One of the best ways to reduce unnecessary expenses and have more than a few bucks saved the end of the month is to go grocery shopping, eat, and prepare meals at home. Sure, it’s nice to have someone cook, clean, and serve you, but you’re paying a premium price, so unless you grab fast food, going out to eat is expensive. While you may already be on the right track when it comes to already saving money by grocery shopping, there are a few tricks you can do to save even more.
Eat Before You Go
If you’ve ever gone grocery shopping on an empty stomach you know that everything starts to look good. You load up on any free samples, only to increase your hunger, and you load up the cart with plenty of items that you will regret later once you’ve had a little sanity and a full stomach. If you can eat a full meal before you go, you can go in with a clear head, stay focused on the task at hand, and get out as quickly as possible.
Never Leave Without a List
The task at hand is loading up on the necessities, not a bunch of impulse purchases, not to mention forgetting anything, which I know I have forgotten the very item I went in for. On the other hand, you always hear those that say they went in for milk and eggs and come out with a full shopping cart. If you make a list before you go for the items that you need at home, you can keep your head down while you’re at the store and only shop for those items. If you can try and lump the list together based on where they’re at in the store, it can even be further help not having to try and go all over the store to find, and therefore maybe adding more items to the cart.
Load Up on the Coupons
The days of getting the Sunday paper and clipping coupons seem to have faded away, but that doesn’t mean that you can give up saving money. One great way now is that if you go to your grocer’s website, you can load up on digital coupons, which go right to your shopper’s reward card and get taken off at the register. The only thing is you may want to print off the list so you remember what you’ve added a coupon for.
Avoid Going Up and Down the Aisles
A great way to save money and avoid any impulse purchases is to avoid going up and down every single aisle. I’ve heard before that if you stick to the perimeter of the store, not only will you save money on going up and down each aisle and risk wasting money on items that you don’t need, but if you work your way around the perimeter of the store is where you will find your fresh produce, meat, dairy, so it will be a lot healthier for you as well.