How to Cut Back on your Grocery Bill

Feeling the pinch of ever increasing food prices? Shopping cheap does not necessarily mean cutting back on now relatively expensive produce. Here are some ways to save on your produce grocery bill.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• your judgment

1. Buy your produce in bulk. Buy large bags of fruit instead of picking out individual apples or oranges. Fruit in these large bags almost always ends up being cheaper than individually packaged fruits. If you feel like you cannot possibly go through such a huge bag of fruit, simply store your fruit in the refrigerator. It will stay fresh there forever.

2. Try store brands. They are cheaper than the mainstream brands and usually are of about the same quality.

3. Buy what’s on sale. Obvious as that may sound you can save a lot of money just by buying fruits and vegetables when they are on sale. These fruits usually end up being the produce items currently in season anyway and usually taste better than their regularly priced counterparts.

4. Steer Clear of Precut Veggies. Baby carrot sticks, precut celery, and sliced radishes are usually significantly more expensive than their uncut, unprocessed counterparts. A small bag of baby carrots costs more than a large bundle of unpeeled and uncut carrots. Same goes for celery. Not only are these processes veggies more expensive, they contain less vitamins and have been treated with more chemicals. Following this step can save you your health and money.

5. Make sure not to confuse unit price with price per pound. People often will buy a bag of grapes, thinking that it is cheap because they are priced $1.99 per pound only to discover that the bag actually costs a whopping $5 when they get to the grocery line. Same goes for vegetables such as squash.

6. Weigh your produce. When several pieces of produce are listed at the same price, it makes economic sense to weigh the biggest ones to see which one really gives more bang for your buck. The largest piece of produce is not always the densest. If you are shopping with your children, you can delegate this task to them. It will keep them feeling important and out of your way while you are trying to get your shopping done.

7. Start a home garden. It’s surprisingly easy and can save you a ton of money. The easiest plants to grow are carrots, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes and peas. If you’re the lazy type you can make a onetime investment in perennial fruits such as raspberries, blueberries, grapes and strawberries. Once you’ve planted these fruits in your garden they will continue to grow larger each year and increase their yield with basically no effort from you. Warning: these plants may take a few years to fully establish themselves.

[Countrymom]

on 2/15/2009 Awesome article! 5*'s