How to Grocery Shop on a Budget
One of our top expenses in our daily lives is groceries. We need food to survive, and we deserve more than just ramen and toast. Regardless of whether you’re shopping for just yourself or a family full of mouths, there’s always room to save money.
Here are the top tips for shopping on a budget and how to get the best deals possible.
Contents
Shop The Coupons First
Look at coupons, sales, and discounts ahead of time. Most shops put out circulars like this once a week, so keep an eye out for when your favorite shop is putting out theirs. If you’re not sure when theirs come out, you can ask most employees, and they’ll be able to let you know. Then, you can plan your grocery shop for a day after this, or even on the day of, if you know you can prepare quickly and do your shopping that day.
Also read: https://f95zoneusa.com/factors-that-decide-your-personal-loan-interest-rates/
Know Where Discount and Red Bag Deals Are
If you’re shopping in-store, you must know where the sales sections are. Most grocery stores like Kroger have a red-bag area where you can pick up produce close to expiring for a dollar. Outside of that, every grocery store has a section for general ‘on sale’ marked-down items. There’s usually nothing wrong with these items, they’re either close to expiration, or their packaging is damaged. These sections should be your first stop.
Plan Your Meals Ahead of Time
Don’t be afraid to set up a weekly menu for yourself. This will allow you to plan and set up what you’ll eat and when. The best course of action is to schedule more significant foods like soups and chili at the beginning of the week to make lunches out of it and lighter meals towards the end of the week. The cheapest meals to produce large amounts are pizza, soup, chili, and any bean-based meal like black bean burgers.
Consider Shopping Online For Pickup
Many of us spend money we don’t want to because we find things in store that catch our eye and get it on impulse. Treat this like you’re looking at Birmingham homes for sale, and look online first. Most grocery stores now have delivery or curbside pickup option available! Delivery is good if you’re short on time, but curb-side pick-up ensures you don’t have to pay any delivery fees or tips. This will let you follow your list strictly and make you less likely to spend your money on impulse buys.
Freeze The Best Deals
If you know that next week you’re going to want to make a lot of soup, and this week you see that a beautiful sourdough loaf is on sale: freeze it! Although you don’t have to go as far as some people go when they freeze milk or eggs: you can freeze most produce and fresh food so that it will last longer. We all find ourselves buying things and then wasting them by not using them although we found them on sale. Learn to portion things out and freeze them to last longer.
