How to Save Money on Groceries

The current price of groceries is a big stress for a lot of people at the moment. Due to the cost of living crisis, prices just keep increasing and it’s hard to keep up. But with some planning and a little bit a savviness it is still possible to keep your food budget low.

Enter today’s blog post – 8 easy things you can do today to save money on groceries.

Shop your cupboards first

Shopping your cupboards first will both save you money and reduce waste. Start by taking an inventory of what you have in. Check your fridge, freezer, and cupboards, and make a list. From this you can begin to brainstorm some meal ideas and create a meal plan.

Sometimes what you have in, plus a little bit of creativity and maybe one or two extra ingredients, will fill up your meal plan more than you’d originally thought.

Meal plan around your schedule

Step one to meal planning should be identifying exactly how many meals you actually need. There is no point buying enough food to last the entire week if you’ll only be home to eat dinner two nights that week. Take a few minutes to go through your schedule and work out exactly how many meals you need to cover, whether you’ll need any packed lunches and remember to plan in some snacks.

Check what’s on offer

Yellow labels, too good to go boxes and things like Aldi’s big six are your best friends when you are shopping on a budget. They can save you tonnes over the course of the year and it will save the products from ending up in landfill. My first stop on any shopping trip is these areas of the supermarket. It’s always a bonus when something on my list is reduced but often I can substitute various items or adapt my meal plan on the spot.

Want to know how I consistently kept my food budget below £10/week? Download my free eBook now!

Check the price per kg

You’ve probably heard the tip that buying in bulk will save you money in the long run and this is sometimes the case but not always. Make sure you check the price per kg to actually see which is a better price. Sometimes there is only a few pennies in it and it won’t make sense for your budget is buy the bigger version. This is more the case for those items you only use occasionally like flax seeds. But for your basic everyday items, like pasta and rice, bulk buying could be the way to go.

Do a test run online

That anxiety when you are standing in the queue and you have absolutely no idea how much your shop will be and whether or not you are in budget – that feeling is awful! But it can easily be avoided by doing a test run online first. Pretty much all the big supermarkets have an online store which will let you add to your basket and see how much your shop will be before you get to the store. Doing this will remove all that checkout anxiety because you will have a rough figure in mind, if not the exact figure before a single banana has been scanned.

It’s also a good budget indicator. You’ll be able to instantly see if your meal plan is in budget and adapt accordingly.

Sign up for all the loyalty schemes

I’m sure you’ve seen all the craziness online about the Tesco Clubcard and its ridiculous discounts – use this to your benefit! Tesco have made it even easier now to get a clubcard as it’s all on a handy app. Not only will you get amazing discounts in store, you will also be collecting clubcard points which you can redeem for vouchers. You can currently triple the value of your points if you convert them to Pizza Express vouchers.

Many of the big supermarkets have their own version of the clubcard. These are all free to sign up to so you might as well if it will save you a few pennies!

Use a cashback app

Apps like Daali connect to your card and instantly award you cashback at certain retailers. This is literally money back in your pocket for a few minutes of faffing around on your phone. Once your card had been connected, they do all the work for you. Simply go do your shopping and watch the money roll in!

Get some freebies

There are more and more apps avaliable like Shopmium and GreenJinn which are offering heavy discounts or even free products. How does it work? Once you have found the deal you are interested in on the app, go and buy it from the specified retailer, upload your receipt and the money will be paid out to you almost instantly. I like to check these whilst meal planning to see if I can incorporate any of the freebies into the plan.

So there you go, 8 easy actionable things you can do today to save money on groceries. Do you have any other tips you would add to the list?

Have you gotten your free copy of the Frugal Food Shopping eBook yet? Download here.