How to Grocery Shop on a Budget

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Do you feel that your grocery budget is out of control? You aren't alone, everyone is feeling the price increases at the grocery store checkout. It may seem like an impossible budget category to tackle, but with these tips you can take control over your grocery spending.

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Start with What You Have

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I know you're chomping at the bit to get to the store, but pause for just a moment. What do you already have? Something as simple as an inventory list can reveal savings. For my coaching clients, I offer them a printable file with inventory sheets for the pantry, fridge and freezer. It's easy to re-buy something when you don't know you have it! Whether you use pen and paper, an app, or even just a note in your phone, you should keep tabs on what you have on hand.

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Some people like to have a separate list of staples: spices, flour, sugar, etc. These will be the foundation to many meals. However it's easy to see a sale at the store and pick up a bag of flour when you still have one at home. 

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If you share meal responsibilities with another person, it may be worth it to share an app or keep the inventory list where you can see it. The side of the fridge is a great spot for your printed inventory lists. I like to refresh my lists every month, but this may be useful to do weekly until you get a good cadence. Preventing food waste just means grocery savings later on. 

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Plan Meals Around Food You Have

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Now that you have a list of items on hand, what do you need to use up? Take note of expiration dates and what you should prioritize to eat first. Throw away expired foods and set aside non-perishables to donate to a local food bank if you don't plan on consuming them. This is where you get creative! Do you have a bulk pack of pasta, green beans and tomato sauce? It's time for a family spaghetti night. What about a bunch of random cans? That could make a fun soup or chili. Involve your family in what they would eat, and don't be afraid to try foods that wouldn't normally go together. 

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Challenge yourself to eat up the foods you have before going to the grocery store. However we all know you can't have lasagna without cheese, so there will be a few straggler items you will want to pick up from the store so that your family doesn't protest at the dinner table. 

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Utilize Curbside Pickup

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You already know you need to make a list at home while you're staring at the items you have. It's easy to stray from that list when you actually get into the store. Once you have enough items to earn free curbside pickup, plug in your items into your local store's app. Technology today allows for you to keep track of coupons and sales. It's less tempting to overspend on an app than it is in the store. This tip can be applied to delivery, however I would refrain from paying for this service. If you drive a car and are able to leave the house, that will be the most bang for your buck.

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Think about it: when you're sauntering up and down the aisles, you'll be tempted by the fun new products at eye level. This is what stores want you to do, but you're prepared and sticking to your budget. This doesn't mean you shouldn't have fun, but impulse buys can quickly derail your good intentions. That leads me to my next tip, don't go to the store hungry.

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Don't go to the Grocery Story Hungry

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Yep, you know this one too. I love to gamify household tasks I don't enjoy. I make a grocery date and carve out an hour the morning of my restock. I make a yummy breakfast with what I have and plan out my shopping approach. Sometimes I have to go to multiple stores, so I plan to go into stores first. This way I have a fresh mind and am ready to face the lines. Grocery pickup is nice at the end of the morning when decision fatigue is at an all-time high. Grocery shopping is a necessary task we all have to participate in, why make it harder than it already is?

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I intentionally budget to buy a nice cup of coffee for my weekly shopping trip. Humans are simple creatures, and our brains associate rewards with positivity. That $7 cup of coffee motivates me and gives me the literal energy to shop. The amount I save from impulse buys is much more than $7, an example of how to strategize your budget. You may want to skip this if your coach has worked with you on coffee expenses, which is why individualized coaching is key to your strategy.

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Shop Local and Smart

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It feels great to support farmer's markets and local grocery stores. Oftentimes these are a cost-effective way to support your community. However if you are limiting the number of stores you go to and do not have a preference on your food source, the grocery store can have better prices. I like to get my dry goods and non-perishables at larger stores but enjoy cruising the farmer's market for in-season produce. Generic items are just as good, if not exactly the same product, as name brands.

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Just like larger stores, you need to have a grocery list for these markets as well. It's easy to get distracted by the delicious pastries, art, and other goodies usually found there. A shopping list helps you focus on which healthy produce to pick up first, so you can grab that tasty treat and know you accomplished your goal. I love to help clients fund an impulse purchases category so they have the freedom and flexibility to grab those things they want without worrying about their overall grocery bill. 

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Get Creative with Meal Prep

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Not everyone loves the idea of eating leftovers, but planning ahead prevents expensive trips to the drive thru when you’re exhausted and out of food. Here are a few ideas to work around the meal prep dread:

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Prep with Friends

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I lived alone with my young daughter for years, making batched meals tricky. I got tired of eating the same soups for a week, but felt guilty throwing away food. My best friend also lived alone, so we started meal prepping together. We would each buy half of the groceries and plan a day to cook. We decided on a few breakfasts and meals we both enjoyed, then compared which items each of us already had. She would then arrive at my house with her tupperware containers and her half of the groceries. We put all distractions aside, turned on some good music, and got to work. At the end of the afternoon, we each had a reasonable amount of food to last us the week. Bonus: we knocked out all of the dishes and I wasn’t left with multiple days of chores. Win-win!

