How can people save money on groceries? Here are over 100 ways!

The cost of groceries has skyrocketed astronomically in this inflation. Many families are struggling to buy food. Many can’t buy as much as they want. Though I can’t fix the inflation, I can tell you all the ways that I save money on groceries. There are over 100 options here!
 
I’m the author of Happily Frugal. My money management workbook has over 1,000 ways to save money. Let’s talk about ways to save on groceries. Make sure to get your copy today to get more with the money you have. Learn more here.

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The top 10 things

1. A budget is essential.  
2.  Skipping the restaurant or drive-thru saves a lot. 
3.  Menu planning is a massive money saver. 
4.  Know what you have at the house before you go grocery shopping. Organize your kitchen. Keep an inventory of your pantry.
5.  List out what you need before you leave the house. Don’t go to the grocery store without a written plan of exactly what to get.
6.  Choose the affordable stores to shop at.
7.  Buy in bulk.
8.  Focus on whole foods. Choose fewer prepackaged meals.
9.  Cook from scratch. Make it yourself whenever you can.
10. Have a garden and preserve your food.

General savings tips

• Get rewards cards at grocery stores and drug stores. They’re free and you’ll get deals you couldn’t get without them.
  
• Buy bigger and buy in bulk. That goes for food and toiletries. There are rules to buying in bulk though.
  • You have to be able to afford to buy more than you have to have right now.
  • You have to know you like that product and that brand.
  • You have to know it will not go bad before it is all used up.
  • You have to have room for it in your fridge or in your house.
  • Do compare the price per ounce in the different size packages. On occasion, bigger packages are more expensive than the midsized container.

• Investing in a deep freezer will allow you to buy food in larger amounts which is cheaper. There are a lot of things that would be more affordable if you could buy it in bulk and freeze it. An extra freezer is also beneficial for gardening.

• Buy generic brands or store brands. Generic can be just as good as name brand.
• Take advantage when stores are willing to match local competitor’s ads.
• Certain stores also have an app that will reimburse you if local competitors have lower prices on specific items.
• Some grocery stores offer a senior discount or senior days.
• Some stores offer discounts when you use your own cloth shopping bags instead of the plastic bags. It’s better for the environment and if it’ll save you money, why not?
• Consider signing up for emails from the stores you shop at regularly. Many emails offer discounts.

• Real life tip: It would help to not go grocery shopping when you are hungry.
• Be aware of expiration dates. Throwing away food that has expired is like throwing away money. If you know something is going to expire soon, use it up as soon as you can. You can go through your pantry every month and put the food that will expire within the next month or two in a separate section to be used first.
• Go get your groceries instead of paying for a delivery service.
• If you need to have your groceries delivered, make sure you aren’t allowing substitutions. If they are out of the brand you wanted, the substitute item may be more expensive than what you had budgeted for.

Where to shop

• Learn what the low-cost grocery stores are in your area. Explore different stores. You may also want to try different areas. Grocery stores in higher income areas are often more expensive especially if they are a specialty store. Lower-income neighborhoods have more affordable groceries.
  
• Shop at discount stores.
• There are also bakery outlets.
• Shop at Farmer's Markets. It's healthier and good for the local economy (always support your local farmers). I have noticed Farmer’s Markets in higher income areas are more expensive than the grocery store. Markets in lower income areas have lower prices. Try smaller markets as well.
  
• Look for home produce stands in your community.
• Try pick-your-own farms.
• Be willing to go to more than one store. Even with the low-cost stores, each one has their items that are better than others. If you’re in the habit of going to the grocery store once a week, consider rotating what stores you shop.

Prepare before you go

• Know what you have at the house before you go buy groceries and can't remember what you need. Keep an inventory of your pantry.
  
• Know what you are getting before you go shopping. Have a list of exactly what you need to get for the time period before you plan to go grocery shopping again.
• Get into a routine of checking sales, looking for coupons, glancing through rebate apps, and planning out what you are going to buy.
  

Menu planning

• Use coupons. Check out the next chapter for the 101 on couponing.
  
• Menu plan before you go grocery shopping. Make sure to make use of what you have in the house.
• Plan your meals around what is on sale. You can look at the grocery ads in the Sunday paper. Nowadays, you can check the website or the store’s app to see what the sales are.
  
