Updated: August 8, 2022
We spend a lot of money on food. If you monitor your monthly expenses, you’ll see that it takes up around one-third of your monthly budget.
That’s why if you want to save some money, looking into one’s food or grocery spending can be a good place to start.
In my years of independent living, I have been able to discover and learn some valuable tips on how to save money on groceries. Tips that I’m sharing with you today and hope that you find helpful.
How To Save Money on Groceries
Subscribe to grocery newsletters so you’ll know their current promo items. It’s also a great place to get free coupons. Moreover, try to build your grocery list and menu planning around the discounted items.
Make sure your grocery list is complete before leaving the house. Go through your fridge, cupboards, pantry, and everywhere else to avoid buying things you may still have.
Take time to compare the item prices of the groceries in your area so you know where the cheaper but good quality items that you usually buy are.
Always have a budget and stick to it. The best way to stick to your budget is to bring only enough cash.
Go to the grocery during weekdays and off-peak hours. Because there are fewer people, you’ll have more personal space and feel more comfortable looking at and comparing item prices.
Take advantage of membership discounts and affinity programs from grocery stores. See me and my SM Advantage card here. 🙂
Never shop hungry. But also, don’t bring kids along because they tend to make you buy unnecessary items.
Don’t be afraid to buy and try out the store brand. They’re usually the cheapest item on the shelf and some of them do have good quality.
Buy in bulk or choose the bigger package. However, be conscious of your available storage at home. Also, double-check and compute the unit price – some items are surprisingly more expensive in their larger sizes (like a certain coffee brand I know).
On a related note, bring a calculator. Personally, I use my mobile phone because it also has a unit converter application.
Promo deals are always present in groceries. At the meat section, for example, they often have daily or weekly discounted meat items.
Groceries usually put the expensive items at eye level on shelves. Be patient enough to look up and down to find the cheaper brands.
Upon checking out, be attentive to pricing errors at the register. Some items may have the wrong bar code information; the cashier could accidentally input an item twice or the price database could still have the old price instead of the discounted price for items that just went on sale. All of these have happened to me more than once, so remember this tip!
Lastly, don’t forget to join the special promos in the grocery. Claim and fill out those raffle tickets or play at their silly game booths. Who knows, you could win a refrigerator as a did once. 😀
Related Money Saving Tips:
Learn how to cook. It’s healthier and always cheaper to eat at home than going to restaurants.
Cook just enough food for everyone to minimize waste. But also, be creative with your leftovers and plan your next meal around them. Leftover fried chicken? Debone, shred, cut, and make a chicken sandwich.
Have a running list of things you need to buy on your fridge. This will save you time in planning for your next grocery trip.
Invest in containers so you can buy the cheaper refill packages at the grocery. This works best for powdered drinks like juices, coffee, and milk; and liquid items such as cooking oil.
If you have a green thumb, start your own vegetable or herb garden in the backyard. Personally, I have basil plants I tend at home.
That’s it! How about you? Any more tips on how to save money on groceries? Do share them below.
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1. Shop where you can get free parking. Some supermarkets give out free parking tickets (i.e. Waltermart for minimum purchase of PhP500).
2. One loyalty/membership account, 2 membership cards. This means that two people can accumulate points under one loyalty/membership account. Make sure the membership is also reasonable. In my case, 120php, good for 3 years, 2 cards (2 people accumulating points). I do have an SM Advantage Card which I use for other purchases, but it does not offer what I just mentioned.
3. Bring your own bag(s). I am sure those who do the grocery shopping can identify with this. Plastics can pile up at home faster than we can recycle, reuse, and dispose of them. If you still have lots of them piled up, bring them to the supermarket and reuse. I do bring my own canvass cloth bag(s). If my list is long, I bring along extra plastic bags. I can go on forever talking about plastic bags, where they go, after we discard them; but some other time.
4. Give feedbacks. This may not immediately reduce your grocery bill but I believe, eventually, it will. For example: those litro ready-mix juice sachets. I see most people buying more than 2 sachets. Why not have them in a bigger container with appropriate instructions to reduce the plastic sachets people just throw away (and you know already the effects of this). Don not grumble under your breaths or to others. Inform the company. I did call the juice company and told them of my observation/suggestion. Will they heed? I certainly hope so.
5. Examine your shopping habits and how it can impact your over-all financial picture. This is very important. I can write more on this but, I have no more time. Maybe Fitz can 😀
My two cents for now…
By the way, I really liked that Fitz mentioned about planting/growing your own veggies. If you do not have a yard, use pots. Believe me, nothing beats the feeling of growing your own veggies!
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This article is very helpful and galing! Keep it up friends.
In my case I cook enough foods for my next two meals because I can save gas in cooking or electricity if I am using electric stove and put them in fridge. Anyway the fridge is always on right? I shop if there is a promo and buy foods in bulk but of course I see to it that I can consume them all before they rot in my fridge. I remember before that I bought too much and I was not able to consume them all, what a waste of money! Anyway thanks for this informative post.
This an eye-opener for impulsive shoppers. And like you, I also started a vegetable garden infront of our house, a nice stress-buster.
Great article! Not going to the grocery store when you are hungry can save you hundreds. The best thing to do is to make a list by looking at recipes you want to make throughout the week and then stick to it.
Buy in bulk is the best tip. If you will inform your household to save on supplies, you can have extra money on your other needs.
Make it a habit to re-weigh food items such as meat, veggies, fruits that are already pre-weighed and have price tags in them just to ensure you are paying the correct price. For example, everytime I buy bananas, I always ask the grocery attendants to re-weigh them for me and, as always, it’s always lighter than what’s indicated on the tag, for the reason that bananas are heavier when they’re green(raw) and eventually “loses weight” as they turn yellow (ripe).
When it comes to detergents: Is it cheaper to buy sachets (as they are pre measured and gives a good estimate on how much is used per load of laundry) or in larger sacks.
Our laundry lady suggested that sachets are more economical because she can gauge how much she uses in a load vs. the scooper which makes her use more soap.
I know that in general buying bulk is cheaper and sachets ARE more expensive. Should I heed my servicer’s advice and buy sachet (in 12’s) for clothes and buy a cheaper brand of detergent for other items like table cloths and kitchen towels? Or is it still cheaper to buy 800g or 1kg of high quality detergent?
@Gina I would suggest you go for sachets. I feel the laundry lady is correct. You know how much quantity you will use exactly when you use sachets. When using scoop, you don’t know and you can mistakenly put extra amount which adds up over number of operations. I have always followed sachets which reduces my washing expense.
@shyamB and Gina, pls do note that buying all those sachet packs will not do our environment any good, sachets are not recyclable, so imagine the mountains of sachets that piles up in the garbarge dump. So i think it will be better to buy it in bulk, big bottles which can be recycled, and cheaper as a whole, just ask your helper to use the scoop to measure. So i rarely buy in small sachets, i wld feel guilty of the trash that will accumulate.
Same here. I usually make sure na by “even numbers” ang bili ko ng items. For example, 4 noodles, 2 pasta, 4 soap, etc. (though may iems na 1 lang talaga). It happens to me several times na… wrong qty ang na-punch ng cashier. While si hubby ang taga-arrange sa cashier, ako yung naka-tambay sa harap ng cashier. hahahahahah…
Nde rin kami umiikot sa grocery, we just focused on our grocery list. Also, better to get items at the back. Longer shelf life, fifo sila kaya yung sa harap ang old stock.
[…] Moreover, never ever go to the grocery without a shopping list and don’t buy anything not on the list. This will discipline you into planning your lists better at home. Get more grocery tips here. […]