JoshSaving money is absolutely crucial – especially in a world where economy is always unstable. Aside from the big expenses you have to meet every single month (e.g. paying your mortgage, your bill and so on), your grocery bill probably makes for a very significant amount of money too. Good news is that you can actually cut your grocery bill (sometimes by as much as 50%) and that there are many ways to do this. Here are just some of them:
Coupons
Some of you may think that a $1 reduction is not much, but there are many tricks you can use when it comes to coupons. For instance, if you combine a sale price with a coupon, you will maximize your savings by a lot. Let’s say your average peanut butter costs $4.50 and goes on sale for 2 for $4. If you have a coupon that offers you a discount of $1, you will end up paying $1.50 for a can of peanut butter instead of the normal $4.50. Now, that’s a lot of money, considering you did not put a lot of effort into saving it and considering that’s one item on your grocery bill!
Track the Prices
Tracking the prices at the supermarkets you go to most frequently will help you save a lot of money in the long run. How so? By tracking the prices you will not be fooled into thinking a product is actually on sale when it’s not. Yes, supermarkets do this a lot: they display their items as “on sale” when the actual price they practice for those items is not at all “sale-y”. By knowing how much these items cost when they are actually on sale (and not simply promoted) you will save yourself a lot of money. It usually takes about 12 weeks of “tracking the prices” to learn the difference between the “real deal” and “marketing strategies”, but the effort will pay off eventually.
Don’t Go Grocery Shopping without a List
It’s much more likely that you will end up spending a lot of money on things you don’t necessarily need (but which are advertised as fabulous, discounted or simply an amazing deal for the money – which is not always true, as shown in the previous tip. Before you jump in your car and go grocery shopping, make sure to sit down and make a list of all the things you need. Take a look in your pantry, see if you have enough cleaning and grooming products left and put down on the list all the things you need. Even more than that, try to plan your meals as well because this way you will know what to buy from the grocery store. Take your list with you and stick to it. At first, you might not realize just how much money you’re saving this way, but as you move along and not put in your basket all the “fabulous” items you don’t need, you will start to see the difference.