• Menu plan with what’s in season.
• Buy more whole foods and less prepackaged readymade meals.
• Cook from scratch as much as possible to save the most on your food budget.
• Portion control to eat healthy serving sizes. Overeating leads to overspending.

What food to buy

• Look at the food that is marked down. It will need used soon, but these savings add up.
  
• You can also ask employees when food gets marked down. Get to know the clearance habits of your local grocery stores.
• Don't get more than a few dollars’ worth of unplanned items. Pay attention to how many things you pick up that you did not plan for in the budget.
• Shop the sales. It doesn’t have to be somewhere you normally shop. If you see a good deal on groceries you need, try stopping by.
• Limit the snacks. Prepackaged snacks add up to big expenses especially with kids. Put a healthy limit on how many snacks a day and what kind of snacks.
• Buy the whole version instead of the prepared version. For example, buy the fruit itself instead of the container with the same fruit already cut.
• Choose the cheapest option of the food you want. For example, boxed pancake mix is cheaper than frozen pancakes. Buying bags of dry beans is cheaper than canned beans. Buying the potatoes to make mashed potatoes is cheaper than buying potatoes in a box and much cheaper than buying mashed potatoes ready for the microwave. When you are deciding what you want to eat, look at the price differences with all the ways you can buy that food to make.
  
• Eat less meat. Meat is expensive to buy. Making it part of the meal instead of the main course will save you some money. Having vegetarian days of the week will save you money. 

Make it yourself

• Find someone to teach you how to really cook if you don't know how. If you've got the basics down, you should be able to experiment with videos and cookbooks. You’ll learn as you go.
  
• As you go through the grocery store, ask yourself if you can make something yourself instead of buying it. Do you know how? And do you have the time? The majority of things we buy that are prepackaged we can actually make ourselves in the home kitchen.
• There are some things that it’s cheaper to buy readymade. Consider the cost of storebought vs. homemade.
• Make freezer meals.
• Can food that is a readymade meal.
• Soups can be made at home instead of buying soup in a can.
• Buy oats to make oatmeal on the stove instead of instant packets.
• Pancake mix and waffle mix is very cheap compared to buying frozen waffles and frozen pancakes. Make it yourself from a box mix or from scratch.
• Consider side dishes available at the store that you can actually make yourself. For example, hashbrowns are simply shredded potatoes. You can make potato wedges and fries yourself too.
• Grate your own cheese instead of buying shredded cheese in the bag.
• Making pizza at home is much cheaper than most pizza places. Even with buying the pizza crust at the store, this is still a big money saver.
• Make butter in a mason jar, hand mixer, or butter churner.
• Apple butter can be made at home.
• Make gravy from scratch.
• You can make all your own sauces, jams and jellies, preserves, and such.
• Start with learning biscuits and breads. If you can learn how to make these very low-cost foods from scratch, you will always have something filling to eat.
  • Make your own biscuits. The rolls of biscuits at the store cost three times as much compared to making your own. Drop biscuits are very easy to learn how to make. Then move on to rolled biscuits. Along with that, you can use glasses/cups to cut the biscuits instead of buying a biscuit cutter.
  • Make rolls yourself.
  • If you can make biscuits, you can make English muffins.
  • Make tortillas at home.
  • Learn how to bake sandwich bread. It’s extremely cheap to make. The taste of fresh bread is worth the time it takes.
  • Dessert breads have many possibilities. You can make banana bread, apple cinnamon bread, pumpkin bread, monkey bread, and so much more.
  • Try your hand at creating sourdough bread.
  • Eventually, you can learn how to make artisan breads as well.
  • Bagels can be made at home too.
• Instead of purchasing baked goods packaged and ready to eat, look at the boxed option. These are low-cost and still easy to bake.
  • Cake mix in a box is significantly cheaper than buying a cake from a bakery.
  • Boxed mix for brownies is also much cheaper than buying brownies already baked.
  • Muffins are cheap and easy to make from a boxed mix.
  • You can take your muffin mix and make bread from it too.
• Any luxury baked goods you see in the grocery’s bakery section can be made from scratch for less money. There are many things our generation has become accustomed to others cooking for us. We are able to make these things on our own. It saves money. It tastes better fresh. If you enjoy cooking, you’ll certainly save your family money on groceries. Here are some examples of things we can skip buying at the store and make ourselves.
  • Basic sheet cakes are easy to make from scratch.
  • You can also make your own icing.
  • Make cupcakes.
  • Make muffins.
  • Cookies are easy and fun to bake from scratch.
  • Cinnamon rolls are easy to learn how to make.
  • Cobblers and crumbles are easy to make.
  • Pie takes a little effort to learn, but you can do it.
  • Cheesecake is a hard one to master, but you can learn to make your own.
  • Donuts are easier to make than you think.
  • Learn how to make your own pastries of all kinds.

