What's your best money-saving tip for groceries? Mine is to always shop with coupons. Regardless of the store, I clip coupons to use for my favorite food items. Then, I organize them and match them up with sales. If you find a two-for-one sale and have a coupon, you save big. In my latest shopping venture, I was able to get two mid-size jars of Vlasic pickles for $1 a piece and four bags of M&Ms for $1.15.
One of my most recent finds are the Better Than Bouillon brand soup bases. They sell at Wal Mart for like $3.99 a jar and make 9 quarts of stock per jar. You could easily pay $4 for a single quart of boxed stock, so this saves you over $30. Plus, the first ingredients on the label are actual meat and vegetables, not MSG. In fact there is no MSG in these at all (although there are yeast extracts which are similar). The flavor is much better than your standard bouillon cubes. Also, take inventory of your pantry items, and how much you are spending on all the "name brand" canned goods and jarred sauces and such. On your next trip grocery shopping, buy some of the off brand or dollar store discount versions of the same things and do a taste test on several of them. You may be surprised to discover that some of those seemingly cheap store brand versions or $1 store versions are actually very good. For cocktails & martinis, ditch the Grey Goose and other expensive vodkas. Sobieski is a *really* good vodka at a comparably lower price. My friends got me hip to that and we haven't bothered with any over priced vodkas since.
Sorry, but my tip is eating a healthy diet lol. Whole, unprocessed foods. Since switching to farmers over grocery stores, my grocery bill is far less.. that's why I don't buy it when people say they can't afford to eat healthy. I know different. It can be expensive, but it depends how you eat I guess. Same for how everyone currently eats though. We don't need the grocery store at all these days.. our wallets are a bit fatter for it
Mine is to always shop with a full stomach. For one thing, I'm much more relaxed when I do so, and second, I don't end up buying too many unnecessary items. The downside is that sometimes, a few days later, I end up regretting not picking up certain snacks, but I at least get to save some money so I'm not too mad about it.
Well, the assumption that everything in the grocery is processed or plan unhealthy is rediculous. You still have to play it smart when buying from farmers to. Do they use pesticides and if so how much? Are they organic farmers that stray away from any chemical usage? Do they plant GMO's and sell it to you as natural and whole? It doesn't matter whether you buy from a grocery or at your local farmers market. If you are trying to be "healthy" you have to do more then assume it is much better for you because it came straight from a farmer. Everybody has a different situation and in most cases I've found the farmers in my area to have higher prices. My tip is the same as the original poster. When you go to your local grocery store you need to use coupons. You can even find coupons for organic products if you were to go that route.
One word to solve this all- coupons! Never underestimate the power of coupons! They really do help. Keep them and research more about them and you will be surprised that you could actually save more than 50% when you have them.
