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Unfortunately, prices at the grocery store have continued to increase year over year, and many of us are feeling the pressure on our monthly budget. Feeding your family well shouldn’t feel like a constant financial strain.
The good news is that a few simple shifts in how you plan and shop can make a noticeable difference. Let’s walk through some practical, foundational ways to save money at the grocery store while still putting nourishing meals on the table.
We hope implementing even one or two of these tips helps you start saving money this week!
Meal Planning
The first way to save money on groceries is to meal plan. A meal plan creates a clear list of ingredients for the meals you’ll actually cook, which means what you buy gets used. When you shop without a plan, it’s easy to grab items at random, and those are often the foods that end up going to waste. And wasted food is wasted money. It’s like setting your hard-earned money in the fridge, watching it sit there for a week, and then throwing it in the trash. With a meal plan, you shop with a purpose: buying what you need for specific meals instead of hoping things come together later.
Following your plan all the way through to the checkout counter is what actually saves you money. It’s easy to start with a plan and then veer off course in the store, but those extra, unplanned items add up quickly. When you stick to your list, you avoid overspending and make sure your plan works the way it’s supposed to.
Budgeting
If you’re a meal planner, there’s a good chance you’re also a budgeter. If you’re not budgeting yet, it will be the fastest way to move the needle on saving money. I prefer a zero-based budget system, like YNAB, where you allot your money into spending categories before you spend it. Instead of being reactive to your spending habits at the end of the month, zero-based budgeting helps you plan exactly how you will spend your money before the month begins.
Creating a grocery budget gives you parameters for your grocery store spending. This is important because it will help eliminate random purchases and those sneaky extras that add up at the end of the grocery trip. You can also plan your recipes around the budget and how much you have left to spend. Just like meal planning, it can take some time to get into the rhythm of budgeting, so if your first month doesn’t go well, don’t give up!
Use What You Have
One of the ways we consistently save money on groceries is by using what we already have at home as the foundation for the meal plan. Most households have extra food in the pantry and freezer that hangs around our kitchens as we continue to buy new food each week. But you already spent money on those ingredients, so don’t go spending more when you don’t need to!
If you need a “low spend” week, start by assessing what you already have at home and figuring out how you can use those ingredients for your meal plan this week. This requires a bit more creativity than simply planning recipes and going shopping, but you will notice a difference in your grocery bill!
Here are some tips for using up what you have:
- Dig into the freezer! There’s a good chance you have ingredients in your freezer that you haven’t thought about in a while and could use this week. Not only can you use those ingredients to save money, but those items probably need to get used anyway!
- Switch up your grain or side dish. If you normally serve potatoes with a meal, but you have a box of pasta in the cupboard, just swap it! A quick way to save money is to be flexible with substitutions and swaps.
- Don’t be afraid to have a “smorgasbord” style meal now and then to use up leftovers and ingredients on the verge of expiring.
- Use the “with ingredients” filter in Plan to Eat to find recipes that will use the items you already have.
Coordinating Recipes
If you already have a solid meal planning foundation, you can take your savings a step further by choosing recipes that work together. When your meals are coordinated, the ingredients you buy get used across multiple dishes instead of sitting partially used in the fridge.
You might group meals by cuisine or flavor profile so you use the same spices or sauces throughout the week. Or you can plan around a key ingredient, like buying chicken in bulk and using it in a few different recipes.
It can feel a bit like playing Tetris as you try to fit meals together, but that extra effort pays off in lower grocery bills and less waste.
Conclusion
There are additional money-saving strategies like using coupons and shopping sales, but these are one-off fixes. Creating better meal plans, budgeting, and reducing food waste will help you save money month after month. Improving these habits will help you naturally reduce waste and lower your grocery bill for the long haul, not just this week. So even though prices continue to rise, you have a sustainable plan for saving money.
Make a simple plan, shop with purpose, and see how much further your grocery budget can go!
