Cut Costs On Your Grocery Budget - 5 Hacks To Get You Started

“He was a bold man that first ate an oyster.”
Jonathan Swift

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Stop Eating Your Money

I say that to myself more often than I care to explain. As my wife can attest, I am very guilty of impulse spending when it comes to food.

I’d be ashamed to tell you how much money I spend each month on coffee before I found Panera’s coffee subscription service. (Yes, that’s a thing!)

But, by understanding our goals and purpose, my family has been able to find ways to cut costs significantly in our food budget. I’d like to share some of the things we’ve learned to make this possible with you here.

Cut Costs Hack #1: Plan Ahead

One of the easiest ways to overspend on groceries is to walk into the store with no plan. (Especially when you’re hungry!)

Buying groceries really shouldn’t be shopping. You aren’t going into the store to browse. You already know what’s there. This is a get in and get out situation. It’s even better if you can avoid the “get in” part, as we’ll see below.

To do this effectively, you need a plan.

My wife and I sit down once a week to plan out what we will have for dinner every night the coming week. We also decide on our own what we’ll have for breakfast and lunch each day, since we typically take our lunches to work.

By doing this, there is never any guesswork. We know the menu, we buy the menu. Period.

Cut Costs Hack #2: Order Ahead

And when I say we buy the menu, I mean right then and there. We do the vast majority of our grocery purchases from home, online.

There are several options for this:

All of the services listed above will bring your food to your house if you choose. This will cost you, yes. But, the savings you’ll have by ordering only what you planned to buy and avoiding the impulse buys associated with in-store shopping easily cover the fee and more.

Our personal preference is to use Walmart grocery and use the pick up at store option. It’s as easy as placing the order, picking your time, and pulling into a parking spot. They bring the food out and load it for you. And this service (at the time of writing) is completely free!

Since doing this, we have seen HUGE savings in our grocery budget.

Cut Costs Hack #3: Buy Generic

Look, it’s just food. For the most part, a chip is a chip and soda is soda. Don’t be too picky.

I’m not saying you can’t buy any name brand food. I mentioned I’m a coffee addict earlier, and I’m a little picky when it comes to my k-cups. My wife is the same about deli meat. It’s okay to have some favorites.

But, by and large, just go generic. It may only look like $2 here and $3 there, but that adds up so fast! You can save hundreds to thousands a year (depending on your budget) just by going with generic brands at the grocery store.

Cut Costs Hack #4: Keep It Simple

One of our more recent discoveries is that dinners don’t need to be complex to be good. If you start searching for recipes online, you’ll probably be treated to some awesome dishes that require an equally awesome number of ingredients. And once you buy all those spices and use the teaspoon the recipe calls for, you have a $2.50 paperweight in your cabinet.

Just keep it simple.

My wife asked for a box of family recipes for Christmas, and I’ve loved enjoying the results both as a consumer of food and a budgeter of groceries. Why? Because not only are the recipes delicious, they don’t require us to run out and buy a bunch of specialty ingredients we’ll never touch again. Most of the time they call for things more houses have on hand, or that are relatively inexpensive.

If you love to cook new, exciting, and complex dishes – Great! Do it. Occasionally. But if you will keep it simple most of the time, you can still have great tasting, home made dinners and cut costs from your grocery budget with no issues.

Cut Costs Hack #5: Eat What You Buy

Lastly, as obvious as it may seem, I feel it still must be said.

If you buy it, eat it.

Think of it like this: If you buy something to eat, decide to drive through McDonalds instead, let it go bad, and throw it away, then you may as well have just thrown the money straight in the trash to begin with. Plus, you probably paid more for whatever you got at McDonalds AND it probably wasn’t even as good.

Make your plan, buy your food, and eat your food. Including the leftovers.

We have saved so much money just because we’ll make a relatively inexpensive dinner only to find we have enough leftover to eat it again the next day!

Don’t throw away money! It’s kind of like the old rule of thumb they told us in the school cafeteria: take what you want, but eat what you take.

Wrapping Up

Plan Ahead
Order Ahead
Buy Generic
Keep It Simple
Eat What You Buy

Give these 5 grocery hacks a try and you’ll cut costs in your food budget in no time!

Find My $20 A Week Breakfast/Lunch Plan Here

And as always, regardless of your money goals, you can “Bank on a Budget” to get you from where you are to where you want to be!

Stop eating your money.

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Alex

Hello, my name is Alex! I'm a public school teacher who has achieved some big financial goals just by getting control of my money using some simple strategies like using a monthly budget. Now I'd like to share what I've learned with you. Welcome to "Bank on a Budget!"