7 ways to save money on your groceries

This week I give you 7 tips for saving money at the grocery store.

• cooking
• make a shopping list
• discounts 
• store brands
• budget supermarket
• kids
• once a week

Cooking

I recommend you to make a weekly cooking plan.  Write down which dishes you plan to prepare on which day and write the (fresh) ingredients on your shopping list.

For example, when I prepare spaghetti sauce, I make extra portions to freeze.  Then, when a day comes with little time or you don’t feel like cooking, you take a prepared portion out of the freezer.  Of course, on such days you can also take out a frozen dish, such as pizza, but this is usually not so good for the wallet and also less healthy ;-).

Shopping list

I still make my shopping list “old style” on paper. 

When we run out of a frequently used product, we add it to our list.  Before I go to the supermarket, I check what stock we have left. This avoids purchases of products of which you actually have enough stock.

To avoid impulse buying, it is important to stick to your list. Only buy the products on your shopping list!

Tip: I also (re)write the groceries in the order they are in the aisles of the supermarket.  This saves a tremendous amount of stress and searching in the supermarket!

Discounts

Keep a close eye on discounts. Products with a longer shelf life may have high discounts.  On my shopping list, I put a question mark behind the products I don’t need right away, but buy at big discounts.  For example, for laundry products and dishwasher tablets.

In the supermarket, I also regularly look down because cheap products are often found on the bottom shelf.

Store brands

Most supermarkets have their own store brands.  These products are usually equivalent in quality to the real brands, but they are much cheaper.  The supermarket doesn’t need large marketing budgets for store brands.

Budget supermarket

Compare prices between supermarkets.  

Aldi and Lidl are known for their competitive prices, but the product selection is a bit more limited.

Kids

A golden tip: don’t take kids to the supermarket.  If you shop with kids, there will be extra candy in your shopping cart before you realize it :-).

Once a week

Try to do your grocery shopping at most once a week.

We do our grocery shopping once every 2 weeks for fresh products and longer lasting products. In the in-between weeks, we only get fresh products.

How do you save money at the grocery store? Let us know in the comments!

This info is for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. Please do your own research (disclaimer).