If I tell you there are ways on how to save money on groceries, and that you can have a budget of $150/mo for a family of 6, would you believe me?
You should.
Believe it or not:
One of the hardest things to manage is the grocery budget.
But there’s a way to get it done… the right way.
Here are some of the things that helped us big time:
…. we use a plan that cut our food bill to the bare minimum and still eat gourmet-like food
…. we use simple tools that made us money on our groceries
…. we use tips #11 and #12 – a game changer in cutting our food bill
In this post, I detail the 16 ways on how to save money on groceries you wish you knew before.
How To Save Money On Groceries Fast ($150/Mo for A Family of 6)
There are tricks on how to cut the grocery bill.
As many people say, if you want to save money, then, one of the best places to focus on is your grocery bill. I agree with that.
At the end of this post, you’ll see our grocery bill sample and what we buy with our food budget.
Beware: This is an ultimate list of ways on how to save money on groceries that could bring down your grocery bill.
1. Plan and execute weekly meals (Each meal costs us $2 each).
Effectiveness Level: High
Don’t just wing whatever you want to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in-between snacks.
Here’s the reality:
That’s a recipe on its own for budget disaster. You wouldn’t go to a battle without a plan in place, would you? Exactly.
Before we shop for groceries, we look at our PlateJoy meal plan to see what ingredients to buy.
What’s that?
It is a service that sends a yummy meal plan and shopping list per week that starts at $7/mo using my exclusive code PRACTICAL10. Each meal costs around $2 or less a person.
It is one reason our grocery bill is just $150/mo for a family of 6.
Click here now to try risk-free the PlateJoy Plan.
2. Never pay full price…. ever (We saved over $300 in 4 months).
Effectiveness Level: High
When you are on a tight budget or want to be frugal, do not go shopping without using these FOREVER FREE apps:
eBates – You get automatic cash back for shopping online and buying the things you already are buying.
Go through eBates first to get to the specific sites you want to go. eBates gives you 2-10% cash back.
Sometimes, it will double the cash back. So, you’ll be looking at 4-20% cash back.
Ibotta – Just save your Walmart, grocery, and other store receipts and scan them.
You then earn cash back on your shopping trips, and that’s it!
Plus, if you sign up via my link, you’ll receive an extra $10 when you try Ibotta, and you’ll also get $5 more for each friend you refer.
Between these two, we cut our grocery bill by over $300 in cash back and bonuses.
3. Share your opinions on grocery-related things and get paid to do it (One made $4,000 in a month).
Effectiveness Level: High
Get paid to share your opinions, and use the money for groceries.
I like Survey Junkie, Survey Club, and Ipsos I-say. I call them the “Golden Trifecta” – each has its own pluses- and couldn’t see any reason that you can’t make at least $250/mo when you use all of them.
Survey Junkie is straightforward and is a moneymaker for some.
One stay-home mom made over $615.56 in just 10 days from it while on break from taking care of her little kiddos.
I even took a few surveys from Survey Junkie and made over $20 while binge-watching some Netflix shows. Best yet, I wasn’t forced to do answer any questions I didn’t like.
Survey Club participants make as high as $115 per survey. One even made over $4,000 in one month. (image above).
Another one is Ipsos I-say. One member made $40 in two days. Assuming he made $20/day, that’s $620/mo.
Taking surveys is quite easy and fun. That’s how to save money on groceries.
4. Get a refund (No more fights on getting your refund).
Effectiveness Level: Medium-High
It turns out deleting emails especially the emails with receipts was costing me a lot of money. So, please stop.
Why?
There’s a new app called Paribus — a tool that gets your money back for your grocery purchases online.
It has made us over $332 in 6 months without us lifting even our pinky finger.
Here’s how it works:
Once an email account is linked, Paribus tracks your receipts and stores’ policies.
If it sees a price drop, products were delivered late or some weird crap happened beyond your control, it will streamline the process to get your money back. As simple as that.
It tracks companies like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and more.
Trying to get your money back on groceries, which could take hours or rarely happens, can now be done in a few minutes automatically (even when you’re asleep). Read Paribus Review: Can This App Save You Money? for more information.
Click here to start using Paribus for FREE.
5. Use credit card the right away (Get those cash back and bonus offers).
Effectiveness Level: High
They say that if you are trying to cut down on expenses and want to learn how to save money on groceries, the best way is to stay away from using your credit cards.
That’s true up to a certain extent.
If you are not using a rewards card to buy your grocery, you are basically leaving free money on the table.
Here’s an option:
You can use rewards card like the Capital One QuickSilver card.
