How to Let Your Grocery Store Help You Save Money on Food

In today's world of rising food prices, the grocery store hardly seems like a likely partner when it comes to keeping your budget in check. But by following this plan you can turn your local grocery store into the best friend your grocery bill ever had.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Weekly sales flyers.

1. Begin by gathering the weekly flyers from your local grocery stores. You can find these in the newspaper or in the stores themselves.
2. Go through the flyers noting what is on sale. Take special note of meats and other things you can build meals around.
3. Also pay special attention to loss leaders. A loss leader is a "super sale" of sorts that a store uses to pull customers in. The store breaks even or even loses money on the sale in the expectation that they'll make it up on the other things you buy. If you notice a "super sale" you'll not only want to add it to your menu that week, but perhaps stock up for future weeks as well.
4. Begin to build a weekly menu plan based on the items that are on sale. You can plan for all three meals or just focus on dinners.
5. If you clip coupons, add these to the mix to make your purchases even more economic.

Tips & Warnings

• A price book is a great help with identifying good sales. See the link in the resources section below for more info.
• Don't spend a lot of time and gas money going from store to store. Focus on one or two stores that are near your home or that you pass on your commute.