How To Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half

1. Learn the rock-bottom price of the groceries items you use

IMPORTANT POINT: Just because something is advertised in the grocery store circular as being “on-sale” doesn’t mean it is a good deal!!

There is no way to know if you are getting a good deal on an item if you don’t know what it normally costs. My suggestion is to start by making a running list of the cost of each grocery item you routinely purchase (most of the prices are available through the grocery store websites, so you can do this from your couch!). I did this in Excel, so it was easy to update! Monitor the price of each item each week over 4-6 weeks.

As you watch the prices over a few weeks, you will discover:

1. When a sale is truly a good deal! If you know its average price from your list, you will be able to determine if it is worth it to buy!
2. There are cyclical sales! Some products go on sale EVERY few weeks or once a month – so you should WAIT until they go on sale to buy those items and stock up when the price is rock-bottom.

2. Eat and cook with seasonal fruits and vegetables

Important Point: To keep your costs down at the grocery store, make sure you are only buying seasonal produce.

Examples of seasonal produce are below:

Winter: Grapefruit, Oranges, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Winter Squash, Sweet Potatoes

Spring: Asparagus, Broccoli, Green Beans, Mushrooms, Peas, Radishes, Spinach, Strawberries, Swiss Chard

Summer: Bell Peppers, Cantaloupe, Cherries, Corn, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Honeydew Melon, Okra, Peaches, Plums, Tomatoes, Watermelon

Fall: Apples, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Grapes, Kale, Mushrooms, Pears, Pumpkin, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Turnips, Winter Squash

3. Make a weekly meal plan based on what is on sale at your grocery store and what you have in your pantry

Important point: Before you go grocery shopping study your grocery stores’ weekly circular to see what is on sale and plan your meals and snacks around sale items.

Note: Many grocery stores post their circular’s online, so you don’t have to go to the store and physically pick one up to do this!

Important point: Inventory your pantry, fridge, and freezer weekly to see what you have and what could be used in the next week’s meals.

Important point: Only go grocery shopping once a week. The more you shop the more items you will be tempted to pick up!

Note: It is helpful to plan to eat dinner leftovers for lunch the next day. It will save you time and minimize extra ingredients you need to buy.

Note: It is also helpful to have dinner staples that you eat every week like having a “Taco Tuesday” or “Pizza Friday”. This will alleviate some of the headache of meal planning each week!

4. Make a grocery list, stick to your list, and make sure you get charged correctly at checkout

Having a shopping list will enable you to get in and out of the store quickly without browsing or being tempted with an impulse buy!

Important point: Each week, estimate the total cost of your groceries on your shopping list before you head to the store. This will help you make decisions about what items to keep on your list based on how much you plan to spend. Prices for grocery store items are typically available online at your grocery store’s website (under the “order online” or your store’s “order groceries” option).

Important point: Keep a careful eye on the cash register screen for each item as you check out to make sure you are getting the advertised price (or check your receipt before you leave the store).

Many times I have gone through the checkout at my local grocery store and multiple items did not ring up at the advertised prices. This can be due to glitches in the system or sale items that have not put in the system yet.

Important point: Don’t be afraid to go back to customer service to get prices fixed and also get rainchecks for sale items that are out-of-stock.

5. Use paper coupons! Particularly for items that are on sale.

Important Point: There are numerous website that are dedicated to matching current newspaper and online coupons with grocery store deals/discounts, so you don’t have to!

Examples of these are:

The Krazy Coupon Lady – This site has deals for Kroger, Family Dollar, Dollar General, ShopRite, Meijer, Dollar Tree, Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, Publix, and Aldi

Moola Saving Mom – This site has deals for Aldi, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lidl, Lowes Foods, Publix, and Sprouts Farmers Market

Southern Savers – Click the “Grocery Stores” tab to pick your store. This site has deals for Bi-Lo, Harris Teeter, Kroger, and Publix

The Harris Teeter Deals – Great site if you have a Harris Teeter grocery store

Smart Shopper – This site has deals from Aldi, Carlie C’s, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lidl, Lowes Foods, Publix, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Wegmans

6. Use digital coupons from your grocery store! Particularly for items that are on sale.

Most grocery stores have loyalty cards that can provide extra store discounts and the opportunity to load on electronic coupons for further discounts.

