How to Cut Your Grocery Bills in Half

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By chameleon
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Use these hints to cut your grocery bills in half.

Groceries take a big bite out of your budget, but there are many ways to cut your grocery bills. While you'll find lots of tips for cutting your grocery bills out there, this step-by-step method can literally cut your grocery bills in half.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Menu planner
Grocery circulars
Shopping list
Storage containers
Foil and plastic wrap

Step 1

Set aside half an hour a week to go through the grocery circulars and plan your grocery shopping for the week.

Cutting your grocery bills will require a little bit of organization--not a lot, but the planning will pay off in saving lots of money on your groceries. Each week, pull out the supermarket circulars and set them aside until you can sit down with them and figure out the best deals on groceries for the week.
Step 2

Create a menu for the week based on the weekly grocery specials.

Menu planning used to be taught as part of home economics in every school, but these days it's a lost art. Go through the grocery circulars with an eye to which proteins are on special, but remember that "on sale" doesn't necessarily mean cheap. Set a cost limit per meal, and don't exceed it.
Step 3

Create a list of ingredients for your menu before you go grocery shopping.

Check your pantry and refrigerator and tick off everything on your list that you have in the house. What's left is your grocery list for the week.
Step 4

Make ingredients stretch for two meals.

One way to cut grocery costs is to make one protein stretch two meals. Buy a whole chicken to roast for one dinner, and plan chicken soup for later in the week. The carcass and leftover meat will make excellent chicken stock.
Step 5

Use coupons and courtesy cards when you shop.

Be flexible when grocery shopping. The grocery specials aren't always the best deals. Be on the lookout for manager's specials and in-store specials that can cut your grocery bills even further. Use coupons if they actually cut the cost on something you would have bought anyway, and always use your shopper's courtesy card at the checkout to get any special grocery savings the store offers.
Step 6

Buy off the "used vegetable" shelf and day-old baked goods.

Every supermarket discounts vegetables that are just past their prime, day-old bakery goods and dented cans. You can cut your grocery costs for those items by as much as a third as long as you shop carefully. Don't buy anything with any signs of mold, and avoid cans that are bulging. Other than that, the groceries on those shelves will be safe.
Step 7

Buy convenience meats if they make sense.

Conventional wisdom says that it's always cheaper to buy meats whole or in bulk and break them down at home, but it's not always true. For instance, if you buy a pot roast and cut it into cubes for beef, you'll get more beef for your money -- but it may make more sense to use less meat in your dish. The same holds true for boneless chicken or pork. When you buy meat whole, you're paying for the bone as well as the meat. If you're not going to use the bone, don't buy it.
Step 8

Store foods properly to keep them fresh.

Many families throw out hundreds of dollars worth of food a year because it's rotted in the fridge. Learn how to store foods properly to keep them fresh. For instance, if you store potatoes and onions together, they'll both go bad faster. You can cut your grocery bills significantly by reducing waste.
Step 9

Post a running shopping list on the fridge.

One of the biggest grocery expenses in many families is the "emergency purchases" when you find you've run out of ketchup or have no potatoes for dinner. Keep a list posted on the refrigerator door and encourage the family to add items to the list when they use up the last of it.