Cut Down on Your Grocery Bill

Tip Hero serves up fresh money-saving tips daily,
with over 2,000 tips shared to date.

GET FREE UPDATES:

Tips by Category:

Food & Dining Out

Home > Food & Dining Out > Topics: Groceries

-----------------------------------------

Cut Down on Your Grocery Bill

Submitted by: anonymous 12/23/2008 10:13 AM

Take advantage of angel food at one of your local churches. go yo angelfoodministries.com to locate a distribution near you. over 100.00 worth of groceries for 30.00 and under

---
sponsored: Find Money Budgeting Tips.

---
Tip Hero serves up new money-saving tips daily.
Get free updates via Email , RSS or Twitter.

More Money-Saving Tips:

12 Ways to Make Extra Money

18 Money-Saving Grocery Shopping Tips

A Quick Guide to Debt Settlement

Want To Save Money On Auto Insurance?

Sponsored Searches:

Make Money From Home

Money Saving Tips

Online Sweepstakes

Comments:

.................................

plan your menu's; make make a mix to which you simply add water, eggs, oil; if you get a foodsaver or seal a meal (I got mine from thrift store looked brand new); with vaccum seal; buy rolls cheap on ebay: sealed stays food indefinetly; easily fits into empty popcorn tins, coffee tins, etc; no need to pay for fancy "containers"; find out how to "dry" foods & do so when in season; can do many by simple use of oven; making own "fruit rolls" incredibly inexpensive, join harvest, gleaning groups & make when fresh; seal in vaccum bags; super lightweight when hiking/camping/etc;

Posted by MzScarlett on December 23, 2008 1:49 PM

.................................

join with another person for Costco card; you can always take another person with you; if you do this cost $50; is $25; further cut if you go with a person to save gas $12.50; gas is always cheaper there will get cost of membership back on gas 1st filling probably; as with any/all stores not everything there is a good buy; however, their toilet paper $17.99 now; 425 sheets per roll; 36 rolls; each roll is 2 1/2 times the size of regular rolls found else where; individually packaged most all businesses buy from there. Their garbage bags THEIR brand draw string HEAVY DUTY kitchen bags 200 for $12.99; if allergies, generic Clariton is $11.99 for 300 pills; SAME ingredient as higher priced; nasal decongestants 144 in package, 3 or 4 boxes for now $6.99; still more than enough for a year!

Posted by MzScarlett on December 23, 2008 1:54 PM

.................................

join in with others in your area who order from health/organic foods; you can get far superior foods/spices for fraction of the cost: ex: 1 lb of premium cinnamon not even FOUND in my area was $2.35; we have so many we don't even pay S&H fees! also got 1 lb of Celtic sea salt for $1.75; NOT chemically treated! wonderful tasting beyond belief! (they now make "sea salt" that is chemically treated which HARMS you: makes you get kidney stones!) also used agressively in all processed foods to make your own it is easy & inexpensive to do so!

Posted by MzScarlett on December 23, 2008 1:57 PM

.................................

I put laundry and bathroom needs in with the grocery heading. I spend $480 a month on a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 small children). I spend $400 a month at Sam's Club and the save $20/week for things I forgot and fresh fruit and vegetables. (sometimes I don't even need the whole $20/week) This has worked amazing for our family. There is always food in the house (my husband loves this) and I know what I have to cook with for the month. Anyway about the Laundry - I use arm and hammer laundry powder approx. $9 for 80 loads. Take 1/4 of the powder put it with a 3 cups of Borax and a few cups of Baking Soda (No exact mixture)and mix it together. I use 1/4 cup a load. It lasts approx. a month. It is almost Chemical free and cleans clothes wonderfully. It will cost you about $15 to buy all the laundry soap, borax and baking soda, but then it works out to approx. $4/month or less on laundry stuff. I also add vinegar as a fabric softener. (no smell) I buy 2 huge jugs of vinegar at sams for $3. (cheap) check out my blog for homemade dryer sheet. kiandlalasmama.blogspot.com
This saves me lots of money of laundry stuff.

Posted by Cyd Linton on December 26, 2008 9:49 AM

.................................

Great tips. In a tough economy its more important to save however you can. Some additional money saving tips:

Plan cheaper breakfasts. Forget those expensive processed boxed cereals. Oatmeal at 11.6 cents a serving makes a great cheap comfort food. Add some brown sugar, a cut up banana or some raisins, and you have a great tasting breakfast. High in fiber, oatmeal also helps reduce the cholesterol associated with heart disease.

