Many of us are constantly trying to find ways to shave a little money off the top of our shopping bills. Providing for our families is a challenge in the current economy and it always pays to be thrifty – there’s very little that feels better than saving some money when you’re buying essentials. Luckily, there are some easy ways to do so.

Many of us are constantly trying to find ways to shave a little money off the top of our shopping bills. Providing for our families is a challenge in the current economy and it always pays to be thrifty – there’s very little that feels better than saving some money when you’re buying essentials. Luckily, there are some easy ways to do so.

Get Meal Planning

If you start meal planning, then not only will you be eating healthier meals but you’ll also be eating cheaper ones too. On a Sunday, try sitting down and deciding what exactly you’ll be eating for the rest of the week for each meal, and only buy groceries for that plan. Not only will this stop you snacking on unhealthy food between meals – often out of boredom! – but it’ll also mean that you won’t have to worry about what to cook every night. Most importantly, it’ll save you money on your food bills. If you make your own lunch or your partner’s lunch for work every day, why not try batch cooking?

Never Go Shopping When You’re Hungry

We all know that the number one mistake we make when we go grocery shopping is going when we’re hungry. If you go shopping before you’ve had your lunch then chances are you’ll be rolling out of the grocery store hours later with bags and bags full of groceries that you didn’t plan on buying and that you’ll probably regret in a couple of days when you’ve still got a freezer full of ice cream and all the convenience foods you bought are starting to go out of date. Before you go shopping for food, make sure that you’ve eaten a good meal or snack, or drink some water before you go into the store to fill your stomach, meaning that you won’t be tempted to start buying food that tickles your fancy but that you don’t really need.

Make Healthy Choices

Making healthy food choices is good advice for any time – not just when you’re trying to save a little money! There’s nothing better than home cooked food, particularly as you know what exactly is in it. Although convenience food and microwave meals sound great and often taste good, they often have huge amounts of sugar and salt in them, which really aren’t great for your general health. One way to keep both your family and your bank account healthy is to cook from scratch whenever you can. Ingredients like vegetables, fruit and meat are considerably cheaper when bought alone as opposed to buying them as part of a convenience meal. If you’re a little stuck on what to cook, why not get online and start googling healthy family recipes for some inspiration? Look at what fruits and vegetables are in season and more widely available – that means they’ll be cheaper in stores!

Look Out For Deals

Within stores, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye out for deals on products that you always use and would be buying anyway, regardless of whether there’s a deal or not. Three bottles of your favorite shampoo for the price of two would be a great deal, whereas shampoo that you don’t use at the same price would obviously be a waste of money. It’s important to make sure that the deals you use in grocery stores don’t end up leaving you out of pocket and saddled with bags of things that you won’t actually use. It’s a good idea to make sure that you only take advantage of deals if you’d be buying the product anyway.

Look Online For Coupons And Bargains

If you aren’t particularly good at using your computer and getting online then it’s time to change that as these days, that’s often where you can get some of the absolute best deals. Get on social media and look out for deals on Facebook and Twitter, and make sure that you print off coupons and put them in date order so you know when they need to be used by. There are also a lot of deal sites out there like DontPayFull.com which will help you save some money when you’re doing your weekly grocery shop.

Buy In Bulk

A lot of the time, if you buy in bulk then prices can be significantly reduced, whether that’s a two for one offer or going to a huge store like Costco. Products that are great bought in bulk include toilet paper, pet food, any toiletries, soap powder, and food that can be kept for a long time and that you use frequently like rice and flour. The most important thing to consider when you’re buying in bulk is the question of space. It sometimes might not be worth it to overrun your house with products that you’ve bought in bulk if you don’t actually have anywhere to put them – the amount of money that you’ve saved might not seem like such a good deal when you’re tripping over boxes of cat litter on your way to the bathroom at night!

Go Shopping Alone

We’ve all done it: we go to the grocery store with our partners and kids and somehow come home with a lot more food than we intended to buy in the first place. A lot of the time, kids choose grocery stores to unleash the biggest temper tantrums that they’ve ever had – and as parents, we’re not always perfect. The option isn’t always there to take them outside to calm them down, so we often end up buying them the bag of cookies that caused the tantrum to start with. Not only is that expensive, but you know in your heart that it’s reinforcing and rewarding behavior that you really don’t want to see repeated again. If you can, try to go grocery shopping when your kids are at school or with your spouse. If that’s easier said than done, why not talk to a friend about it and offer each other some babysitting time so the other one has a chance to go and do some chores in peace?