Once you have been able to set up your grocery budget and created some accountability to actually stick with it, it’s time to start considering some simple ways you could shave off some of your grocery expenses.

Groceries are one of the budget areas that are the very easiest to cut — and it’s the first place I encourage people to start if they are looking to get their finances in better order.

Why? Because the majority of Americans could make some simple changes in their lifestyle and grocery purchases that would pretty easily reduce their grocery expenses by $50 or more!

Now, here’s the thing: some of you don’t need to cut a penny off your grocery budget. You have worked hard to keep your budget low, you are couponing ninjas, you cook from scratch, you plan inexpensive menus, you cook with beans and rice, and you eat up all your leftovers.

Look out for tips and suggestions that will help you to cut $50 or even more from your grocery bill this week.

• How can I Cut my Grocery Bill in Half?
• What are 3 Strategies for Saving Money on Groceries?
• How can I Spend less than $50 a Week on Groceries?
• How do you Budget for Groceries for 2 People?
• Is the Average Grocery Bill for Two on the Rise?
• How much Money should a Single Person spend on Groceries a Month?
• What about Food Budget For College Students?
• How can I eat 1 dollar a day?
• How do you Drastically cut Household Expenses?

How can I Cut my Grocery Bill in Half?

1. Use Up What You Have on Hand

When you plan your menu, you should look through the cupboards, pantry, and fridge, and freezer and see what you already have on hand. Maybe a recipe only used half a carton of something, maybe you have extras from an item you got marked down, or maybe there other items you didn’t use the week before.

Read Also: Quickest Ways to Save Money at the Grocery Store

You should take note of these items and try to incorporate them into the menu plan for the following week. If you need some ideas on how to incorporate these ingredients into your menu plan, check out RecipeMatcher.com, SuperCook.com, or MyFridgeFood.com.

In addition, you can get creative in substituting items you already have on hand instead of buying something. Learning how to substitute ingredients will save so much money and extra trips to the store.

2. Look at Your Grocery Fliers Online

Planning your menu based upon what’s on sale at your local store(s) is where you really start to see the savings happening! Most grocery store chains have their weekly sale fliers available online. If not, you will often receive a copy in the mail. Or, you could even pick one up at the store if you’re going to be driving right by it.

Quickly browse through these sale fliers and see if there are any exceptional deals on items like meat or dairy or produce. Whenever possible, plan some of your menu based upon these sales! Most of the time, the hottest deals of the week are listed predominantly in the front page of the flier. Oftentimes, these front-page deals are “loss-leaders”.

Don’t forget to look through the full flier, though. Sometimes there are great deals that are hidden on the middle pages. However, remember that just because something is listed in the sales flier it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a great deal. Over time, you’ll start learning what are the “rock-bottom” prices for items you buy and how often they go on sale in your area.

3. Only Buy the Produce That’s on Sale

Produce prices can kill your budget — but they don’t have to! One thing we try to do is pretty much stick to buying what produce is in season and on sale.

For instance, when apples are on sale, you should buy a few bags of them and that will be your go-to fruit for the week. When grapes are on sale, we mostly eat grapes for fruit that week. When carrots are on sale, we eat a lot of carrots.

Sure, this means that we eat a lot of the same kinds of produce in one week. It might seem boring, but it sure saves a lot of money. And over the course of the year, we’re eating lots of different fruits and veggies!

4. Print Some Coupons

Once you’ve made your shopping list based upon the weekly sales fliers, check the Coupon Database and Store Deal Match-ups on your site to see if there are any printable coupons available for products you’re planning to buy.

Taking five minutes of your time to check the Coupon Database and Store Deal Match-ups when planning your shopping trip could easily save you $5 or $10–or more!

5. Ditch Breakfast in a Box

You can save a lot of money and feed your family more wholesomely if you ditch breakfast out of a cereal box, that way you don’t have to worry about cooking a hot breakfast every morning!

Pancakes and waffles can be made ahead of time and frozen. Just whip up a batch of pancakes or waffles, let cool, and then stick in airtight freezer bags. When you’re ready to serve, you can warm them in the oven, microwave, or toaster oven.

