Saving Money on Groceries

I've been working on saving money on groceries basically since we started trying to budget about two years ago. Before that, I guess I was trying not to spend too much, but I didn't have a plan. Then we wrote out a budget and I realized how expensive food is.

This is what I've done already to save money:

Coupons 

I have a coupon app on my phone (I think it's like Coupons.com or something) that I look through and "clip". Then I email them to my computer and print them, using them at Wal Mart.

I also use Smith's online coupons.

I don't use tons or save tons with coupons. I don't get things for free and I'm really careful to only get coupons for things that were on my list anyways. Most of the time, these are nonfood items, like make up or deodorant. I also can get almond milk or Annie's cracker coupons pretty often, as well as things like sour cream or cream cheese. It's a few dollars, but it feels worth the couple of minutes it takes me to scroll through the coupons each week.

Sale Prices 

While I'm going through coupons, I also always look through the ads of the stores I'm going to. I sometimes price match at Wal Mart and I always buy produce according to what is on a good deal.

Price List

I recently put together price lists from the stores I shop at the most. This is helping me make sure I buy something at the best price, not just because it happens to be at the store I happen to be at. It also will be helpful as I do things like try to figure out if something is a good price at Costco, during a caselot sale, or just sales in general.


This is what I want to begin doing, especially as we get our new apartment and I can implement my food systems:

Meal Plan

This is something I've been doing recently, but I want to do better with it. I want to do my best not to plan so much food that we can't eat it all (which is something I do now; I have a tendency to get carried away planning). I also want to be really conscious about only buying food that I need for my meal plan.

Cut Back 

There are foods that I can cut back on and make myself or simply do without. For example, I currently keep a bunch of crackers stocked up for Ashtyn. I don't think I need to do this (I'll probably keep some for church handy though). We also tend to buy a lot of healthy treats, from The Chalet here in Vernal. I want to cut back on that as well.

Use Reusable 

This is something else I've been working on. I'm not taking a huge leap, because it's not in our budget, but I'm slowly replacing our disposable with reusable as much as possible. I want reusable snack bags and food bags, wool balls instead of dryer sheets,  silicone mats instead of parchment paper, etc.

DIY 

This is something else I've been working on for a while now. I am pretty good with using natural ingredients (like lemon juice, baking soda, and vinegar) to clean with, but I can do better. I know it's so much better for your family and house to do this, but it's way cheaper too.

I also recently discovered Swagbucks, which is a search engine (with other things as well) you can use to earn points in exchange for gift cards. A lot of bloggers I've read about have used this to get Amazon gift cards and then use Amazon Prime Pantry to save on groceries. I'm trying it out, though I'm a little cautious about it. I tried the whole get cash and gift cards in exchange for doing surveys and I found it to be waste of time. So far, I actually like Swagbucks. I won't make a ton from it, but I think I could five or ten dollars on Amazon per month with just a couple minutes a day on there. We'll see how it goes.

I really want to save as much as possible on groceries. Food is so expensive and cutting down on our expenses is the main way I contribute to our income. I think it just takes work and time to learn how to save on groceries