• You can make your own noodles.
• Try making veggie noodles from zucchini or butternut squash. It’s lower carb, healthier, and can be free if you grow your own veggies. Sweet potato noodles are also a tasty option.
• Use a flour grinder or countertop grain mill to make your own flour.
• Try your hand at making condiments. You can make mayo, ketchup, ranch dip, tartar sauce, pickles, and more.
• Learn how to make snacks at home. For example, potato chips can be made at home. Many snack bars can be made in the home kitchen. Pretzels can be made in your kitchen too.
• Even some candies can be made in the home kitchen such as chocolate covered pretzels, muddy buddies, buckeyes, fudge, potato candy, and more.

I know we don’t have the time to make everything ourselves. These are simply some examples of ways you can save money by making food at home. Remember a lot of these things can be frozen or canned. You can make it in advance. You don’t have to make each one of these things the day you want to eat it.

Try it out and gain the skill.
 
Use those skills if you need to financially
or if you prefer to because homemade food tastes better.

Beverages

• Cut out soda pop and sugary beverages.
  
• Make water your main beverage.
• Get your water from the tap (provided that you have safe drinking water).
  
• Single serve coffee cups are far more expensive than buying coffee by the container.
• If you consistently only have one cup of what you usually get in the single serve cups, try buying a container of instant coffee or cappuccino. You stir it in hot water like you do with hot chocolate. You can make one cup at a time without adding the tiny cups to the landfills or adding the cost to your grocery budget.
• Buying the larger containers of coffee is cheaper per serving.
• Make your own iced coffee at home. This is easy and saves so much money.
• Buy hot chocolate in the container instead of individual packets.
• Buy beverages in bulk.
• Buy your beverages in liters or gallons instead of buying individual bottles.
• If you drink tea, make it from tea bags. It is significantly cheaper to make sweet tea using a large box of 100 tea bags than it is to buy sweet tea by the gallon.
• You can also buy your tea in loose form.
• Buy powdered drinks to mix at home instead of buying the container ready-to-drink. You can buy containers of powdered tea, powdered lemonade, packets of juice, etc…
• Juice concentrate is cheaper than buying juice in the bottle.
• For cooking with milk, use cans of evaporated milk instead of fresh milk in the gallon.

Gardening

• Grow your own food as much as you are able. You can grow vegetables and fruits. You can also grow herbs for cooking. You can even grow plants to make medicine with.
  
• Some things can be grown from kitchen scraps.
• Collect seeds from your food.
  
• Network with family and close friends to grow different things and trade.
• Some people also forage for mushrooms or berries. It’s important to know what is safe and can be eaten.

Food preservation

• Preserve your garden food.
  
• Preserve fresh food you bought too.
  
• Freeze food.
• Can your food in mason jars.
• Dehydrate food.
• Freeze dry fruits and veggies and even entire meals.

Use it all

• Don't throw away leftovers.
  
• If you don’t want to eat the same thing again, use your leftovers in something new.
  
• Save the grease from the skillet. You can sauté vegetables in it. You can make gravy with it. You can scramble eggs with it.
• When you bake a turkey or whole chicken, save the stock to make soups with.
• One way to avoid waste is to choose items that aren’t disposable. For example, you can choose to cover a dish with aluminum foil or you can choose to buy a casserole dish with a lid that can go in the oven. Be intentional about avoiding disposable items when you are able to.
• Reuse deli containers and any containers with a lid that you get from the grocery store.
• Reuse empty containers of butter and sour cream for storing leftovers.
• Reuse twist ties from your bread bags.
• Wash and reuse glass containers from sauces, pickles, etc. You can also reuse the plastic containers from peanut butter or jars like honey-roasted peanuts.
• Before throwing away small containers your food came in, consider its use in the garden to start seedlings.
• Before throwing something away, look at it and think about what else it could be used for.

What are your favorite ways to save money on groceries?

Tell me in the comments what you are doing to save money on groceries.

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