Make soup from scratch. Its relatively easy and quite cheap. Recipes abound on the internet. Best thing is that you can make a large batch and then freeze them into smaller portions for later meals.

Take your own lunch to work. Stop spending $7-$9 a day on lunch. Bring your own lunch from home. Left-overs make great lunches helping to stretch your food dollars.

Save on juice costs by buying frozen juice concentrates. You can save 25%-40% just by doing this.

Take advantage of bakery outlets where you can find bread and baked goods at 50% to 75% off the store price. These items are fresh but have to be sold at a discount because they are reaching their sell-by dates. Stock up and store the extras in the freezer.

Eat less red meat. Americans eat more meat than any other nation in the world. Yet a high red meat diet contributes to heart disease. There are much cheaper sources of protein than meat. Try going meatless one meal a week to save money.

Buy your paper goods at the dollar store. Paper plates, cups, napkins can often be purchased much cheaper at the dollar store. Be on the lookout for holiday themed plates and napkins at your local dollar store now that the holiday season is over.

Stop at an ethnic food market. If you're lucky enough to have one of these in your city take advantage of them. They are great places to get meat, produce, cheeses, and spices at a great discount.

Stock up on milk when it goes on sale. You can freeze the extra milk. Just remember to pour out a little to account for the expansion that occurs when milk freezes.

Ask your store manager when they reduce the bakery products. Almost every store has a time when they reduce the days bakery products for quick sale. Others have a day old bread section where you can get great deals on bread and baked products.

Check the frozen food section for out-of-season produce. You'll often find it here much cheaper. a recent UC-Davis research study has shown that frozen produce may be as nutritious as fresh produce shipped in from long distances.

Posted by paylessforfood.com on December 27, 2008 10:02 AM

.................................

I have a family of 3 and I always have little kids in my home so we probably have more like 5 people that eat here. I spend 50-70 dollars a week on food. I go to a local grocery store called Aldes it is a very very cheep store some of the food is good and some we do not like. that's when i fill in with other stores that are having sales.
I go once a week whether it is to the regular store and get things that are on sale or if its gonging to aldes. I also go in with about 4 other moms and we go to a farmers marked that sales fruit and veges. you can get great deals but there is always way to much so we split then. this cost me about 5-10$ a week for all the vegges and fruit you could ever want.

Posted by Alicia Long on December 28, 2008 10:47 AM

.................................

We liked this in-depth tip on how to save money in the kitchen, that we moved it to it's own tip page. To read the 11 grocery and cooking tips go to: http://www.tiphero.com/tips_1476_11-cost-cutting-grocery-cooking-tips.html

Posted by auntbea on January 12, 2009 10:18 PM

.................................

I buy in bulk quantities when possible and measure out everything. I just purchased two cases of toilet paper (entire year's worth)online, with free shipping. I bought powdered laundry detergent from Sam's last year, and measure out a small quantity, then place in a sifter to further pulverize it before adding to the laundry. Still on laundry container # 1. Some things, when possible, I purchase a year's worth of something at a time.
Also very effective is to measure quantities- place a 1-cup container inside a bowl, then pour out cereal until the cup is filled. No need to overeat and gobble up tomorrow's breakfast. Same with pasta, veggies, etc. I also buy 900 teabags at a time(online), I love tea, and lots of places don't carry Darjeeling and Green both. No more wasted trips for things. It costs pennies per tea bag.

I buy soy milk and it lasts a lot longer than regular milk. Again purchase largest quantities possible. Great for cereal, but does not act the same when cooking. Buy a cheese grater, this will pay for itself very quickly if you use lots of cheese in cooking like I do. You will use a minute quantity of cheese compared to slicing it off with a knife.

Last year I wrote down all my purchases. This is a great way to plug the holes in one's budget. I made 93 individual trips to the grocery store last year. No more of that. Sometimes it was for only one item. Stupid of me, and a waste of time, and fuel. This year I grocery shop only every two weeks, and go with a list in hand. If its not on the list, it doesn't go in the cart. If I run out of something between shopping days, too bad.

Posted by emmo's mom on January 15, 2009 6:26 PM

.................................

-----------------------------------------

Share Your Comments:

Comments may need to be approved before they are displayed.

Comments:

Name (leave blank if you want to be anonymous):

Email Address (your email address will not be displayed):

Website URL (not required; please do not include "http://"):