Most people continue experiencing sticker shock at the grocery store, making grocery budgeting more important than ever. When asked about monthly grocery spending, responses varied widely depending on location, family size, and meal preparation habits, though the average American household spends approximately $500 monthly on groceries. Learning how to save money on groceries has never been more essential.
When you focus on that monthly grocery number and realize what a significant portion of your budget it represents, it becomes clear that spending time to stretch those dollars as far as possible makes financial sense. While you might not achieve 50% savings, every bit counts. If you can apply even a few of these strategies to your current grocery routine and save money, the benefits will compound over time.
1. Monitor Your Refrigerator Usage
One way to gauge your grocery efficiency is by examining your refrigerator at the end of each shopping cycle, whether that’s weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Organize your fridge with a designated leftover space to prevent food from getting lost and spoiling in the back.
When your fridge is nearly empty at the end of your shopping cycle, you’ve succeeded. This indicates you didn’t overshop, you’re not wasting food, and you consumed your leftovers effectively.
2. Choose Seasonal Produce and Frozen Alternatives
Focus on in-season fruits and vegetables for the best prices. When your favorites aren’t in season but you still want them, opt for frozen versions, which cost significantly less than out-of-season fresh produce.
Frozen vegetables and fruits are flash-frozen at peak ripeness, preserving nutrition without the preservatives and metallic taste that can affect canned goods. Frozen options make it easy to prepare quick, wholesome meals like chicken breast with frozen vegetables—a complete, unprocessed meal that saves considerable money, especially when frozen items are on sale.
3. Reconsider Grocery Cashback Apps
While grocery cashback apps like Ibotta or Fetch might seem appealing for earning money back on purchases, they often encourage spending on name-brand, processed foods with minimum purchase requirements. These featured products are typically overpriced compared to generic brands and are often unhealthy processed items.
Generic and store brands frequently come from the same factories as name brands—they simply change the label. The quality remains similar while the price drops significantly, making generic brands a better choice than chasing cashback on expensive name-brand items.
4. Avoid Non-Grocery Items at Grocery Stores
Skip purchasing toiletries and other non-food items at grocery stores, where these products carry premium pricing. Retailers like Walmart or Target typically offer these same items at significantly lower prices. You’ll pay a premium when picking up these convenience items during your grocery shopping.
5. Plan Multiple Uses for Single Ingredients
When meal planning, think strategically about using ingredients in multiple ways throughout the week. Buying larger quantities usually offers better per-unit pricing, but only if you use everything before it spoils.
For example, purchase a large bag of carrots and plan to use them as a dinner side dish one night, make coleslaw for hamburgers another night, and add them to soup on a third night. Similarly, buy a whole roasted chicken for one dinner, use leftover pieces for chicken tacos (topped with that carrot slaw), create buffalo chicken pizza with remaining meat, and make chicken broth from the bones for soup.
This approach maximizes your investment in single ingredients while providing meal variety throughout the week.
6. Shop at Aldi When Available
If you have access to an Aldi location, it can provide considerable grocery savings. Their business model focuses on efficiency and lower overhead costs, which translates to lower prices for consumers. Check what’s available in your area and compare prices on your regular purchases.
7. Try Grocery Pickup Services
For those who struggle with impulse purchases or spending too much time comparison shopping in-store, grocery pickup can be a money-saving tool. Using store apps allows you to:
- Load items into your cart and see the running total
- Stay within budget by removing items before checkout
- Compare prices without feeling rushed or watched
- Focus on finding the best deals without distractions
- Avoid impulse purchases triggered by in-store displays
8. Conduct Regular Pantry Challenges
Periodically challenge yourself to eat from your existing pantry, refrigerator, and freezer stocks while avoiding the grocery store for a week or two. This approach helps rotate through stored items, prevents waste, and encourages creative meal planning.
You’ll develop resourcefulness in combining available ingredients and can potentially save one to two weeks of grocery costs while using items you’ve already purchased.
9. Look Up and Down in Store Aisles
Avoid eye-level products and end-cap displays, which typically feature the highest-profit items for the store. Retailers strategically place the most expensive, highest-margin products at eye level for easy accessibility.
Instead, look at higher and lower shelves where better deals are often located.
10. Request Rain Checks for Sale Items
When sale items are out of stock, visit customer service to request a rain check. This allows you to purchase the item at the sale price when you return the following week, even though the sale has ended.
11. Always Shop With a List
Take time to prepare by checking what you have in your fridge, freezer, and pantry before shopping. Decide what meals you’ll prepare, determine what you actually need, and create a comprehensive list.
Most importantly, stick to that list when you’re in the store to avoid impulse purchases.
12. Emphasize Whole, Natural Foods
Statistically, people consuming more processed foods (items in bags, boxes, and wrappers) consume approximately 500 additional calories daily. This means buying more food while experiencing negative health consequences.
Processed foods are engineered to encourage overconsumption and prevent satiation. Consider this comparison: a bag of potato chips contains about four pounds of potatoes. You could likely eat an entire bag of chips in one sitting, but could you eat four pounds of plain boiled potatoes? The engineering behind processed foods makes this difference possible.
Eating more whole, natural foods results in consuming less total food while getting better nutrition and feeling more satisfied.
