Shop and Save: Four Ingenious Ways to Save on Your Grocery Expenses

“Groceries became a revelation: the people coming out with food. It is all like a great ceremony, and the whole drudgery of shopping has become my inspiration.”-Corita Kent

Groceries take up a significant chunk of our monthly expenses and with the rising cost of shopping goods today, that expense will inevitably increase.

Unfortunately, if you are constrained to a strict monthly budget or if the results of the inflation rate are getting to you, it can be rather difficult to fill your grocery cart with all of your shopping needs. However, when the rising cost of groceries becomes a rather pressing problem, you need to understand the difference between the items that are absolutely necessary and the ones that are considered luxury. Furthermore, you would also need to rethink your spending and budgeting habits insomuch that you do not live from paycheck to paycheck and allocate enough of what you earn for savings.

In any case, one of the best avenues for having a better leverage on your finances is to manage your grocery expenses and give your grocery shopping a strategic approach. In any case, if you have been looking for ways to mitigate your grocery expenses, here are some of the ingenious tips you can keep in mind before you visit the supermarket aisles in Ayala CenterMakati or your preferred grocer:

1    

            1.)    Take advantage of sales

An excellent way to save money on grocery expenses is to take advantage of discount items. More often than not, the grocery would have a few items that would be marked down per week so be sure to include those instead of going for the full-priced ones. However, be sure that these are items that you would use almost immediately or at least within the week. More often than not, items would be marked down because they need to be disposed of immediately. Alternatively, you can shop during a grocery sale and stock up on items you know you would be using quite often. Meat can be stored up until three months in the freezer and would still be safe to use. Other items such as dish-washing liquid, detergents and other products would have a longer shelf life. In this regard, you might be able to stock up more on those items. Be sure to be a little meticulous about the amount of produce you buy. Remember, vegetables have a short shelf life so be sure that anything you shop, you can consume within the week.

      2.)    Have a price book

A price book is generally a listing of all comparable grocery products across all nearby grocery shopping centers with their corresponding prices. You can create this yourself by listing down the price of the goods you have shopped for in one particular grocery shop and then compare it with the others should that you would know which store sells the cheapest grocery items. Similarly, you can track sales patters so that you would know when the best time to stock up on a particular item is. Keeping tabs on sales and listing down prices would enable you to determine how much you can potentially save and how much you really are saving every single time you do your grocery shopping. Furthermore, it helps you make better choices as to which grocery shop you should patronize.

      3.)    Have a list when doing groceries

This should go without saying, but you should never go grocery shopping without a list. Having a list keeps you from putting grocery items into your cart arbitrarily. Moreover, it helps you from making return trips to the grocery store because you have forgotten to buy an item. In this regard, you should create a list of household items you would need to shop for. Buy everything that you have listed on it and stick to it. Anything that is not written in the list should not be included. Having this list would not only save you money, it would save you time as well.

      4.)    Plan your menus

Planning your menus gives you an idea of what grocery items you are going to need for the week instead of just randomly putting shopping goods into your cart. With this in mind, plan your menus a week or even a month in advance so that you would know which items to stock up and take advantage of bulk buying opportunities. Similarly, planning menus for the week would prevent you from eating out too much. To save time, you can cook your main dishes in a single day and reheat them as the week progresses which can be very helpful on days wherein you do not have any time to cook or simply do not feel like cooking at all. However, if planning your menu is way too much of a hassle, you can always go online and look for similar sample menus.  

Image Source