I started writing some about my grocery shopping process back in my practical meal planning blogpost. I ended up writing way too much to include there, so I decided to dedicate a whole blogpost to this topic. Apparently, I have a lot to say! (No surprise there.) Today, I’m sharing my money-saving grocery shopping “rules”:
- Make a list of what you need (and stick to it)!
- Grocery shop (only!) once per week.
- Buy the food you need for (only!) one week.
- Only stock up on pantry staples when they’re on sale.
- Think about how much your ingredients cost.
- Sometimes, your time is more important than your money.
Now that you have the basics, keep reading to hear a little more about each rule and why it helps us save money grocery shopping!
Pro Tip: Make a weekly grocery budget. We find that when we don’t think about our grocery budget as a weekly thing, we overspend. It’s easy to go over budget one week and think that we’ll make it up the next week, but we almost never do!
Our Grocery Shopping Rules
Make a list of what you need (and stick to it)!
First, plan your meals for the week. If you haven’t read my meal planning blog post, I’d suggest you read it first, then hop back over here!
Start your grocery shopping list by writing down any ingredients you need for meals you’ve selected for the week. Next, take a “pantry inventory” – check and see if you need to restock any of your pantry staples. For us, this includes things like pasta, rice, oats, coffee, black beans, olive oil, and baking supplies like flour and sugar. If you’re packing lunches for kids or work, make sure you write down anything you’ll need for those as well!
Pro Tip: Especially for meats, fruits, and vegetables, shop sales! Freeze any meat you don’t use for later. (Remember to write it down on your “freezer food” list and stick it to the fridge so you don’t forget about it!) I also try to freeze extra bananas, berries, and spinach before they go bad to use in smoothies.
Once your list is made, do your best to only buy things that are on your list. If you think of something you’d like to buy while you’re at the store, put it on your list for the next week unless it’s absolutely necessary! When we have our whole list written out, we can often judge about how much we’ll be spending. If it seems like we’ll go over budget, we know to eliminate some less necessary items or swap out a more expensive meal for a cheaper one.
Grocery shop (only!) once per week.
One easy way to save money on groceries is to only grocery shop once per week. All those extra trips to the store can really add up! Before running to the grocery store for a second (or third, or fourth) time, ask yourself if you can make it to the end of the week. If you don’t need something immediately, put it on your list and wait to buy it!
When you’re at the store with no list and no budget, it’s easy to overspend! I always find myself grabbing things that are on my “mental list”, and walking out with more things than I planned. So I try to avoid those extra trips to the grocery store at all costs!
Buy the food you need for (only!) one week.
A big way that we save money on groceries is that we try to only shop for what we will need FOR ONE WEEK. We don’t have a huge pantry (actually, what we have right now is a bookshelf inside what will one day be a pantry #alwaysrenovating), and we don’t like keeping lots of food around.
Remember: buying extra food just to have extra food around doesn’t save you any money! If you always have 5 cans of tomato soup in your pantry and every time you use one, you buy another, the only thing you’re doing is wasting pantry space.
The only way to save money by buying extra food is if (1) you buy extra food only when it’s on sale, (2) you actually USE the food, and (3) you don’t just “fill up” any resulting space in your grocery budget. For example, if you have $100 to spend on groceries, and you spent $120 on groceries last week because you wanted to “stock up”, you need to spend only $80 this week just to break even. Oftentimes, there isn’t any difference between buying a can of soup this week or next week, so save your money and just buy food when you need it!
Only stock up on pantry staples when they’re on sale.
Like I mentioned above, it’s difficult to save money by stocking up UNLESS you’re stocking up on your pantry staples when they’re on sale. Pantry staples will be different things for different families. To find yours, think of the things you use often (at least once per week) and that can be stored for a long time (either in the fridge, freezer, or pantry). If we notice that one of our staples is on sale, we may pick up a few extra.
Pro Tip: Save money on pantry staples and buy generic! While it’s sometimes worth it to spend a little more for higher quality, the generic version of many foods is just as good and a lot cheaper. You’d be surprised at how much you can save in a year just by buying the store brand of things like pasta and flour!
Think about how much your ingredients cost.
This is one of the most underrated ways to save money grocery shopping! When planning your meals, think about what ingredients you’d need to buy. We typically balance more “ingredient-heavy” meals with cheaper ones (like spaghetti & meatballs or chicken & rice). When we do pick an ingredient heavy meal, we try to choose another one for the week that uses some of the same ingredients.
We also try to only buy a maximum of two different kinds of meat per week. (Since we eat mostly chicken, this works well for us.) Most weeks, we buy chicken and either ground beef, sausage, or bacon.
Here’s an example of considering the “ingredient-heaviness” of two different meals. Imagine you were planning on making some Italian stuffed chicken breasts (like these) – you’d need fresh mozzarella, fresh basil leaves, and sun-dried tomatoes (or roasted red peppers). If you don’t have all 3 of these things on hand, you may find yourself spending $10 on ingredients for this one meal!
Here are a few ways that you could adjust the meal, using cheaper ingredients or things you may already have on hand:
- If you have ricotta, spinach, and pasta sauce in your fridge, you could make a lasagna-stuffed chicken breast.
- You could make a simple balsamic marinade (we like the one from this recipe) and serve grilled chicken over rice or pasta.
- You could make a greek-inspired stuffed chicken using spinach and feta.
Pro Tip: When making a more expensive main course, stretch the meal with sides. Instead of cooking a large steak for each person, try smaller portions of meat, and fill up potatoes!
Sometimes, your time is more important than your money.
I want to make sure to say that sometimes, your time is more important than your money. We bought a bunch of extra food to have on hand before our son was born, and it saved us from having to run to the grocery store for the first few weeks of his life. If saving money isn’t your priority right now, that’s ok!
Pro Tip: If you find that you’re needing extra time (and ok with spending a little more money to do so), look into grocery delivery and/or pickup. It’s a HUGE time saver, and your time is valuable! You may even find that you’re saving money, since it’s a lot easier to stick to your list when you don’t go into the store! We’ve used Instacart a few times. I periodically get coupons from them for $15 off my order or free delivery, so it may not cost as much as you think!
Here’s a quick recap of my grocery shopping rules:
- Make a list of what you need (and stick to it)!
- Grocery shop (only!) once per week.
- Buy the food you need for (only!) one week.
- Only stock up on pantry staples when they’re on sale.
- Think about how much your ingredients cost.
- Sometimes, your time is more important than your money.
I hope these money-saving tips were helpful for you, and that you’ll be able to implement some of them the next time you’re grocery shopping! Let me know if there are any other ways that you save money at the grocery store!
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