Breakfast burritos are a hearty grab-and-go food that teenage boys and men seem to especially love. Make a big batch on the weekends, freeze individually in foil, and then they can just be pulled out and microwaved before heading out the door in the morning. (Be sure to remove the foil before microwaving!)

If you love muffins in your house! To make them ahead, just bake your favorite muffin recipe, let them cool, and stick them in an airtight freezer bag or another container. When you’re ready to eat them, just pull out however many you need and microwave or let them thaw for 15 or 20 minutes and they are ready to eat!

6. Have One Meatless Dinner

If you cut your meat consumption by one meal per week, you’ll usually save close to $5! For most families, it wouldn’t be too hard to cut back on $5 worth of meat each week — especially if you’re willing to get a little creative.

Meatless doesn’t have to mean tasteless. Try making Bean & Cheese Burritos, breakfast for dinner, or even meatless lasagna.

If your family isn’t keen on the idea of going completely meatless, stretching your meat with legumes is a great way to save money while still eating meat. Mexican dishes, bean soups, and chili are recipes that you can pretty easily add in extra beans to replace some of the meat without most people realizing it.

Lentils hide especially well in taco meat, too. Just add in cooked lentils to your ground beef along with your usual seasonings and there’s a good chance your family won’t even notice!

Also, stop centering your meal around meat as the main thing and instead view meat as a garnish. Use it as a topping for pizza or salads, or stir some into stir-fries or soups. The less the meal’s focal point is a big hunk of meat, the more you’ll likely save.

7. Cook 2 Things From Scratch

You can save so much money off your grocery bill by cooking from scratch. However, if you’re cooking from scratch solely for the purpose of saving money (not for the health benefits or because you enjoy it), make sure it’s worth the return on your investment of time.

If you spend hours in the kitchen and it’s only saving you a $1 or so per hour to make things from scratch, it’s likely not worth your time.

You can have a personal policy that you must be saving at least $20 per hour to invest your time in any money-saving tactic. This helps you to focus your energy and effort on those things that are really going to make a difference in our budget, instead of exerting half a day on something that really doesn’t change our bottom line.

It’s easy to think that cooking from scratch has to be a huge time investment, but that’s often not the case. In fact, in 10 minutes, you can easily throw a big batch of beans in the crockpot to cook and a loaf of bread in the bread machine.

You’ll never know how much time something will take you or how much you’ll enjoy making it until you’ve actually experimented with it. So go ahead, try making homemade refried beans, homemade go-gurts, freezer-friendly breakfast burritos, homemade baking mix, or homemade pizza.

8. Have a Leftovers Night

When you have at least one or two leftover nights per week, it saves time, because you don’t have to plan a dinner or make dinner or clean up the dishes from dinner. And it saves money because you don’t have to buy the ingredients for another lunch or dinner.

It’s such a simple, no-brainer thing, but saving money in simple ways on a regular basis adds up over time! You also find that serving leftovers for dinner on busy nights cuts down on the temptation to grab carryout.

For those of you who wish you had leftovers but it seems like your hungry teens or growing kiddos eat everything you make, consider doubling a casserole or soup recipe you’re making a couple of times per week and sticking half the recipe in the fridge or freezer before you eat dinner that night. That way, you’re guaranteeing you’ll have “leftovers” to eat later in the week! 

9. Save Up Your Swagbucks

When you buy specialty ingredients — such as protein powder and olive oil — and you get these with Amazon using gift cards earned through Swagbucks. It’s a great way to be able to afford a few of those high-quality ingredients you love to use in recipes.

10. Don’t Impulse Buy

Finally, the best way to save money on groceries is to make sure that you only buy what you planned to buy. Make a menu plan, make a grocery list, and stick with the list.

Also, you’ve heard it before, but it bears repeating: don’t grocery shop when you are hungry or when you feel like stress-eating. And, if you have family members who encourage you to impulse buy, leave them at home. 

What are 3 Strategies for Saving Money on Groceries?

