One of the best ways to cut your grocery budget is to do price comparisons. Typically this would take a long time to do every week, but if you have a price book, it’s pretty easy.
When I first started my price book, years ago, I found a printable page over at MomAdvice. I printed several and use them for different stores. I have one for Aldi’s, Walmart, Sam’s Club and GFS Food Supply. At a quick glance I can see the price and compare to the sale price.
Did you know you can also take in your sale ads and Walmart will price match for you? Some stores, you don’t even have to take the ad with you.
Using coupons and matching them to sale ads is another great way to cut your grocery budget. In the sidebar you will see a tab for our Coupon Database, this little tool is great for finding a specific coupon that you might need.
Up at the top you will see a field that says description, so for example, I entered bacon and some of the coupons that pulled up are in the picture above. You can quickly scan down the row and see what kind of bacon you are looking for or what kind is on sale, print the coupon and match it to the sale price. Pretty cool, huh?
You can also search specific stores or specific coupons, like printables. There is a place to enter the date, value and when the coupon is expired too.
Menu planning is another great way to cut your grocery budget. I menu plan for the whole month, I find it to be easier than just one week at a time. I don’t shop for the whole month, but I do have the meals planned, that way, if something is on sale and I happen to see it, then I know what we have planned and can grab extra. You can get more Monthly Menu Plans from Hoosier Homemade.
Creating a Household Organizer is also a great idea! I have one with my current and old menu plans, the price book, a calendar, and a plastic page protector that holds receipts. There is also a spot for the boys schedules and calendars, and a spot that I add blogging information.
Now…I’m a pen and paper girl myself, but there are lots of online services that are free for you to enter your calendars and also information on. Cozi is one that I like, although I haven’t used it a lot, I probably should. FlyLady is another one that I used years {and years} ago, and although she does keep you organized, there are lots of emails.
If you are looking for more printables, Chart Jungle has a TON. She offers everything from a simple calendar, which I print out to put my menu plan on, to homeschool schedules and more.
What are your tips for cutting your grocery budget? Do you use any of these examples?
Linking to…Life as Mom
2 Comments
Comparing prices has paid off hugely for me ever since I first learned that strategy from Penny Power magazine when I was a kid! 🙂 I’ve never done much of it really formally, though, because I happen to be good at holding numbers in my memory; what I do is set a “price point” and avoid buying the product when/where it’s priced higher than that. For example, carrots should cost <$1/pound, so if I see a 5-pound bag for $3 I know that's a good deal–provided I can use them within a month or have the time+freezer space to shred and freeze the extra!
Here's my comparison of GFS and Costco prices on many items, and here are my other grocery savings tips.
With prices of food and well, everything, on the rise it is a great idea to do a price book. I haven’t messed with mine for the past few years (gulp) but it is a necessary task I see in my near future.
Thanks for the reminder!
Nice blog you have here.