The Canberra Times

6 tips to save money on your grocery shopping

6 tips to save money on your grocery shopping
6 tips to save money on your grocery shopping

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Grocery shopping is said to be one of the necessities you need to spend money on and will always take up a share of your monthly expenses.

Your groceries include purchases of almost everything your household needs. This may include your family's food supply, laundry detergent, pet food, and other consumables.

As such, you may want to look for possible ways to help reduce your total spending on every trip to the shop.

Since you can't avoid it as it's essential for day-to-day living, listed below are the tips on how you can cut down on grocery shopping expenses that may help a lot with your savings:

Search for deals online

When shopping for your favourite items and products, you may see exclusive discounts available online.

While you may think they're only available for clothing, electronics, and furniture, you'd be surprised to know that there are deals available for groceries as well.

Fortunately, there are sites on the Internet that allow you to score great deals for your grocery shopping, so you can save money on your basic necessities.

You can search for your nearby groceries online, like the IGA catalogue and other similar lists to see the deals that are available.

However, you need to take note of the promo's terms and conditions to know if you're qualified to use them.

Don't shop while you're hungry

As you leave the house for grocery shopping, it's advisable to have a full stomach to ensure you won't be needing a snack before or after your shopping, adding to your expenses.

Apart from having a quick snack break, shopping hungry is also said to make you purchase more amounts of food than you actually need.

When you surround yourself with plenty of food choices, you tend to get hungrier which makes you grab food items you might not want - essentially ruining your grocery budget.

To avoid any impulse purchases, you should never shop while you're hungry.

Create a list and stick to it

Before heading to the grocery store, you should create your grocery list first and religiously follow it as much as possible.

To ensure that you list everything you need and haven't left out anything, you may want to craft a list readily available on the fridge door.

Then, you can tally every item you may need to be replenished in your home once they ran out.

It'll be challenging to remember everything you're supposed to purchase when going through your grocery list, so it's better to write them down immediately.

As you bring your list to the grocery store, you need to stick to it as much as possible.

Aim to leave the supermarket buying just the things written down on your list.

While it might be tempting to purchase a yummy-looking chocolate bar by the check-out counter, you have to be firm about the things you add to your check-out total.

6 tips to save money on your grocery shopping
6 tips to save money on your grocery shopping

Build a meal plan

When you do your grocery errands, most of the things you'll purchase will be the food items you're going to cook with for the next week or longer.

While it might be fun to plan what you'll cook once you see the ingredients, it may end up costing you more money.

To save money while grocery shopping, you should have a meal plan ready beforehand.

Ideally, your dishes should have similar ingredients that you can use. In this way, you can evenly divide the produce, allowing yourself to save money.

You could share the tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, chicken, or any other meat. Thus, you don't have to purchase numerous ingredients and instead just purchase things in bulk offers and discounts.

Make calculations in-store

If every time you're at the check-out counter and you can feel your heart racing because you're unsure of the total price you're going to pay, chances are you probably shopped too much.

To avoid racking up a larger total than you've expected, always bring a handy calculator with you while you shop.

Each time you add something inside your cart, you should add the price. It's vital that you don't miss any items to help you keep an accurate track of your running bill.

In this way, you'll have a straight expectation about the total check-out bill once you're at the counter.

Always look for cheaper alternatives

While it may be difficult not to purchase your most trusted brand, you should always keep an open mind to try out different cheaper generic brand options that provide comparable make and quality.

Every time you shop, always try to look for alternatives at a lower prices or have bulk discounts.

For the safest option, you can look for other alternatives of sugar, salt, noodles, herbs, and spices as they usually are very similar to more expensive name brands.

As you try out different brands, you might discover something better for a much more affordable price.

Conclusion

Saving money is highly important so that you can put money in your savings account and be prepared for possible emergencies and other unexpected expenses.

Saving on daily necessities would be highly helpful to reach your goal.

As you shop for groceries, always try to keep your receipt total as low as you possibly can. You'll be surprised with how little you can save while still fulfilling your and your family's needs.