Good question. I’m writing this article as much for me as I am for you – it’s a constant battle that we have to fight. But we have definitely found some things over the years that work for us, and I think they can help you too!
Back in the days before we had kids, we lived in a condo near a higher-end grocery store. We also had the luxury (without kids) of coming home after work with no plans and no idea what we were going to eat.
One week you can get ground beef for $2.99 per pound. The next week, chicken is $2 per pound. The following week, pork is on sale for whatever pork sells for (not a fan of pork…we don’t buy it much).
This goes hand in hand with planning ahead and making a list. In addition to that, you can save a lot of money on groceries by planning your meals in advance, and making an easy rotating meal plan.
I’m not going to lie. Shopping at Aldi changed our life. Without changing the types of groceries we bought, we cut our budget by $100 a month just by doing most of our shopping at Aldi.
For any staples in your grocery shopping, try to buy in bulk when you can. Rice and beans are a good example. We also buy trail mix in the bulk section (and maybe some chocolate covered items from time to time…)
Americans throw away about a pound of food per person per day, the equivalent of about a third of daily calorie intake! Can you imagine the grocery savings if Americans as a whole stopped wasting all this food?
If you’re at all concerned about saving money on groceries, tracking what you eat (or more accurately what you throw away) can go a long way toward lowering your grocery shopping budget.