Over the past year or so, going to the grocery store has me cringing when I get to check-out and see my total for half of what I used to purchase for the same amount. It also doesn’t help that my boyfriend could eat enough for 2 people at every meal…lol. I have always been good at budgeting, but with the prices of everything going up- it’s hard to find deals. What I’ve been doing recently has made grocery shopping a lot easier on the wallet and makes cooking fun with items I wouldn’t usually purchase.
Every week when the next week's flyers come out, I sit down with my computer and look through all of the flyers for the stores in my area. I write down each store and the items from their flier that I would be interested in with prices. After I’ve gone through all of the stores that I shop at, I figure out what meals I can make with the items I’ve written down. I don’t buy foods that I don’t like just because they’re on sale, but I do buy foods I usually wouldn’t think to purchase to try something new when they are on sale.
When I do find a great deal on a food I eat often, I will buy a large amount and freeze it. For example: if chicken breast is on sale (usually a family pack), I will buy two instead of one. I trim and cut it and then freeze it for when I need it. For this, I usually individually wrap the breasts and then put it in a zip lock to avoid freezer burn and to easily take smaller portions out without defrosting the whole bag.
Most grocery stores also have coupons every week that you can apply to your account and it will come off at checkout.
I personally don’t mind driving 10 minutes to stores and going to multiple stores, but if you have time constraints or don’t like shopping- just browse the ones you are open to going to.
So here is my advice for saving money while shopping in these times:
Look at store flyers and sales
Purchase in bulk when item’s you eat frequently are on sale
Have an account with the stores and use their coupons
Go to multiple stores to purchase different items
Create meals before going to the stores so you don’t end up with a bunch of random items
Compare prices between different stores
Go in with a list and don’t buy items you don’t need that will end up going bad in the fridge
If you need any advice on how to put meals together, feel free to leave a comment or message me!
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