Saving Money on Groceries Frugal Grocery Shopping

Saving money on groceries is easy with these practical money saving tips. Have you taken the time to figure out how much you spend a month on groceries? It's enough to make you want to stop eating... well almost. But there are ways to chop away at your grocery spending without starving yourself or your family. Here is a great list to get you started:

• Check the newspaper ads and plan your meal around the loss leaders. Those are the items the grocery store puts at a good sale price to get you to come in. They're willing to take a hit on those items to get you to the store because they know you'll end up buying other products.

• Plan your meals out for the week. This tip is huge and be one of your best ways of saving money on groceries. If you plan your meals, your trip to the grocery store has a purpose. Your plan should also include how to repurpose your leftovers so there's no wasted food. Leftover meat and veggies? Add a liquid and you've got soup, or add a sauce and serve over pasta.

• Come in with a list and go directly to where those items are located. If you walk up and down every isle, you're going to throw more things in your cart.

• You might have heard "Never go shopping when you're hungry" and it's true. If you're hungry and looking for food for dinner, you'll actually pick out more things for dinner than you can actually eat, and it's a good possibility that they're not low-priced sensible products.

Do you see how saving money on groceries can be easy with just a little mindset change? This is just the tip of the iceberg when you make a personal budget and live below your means. Have some ideas begun to float around your head of how you may adapt these tips for you? Here are a few more frugal spending ideas of how to save on groceries:

• Buy in bulk. Bulk food is usually cheaper, but not always. Compare the price per ounce or pound and decide which is the better deal. If you feel you can't use up all the bulk product before it spoils or you have storage issues, then split it with a friend or neighbor.

• Buy fresh, not canned, and prepare meals from scratch. Pre-prepared foods are more expensive than buying fresh ingredients and cooking a meal. Plus canned food has extra ingredients on the labels, including excessive sodium that may not be good for your body. This is not an all or nothing proposition. Increase the number of scratch meals as you can.

• Compare prices between stores. Chances are you have more than one grocery store near you, and that's great because you can compare prices. If you're real serious about your budget and wanting to lower what you pay for food then take a small notebook into both stores and write down the prices of the food you'd buy over a month's span. At the very least, check the prices of the items you buy regularly and compare.

• Coupons can be your best friends for saving money on groceries if you go about using them the right way. Do not cut out a coupon for something you wouldn’t be buying if you didn't have the coupon. Some people end up spending more money when using coupons because they're actually buying more stuff.

• Use your freezer. If you bought hamburger in bulk and jarred spaghetti sauce on sale, you can make up a big batch of spaghetti sauce and freeze it in separate meal-size portions. That way nothing gets wasted, and you've probably saved yourself from a fast food trip on nights when you don't have time to cook.

Again, these are just a few great ideas for saving money on groceries. Practical money saving tips you can take to the bank and help your frugal grocery shopping experience. Follow them and you'll save money, and probably eat healthier too.

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