SAN ANTONIO, Texas — No doubt you notice as inflation spikes your grocery bill is also growing.
You already buy generic and save with sales. Yet, there are other ways to reduce your grocery bill and there is no need to go to great lengths to pocket a few extra cents.
“I think there’s a way to save at every level,” said Christina, the savings educator behind Saving with Christina. “Not everyone is going to do everything I do. I totally get that I am extreme.”
#1: Shopping for fruits and vegetables in season.
“Whatever farmers are currently harvesting, those are the items that you want to be buying,” said Christina. “If you don’t know what’s in season, look at what’s on sale at the grocery store.”
Stock up for later in the year by buying in-season fruits and vegetables and freeze them.
Need something not in season? Look at alternatives.
“If you have a recipe that uses corn, you can buy a few ears of corn,” Christina said. “This [ear of corn] is $.52. Corn is not in season right now. You can grab a can of corn for I think this was just $.78 for the can, still quite a bit cheaper. Another option you can look at is frozen. This one, I believe, was $1.18. So if I have a recipe calling for corn, this [can] is going to be my cheapest option.”
That looks like a lot of math, but you do not have a do the math yourself.
#2: Bigger is not always better
The store makes it easy for you to know the most affordable option by listing the price per unit. It is on the price tag but it is usually super tiny and can be hard to read.
“Normally right underneath the price is price per unit or price per ounce,” Christina said. “You can very easily compare products to see which one is the least expensive.”
You have heard bigger is usually cheaper. Throw that tip out. The larger item is not always less. Use the price per unit to see what size is the lowest cost.
“This one-pound bag of rice was just a little bit cheaper than the two-pound bag of rice,” Christina said. “So even if I needed two pounds, buying two of this one [the smaller one] is going to save me more money than just buying the bigger one.”
You can see the one pound bag of H-E-B Long Grain White Rice is 4.50 cents as the price per ounce.
But taking a look at the same product's two-pound bag, you can see the price per ounce slightly higher at 4.56 cents.
#3: Buy food on sale, which you may already, but then double the recipe you make with it.
“I don’t like to cook and I certainly don’t like having to clean up a mess,” Christina said.
This tip helps you cut down on cooking and cleaning.
“Double that recipe and freeze the other half to use later,” she said. “That way, you’re saving yourself both time and money.”
#4: Do the work yourself.
Prepared items will always cost a premium.
“You’re going to pay more for any food that has been marinated, cut up to go, that has been already diced or sliced or the fat has been trimmed off from the larger slabs of meat,” said Andrea Woroch, a smart shopping expert. “Buy the meat that has the fat on it. It doesn’t take a lot of time for you to prep. You’re going to be prepping it anyway. So spend a few more minutes and help yourself save.”
“We can buy a bell pepper for $.64 or I can buy a tiny little package of pre-diced bell peppers,” Christina said. “I want to say it was close to $2.”
You can see that price difference in the photos below:
This also applies to premade items in the bakery.
“It’s one of the areas that have the highest markup,” Woroch said. “That’s because you’re paying for convenience. It’s already prepped and cooked for you. The reality is that many of these baked goods are super cheap to bake yourself like cupcakes, cookies and even basic cake.”
The exception to this rule is if prepared food is on sale.
“Because once that vegetable is cut, it’s going to go bad faster,” Christina said. “The store is going to mark down those precut produce items because they want to sell it before it gets to its expiration date. That is one way you can save on the convenience items is just take a quick look at that section and see if they have that beautiful clearance sticker on it. Then you save yourself the work and you’re getting it probably even lower cost than if you bought the vegetable and had to cut it up yourself.”
Baked goods that require professional decorating will also be cheaper at a grocery store bakery rather than a stand-alone bakery.
#5: Use the self-checkout at the grocery store.
“I think it has something to do with the fact that you’re now handling the items and paying attention and then looking at the prices and realizing that you’re spending a lot more than you planned,” said Woroch. “When you’re going to the cashier who is checking you out, they might be chatting, you might be looking at other things. Then you realize at the end when you have to stick your credit card in the machine how much you’re actually spending.”
Bonus tips:
#6: The size of your shopping cart can be equal to the size of your bill.
“If you shop with a shopping cart, you are more likely to fill it up with food that you don’t need,” Woroch said. “It looks empty when you just have your essentials in there. I love going to the store and grabbing the handbasket. It’s smaller. This really helps me stick to just those essentials I need and avoid unnecessary purchases.”
#7: Consider online grocery shopping.
“Sometimes the food per item might cost a little bit more to make up for the fact that they have to ship the item to you or you may take on some delivery costs,” Woroch said. “What you’re really doing is narrowing down what you’re buying because there are no temptations there to get you to buy food you don’t need. In fact, grocery stores make almost 50 percent of their profits from people’s impulse purchases. If you can reduce those impulses purchases, which is easier to do by shopping online, you can really cut back on your grocery shopping.
Do a test. Buy groceries online for a month and compare the price to how much you spent the previous month when you shopped in-store. Plus, look for coupons to cut down costs for online services.
#8: Join your store’s online loyalty program.
This will give you access to digital coupons, special promotions, cashback or rewards offers depending on the store.
Little changes can add up to big savings over time.