Thursday, January 28, 2016

5 quick and easy ways to save money on your grocery bill






5 quick and easy ways to save money on your grocery bill

Fruit market with various colorful fresh fruits and vegetables - Market series
Save money on your grocery bill with the help of these five simple tips. While it can be tempting to eat out constantly or buy dinners every night, your grocery bill can be one of the biggest expenses throughout your life. Cut those costs down with the help of these five efficient, money-saving strategies.

1) Nonperishable? Not a problem

One of the best ways to save money is to buy in bulk. Unfortunately, that often results in losing out on food when it goes bad. However, if you stock up on your nonperishable items when they are on sale and when you have the opportunity to buy them in bulk, you will save a significant amount of money because you will not be constantly paying the highest price for them. Since these items have a long and forgiving expiration date, it can be incredibly valuable to take advantage of times when you are able to stock up by buying in bulk or when they are on sale.

2) Soup for dinner and lunch and lunch and lunch…

Make more than you need to when you make a pot of soup. Slow-cookers are a genius invention for people who are attempting to save money on food because you can make more than you need to at one time and freeze the leftovers for later. This is a great way to have soup ready-to-go when you leave for work in the morning, which will save you on your lunch bill, as well as a great way to stock up on something that is delicious and easy to re-heat. Plus, it is generally cheaper to add a few more base ingredients to soup to make it go further than to make two separate batches. Get to cookin’!



3) Be smart with your list

When you go grocery shopping, decide what you need before you get to the store. Make a list of meals you plan on cooking throughout the week and write down the specific ingredients you will need. This will prevent you from buying everything that sounds sort of good and help you to narrow down your needs so that you can buy in bulk and use ingredients for more than one recipe. It also helps you avoid temptation at the store because you know what you want to make, so you will be less likely to cave in to the more-expensive ready-made meals in the freezer section or hot food sections. Bonus: it might even make your trip to the grocery store faster, and we all know that time is money!

4) Cook in bulk on Sundays

You will save a lot of money if you make your meals for the week on Sundays so that you can take them with you rather than resorting to buying food at work. When you go to the grocery store during your lunch break every day and buy a $10 sandwich that could have been made for significantly less at home, you are adding unnecessary strain to your grocery bill. Cook ahead of time for the entire week so that you will be prepared for what comes your way and so that you aren’t tempted to spend all of your hard-earned cash during your lunch breaks.

5) Eat before you shop

When you aren’t hungry, you will be able to focus more on what you need rather than on what you want. If your stomach is empty, you will likely spend much of your trip to the grocery store looking for things you can eat right now or selecting items that you don’t need because your eyes are bigger than your stomach at that moment. Prevent this from happening by eating before you shop.




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