Unnecessary expenses are an unfortunate part of life. You may be carrying a handful of subscription services that you signed up for but never use or you may be carrying a balance on a high interest credit card that you haven’t paid off yet. After taking a look at those simple adjustments, you might still be looking for a way to lower your regular expenses. This is good time to look at what you are spending your money on when you go to the grocery or convenience store. Don’t worry, you don’t need to think about living off of spam and ramen for the rest of your life. But, there are some productive and effective ways to cut down on your food bill while still buying the foods that you enjoy.
Look for Store Sales:
Grocery stores run weekly promotions, usually beginning on Sundays. Sign up for your favorite store’s newsletter or alerts and plan your shopping of key items around what your store’s running on special that week. Don’t be afraid to clip and use coupons. Some stores even utilize digital coupons that you can clip and use when you swipe your rewards card.
Shop at Home First:
Before you go and spend the money at the store, look through what you have at home in your freezer or pantry that you can plan a meal around. You may have chicken or ground turkey already that you can plan on making a meal from during the week. You may only need to shop for a few items to compliment a meal rather than having to buy any big ticket items for the week.
Avoid Food Items That Spoil Fast:
The average family of four will throw away $1,600 worth of produce every year, according to Feeding America. That’s $133 per month that is wasted on food that doesn’t get consumed before it goes bad. If you know that you or your family regularly throws out fresh produce because it’s not consumed in time, try buying frozen versions instead. This will allow you to eat at your pace and not waste money on throwing out food you simply didn’t have the time to eat.
For more tips on how to save on your grocery bill, you can view the full article from Intuit here.