Important point: Many store sales can ONLY be obtained by scanning a store loyalty card. Take the time to stop by customer service on your next visit and pick one up!

Important point: Loading digital coupons to your grocery store loyalty card often requires going to the store website, making a user name/password, and clicking on coupons that you want to load. There is hundreds of dollars of hidden savings online if you look! Check out these links to grocery store digital coupons below.

Publix digital coupons, Harris Teeter eCoupons, Kroger digital coupons, ShopRite digital coupons, Giant digital coupons, Meijer digital coupons, Wegmans digital coupons, Lowes Food digital coupons, and Food Lion digital coupons

7. Use the ibotta rebate app

There are many valuable apps that you can download on your phone to get money back on the groceries the groceries, and ibotta is among the best! Without much effort, I was able to get over $100 over the last year!!

How it works: First, download the ibotta app from your app store. Use this link to sign up (and referral code qfsmqag) and you will get a $10 welcome bonus when you sign up and redeem your first offer!)

Second, activate offers in the ibotta app for items you recently purchased. Once you active offers, you will take a picture of your grocery receipt in the ibotta app on your phone. The app will compare the offers you activated to your receipt and automatically add earnings to your account.

Once you accumulate $20 worth of earnings you can cash them in for a number of different gift cards including Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks, and Target!

8. Use additional rebate apps

There are a number of other useful rebate apps that I use on a weekly basis that consistently earn me money for my groceries that I would recommend. They are listed here below:

• Fetch Rewards – This app (click here to download) is SO easy to use! It simply requires you to take pictures of your grocery store receipt, and it automatically matches with purchases in your receipt with cash back grocery deals. Use my referral code, 382U5, during signup and you’ll get 2,000 Fetch Points ($2.00 in points – free money!) just for starting. You can cash in your points for gift cards for places like Amazon, CVS, Khol’s, Lowe’s, VISA, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and so much more!
• Checkout51 – This app (click here to download) requires you to activate offers for grocery items you purchase and then take a picture of your receipt in the app to verify your purchase. If you sign up through this link, you will receive $2 for uploading your first receipt, and $1 for each of your next 3 receipts); $5 total. Cash back points can be redeemed for gift cards.
• Shopkick – This app (click here to download) allows you to get cash back two ways: 1. you can scan barcodes of items at stores in your area 2. you can purchase items that they offer rebates for and submit a picture of your receipt to verify your purchases. Use my invite code KICK109861 to get 250 kicks=$1 when you sign up. Cash back points can be redeemed for gift cards.
• SavingStar – This app (click here to download) is slightly different that the others in that you submit information for your store loyalty card to the app. You need to activate offers before your shopping trip. If you have any matching offers after checkout, you will be automatically rewarded in the app a few days after your purchase. You redeem your cash back via PayPal.

9. Make some items from scratch

You can save A LOT of money by making some frequently eaten food items for your family from scratch. The beauty of making items from scratch is that you can control the nutritional value too!

One of the best foods to make from scratch to save money is bread! Check out these fool-proof recipes for regular white sandwich bread (this recipe makes 3 loafs – they freeze great!)and challah bread (delicious and a total show stopper!). Other examples of items that are worth making from scratch are chicken stock, granola bars, soft pretzels, and cooked beans, but the list goes on and on!

Important point: Cooking from scratch is not always cheaper! Make sure to price out the ingredients to determine if it is worth the extra time to cook your item(s) from scratch.

10. Re-invent leftovers and don’t throw food away

Important point: Eat your dinner leftovers for lunch the next day. This makes for a yummy lunch with little effort the next day and saves on lunch food prep and materials!

If you still have excess leftover food from meals, put the leftovers in containers and put them in the freezer. You can often reinvent leftovers to make a different meal the following week. For example, we often have leftover taco meat, rice, and beans from taco night that I put in the freezer for the next week and mix it together for baked burritos!