If you don’t make much money or if the rising cost of gas and food is getting to you, you may be looking for ways to save money on groceries. It is important to really begin to consider the difference between necessity and luxury when times get tight.

You may also choose to tighten up your spending habits simply to get out of debt or to save more for retirement. One of the easiest ways to save money on food is to reduce the amount you spend at the grocery store. These ideas will help you without using up as much time as extreme coupling.

1. Save Money on Groceries By Using a Price Book

A price book helps you save money on groceries by tracking sales patterns and the lowest possible price of an item, so that you know the best time to stock up. Additionally, the sales go in cycles, and you should be able to tell how much you will need to buy until the item goes on sale again.

You can make your own price book with a notebook or three-ring binder. Write the item on the top of the piece of paper. Then list the price and store that you can find it at. List the price per ounce instead of price per unit. This will help you to determine how much you really are saving.

Once you’ve started a page, look at your sales circulars each week, and write down the items that are on sale, then the cost of each item. You can use this to compare them to the prices at warehouse clubs to see the lowest price at any store.

2. Save Money on Groceries by Switching Brands

You can save a lot of money by switching to store brand goods or by buying the brand that is on sale. You may be surprised at the quality of the store brand goods. It is important to realize that many of the items are made and packaged in the same factories and plants as name brands. The stores do not have the high cost of advertising and can pass the savings on to you. 

3. Save Money on Groceries by Planning Your Menus

If you plan your menus a week or a month in advance, you will be able to take advantage of sales and bulk buying opportunities. It will also prevent you from eating out. You may find that you can cook similar main dishes all on one day, and then freeze the others for later.

This will help on days that you don’t feel like cooking. You can also plan your menus around your store’s weekly circular, which will help you take full advantage of the store’s sale prices. If you do not want to plan your own menu, you can purchase menu plans online. Many of the plans cost around $5.00 a month and will save you more than that at the grocery store.

How can I Spend less than $50 a Week on Groceries?

1. It’s All About the Cash

Using cash — only cash — is one of the best ways to make this severe grocery budget work. If you have the discipline of a superhero, congratulations. You can use your credit card. If you’re like everyone else in the world, take $200 out of the ATM and don’t let yourself use a penny more.

If you’re out of cash and you have 10 days of the month to go, it’s time to start raiding your pantry. You might be eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while your spouse eats some pasta and parmesan cheese.

2. Forget the Packaged Items

You pay a premium for packaged items like meals in a bag, fruit snacks, pre-sliced produce, chips, or even steamed vegetables. Anything that has been processed and packaged comes with an additional markup.

3. Buy in Season Produce

Buying in-season produce is not only an easy way to save money, but you also get fresh great tasting produce. Corn on the cob tastes best in summer and is the cheapest. You will overpay for watermelon if you buy it anytime but summer. You can try to stick to the in-season produce to keep your grocery budget low. Plus, when the product tastes great you eat more produce and fewer meats which saves you even more.

How do you Budget for Groceries for 2 People?

Every month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issues its Cost of Food Report. The report details the average weekly and monthly cost of food for individuals, couples and families.

We’ll use that report to talk about the average grocery bill for two. The USDA report details four levels of food cost plans:

• Thrifty plan
• Low-cost plan
• Moderate plan
• Liberal plan

The report also counts age as a factor. After all, a household of two adults will likely spend more on groceries than one adult and a two-year-old.

In this article, we’ll share costs for two adults living in one household: a man and a woman. For the month of May 2020, the average grocery bill for two was as follows:

Household of two adults, one female and one male, aged 19-50, May 2020

PLAN	AMOUNT
Thrifty plan:	$405.30 per month
Low-cost plan:	$520.00 per month
Moderate plan:	$645.10 per month
Liberal plan:	$805.70 per month

For older couples, the average food costs were lower.

Household of two adults, one female and one male, aged 51-70, May 2020

PLAN	AMOUNT
Thrifty plan:	$385.10 per month
Low-cost plan:	$498.50 per month
Moderate plan:	$622.90 per month
Liberal plan:	$750.70 per month

Using the numbers stated above, we can calculate what the average grocery bill for two is.

