One of the easiest ways for most households to cut back on their spends is to look at their grocery budget. The weekly food shop can be an area where budgets can often be broken because temptation can get in the way. Supermarkets are clever at persuading you that you need stuff!
I’ve got 5 tips to share with you today which I think help keep our grocery costs down:
1) Meal plan. I’ve already written a post on meal planning and how it helps to keep costs down (see here for that post). It’s such an easy thing to implement with a bit of planning before, and once it becomes second nature, your costs will come down.
2) Buy in bulk. For certain food items that we know we use a lot, we tend to buy in bulk as it’s cheaper. When shopping, look at the cost per KG and look for the cheapest. This normally means a larger pack/sack of things. Examples of foods we buy in bulk are dried pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes and spices.
3) Watch your portion size. We’re definitely guilty of eating more than we should, especially when it comes to sides. I now measure out portions of pasta/rice so that I know we’re not eating too much of it – it’s very easy to do, especially with rice! And because we’re eating the correct portion size, the packets of food last longer.
4) Go veggie for one or two nights a week. Eating meat has been proven to be bad for you if it’s eaten every day, and in addition to that, meat is more expensive than other vegetarian options. If you have one or two vegetarians meals a week you’ll be getting more of your 5-a-day and it’ll be cheaper to eat. One of our vegetarian dishes at the moment that we love is vegetable fajitas. You can use pretty much any veg in these, including those ones lurking in the bottom of your fridge, to make a tasty meal. Another one is spaghetti puttanesca, which I shall post a recipe for at some point. Very simply dishes and the price is reflected in that. Still tasty though!
5) Eat things that are in season. It’s much more expensive to buy fruit and veg that isn’t in season, as it has to be imported from somewhere else. A good example of this in the UK is strawberries. It’s strawberry season at the moment in the UK and you can buy British strawberries from the supermarkets and farmers markets. In the colder months, strawberries are still available but at a much higher price, because they’ve been grown abroad and shipped to the UK. This comes at a cost and it shows when buying. Buying in season is also a benefit to the environment, as the food as has had to travel less distance to get to their destination. Remember you can buy things in season and then freeze them for out of season times.
How do you keep your grocery costs down? Any other tips? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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We keep costs down by doing what you listed and also by only shopping on the outside perimeter of the store. Everything you need is on the perimeter. We only go into the aisles for the occasional bag of rice, pasta, or household stuff.
Staying towards the outside of the store is a good tip – thanks for sharing!
Portion size is a good one. A lot of us don’t realize the proper portions we should be eating – when I learned what they were I was pretty surprised. I don’t eat that much, but unfortunately my boyfriend has quite an appetite =). We usually have two or three days where we have simple meals that don’t involve meat.
My husband also has quite an appetite – I tend to add more to his plate than mine! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Thanks for the post! I use a price book (actually
a chart I made in MS Word). I took my last months
receipts to populate, breaking down prices to base
units (eg., price per kilo, 100ml, etc). Now at a glance
I can tell whether a ‘sale’ is really a good bargain, and have an idea of sales cycles.
Price matching from competitor flyers also saves me
about 20% on my grocery bill. We meal plan around
the best bargains. Being veggie helps as the post noted. We could improve on sticking to serving sizes!
Do you do your chart after every shop? I hadn’t thought about doing that! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
I’m a full time vegetarian so my grocery budget is very low. One of my favorite dishes is a chickpea avocado salad. It’s basically guacamole with chickpeas mixed in to make it heartier.
Oh, I’d love you to share some of your recipes sometime – I’m a fan of vegetarian dishes but we eat the same ones week in week out. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Nicola,
I’m all about watching portion sizes. The less you eat, the less money you spend on food. Now, I’m not saying starve yourself. But our portions have really gotten out of hand if you look at what people used to eat 40 or 50 years ago. I love food as much as the next guy, but a little self-control goes a long way.
Best wishes!
I also think that portion sizes are ridiculous, especially with fast food things. Just control of those at home will save you quite a bit! Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Great article with spot on tips. For us, meal planning and eating things in season has really been the key reasons our family has been able to keep out grocery budget under $200/month.
Cheers to small grocery bills! AFFJ
Under $200 a month is a great achieve – well done you! Thanks for stopping by 🙂