You’ll earn an unlimited 1.5% cash back on any purchases. Plus, earn a one-time $200 cash bonus when you spend $1,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening.
Best yet:
There is no annual fee. The cash back rewards never expire.
Since we used this card, we’ve made over $700. Who doesn’t want to save money, right?
Click here to get the Capital One QuickSilver card.
6. Go bulk.
Effectiveness Level: High
No not the muscle bulking type thing.
Whenever necessary, buy in bulk. Remember the keyword “necessary”.
Make sure you bulk buy the things you need and always use.
Warehouse clubs like BJ’s Wholesale are great places to get bulk items as they are priced reasonably well plus they have coupons, too.
If you don’t have BJ’s yet, you can get one for as low as $15 (that’s for a whole year) when you use my link.
Here’s another option:
Buy bulk items section on Amazon Grocery. You will save roughly $70 a year in membership fees. Also, Amazon will ship most things to you for free.
This is a pro tip:
Also, do you know about the Amazon-only coupons posted each week? Just click the ones you need and they will automatically be credited upon your checkout.
7. Don’t throw vegetable scraps or bones.
Effectiveness Level: Medium-High
One of the things that causes a big jump in your grocery budget is likely food waste.
Here’s the truth:
In America, 50% of all produce is thrown away. Yikes, that’s significant percentage by any standard.
Be creative with your food and don’t just throw them away because they are leftovers, scraps, and the likes.
If you are a veggie lover but don’t like the skins, you can store the skins in a zip lock bag and eventually use all the scraps you saved to make vegetable stock.
If you happen to have chicken bones, beef bones, or pork bones, use them to make chicken, beef, or pork stock or use these bones in other dishes.
If you do use them in other recipes, your foods will taste even better because these bones are packed with a ton of flavor.
8. Plant even if it means throwing the seed aimlessly.
Effectiveness Level: Medium-High
This is the primitive technique on how to save money on grocery.
But don’t discount its effect:
We just harvested a couple of big squashes and several pounds of Okra. The picture you see below is my daughter in our garden.
You know the best benefit of planting your veggies?
The best benefit is that you exactly know what you use to help your plants grow. You can call them organic veggies and fruits if you choose to let nature do its magic. 🙂
9. Use coupons.
Effectiveness Level: High
Even when the products are on sale, we avoid buying impulsively.
Just because a product is on sale doesn’t mean that it’s a good buy.
Sometimes some stores will bring up the prices of the products before discounting them.
Many shoppers, being unaware of this trick, think that they are getting good deals out of these products.
Here’s how we do it:
My wife and I use SavingStar.
It not only provides printable grocery coupons but also grocery discounts and gift cards you can’t find elsewhere.
If you want to learn how to save money, using coupons is a great way to go.
What’s better is that it provides valuable information on grocery shopping, cooking, healthy eating, coupon clipping, saving money, and more.
Create an account here and start saving money with SavingStar.
My wife and I always wait when the products are on sale and when we have coupons for them. If we miss the deal, we know that there’s another sale that will come shortly.
10. Compare your food expenses with other people’s food expenses.
Effectiveness Level: Medium-High
When you can and if you know people with the same family size, ask them how much they spend.
If you find people who spend way less than you spend, ask them for tips and tricks.
One of the things I realized when we started cutting our budget was that my wife and I were not alone in our quest to cut down our food budget.
So, we (i.e., our friends and us) shared our experiences, budgets, etc.
Personally, I learned so many ways to trim down our food budget from them. The lessons I learned are notated in some of the tips and tricks here.
11. Shop around for sales.
Effectiveness Level: High
One of the best ways to cut grocery cost is to shop when foods are on sale whether they are online or in-store.
We buy what is on sale.
With so many recipes online and so many grocery stores that advertise sales every week, chances are you can find something that you like to eat.
I know we do.
If the product is on deep discount, then, we tend to buy in bulk as long as the product is non-perishable or something that doesn’t expire fast.
12. Learn the prices of the products.
Effectiveness Level: High
We learn how to save money on groceries by determining the prices of products.
Prices of grocery products may or will change from time to time.
For us, when we know that the prices are high even when the products are on sale, we don’t put those products in our cart. It’s just that simple.
When you do your grocery shopping, and you buy the same exact stuff almost all the time, you get to know how much they cost and when they are priced high or low.
13. Avoid loading your dish with meat.
Effectiveness Level: High
Meat can be or is expensive. To save money on groceries, you need to limit the amount of meat in a dish.
When you cook, try not to make the meat as the main ingredient of your dish.
Use less meat in a recipe. This goes to say that you should use more vegetables and less meat.
