Grocery Budget Cutting Tips

Every day in every way, most all of us strive to save money, to find places in our budgets where we can cut our costs. One of the first places where we can often trim spending in the family budget is the grocery bill. Having spent the last two years analyzing our family budget and learning how best to keep the grocery costs down, resulting in at least a $350 per month reduction in our grocery spending, I really think I have some good tips to share with you.

The rising costs of feeding our families takes it's toll on the family budget. While groceries are clearly a necessity, there are many ways to cut grocery spending. Here are a few tips to help save money on the grocery bill.

1. Set a budget. Sit down, analyze the family finances and decide what you can afford to spend in the grocery category and stick to the budget you set.

2. Make a grocery list before going to the store. Take the time to loosely plan a menu so you have a realistic idea of what grocery items are needed for the household, being sure to include snacks and non-food items as well. Leave a little room for flexibility in the event of meat markdowns or surprise sales, but otherwise hold to your grocery list when shopping.

3. Use cash. When heading out to the grocery store, take only the cash allotted in your budget for the grocery spending. This will discourage you from impulse buying or at least cause you to consciously replace items on your list in favor of other items instead of just adding to the bill.

4. Take time to experiment with store brands/generic brands of some of the grocery items on your regular grocery list. While we all have favorite name brands we're attached to, buying name brand grocery items solely for the name is a spending pitfall. Make sure that if you're buying popular brand names, that you truly feel the taste or performance of the product is superior enough to warrant the higher price tag.

5. Utilize grocery store loss leaders. These are the items that are advertised in the newspapers and television ads on sale each week. Stocking up on the loss leaders when there is truly a good sale impacts your grocery bill savings significantly in the long run. The key is to avoid impulse buying when stopping in at a particular grocery store when you are there just to take advantage of the week's loss leaders.

6. Use coupons. However, do not fall into the trap of buying grocery items you do not normally purchase or need to purchase just because you have a coupon--unless it's practically free!

7. Do not buy foods in convenience packages. Food items for school or work lunches can be purchased and repackaged at home into single sized servings. For example, instead of small plastic individual fruit cups, buy cans of fruit at a much cheaper price and repackage at home into inexpensive, reusable plastic containers. Another example would be instead of single serve cookie packages, buy a jumbo package at a cheaper cost per unit and send a few in a plastic bag or container.

8. Cook more from scratch. While probably the most 'inconvenient' and overlooked of grocery budget tips, this one is most likely the one that will ultimately save the most money on your grocery bill. Do not be overwhelmed, start small by selecting one or two food items that your family likes and eats a lot of to learn to cook from scratch. Learn to make easy versions that give you more food in relation to the cost of ingredients versus the cost of pre-packaged foods.

All of these tips are tried and true from my household to yours. While every one of them is truly common sense, sometimes we get swept up in the busyness of everyday life and do not realize the savings to be had by simply slowing down and taking a closer look at where our grocery money is going. A closer look at what our grocery budget is actually accomplishing for our family finances can result in s