So you've read the title. You get what this post is supposed to be about right? But for some reason I feel the need to give you some sort of formal introduction so here goes:
This is a blog post about saving money on groceries, ya dig?
Alright, now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'm going to go cook lunch... and by "cook lunch" I mean I'm going to go eat a dozen Oreos and not feel bad about.
▲▲ Check the grocery store flyers and plan your menu around the sales and special deals. I did this for the first time this week and my grocery bill was about $60 for the week (That's minus necessary non-food items like dish soap, laundry detergent). This weekend at Albertson's, canned goods were 2 for $.88, name brand breakfast cereal was $1.88, Tony Chachere's boxed Cajun just-add-meat-meal-starters were $.88 a box and some meats were buy one get TWO free. So yeah, check those flyers!!!
▲▲ Go shopping alone. Have you seen how giddy a kid can get when going down the cereal aisle? "I wan't that one! No, THAT one!! Coco Puffs!! NO!! Lucky Charms!!" And then what do you do? You give in just to quiet them down and now you've got two boxes of cereal, a box of pop tarts and some how a box of Twinkies, three bags of chips, a Seventeen magazine and all kinds of unnecessary money draining impulse buys in your cart.
▲▲ Buy off-brand. I know you've heard it a million times that off-brand products are just as good as name brand and I'm here to confirm that that's mostly true. There are only a few off-brand food items I've come across that were kind of yucky. But if you're afraid to take the plunge into the world of low cost food, you should at least try your hand at purchasing off-brand non-food items like paper towels, sandwich bags, toilet paper and cleaning supplies.
▲▲ Say NO to junk food. Junk food is awesome and wonderfully tasty but incredibly unnecessary. Even though they're fun to snack on, when it comes down to it, you can't make a meal of ice cream, potato chips and chocolate covered pretzels. Well, I mean you can but you'll probably get sick... and eventually very very fat if you continue to eat like that. Instead, buy a special treat or two when they're on sale.
Every now and then, we like to browse the bakery section for items that have been reduced for quick sale. Bakeries will greatly reduce the price of items, like birthday cakes that were never picked up and pastries that are still good but no longer fresh enough to be on the shelves. We usually get our sweetums fix for just $.99 for the week.
▲▲ Stock up when it's on sale. This is also great for reducing the frequency of grocery store trips. Like I mentioned on the first tip: this weekend just-add-meat box dinners were $.88 each. I bought 5 boxes and then my husband loved the deal so much, he went back and bought 6 more the next day. That's 11 boxes for $9.68. It's also good to stock up on meat when it's on sale and also anything that can be frozen like, fresh veggies and herbs.