13. Start With Convenient Lunch Options
If you frequently eat out for lunch but struggle with meal prep or don’t enjoy leftovers, start with small, manageable changes. Transitioning from eating out four to five days weekly to buying lunch meat and convenient items like microwaveable rice bowls or frozen grain bowls still saves considerable money compared to restaurant meals.
While these aren’t the healthiest options, they’re stepping stones toward better habits. Once you establish the routine of bringing lunch, you can gradually work toward preparing leftovers and healthier homemade options.
14. Regularly Organize Food Storage Areas
Beyond keeping your refrigerator organized, maintain your pantry and freezer systematically. When items get buried or forgotten, you can’t use them effectively and may purchase duplicates.
Regular decluttering and organization prevent situations like discovering multiple cans of the same item hidden in the back of your pantry—items you kept buying because you forgot you already had them.
15. Compare Unit Prices, Not Total Prices
Don’t rely on overall item prices or sale stickers to determine the best value. Sometimes smaller bottles or packages have lower unit prices than larger sizes, or medium-sized items on sale may still cost more per unit than regular-priced alternatives.
Always compare the actual unit price to determine which option provides the best value for your money.
16. Plan Meals Around Leftover Potential
Once you’re comfortable with leftovers, plan meals strategically around items that reheat well and can provide two to three additional servings. Consider your weekly schedule—which days will you be in an office with microwave access, and which meals work best for reheating?
This planning approach maximizes your cooking investment while minimizing food waste and grocery spending.
17. Focus on Budget-Friendly Family Favorites
You don’t need to create elaborate Pinterest-worthy meals every week. Develop a collection of simple, family-favorite meals that you can prepare quickly and that everyone enjoys.
Food doesn’t need to be elaborate to be tasty and satisfying. Simple, familiar meals often work better for both budgets and busy schedules.
18. Eliminate Juices and Sodas
These beverages provide empty calories that could be better used on nutrient-dense foods. They’re also expensive compared to water and can interfere with your body’s satiation signals.
Drinking soda while eating creates a “novelty effect” that can prevent you from recognizing when you’re full, potentially leading to overeating. The added sugars can also cause health imbalances.
While an occasional soda is fine, eliminating regular soda and juice purchases benefits both your health and budget significantly.
19. Stock Up During Low-Price Cycles
When items you use regularly go on sale at rock-bottom prices, stock up—but only if you maintain organized storage areas. Knowing your regular prices helps you recognize genuine sales versus marketing gimmicks.
Building a “frugal pantry” with staples purchased at great prices means you won’t need to buy these items at premium prices most of the time.
20. Shop Multiple Stores When Convenient
This strategy only works when stores are conveniently located near each other—don’t drive all over town chasing deals. If you have complementary stores close together, you can optimize your shopping.
For example, one store might offer the best prices on shelf-stable items like canned goods, grains, and packaged products. Another might excel at fresh produce, dairy, and meat quality and pricing. Shopping both stores strategically can result in significant weekly savings—potentially 25% or more.
21. Check Expiration Dates Carefully
Don’t assume grocery stores remove expired products promptly. Always check dates and select items with the longest shelf life available. Look behind front-row items to find products with later expiration dates.
This is particularly important for dairy products, eggs, and other perishables where a few extra days can make a significant difference.
22. Review Your Receipt Before Leaving
Check your receipt in the parking lot before driving away. Verify that coupons were applied, sale prices were honored, and you weren’t double-charged for any items.
If there are errors, you can immediately return to customer service to resolve them. Once you leave, correcting mistakes becomes much more complicated and time-consuming.
23. Focus Meal Planning on Dinners
Concentrate your meal planning efforts on dinners, which typically require the most variety and may be your largest meal. Breakfasts and lunches usually follow predictable patterns with the same two or three options.
Simply ensure your regular breakfast and lunch staples—whether bagels, cereal, yogurt, bread, or lunch meat—are on your shopping list. Planning three meals daily can feel overwhelming, but planning one main meal while maintaining staples for the others is much more manageable.
24. Schedule Regular Food Clean-Out Nights
Designate one evening before your grocery shopping day as “clean-out night.” Make it a free-for-all where family members create meals from whatever’s available in the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.
The rule is there are no rules—any available foods are fair game, and no one can complain about unusual combinations. This approach ensures you use remaining items before they spoil and keeps your next grocery trip focused on actual needs rather than duplicating items you already have.
25. Use a Calculator to Stay on Budget
If you consistently exceed your grocery budget, bring a calculator and round prices up to the nearest quarter or fifty cents for quick math. For produce sold by weight, make reasonable estimates.
When you approach your budget limit with several items remaining on your list, you’ll naturally reconsider purchases you want versus truly need. This real-time awareness helps maintain your weekly grocery budget effectively.
Making It Work for You
These strategies work because they address the common ways grocery spending gets out of control: impulse purchases, food waste, paying premium prices, and lack of planning. The key is implementing the tips that fit your lifestyle and shopping patterns.
Start with one or two strategies that seem most applicable to your situation, then gradually incorporate additional money-saving approaches as they become habits. Every dollar saved on groceries is money you can allocate toward other financial goals or simply keep in your pocket during these times of increased living costs.