• The average grocery bill for two adults aged 19-50 is $594.03 per month
• The average grocery bill for two adults aged 51-70 is $564.30 per month

These are the most recent grocery spending numbers as of this writing. As you can see, the costs of the Liberal plan are nearly double those of the Thrifty plan.

Another interesting point is that older couples spend less on groceries than younger couples. There could be a number of reasons for this. We as humans tend to eat less as we get older. It’s possible that many people get more frugal as they age, too.

And, there are other factors that influence what we spend on groceries. We’ll talk about those in a bit, but first let’s talk history.

Are grocery costs on the rise? Do people spend more on groceries now than they did five years ago? Let’s take a look.

Is the Average Grocery Bill for Two on the Rise?

Luckily, the USDA keeps a history of food costs. This enables us to compare historical costs of food to see if food costs are on the rise.

Let’s look at a chart that’s similar to the one above, only with costs from May 2015 instead of May 2020.

Household of two adults, one female and one male, aged 19-50, May 2015:

PLAN	AMOUNT	INCREASE
Thrifty plan:	$388.00 per month	4.46% increase in five years
Low-cost plan:	$496.30 per month	4.78% increase in five years
Moderate plan:	$619.10 per month	4.20% increase in five years
Liberal plan:	$774.80 per month	3.99% increase in five years

Again, for older couples, the average food costs were lower.

Household of two adults, one female and one male, age 51-70, May 2015:

PLAN	AMOUNT	INCREASE
Thrifty plan:	$368.10 per month	4.62% increase in five years
Low-cost plan:	$475.00 per month	4.95% increase in five years
Moderate plan:	$592.10 per month	5.20% increase in five years
Liberal plan:	$713.70 per month	5.18% increase

How much Money should a Single Person spend on Groceries a Month?

When you are trying to figure out your food budget for one, you need to think about a few things.

First off, it’s all on you. That means meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking are up to you. And let’s just shoot straight here, it’s a little unrealistic to assume you are going to cook yourself every meal, every week. There are going to be times when you just want a salad, burger, or burrito from your favorite restaurant.

On top of that, one of the worst things you can do if you want to maximize your food budget, is to buy food that goes to waste because you didn’t cook it. It’s much better to spend a couple extra bucks on food at a restaurant, than to basically throw your money in the trash because you let your groceries go bad.

Also, whether you are dining out, or cooking at home, be sure to leave enough for leftovers the next day. Leftovers are one of the easiest ways to maximize any food budget. It’s hard to beat reheated lasagna or cold pizza for lunch. Then again, I’ll eat just about anything left over in the fridge. Just ask my wife!

So, what is a good food budget for 1?

When setting a food budget for one person, you should plan to spend between $300 and $400 per month. This budget assumes you will dine out approximately three times per week, while spending the remainder on groceries to cook and prepare the rest of your meals at home.

What about Food Budget For College Students?

If you were to ask a bunch of college students how much they spend on food each month, very few would actually know. And even fewer would probably have a food budget. So, if you are reading this post and you are in college, let me first congratulate you on being way ahead of the budgeting game.

When you are in college, food spending is likely your biggest budget item. And between school, work, and studying, it can be difficult to find time to meal plan and cook every meal. Plus, if you need to go sit at a Starbucks to get some studying done, a few coffees per week is probably in the cards. But, since your other expenses should be relatively low, it is ok to allocate a little extra money toward food each month.

So what is a good food budget for college students?

If you are a college student, you should plan to spend approximately $400 per month for food. Since college life can be busy, this will allow you enough financial room to dine out, order a few cups of coffee each week, and cook meals for yourself when you have the time.

How can I eat 1 dollar a day?

We know you are wondering if it is really possible to spend such a little amount on food per day. Well, here are some meals that makes it possible. First, some tips.

RULES:

1. Choose nutritionally dense foods
2. Use meat and cheese sparingly
3. Buy food on sale only, and in bulk when price is right
4. Keep meals more to the simple side
5. Cook from scratch and make own bread
6. Give up cold cereal for breakfast, it’s very expensive and not much on nutrition
7. Snacks are fruit, vegetables, pretzels, tortilla chips or nachos (we don’t buy potato chips, cheetos, crackers, ice cream, etc.)

