Best Shopping Tips to Save You Money At The Grocery Store

Frugal shopping does not require hours and hours of time investment every week or month. Frugal shopping is about getting an item for the best possible price each time you purchase it. There are multiple strategies you can utilize every month to accomplish this. When combined they can net you a nice savings amount. These strategies are:

1. Use a pantry and your freezer. Shop to stock them up.

2. Use coupons to save big on stock-up items.

2. Shop for food items only at the grocery store.

3. Shop based on the local season. Buy in-season for your area.

4. Do not limit yourself to one grocery store at all times.

5. Shop for paper products, personal care products and cleaning supplies at other stores. They are cheaper at other stores.

6. Use a price book to track the best prices on the items you purchase.

7. Save the ads from your local stores until you can see t he predictability in their sale cycles.

8. Do not purchase convenience items. Cook from scratch and buy those items.

9. Buy in bulk only when it makes financial sense to do so.

Let's look at each suggested strategy separately.

Use a pantry and your freezer. Shop to stock them up.

When I shop I am not doing so to purchase food items for a specific meal. There are exceptions to this rule, such as holiday meals where special ingredients will be required. Generally, however, when I shop it is to purchase items to simply restock our pantry or freezer.

We eat a variety of foods in our home but have discovered that in any given month's time we generally consume a predictable amount of any specific food item. We rotate our favorite meals and experiment with new ones, but generally with the same main ingredients.

For example, I know that for our family we will consume approximately 6 cans or jars of spaghetti sauce in a month. This equates to about 72 cans in a year. My local grocery store puts the sauce on sale about once every three months for $0.89 a can. So, every three months I can purchase 15-25 cans and insure that I always purchase the sauce at the lowest price. I don't run out of it and end up purchasing it for the non-sale price of $1.49.

We have access to a "salvage" type grocery store in a town about an hour's drive from our home. We try to shop there every few months when we are in that area for another reason. If I find the spaghetti sauce there for say $0.79 a can I will purchase enough for 6 months to a year at one time.

We do this for any and most every item we purchase. Doing it for one or two things does not save much money. However, doing it for every item you purchase over time rewards you will much lower grocery bills!

Use coupons to save big on stock-up items.

In addition to shopping to restock the pantry and freezer, I also purchase coupons through a website called The Coupon Clippers. There I can order coupons for just those things I want to stock up on and at a fraction of the savings on the coupon.

Take that spaghetti sauce I used as an example above. I can purchase 20 coupons for $0.50 off each can for about $0.08-0.10 each. By doing this I can save an additional $0.40 a can and get my sauce for $0.39 a can. When you look at it against the non-sale price of $1.49 each I have made a great buy. Even with the small cost for the coupons, I have saved a lot of money.

Shop for food items only at the grocery store.

Grocery stores know that you have to enter them to buy food. They also know that you are busy and would prefer to only shop for all of your needed items in one place. They offer you the convenience of purchasing all of your items there, but at a higher price. As a general rule, items such as cleaning products and paper products are available at other stores for a better price. The grocery store is hedging its bets that you will just buy it there rather than get back into the car and go somewhere else. Don't fall for it!

Do not limit yourself to one grocery store at all times.

Not all grocery stores are created equal. Some offer better sales with lower prices daily. These tend to be the more "warehouse" looking stores. Some offer a cleaner and more modern store for a higher price on their items. These stores now often have banking, coffee shops, etc... within them for your "convenience."

I choose to shop at a variety of stores depending on who has the best bargains, what I have coupons for, what I need to purchase that month, and where I need to go in my car anyway and what is around that area. (Might as well save on gas in addition to shopping frugally.)

Use a price book to track the best prices on the items you purchase.

If you write down the items you purchase and what their prices are at different stores you soon will find that certain things cost less at one store or another. You can use this to your advantage and purchase things at the store with the best price. You can also know when a sale is really a bargain and when you should stock up a lot and/or consider purchasing coupons to combine with that sale.

Save the ads from your local stores until you can see the predictability in their sale cycles.

Grocery stores have cycles where things go on sale at different times of the month or year. If you save your sales ads for a few months you can start to see that certain things always go on sale at a specific time. You will also find trends in the types of things that go on sale at the end of the month and at certain holidays.

In my area many people get food stamps and Social Security payments on the third of the month. I've found that the local sales are horrible this week. The longer you go into the month the better the sales tend to be. I try to do all of my shopping more towards the end of the month when at all possible.

During holiday seasons you will find the prices on certain baking items, meat and other seasonal items will drop below their normal costs. Christmas is the time to stock up on baking goods and cranberry sauce for the year.

Do not purchase convenience items. Cook from scratch and buy those items.

Your grocery bills will be a lot smaller if you stay away from convenience items and cook from scratch. Buying flour and making pizza dough is much cheaper than buying already made dough or frozen pizzas. If you try to avoid most things in a can or box your bills will be lower. Over the time of a year your grocery bills will be a lot lower and save you a lot of money.

Buy in bulk only when it makes financial sense to do so.

Studies have been done showing that if you purchase something in a larger container you are more likely to use more of it at a time. I see this at home with my kids and the laundry detergent. When the bottle is heavy they dump in a ton of it. When the bottle is almost empty they choose to use less. Don't fall into this trap. If you buy something in bulk make sure you still use the normal amount of it and that it lasts you longer.

There are certain things that make sense to buy in bulk. For our family I try to stick to things like sponges and cleaning products that do not go bad over time. Why buy something in bulk if it is going to go bad before you can use it?

I hope that my suggestions will help you to start utilizing your pantry and freezer and save your grocery dollars. This is one area where we can always save more with just a little bit of effort.