Let’s face it, we all need to eat, and monthly food expenses are probably a large part of your budget. Depending on the size of your family, you could reach a mortgage payment amount if you’re not careful.
Would you like to learn how to save money on your food expenses? We’re going to show you how you can save hundreds of dollars a month on your grocery costs.
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How to Save Money on Food
Through years of practice, I’ve managed to cut my family’s grocery bill from $1,000 a month down to less than $600 per month. And I’ve got four teenagers.
Besides that, we eat a large amount of organic food–something we didn’t do when the grocery bill was much higher. That means we’re eating better, healthier foods for less money.
How do we do it? By combining a few budget tricks in a way that ensures we can still have our favorite foods. Here are some of our tips.
1. Cut Back on Going Out to Eat
Sure, it’s easier said than done. However, if you just stick to going out to eat on special occasions you will feel the savings add up almost overnight.
It’s not uncommon to spend $100 or more when you go out to eat–especially if you have kids. That amount of money could cover a week or more in grocery costs.
If you do go decide to go out, use the following tips to minimize the bill.
- Skip ordering appetizers
- Order water instead of soda
- Get the meal specials
- Split a meal
- Save half the meal and use it for tomorrow’s lunch
- Sign up for your favorite restaurant’s rewards program and use the coupons
- Go out to lunch instead of dinner–it’s usually cheaper
- Forego dessert
Following these tips will help you keep on budget as far as your food expenses are concerned, even if you do go out once in a while.
Still can’t stomach the thought of missing out on your favorite restaurant meals? Try making some of these restaurant copycat meals.
You can have your favorite restaurant meals in the comfort of your own home at a fraction of the price of what you’d pay eating out.
2. Make a Menu Plan
Part of the reason food costs can get so out of hand is because people don’t use a menu plan. Without a regular menu plan, you’re more likely to go out to eat, to pick up takeout food or buy a ready-to-eat meal at the grocery store.
By making a weekly menu plan, you can shop around that plan and make sure you’ve always got meal options right at home.
Hint: Throw a few high-quality frozen pizzas in the freezer for the days when you’re just not up for cooking.
When you make your menu plan, choose seven dinner meals you and your family like to eat. Then, create a shopping list that includes items you need to buy for those meals.
Don’t forget to add breakfast and lunch foods to your grocery list, as well as some snack foods too.
3. Shop Around the Sales
One way we save a lot of money on food expenses is to plan our weekly menu around what’s on sale that week. In other words, if chicken is on sale, a lot of our week’s dinners will be chicken-based.
We make snack and other purchases based on the sales too. If apples are on sale, we’ll have apples as one of our main snacks, etc.
If a certain brand of chips or crackers are on sale, we’ll buy those. The goal is to buy everything you can at a reduced price, thereby cutting your food expenses.
4. Get to Know Prices
Grocery prices can vary drastically from store to store. And what some stores advertise as “deals” aren’t really deals at all.
If you know the price of items you buy regularly, you can better determine which grocery stores have the best deals.
Personally, we do the majority of our food shopping at Aldi, Walmart, Costco and Sam’s Club. Costco has amazingly low prices on organic foods. Sam’s Club has great deals in their monthly savings books, and, bonus, ridiculously low gas prices.
Aldi does too, along with super low prices on just about everything else. Walmart is our catch-all store for items we can’t find great deals on at Aldi or Costco, as Walmart has low grocery prices too.
When you know the prices of the food you buy, you can instantly recognize a good deal–or a rip-off.
5. Minimize Processed Food Purchases
Processed food and ready-to-eat foods almost always cost more than homemade options. And homemade options are typically healthier too.
In our family, we almost always make baked goods and dinner meals from scratch. Everything from cookies to lasagna to pizza is made right in our own kitchen.
It saves us a lot of cash and helps us to avoid chemical preservatives and flavor enhancers that exist in a lot of processed foods.
6. Entertain at Home Before the Bar
If you find yourself heading out with friends to the bar on a regular basis, you probably know that a night at the local pub can get expensive.
Bar tabs can be easy $100 a night per person if you’re out all night, so why not try to at least cut that in half and spend a couple of hours hosting your friends at your home?
You can have a few drinks, munch on some appetizers and then head out to the bar. Have your friends bring an appetizer to share and their favorite alcohol, and you can supply soda for mixers.
You’ll save money on bar costs, and you might even find you prefer hanging out at home with your friends.
*Don’t forget your designated sober driver, or else call an Uber for transportation.
7. Take Inventory Before Grocery Shopping
Grocery shopping can be very overwhelming if you don’t have a plan of attack. And if you’re not checking your current inventory before you go, you might end up buying stuff you don’t need.
Make a list of every item you need But check your pantry before you go. You might end up being able to cross some of that stuff off your list.
Bonus: You’ll avoid food waste that comes with food that gets expired because you bought too much of it.
8. Eat Before You Shop
If you’ve ever gone to Costco when you’re hungry and they’re passing out free samples, you’ll probably find that you hit just about every one of them. Everything sounds good when you’re hungry.
And tantalizing your taste buds on an empty stomach means you’ll likely end up putting more of those sample items in your cart.
Pretty soon you’ve added an extra $50 or $100 worth of food to your cart because all you can think about is how hungry you are. And how good everything looks.
Avoid this problem by having a satisfying and nutrient-rich meal before you go to the store. That way you won’t blow your budget–or your diet.
9. Stay Away from the Weekend Crowds
I don’t have to tell you that the weekends, let alone any day after work, will be slammed at the grocery store. It’s tough to find a parking spot, the aisles are packed, and it seems like the line at the cash register is endless.
If you can, try scheduling your grocery trips after you’ve gone home from work, changed, and ate dinner. Another option is to go early on a weekend or weekday morning.
Saving time by shopping when the stores aren’t busy is saving money. You’ll be less distracted, find what you need and get out quickly.
10. Don’t Miss Out of the Perks of the Rewards Card
If you’re going to the same grocery store over and over, why not take part in their shopper’s rewards program if they have one?
Credit cards like the Sam’s Club Mastercard offer cash back on all grocery purchases–even if you don’t buy groceries at Sam’s Club or Walmart.
And many other cards offer cash back on all grocery purchases as a part of their bonus program. Then you can use your rewards to pay for groceries.
Last year we earned over $300 in rewards at Sam’s Club alone. We made enough to cover the $100 membership fee and had another $200+ left over.
Other grocery store rewards programs will give you money off of fuel and other purchases. Check out the stores you shop most at–and check out your favorite credit card companies–for the best rewards card programs.
Summary
There are many ways you can save on food expenses and cut your food budget dramatically. So much of the food we buy is overpriced.
Whether it’s paying for the convenience of restaurant foods or ready-to-eat meals, paying full price if you don’t have to or simply spending too much on meals, these types of meal mistakes can be costly.
Try following the tips above and see how much you can cut your food budget by. I’d be willing to bet the money savings could be surprising.