grocery shopping on a budget

5 Secrets You Need to Know When You’re Grocery Shopping on a Budget

The average American spends 11% of their annual budget on food. A massive chunk of those food expenditures are spent at grocery stores.

Groceries can be a pricey and necessary expense. Still, even in the face of inflating prices and undeniable necessity, you can make successful grocery runs without spending an arm and a leg.

In this article, our team shares with you 5 of our favorite non-coupon strategies for grocery shopping on a budget!

1. Pay Attention to Market Circulars

At the beginning of the week, if you’re like most households, your mailbox gets stuffed with ads from our local grocery stores. While most people will take those ads and throw them into the garbage, we recommend that you actually take the time to look them over.

Market circulars showcase real weekly deals on the foods your family loves most which makes grocery shopping on a budget easier. So separate out the market circular from your favorite grocery store and go through it circling deals you’d like to take advantage of.

2. Make a List and Stick to It

After you’ve gone through your market circulars to spot deals and have assessed your fridge to see what you’re missing, it’s time to make a list. Making a list and sticking to it when you go to the grocery store is one of your best strategies to ensure your shopping run is quick and that you don’t fall prey to impulse buys.

We even recommend putting your list in the order of which aisles you’ll bump into first so you can quickly weave through the store and get out.

3. Look Up and Down When Comparing Prices

Grocery stores cleverly place items that represent the most value to them at consumer’s eye level. Sometimes, those items are grossly overpriced.

For that reason, you’ll want to look up and down store shelves when finding the best price on a particular product. Never go for a product simply because it caught your eye the fastest.

4. Stay Away from Name Brands

We get it. Some name brands really do taste different.

If your family likes a particular brand of something that’s a staple in your home, go ahead and splurge on it.

For the most part, though, you’ll want to stay away from name brands and instead opt for store brand products which almost always represent a significantly better value.

5. Keep the Kids at Home

If you can keep your kids at home while shopping, do it. Kids will likely get impatient as you shop which will lead to them to acting up and gives way to you making quick purchases that don’t represent the best deals.

Give yourself adequate time and space from impatient little ones when you shop and you’ll find that your experience is a lot more successful. This is especially true if you are leveraging coupons (check out GSCOP for more information.)

Wrapping Up Grocery Shopping on a Budget

There you have it. 5 grocery shopping on a budget tips.

Utilize as many of them as possible and start seeing how much you can save!

For more content like this grocery shopping on a budget article, check out more of the deal-centric content we have available for you on Thrifty Momma Ramblings today!

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