Easy Ways Everyone Can Save Money on Food Shopping

Saving money at the grocery store is one way to cut back on controllable expenses. In the article,
Five Tips on Cutting Your Grocery Costs! the author covers five basic ways save money on food expenses.

For some, cutting dollars and cents at every corner is essential for meeting monthly budgets. Whether you are a student, a family on a tight budget, or a retired senior on a strict budget, or would like to save money at the grocery store so you can spend it on other things, read these tips for saving money at the grocery store.

Here are more ways to save money on food shopping.

1. Shop Weekly By shopping weekly, it is easier to keep certain popular food items like milk, bread, cereal and cheese. With weekly shopping it is also easier to buy items you use regularly when they are on sale. You may not have planned to purchase your family's favorite spaghetti sauce on this shopping trip, but this week it has a sale price that can't be beat. With weekly shopping, and buying items you would normally purchase while they are on sale, you will save money in the long run. If you only shop once a month you will end up missing three weeks worth of sales on items you normally buy.

2. Avoid Convenient Stores By shopping regularly, as mentioned above, you will have a stocked pantry, refrigerator and freezer, and will not need to stop at the convenience store. Why pay $1.25 or more for a bottle of water when you can buy a case for under $4 when it's on sale? The same goes for snack foods. If you need to eat on the run, and choose snack foods, buy a package of individually-wrapped snacks at the grocery store. The mark-up rate at convenient stores is practically criminal.

3. Don't Fall for Sales Traps - A common sales ploy in grocery stores is word their sale prices in such a way that it encourages shoppers to buy more items than they normally would. It used to be that when a sale offered a certain number of items at a certain price that you had to buy all of those items in order to receive the sale price.

Now it simply seems like the grocery store chains are simply using larger numbers in their sales. For example, a popular sales sign is 5 for $10. Does this sound like a great deal? Do you really need 10 frozen dinners? You may. Whether you buy one, two or ten, however, you are paying $2 each. Same thing goes for the 10 for $10 sale. Do you really need topurchase 10 containers of bread crumbs today? Probably not. If the grocery stores simply put sale price: $2 they would sell fewer items and make less money. Do buy the amount of items you need when they are on sale, avoid buying the maximum amount.

4. Never Pay more than the Lowest Sale Price - With weekly shopping you can stay on top of sales and get to know the recurring sales prices on your family's favorite items. For example, the grocery store where you shop may offer a sale on boxes of pasta, 2 for $1, which is only 50 cents a box. Plan to purchase pasta the week it's on sale. Why pay 89 cents a box or more when you know the store can and will offer it for 50 cents a box. By shopping weekly and watching the sales you will pay the lowest prices available on items you normally buy.

5. All About Packaging Before you buy and item on sale, or are purchasing an item and the brand is insignificant to you, check the unit price of the item. Sometimes the unit price of a different brand or size of the same item is significant enough to save you money. For example, a sleeve of Pringles can be purchased for as low as $1. A package of six individual snack-sized container goes for $2.50 at its lowest sale price.

6. Shop Around If time and your transportation situation allows, shop around at different grocery stores. By shopping at different grocery stores, you will discover which stores have the best prices on the items you buy most often.

By shopping regularly, buying items when they are on sale and taking a few moments to really read prices you can save money on your next trip to the grocery store.