In the month of October, my challenge will be to find $1000. Mondays thru Saturdays in October, I will have ideas to help you find $1000 too. On Sundays, we’ll meet here to catch our breath, and let everyone know how we’re finding our $1000.
If there is one line item in everyone’s budget that can get out of control it is groceries.
It is so easy to walk into the grocery store with an idea of what you will spend, walk out with a bill that is double and get home to discover that you have nothing to eat. Groceries can get out of control fast, but all it takes for you to get your grocery spending in line with your budget is PLANNING.
Yes, there are coupons, but you don’t have to use them to reduce your grocery bill. I do not use a lot of coupons–mostly because I find so few for products that we use. On average, I redeem $5-$10 in coupons a week and most of them were issued by my grocery store (Giant of PA) in their weekly sales flyer.
I’ve written A LOT over the years about ways to reduce grocery spending. I actively do all of the tips below and my grocery spending regularly fits into our budget and my family eats quality meals for a fraction of the price.
This month, I am challenging myself to try to squeeze some extra money out of our grocery budget to put towards our goal of finding $1000. It takes planning! So read through the below tips and attack that grocery bill!
Reduce Your Grocery Spending WITHOUT Sacrificing Quality
Grocery Planning/Buying Tips
- Know Your Buy Price
- Organize your pantry and your spices
- My grocery list/menu clip board
- Plan your weekly menu
- Make one night a week, “raid the fridge night“.
- Buy/Use store brands
- Utilize your freezer.
- Compare unit price.
- Have an emergency back up meal in freezer or pantry at all times.
- Shop your freezer/pantry
Produce Tips
- Revitalize Dried Out Baby Carrots
- U-Pick local, seasonal fruit
- How to Freeze herbs, How to Freeze Basil
- Freeze your garden harvest – green beans, hot pepper
- How to Save Money at the Apple Orchard
- 20 Ways to Use Ripe Bananas
Meat Tips
- Don’t shy away from meat markdowns
- Batch Browning & Freezing Ground Meat and Sausage
- Make your own chicken stock on the stove top OR in the crock pot
- Create vegetable freezer bags for making chicken/turkey stock
Batch/Portion Control Tips
- Freeze cookie dough.
- Make brownies in a muffin tin rather than a pan.
- Batch griddle extra pancakes and freeze for later.
Organic
- Become a member of a CSA.
- Use your grocery store’s private label organize brands.
- Compare price per unit.
- Stock up on organic meat that has been marked down.
Misc
- Homemade buttermilk substitute.
- Homemade Taco Seasoning
- 10 Paper Products to Cross off your grocery list.
- Stock up and save with pre-holiday grocery sales.
- Stop wasting food.
- Shop at bread outlets.
- Make homemade bread crumbs from bread heels.
- Reuse glass jars.
- Homemade window cleaner for just pennies.
- After-Holiday clearance sales aren’t just about gift wrap.
- 20 Ways to Use Original Blue Dawn
How much do you spend on groceries every month? Is there wiggle room to reduce it? Let us know in the comments.
For more ideas, follow me on Pinterest. I have started a 31 Days to Find $1000 Pinterest board where I’ll be posting ideas all month long.
Kristia, I didn’t realize you were in PA! I am from eastern PA, near Reading. Now we live just west of Baltimore. My mom still lives there and loves to shop at Giant! It’s a small world.
yep, I live in good old central PA!
Our family grocery budget for four people (two teens, two adults, plus a dog and cat) is about $600/month and it’s hard to stick to that! I used to buy a lot more organic and almost no snacks and we spent less. However, now my kids are teens and eat like adults and I find they need snacks around and I don’t always have time or want to bake them from scratch. I’ve taken to shopping almost exclusively at Target where I can use their Cartwheel app and my Red Card (which is now a debit card so no credit card problems any more!) to save another 5% each time. I love seeing that $10 come off my $200 grocery bill at checkout! I would love to go back to buying more organic, simpler foods only but I think I’ve given into this teen-aged thing. I am not sure where I can cut out some grocery spending, but I’ll see what I can do in these last couple weeks of October. Your posts are inspiring!
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Thanks for commenting, Lisa! It must be hard with growing teens to keep the grocery bill under control. I feel your pain–our girls are big eaters now and I can’t imagine what they’ll be like when they hit their teen years.
Your comment reminded me that I want to get a Target debit card. We used to have their credit card. We stopped using our credit cards for those types of purchases, but I miss the 5% off and we shop there quite a bit.