“It’s the intelligent thing to be frugal.” – Chuck Feeney
In this chapter, you will learn about the following money saving topics:
● How to Shop Circulars
● How to Save with Coupons
● Shopping Discount Stores
● Shopping at Warehouse Clubs
● Other Money Saving Grocery Shopping Tips
● Tips for Frugal Cooking
Shopping gets to be expensive and can be especially difficult when you are shopping on a budget. Circulars are a great way to make the most of your budget when you are shopping though. Most grocery stores have their own circulars or flyers that are available as you walk in to the store or through local newspapers. These circulars provide information on what is on sale for the week. By shopping these circulars, you can plan out your meals for the week based upon the cheapest ingredients available in your local circulars. Stock up on buy one get one deals if it’s an ingredient that you use frequently, or see if your store offers half price deals on buy one get one items if you only buy one.
In addition to shopping deals in local store circulars, you can also cut coupons to add additional savings! Using coupons on items in store circulars is one of the best ways to maximize your savings. You can find coupons in your Sunday newspaper, on specific store websites, on manufacturer websites, in coupon mailers, and on coupon specific websites. Cut or print out your coupons and set them beside you as you shop your circulars and see how much of a discount you can come up with! Plus, don’t forget that many stores offer every day coupon doubling or special day coupon events that increase your savings even more!
Many people are unaware of discount stores like Aldi. These stores specialize in providing low cost food and household goods. Stores like Aldi are able to offer goods at such a low cost because they offer private label items instead of brand name, they are a basic layout store, they hire few workers, and are very efficient. These corner cutting methods allow Aldi to give prices that are unbeatable in traditional grocery stores.
If you have a large family or like to stock up on ingredients to save more money, warehouse clubs can be a great way to save. Warehouse clubs tend to offer large packs of products or industrial sized tubs of items at discounted prices. Some warehouse clubs like BJ’s will also accept your manufacturer coupons as well as their own coupons from their circular to allow you to save even more money while you shop. Of course, when you shop warehouse clubs, make sure that you aren’t buying items that you won’t use up before their best buy date, items you wouldn’t usually use, or items that turn out to be more expensive than they would be in your traditional store.
One of the best things that you can do to save money when grocery shopping that we haven’t already mentioned, is to make a grocery list. Much of the excess expense that we end up with during our grocery store trips is from unnecessary items, expensive items we could have saved on by using coupons, or impulse purchases. The best way to avoid this is to utilize shopping lists. Sit down before EVERY grocery store trip and use your coupons and circulars to make your grocery store list before you head out.
In addition to making grocery shopping lists before every grocery store trip, you should also dedicate yourself to multiple small shopping trips instead of one large trip. Making smaller shopping trips ensures that the food you buy does not spoil before you can use it. The average American household throws out an astronomical amount of food on a daily basis, you can avoid this by planning ahead and shopping for foods as you need them or just a day or two in advance.
In the sections above, we have covered how you can save money while shopping for groceries and ingredients for your air fryer meals. In this section, we are going to take a look at a few ways that you can save money after you have purchased your ingredients and are beginning to cook.
- Invest in a vacuum packer. This will allow you to store leftover ingredients with integrity so that they can be used later. This is a great tool to use with meats and already prepared foods.
- Use green bags. Green bags are specially designed bags that keep fresh fruits and vegetables fresh for longer periods of time so the food you lose to spoilage is limited.
- Cook in portions. Cooking in portions helps to avoid cooking too much food which can lead to waste. Portioning food also helps to make sure that the correct portions are being eaten and family members are not overeating.
- Create a menu. Making a menu will help you to shop for the ingredients that you need at the grocery store, but it will also let everyone know what is for dinner so money is not spent on other dinner arrangements.
- Set a mealtime. Setting a specific mealtime is another way to avoid other family member’s spending money on snacks and meals and letting their meal portion go to waste.
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