Tips to Saving Money on Groceries

Groceries can be expensive. It's important to utilize different tools to help you save money and not overspend on everyday groceries. Saving money on groceries is not a waste of time. If you save money on groceries that extra money can be used to build up your rainy day fund, retirement, college funds and save you from living month to month. Here are some of my tips on how to save money on your groceries:

1. Create a Meal Plan: If you have a meal plan for the week or month, it will help you know what to buy and what not to. It will also save you from going back and forth to store to buy ingredients or items to create a meal. We have 30 recipes that we rotate in the fall/winter and summer/spring. I buy the same things over and over, which helps me to look out for sales on those items, become familiar with price points at different stores and not overspend by buying things we won't use.

2. Make Your Meals from Recipes/Scratch: Making your meals from recipes will help you save money (not time). Frozen meals and going out for meals are typically more expensive than if you were to make it yourself. Some recipes are quicker than others. It's important to find recipes that fit your budget, lifestyle, and time constraints.

3. Couponing: We save several dollars each month from couponing. Coupons can be found online, in circulars and in the Sunday newspaper.

4. Grocery Store Apps: I have apps on my phone from grocery stores (Target, Fred Meyer, Albertsons) and can clip coupons for in-store purchases and deals. This saves me a lot of money. These coupons can dramatically reduce costs and can sometimes reduce prices lower than the everyday low prices from Winco and Walmart.

5. Savings Apps: I use the apps Checkout51 and Ibotta. I browse through the items I can earn rebates on through the app and upload my receipts right after I am done shopping. If I can save an additional .25 on apples instead of pears and they're cheaper, I will buy apples that week. I never get a huge amount back, but even little amounts back add up over time. If you sign-up for Ibotta using my referral link you can earn a welcome bonus, click here to learn more. I started using Ibotta last fall and earned over $40 back.

6. Buy Bulk: I also have bought items in bulk/large quantities and broken it down into smaller sizing for meals using quart or gallon size bags. This helps me to save money and build-up my food storage supply.

What are some of your tips?

Please note that this post contains referral links.