Here’s what some of our meals look like following these rules:

Breakfast:

• Brown rice n’ raisins / milk / boiled egg
• Blender whole wheat pancakes / fruit
• Oven pancake / fruit or juice
• Oatmeal pancakes with applesauce
• Oatmeal with craisins / milk / boiled egg
• Cooked blender cracked wheat with butter n’ honey / fruit / boiled egg
• Scrambled eggs / whole wheat toast / juice
• Hash browns / fried eggs / fruit
• Green smoothies / toast
• Blueberry muffins / yogurt / banana

Main Meals:

(We often include homemade whole wheat/whole grain bread, rolls, or muffins (our favorite are oatmeal muffins). Every so often I’ll bake french bread or make homemade refrigerator crescent rolls or even popovers, and for cornbread and corn muffins we use stone ground cornmeal medium grind.)

• Homemade pepperoni pizza/veggie tray with homemade ranch dressing OR salad (romaine, shredded red cabbage, homemade creamy Italian dressing)
• “Chicken-Fried” dinner patties / mashed potatoes / creamy gravy / green peas (the pattie is made from oatmeal and eggs, tastes like a chicken pattie)
• Baked yams/siracha deviled eggs
• Siracha egg salad sandwiches / green salad
• Frittata (eggs, potatoes, spinach, green onions, cheese)
• Lentils n’ eggs/sous vide carrots
• Italian sausage stew (has lentils, cracked wheat, sausage, onions, garlic, tomatoes)
• Lentil tacos with lime, cilantro, sour cream, salsa (family fave, sometimes we add chorizo purchased at a local store where they make their own, not the awful junk found at grocery stores)
• Tuna salad on whole wheat / roasted potato chunks with kale
• Crusty tuna patties/garlic mashed potatoes / green beans
• Chicken noodle (homemade) soup with vegetables (onion, carrot, celery, cabbage, potatoes, kale)
• Mom’s chicken tortilla soup with crushed tortilla chips and cheese
• Italian tomato bread soup (cubed leftover homemade french bread croutons) The soup is made of home-canned tomatoes, garlic, onion, homegrown basil (grown year indoors)
• Chili (with ground beef) / corn muffins / salad or celery sticks
• Southern pinto beans/cornbread/carrot sticks
• Burritos / Mexican rice or cilantro-lime rice/radishes or cucumbers
• Creamy mac n’ cheese / steamed broccoli n’ carrots
• Spaghetti (has ground beef) with homemade oven sauce / steamed broccoli / homemade french bread
• Bacon fried rice / steamed carrots and peas
• Black beans over rice with cheese (black beans, sausage, onion, oregano, tomato sauce)

So, if we have spaghetti, sauce, broccoli, and bread, here is the cost breakdown for 5 adult servings:

• Extra fiber noodles, yearly sale: 50 cents for 14 oz.
• 1/2 lb. ground beef (on sale for $1.99 lb)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced, 3 cents
• 1 yellow onion on sale, 8 cents (every fall 25 lb. for $4.00, some of them we dice and freeze)
• 2 cans crushed tomatoes, 40 cents per can on case lot sale
• 1 can tomato sauce, 20 cents per can on case lot sale
• Dried Italian seasoning / fresh basil, 2 cents
• Fresh broccoli on sale, 1 and 1/2 lb. 89 cents
• French bread made with unbleached flour, 36 cents per loaf

Total: $3.48 / about 70 cents per each of 5 servings

How do you Drastically cut Household Expenses?

If you are currently living paycheck-to-paycheck or if you have high-interest rate debt that you are trying to pay off, then you may want to find ways to cut your budget and household expenses. Yes, even learn how to drastically cut expenses!

Perhaps, you don’t have any debt and you don’t live paycheck to paycheck, but you just want to cut your budget and household expenses further to reach a financial goal of yours.

Whatever your reason is, finding expenses to cut from your budget may help you live a happier life, retire earlier, save more money for the things you value in life, pay off debt, and more.