When you do this, you make the meat as an accent to your dish. Vegetables especially the in-season ones are cheap, and they are healthy, too.
Better yet, put the amount of meat that meets your dietary requirements. You don’t need to overload your body with proteins.
We always buy in-season veggies and fruits since they are cheaper than those that aren’t in-season. I suggest that you consider purchasing in-season products.
If you think there aren’t a lot of vegetable dishes you can make with simple ingredients, think again. There are a ton out there.
14. Use the secret power of Amazon (i.e., AmazonFresh).
Effectiveness Level: High
Amazon is one of the best companies regarding getting products at discounted prices. Its AmazonFresh is no exception.
A lot of its fresh produce is reasonably priced compared with those in stores.
If you like organic produce and cook from scratch (i.e., not buying pre-packaged foods), then, you know buying ingredients in-store is not cheap.
We buy vegetables and fruits all the time there, and the quality of these products are beyond outstanding.
That’s where AmazonFresh comes in.
Look:
Ever since we started using AmazonFresh, we’ve saved at least 15% on our fresh produce bill per month.
The best thing about AmazonFresh is that the produce gets delivered in front of your home within 1-2 days.
If you’re looking to save on produce, create an account with AmazonFresh. As a starter, you’ll get a 7-day FREE trial. With the power of Amazon behind AmazonFresh, that free trial means a lot.
15. Don’t be like chefs, seriously.
Effectiveness Level: High
Don’t be making meals with thousands of ingredients like the ones you see on TV. #dontmakecomplicatedmeals
Simple meals are time-saver, budget-friendly, and yummy, too.
Listen to this:
As much as possible, stick with the basic ingredients since you can use these for other dishes. Basic ingredients are those that you use a lot of times.
Uncomplicating your meals can easily cut grocery bill.
If you need ¼ cup of tomato sauce and bought a 1 cup tomato sauce and don’t know where to use the rest, you may end up putting it to waste. Not good at all.
There are a ton of great recipes that mostly use basic ingredients. You can always go to All Recipes, Pinterest, and Yummly for some great dishes.
You can always use crock pots to create your perfect meal without using a lot of ingredients and spend too much time in the kitchen.
My other blog “The Handy Foodie” has numerous recipes that only require 5 or fewer ingredients.
You should check it out when you have the time or in need of great recipes on a low budget.
Related: How to Get Netflix for Free – Legitimate Tips!
16. Re-invent and use leftovers.
Effectiveness Level: High
As much as we want to eat everything that my wife cooks, we just end up having leftovers.
We sometimes intentionally do this because it’s much cheaper, more convenient, and easier to cook more than less.
When we have leftovers, we re-invent them to create a new dish and use them as my lunch for the next day.
For example, when we have baked chicken leftover, we create chicken pot pie using such leftover.
Good for me because I take the chicken pot pie to work as lunch.
Re-inventing leftovers can be tricky, but it doesn’t always have to be.
Final thoughts:
These are the ways on how to save money on groceries by dramatically in a short period.
Whether you want to know how to cut your grocery bill without coupons or want to make money by spending money, the list I provided above can help you with what you need to bring down your grocery costs.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any other questions. I am here to help. Thanks.
Example of My Family’s Weekly Food Choices:
A couple of years ago, our grocery bill for the 3 of us was around $500.00/month, which was a lot. We came from Las Vegas where food was cheap, but it’s a different scenario where we live now.
But we have managed to cut down our grocery bill to $150.00/month by planning meals, finding alternatives to many expensive ingredients, planting our veggies, among others.
When I wrote the How To Save At Least $14,000 A Year, Alexandra (one of my readers) asked me what on earth am I feeding my family on $150/month. Here’s my response to her.
“Here’s how we budget our meals (on average):
6lbs of chicken @ $1.99/lb – $11.94
4 lbs of chicken thighs/drumsticks @ $1.88/lb – $7.52
5 lbs of ground beef @ $2.89/lb – $14.45
1 lb of Shrimp – $6.00 (on and off meaning sometimes we do have shrimp every week sometimes we don’t)
Veggies and fruits – $8.00 (just because we have veggies planted)
Breakfast (i.e., oatmeal, pancake, peanut butter, egg, bread, and milk) – $7.50 (roughly because our oatmeal, peanut butter, and pancake are something that we don’t buy every week but more like every two weeks).
Misc food (i.e., flour and spices) – $5.00 (this is not an every week supply).
Total – $60.00ish minus coupons*
Note: We tend to have some unused foods by the end of the week, and the $60 is the highest amount we budget for our family.
Do you think it will work for your family? What other ways on how to save money on groceries do you know of?
