15 Ways to Save Food Dollars
By Moesha Brown
Plan: Here are some tips to save Money for Food
- Finish your grocery list before going shopping. The best memory does not substitute for a well-planned list.
- Take time to plan your meals and make a grocery list. This usually takes less time than the time spent going back to the store for a forgotten item.
- Find stores with super food sales during special times such as “Friday and Saturday Blow-out Sales” or “10 Items for $10.”
- If you can save 25 or 50 cents off the price of something you already use, go for it.
- Buy family packs of meats, cheese, poultry, and luncheon meats. Divide into servings, freeze, and use as needed.
- If you use a coupon to buy an item you do not need and would not have bought otherwise, you will be spending money you could have spent somewhere else.
- Make a cheat sheet so you will know what you usually pay for an item that you use a lot.
- Avoid buying single servings of such foods as snack crackers, vegetable juice, and ice cream.
- Shop without your children. Unwanted items can creep into the cart with too many “helping hands.” Take turns with a friend for child care.
- Compare the unit price of food items. The cost per ounce or per pound helps find the best value.
- Avoid buying foods packaged together, such as cheese and crackers, meat and cheese trays, and frozen garlic cheese bread, when you can buy the items separately for less.
- Divide grocery bill into food and nonfood items to get the cost of food. To make it easy, separate food items and nonfood items when checking out.
- When ordering, think smaller. It is not a value meal if you are paying for more than you want.
- Shop only once a week. The more trips to the store, the more money you spend. It is hard to purchase only a few items on any trip to the grocery store.
- Bottom line? Use coupons when they will help you save, but do not become a coupon junkie.