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Focus on Food Groups

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Meals can be daunting. Another approach is to prepare proteins and sides to mix and match. When I just can’t think about whole meals, this was a great method. I would purchase cheap steak and chicken breasts, use up rice I had, and finish up frozen vegetables or add more from my farmer’s market haul. Seasonings were kept fairly plain so I could add more later. A batch of grilled steak and chicken could become knockoff Chipotle burritos, teriyaki chicken bowls, or fresh salads. I could add additional sauces to take plain meat to the next level without committing to eating that one meal all week. This was flexible in case I got invited to eat out with friends or decided to make something different one night.

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Use the Freezer

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Your freezer can be the best defense against food waste. If you reach the end of your meal prep and just can’t do it anymore, toss leftovers in the freezer. Whip up a tasty combination of what you have left and label it in a container. You now have a backup meal to pull out when you need! I love buying frozen vegetables and even freezing my bread. Pulling out one slice of frozen bread and toasting it is no different than the bread on my counter, and allows me to stretch the shelf life of that loaf longer.

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Is Bulk Better?

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I'm a big fan of Costco, and have saved a substantial amount of money by buying in bulk. However not everything is a good deal. With your phone, you can easily figure out the price per item using simple division. Take the cost of the item before tax and divide it by the number of items in the package to get the unit cost. Stores such as Target have this value posted on the price tag in the store to make it simple. As a rule of thumb, it’s cheaper per unit to buy a larger package. It saves the manufacturer money on packaging. Bulk purchasing works when you will consume the items before the expiration date and have room to store the items. 

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I like to buy paper products like paper towels and toilet paper from Costco. They have great deals on food, but as a two-person household it doesn’t always make sense to buy huge packages of cold food. If you shop at a bulk store, start there first. You can see what deals are available and then go to a regular store for smaller packages. I won’t eat up several pounds of fresh zucchini, but I will keep toothpaste on hand for months. 

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What about Apps?

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In the last several years, many apps have come to the market promising to save you money. You can “earn” money through challenges that require your spending. The Target app is notorious for this, as well as Ibotta and Rakuten. Here’s my controversial opinion: these are rarely worth it. The people who get the most out of these apps are the ones with a strong sense of need vs. want (hint: another fantastic topic for your budget coach to help you with). 

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Don’t get me wrong, I have been a fan of these promotions before. I have earned money this way, but when compared to what I had to spend I made very little. These apps can sway you to buy brand name and more items than you actually need. As I mentioned above, an item is only a good deal if you’ll use it. You do not need to be storing months of shampoo or canned goods because you saved a few dollars.

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I will participate in promotions from time to time, but only after I ensure I need the amount of items in the promotion. Sometimes this works beautifully and I feel successful with my $5 Target card. I suggest turning off push notifications for those apps and only checking when you’ve already loaded up your online cart with necessities. 

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The Bottom Line on Grocery Budgets

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Saving money on your groceries is not impossible, it just takes some planning. This is one of those tasks that will never go away. It’s better to dedicate some time each week to stretching what you have and learning how you prefer to meal plan. It is rewarding to save money but you will also see the perks of less food waste and healthier home-cooked meals. Each time you throw away food, you’re throwing away money. 

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I get asked if I recommend coupons or crazy cost comparisons. While it’s great to use them, coupons are often for brand name items which are already priced higher than their generic alternatives. Psychologically you feel as if you’re saving money, when really it may be cheaper to skip the coupon and buy generic. You can do some quick calculations in the aisle to see the results. The same goes for cost comparisons. Think about the opportunity cost of this. If you spend all day driving around town or even scouring online, are you really saving time? 

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Time is money. When a client is about to invest in their own cleaning, landscaping, shopping or other tasks, we compare their hourly work rate to the time spent on a task. Will you save enough money to warrant doing it yourself? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. This is a great topic to bring up with your budget coach. You may save $20 by driving around town, but if you wasted 6 hours on that task when you could have been working it was not worth it. Not to mention the investment of gas and use of your car. Coaches teach you to save money practically, though it’s not as fun as seeing coupons deduct from your total price. 

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How a Budget Coach Can Help

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You have all of these great tips, but will you actually execute them? This is where a budget coach can support you. Before you begin slashing this area of your budget, are you sure you are even overspending? To determine this, you need to get tracking. Using an app like MyBudgetCoach helps you track and label transactions seamlessly. My diligent clients will split transactions so that the $100 spent at Target is actually $60 towards groceries and $40 towards household goods. You may be overestimating food purchases if you buy multiple items at once. After a few months of tracking, you will have an idea of your spending. 

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A budget coach can then decipher what is too much for your household. Oftentimes I have helped clients see that their grocery spending is just fine, it is their Amazon spending for miscellaneous items that is out of control. If the problem is truly the groceries, your coach can help you implement the steps above to whittle down that spending.

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