Work & Money
People Are Sharing Their Best Budget Tips For Meal Planning And I'm Going To Start Using Some Of These
If you’ve gone grocery shopping any time in the past five years, you’ve seen the absolutely wild price hikes. In fact, according to Nerdwallet, food prices have officially risen 28% in the past five years. (And don’t even get me started on the price of eggs.)
1. “Don’t buy mini bags of pre-packaged snacks. It’s cheaper to buy a big bag of things like chips and then package them yourself into smaller bags for lunches.”
2. “Stop buying pre-cut vegetables, meat, and shredded cheese. They’re like 75,439 times more expensive than their whole counterparts. The same goes for those pre-bagged salad kits.”
3. “My wife and I build a grocery list on the Walmart app, and then take that list to Winco (local discount grocery store) and compare everything. We buy the cheaper ones at Winco and get the rest at Walmart. Typically saves us $30-$50 per trip.”
4. “Buying online for curbside pickup helps me a lot. I can see my total and add/subtract stuff right there. If it’s Kroger, I can see whether the coupons work or not. I get extra coupons for curbside pickup orders. I’m not tempted to grab something I saw and I might want that will throw off my total.”
5. “Fewer trips to the grocery store! After routinely popping in three or four times per week for odds and ends forgotten on my primary weekend trip, I started going to the grocery store just once a week. This restricts opportunities for unhealthy impulse purchases, pressures me to use and consume the fresh food and pantry items I already have on hand instead of letting them go to waste, and sometimes saves on fuel for short, inefficient car trips to the neighborhood grocer.”
6. “Price-match if your grocery store allows it! Apps like Flipp let you view each grocery store’s flyers so you can price-match and get the same items for cheaper. Have your price-matched items ready to help the cashier and make their job easier while you save money.”
7. “Lately, I’ve been taking out a set amount of cash to take with me to the grocery store. This helps me to focus on only buying what I absolutely need since I only want to spend the cash on hand.”
8. “Stock up on some frozen veggies — or freeze leftover fresh veggies once they’re on the verge of going bad. Frozen vegetables are often just as nutritious as fresh ones…in fact, they’re sometimes even more nutritious. If you keep some bags of your favorite vegetables in your freezer, you’ll always have them on hand and don’t have to worry about them going bad.”
9. “If you’re shopping on a budget, many grocery stores have apps now that allow you to add coupons for ingredients you need. When you scan the app’s barcode at checkout, the coupons will apply.”
10. “Get a smaller shopping cart. Some stores have smaller ones that are easy to maneuver. I never noticed until a few years ago how deep shopping carts have gotten until I saw old stock photos of the more shallow ones.”
11. “Consider buying a rice cooker. When I was living in a dorm room, I had a small rice cooker and I used it at least three times a week. I mostly used it to make rice, but you can make quinoa or even steam some vegetables if you’re feeling ambitious.”
12. “If something is on sale but sold out in store, ask for a rain check. I did that last week when butter (good butter, too!) was dropped down to $4.49 and shelves were empty for the entire duration of the sale. I’ll go back next week and get that sale price! Let’s all remember our moms’ original life hacks.”
13. “Get obsessive about unit pricing and make your meals around whatever you can buy in bulk. Some of the larger cuts of meat can also be really helpful. Sometimes I can get a 15lb loin of pork shoulder for as low as $1.30/lb. Basically, anytime you see something for well below market rate, just buy it and figure out the rest later.”
14. “Embrace seasonality and try out some veggies that aren’t as sought after. If you only eat things that are in season, you will save a lot of money, and there is so much you can do with simple, inexpensive veggies.”
15. “Instant noodles like Top Ramen and Maruchan have become a standard purchase during my grocery runs since I live alone, and they’re definitely the most cost-effective base for a meal. To make it healthier, I’ve stopped using the soup packets that come with them, and instead, I’ll substitute with other ingredients to add flavor, like hot sauces and chicken broth. Sriracha and mayo noodles with garlic, sliced scallions, and a fried egg have become my almost daily lunch. So cheap!”
—Anonymous, 24, New York
16. “Leftovers, leftovers, leftovers. Learn to love them. We eat them all the time. I truly appreciate them. Grew up pretty hungry. I try to make a game out of using all of the leftovers. I’m not 100% successful, but it’s fun and frugal.”
17. “I always buy generic. Some generics are exactly the same as name brands, and the majority of them are perfectly fine. Especially since the name brands have also declined in quality.”
18. “I stock up on non-perishables I know we eat a lot when I see a sale on. I bought 10 boxes of veggie pasta when it went to half price, for example. I manage to buy pretty much all our groceries on sale.”
19. “For me, I shop at Trader Joe’s, which is the cheapest in my high-cost-of-living city. While I know many may frown on it as not frugal, buying a lot of frozen premade meals helps my family cut back on eating out due to being too exhausted to cook, so I’m willing to shell out more.”
20. “If my eggs are going to expire soon, I will crack them into a big bowl and beat them. Then, I take whatever I have in my fridge such as leftover meats, cheeses, air-fried sweet potatoes, frozen spinach, etc., and put them into muffin tins. I pour the eggs over it and bake it at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Now you have a healthy breakfast/snack and have used up everything in your fridge, eliminating waste. They last about five days in the fridge or you can freeze them for a long time.”
21. “I noticed the biggest change to my grocery budget when I stopped shopping for recipes and just started shopping for what’s on sale, and figuring out in real time what I can make with it (or frantically Googling for ideas while I wander the aisles). It’s honestly made me a better cook, too.”
—Anonymous, 34, Rhode Island
22. “As someone who lives in a big city, I searched online for meat processors in the area and realized that one of them has a retail section. I only buy my meat from this spot now; two pounds of chicken breasts at my local grocery store were $9, but it only cost me $4 at the processor.”
—Anonymous, 37, Missouri
23. “If you have any room in your freezer, buy yourself a vacuum sealer so you can buy meat only when it’s on sale and keep a treasure trove of frozen meats in your home at all times. Mine definitely paid for itself in a matter of months.”
“And if you don’t have any room in your freezer but have a spare corner in your basement or garage, a chest freezer is worth its weight in gold…and not as expensive as you’d think.”
—Anonymous, 49, Georgia
24. “If your grocery store has a credit card offer that gets you cash back or points to use for groceries in the future, open an account now! I think most store cards are a scam unless you get one for a grocery store you’re constantly shopping at. Mine gives me 5% back on every grocery purchase and shopping for a family of five, I feel like it saves me thousands every year.”
—Anonymous, 40, California
25. And finally, “Remember your time also has value. If it’s long-term better for you to have a few frozen skillet meals on hand, you do you. This is what we do sometimes because life just gets crazy. A $7 frozen skillet meal is still cheaper and often healthier than take out.”
Do you have a money-saving grocery tip or hack that you swear by? Let us know in the comments!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
