How to Reduce Your Monthly Grocery Bill

Groceries make up a substantial expense for most individuals and families. Given that you cannot eliminate this necessity, the question arises as to how it can be reduced without sacrificing nutritional value or quality. With a few simple steps, you can reduce your grocery expenses considerably, giving you more savings potential or increasing your purchasing power. We all have finite incomes, so any step you can take to make this money go further is worth considering.

Plan Your Meals

Most of us have probably gone to the grocery store without a meal plan or while we are hungry, and the result is often buying more items than we expected and buying items to satisfy our immediate cravings. Shopping in this way will often result in blowing your grocery budget, so take the time to plan out your meals. In most cases, planning out your meals in one-week increments is sufficient. Less frequent grocery trips and longer meal plans are possible but be cautious about buying too much at a single time and allowing some of it to perish before use.

Buy Store-Brand Items

Groceries shelves are packed full of different brands for every item, as a result, choosing a simple canned food item can become overwhelming. If you are trying to lower your monthly grocery expenses, consider store-brand items. The majority of grocery items will have a "name brand" and "store brand." Generally, the store brands are very similar, and you can compare the ingredient list on each item to validate the differences. Store brands vary by grocery chain, but a few examples include Kirkland for Costco and Great Value for Walmart. Next time you need a bottle of ketchup, compare a name brand like Heinz ketchup to the store brand. If the bottles are the same size, the comparison will be easy; however, if the bottles vary in size, take a look at the unit price.

Pay Attention to the Unit Price

We are all familiar with the price tags on grocery items, but have you stopped to look at the unit price? It can be difficult to distinguish price differences between items that are packaged in different weights or come in different-sized containers or packaging. This is where the unit price comes into play. Next time you are grocery shopping, look closely at the price tags on the shelves and you will notice a small price (typically in the bottom corner) that indicates the unit price. This will be designated as a price per ounce or price per quantity. Price per ounce is one of the more common unit prices, but you may notice price per item (i.e. “per each”) on items like eggs.

As you compare unit prices, all other criteria being equal, you want to select the item with the lowest unit costs. This may not be intuitive because the lowest unit cost is usually a larger quantity of items, such as a 40oz. jar of peanut butter, rather than a 16oz. jar. For nonperishable items, having a larger quantity is usually not an issue, but for perishable items, you need to ensure that you will consume the quantity purchased before it goes bad. Otherwise, your cost-saving measures will amount to nothing because, even though you purchased the items at a lower unit cost, the unit cost increases when you only consume a portion of the groceries purchased. Let’s take a look at some unit price examples.

Assume there are two jars of peanut butter for sale. The first jar is 16oz. and costs $3.00. The second jar is 40oz. and costs $6.50. At first glance, it may be difficult to determine which is the more cost-effective choice, but the unit pricing will make the determination simple. Although unit pricing will typically be included on the shelf tag, you can calculate it by dividing the price by the quantity. In this case, the unit price for the first jar is $3.00 divided by 16, resulting in a unit price of $0.19 per ounce. The unit price of the second jar is $6.50 divided by 40, resulting in a unit price of $0.16 per ounce. Consequently, the second jar is the better value.

Do Not Waste Food

While the majority of grocery cost-saving measures discussed pertain to actions you can take at the grocery store, making your grocery budget stretch also applies to the actions at home. Mainly, you need to avoid food waste, which occurs when you fail to eat food before it expires or throw away leftovers and unused food. All of these actions drastically increase your monthly grocery costs because you have to purchase more items more frequently. Consider this example, if you purchase a bunch of bananas containing 8 bananas for $3 and you throw away 2 that you failed to eat before they turned black, then you wasted 25% of this particular food item. Your unit cost at the time of purchase was $0.375 per banana, but the unit price increases to $0.50 when you divide the total cost by 6 bananas, rather than 8. Therefore, your cost per item increased by $0.125 or 33%. This is a substantial jump. When you consider this increase for more expensive items like meat products, you can see why food waste hurts your budget.

There are several steps you can take to reduce food waste. First, try to avoid purchasing more than you can consume before the product goes bad. Second, do not throw away your leftovers; with a little creativity, you can reuse leftovers and turn them into different dishes to avoid eating the same thing until you grow tired of it. For example, if you cook steaks for dinner one night, you can chop up the steak and put it in tacos or on a salad the following day. Third, consider alternatives for items that are approaching their expiration. For example, overripe bananas are not appealing to eat on their own, but you can utilize these bananas in items like banana bread. Similarly, stale bread can be used in dishes like bread pudding. With a little creativity, you can make delicious dishes with food items you may be used to discarding.

Conclusion

Utilizing a few simple practices, such as meal planning, buying store brands, comparing unit prices, and avoiding food waste will help stretch your grocery budget. If you turn these practices into habits, then you will be able to cut unnecessary expenses and utilize the money saved for other priorities. With a little effort and creativity, you can find uses for food items that you typically throw in the trash. Implement a few of the grocery cost-cutting measures, and your wallet will thank you.