals in advance.
These are some new ways to save on groceries that I had not known about. I am not sure that buying in bulk will work for me since I live alone, but I may consider trying a food delivery service to encourage to cook more variety of meals.
Great post, I love all of your suggestions!
In addition to saving money, meal planning also reduces stress! I used to come home and wonder what to make for dinner, but then opt for takeout or a restaurant meal because it would take too long to defrost something, my creative energy was spent by the end of the day, or because I was too tired to cook. Once I’ve planned out my dinners, I often have lunches planned by default, because I’ll make extra for leftovers to use in lunches.
Wow great tips! I specially agree with planning leftovers. Many people don’t get it right but seriously, wasting food is not ok 🙂
Love these tips! I do meal planning for our family every week, which is a great way to save money, but I’ll start doing some of these other things as well. Thank you!