By taking some of the actions listed below, you may be able to improve your financial situation quickly.

Also, you may even realize that you don’t need certain things in your life you once believed you did. So many people pay for things they don’t actually need. This could be because other people have them, because you are trying to keep up with the Joneses, you think you actually need or deserve the item, and more.

1. Cut your cell phone bill

Not everyone needs a cell phone, especially an expensive cell phone plan. Cutting your plan or getting rid of your cell phone may be the way to cut your budget in an easy and quick way.

You should evaluate what you actually use your cell phone for, and see if there are other ways around it. If you are just making phone calls to catch up with family, then you may want to try Skyping from your computer instead. If you are mainly using it for texting friends, then perhaps downloading a texting service onto your computer would be a more affordable option.

If you don’t want to completely cut your cell phone bill, then you may want to look for a more affordable cell phone plan. If you are looking for a cheap cell phone service, check out Republic Wireless. They have monthly cell phone plans as low as $10 per month.

2. Sell your car

If you want to learn how to cut expenses in the family budget, then selling your car can be a big one.

The average person spends anywhere from $7,000 to $11,000 a year on their car! Getting rid of your car can be an easy way to cut your budget and household expenses significantly.

If you can walk, cycle, or take public transportation to work, then you may be able to save thousands of dollars each year. You can save money on your car’s monthly payment, fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance, property taxes, and vehicle registration.

Now, if you don’t think you can completely get rid of your car, then you may want to try finding something more affordable instead.

3. Stop eating out

Eating out can get very expensive, especially if you have a large family. Eating out just 2-3 times a month may cost you $100 altogether. If you go out to eat more than that, then you may be spending a couple of hundred dollars a month.

Instead of going out to eat, you can try eating at home more, hosting and attending potlucks with family and friends, and more.

4. Find ways to save money on food

Food is one of the largest household expenses in a family’s budget. Yet, the average person wastes around 40% of the food they buy.

Yes, 40%!

There are many ways to reduce the amount of food you waste and save money on the food you buy each month.

Some of the things you can do include:

• Meal planning. This will help you buy only what you need, reduce food waste, shop on a budget, and more.
• Compare prices between generic and store brand items.
• Buy things in bulk when they are on sale, if they will not spoil before you get to use them.
• Use coupons on items you frequently buy. Too many people buy things on sale or use coupons for items that they will never use. You aren’t saving money if you never use it!
• Prep meals ahead of time for days when you’re too tired to cook.
• Make extras of meals and eat leftovers for lunch the next day.

5. Get rid of cable

One way to learn how to drastically cut household expenses is to get rid of your cable TV bill.

According to a market research company, the average monthly cable bill is approximately $120. By the year 2020, the average cable bill is expected to be around $200 a month.

Read Also: This is How Your Grocery Store is Tricking You Into Spending More Money

We recommend getting a digital antenna to watch local channels for free! The average person watches around 35 hours of TV each week, that is a HUGE difference! Without all of the TV, we are much happier.

6. Buy used

Learning how to cut costs may mean buying more items used. Purchasing used furniture, clothing, and more allow you to save money on the things you are already buying.

Sometimes, you can even get items for free by seeing what friends, family, and neighbors are trying to get rid of, or by perusing the free section on Craigslist. Trust me, people want to give away their stuff! It’s much easier than trying to find a place to donate things (some places actually have too many donations and have to say no), and then the person doesn’t have to haul it away.

7. Cancel all memberships and subscriptions

Memberships and subscriptions, such as to magazines, monthly boxes, gyms, and more can easily add up to a lot of money. You should carefully analyze what you do and don’t need it. In some cases, you probably don’t need any of them.

Final Conclusion

A few new habits can help you lower your monthly grocery bill, stick to your budget, and meet your money goals faster. That means more cash to pay down debt, invest for the future, or save for something fun—like a babysitter and a nice meal out where someone else cooks and cleans up.

Try one of these grocery store hacks on your next trip down the grocery aisle, and you could be pleasantly surprised by how much cash stays in your pocket.