How did you cut your down on your monthly grocery bill?

Question

I live in Canada and it seams like there aren’t that many coupons available. Also I don’t care about brand names (except for ketchup it has to be Heinz.. Lol!) . I also like to eat healthy but we aren’t vegetarians so yes we eat meat, dairy, and don’t know how to lower our shopping bill. We want to start a family soon so there will obviously be more expenses with that. So, please help! How can I save money on our grocery bill????

Thank you so much!!

Answer 1

this is what i found. before going in make up a daily menu, for instance in my house monday=soup night, tuesday=spaghetti, etc. every week we have the same thing on those days, but when we go into the grocery store i get just what i need for these meals. you'll find it's easier to keep our money down and not end up with a bunch of stuff you don't need.

Answer 2

I hardly ever use coupons because I don't buy any convenience foods and go to a discount store that sells it's own brand (Aldis). Not sure if they are in Canada, too.
But, other then to stay away from expensive brands, my best advise is to PLAN. I make a meal plan for a weeks worth of dinners every week. I try to incorporate the meats that are on sale that week and make it the main focus of the week (e.g. buy a whole chicken to roast, use the leftovers to make chicken pot pie, the bones for a chicken soup). Other then my one "main" meat I might have an egg dish one day, something with beans or some ground meat, like spaghetti sauce. Stay seasonal with your veggies and again watch what is on sale, bags of frozen veggies are often a good bargain. Make extra dinner portions and use leftovers for lunches instead of expensive take out. Plan your shopping list around your weekly meal plan, don't buy a lot of fancy packaged foods. For example, a box of store-brand, plain oatmeal goes much longer then the little individual packets. Good luck.

Answer 3

We love to grill and have discovered a couple of ways to do it on a budget. One is to keep an eye out for good meats in the bargain bin at the grocery store such as steaks, london broil, pork chops, etc. that must be sold that day.

If it's more than we know we'll eat in one meal, we'll store or freeze the leftovers to do with a nice salad or mix with something like beans and rice later in the week.

For grilling times we use the cookout calculator at charcoalbob.com. Just enter the details about the items to be grilled (cut of meat, thickness, doneness) and it will give you instructions for how to grill steak, burgers, pork chops, chicken breasts, etc. so that everything comes off the grill at the same time, cooked the way you want it.

This is particularly useful when grilling several items bought on sale for use later in the week on salads or in other recipes, and a great way to enjoy delicious grilled meals on a budget througout the week.

Answer 4

For you to save money, you have to know how you're spending it.

Look at what you're buying for groceries...
What is it? a lot of packaged foods or snack foods/sodas or basics where you make your own?

How much gets thrown out with trash? It may appear that you're saving money by buying in bulk, but if it ends up in the trash bin every week, then it's best to just buy less even it it's slightly a higher price.

Do you all go out and buy coffee? A few dollars a day and by the end of the week you've spent $20 or more just getting a morning cup.

Meats... Buy whole chickens and cut them up yourself. If your family is a breast meat only family, then I guess you're willing to pay the higher prices.

Track your shopping and spending habits and just look at where the cash is going and make decisions to cut or find alternatives.

Answer 5

Coupons only help us a little bit, because they're all things we don't buy. I found the best way to stay on top of it is to track it in Excel. It's a real eye-opener to see the cost per month. And the beauty is that you can see that say, you just bought frozen broccoli 2 weeks ago, so you don't need any. Or that you bought peppers 1 week ago and need to be used. When you're busy you forget about how long stuff has been in the fridge.

Also, buy blocks of cheese and shred it yourself and freeze it, buy dried beans, rice in bulk, meat in bulk and portion it out and freeze it. Once you've got that down, the only things you need to buy are things like milk, eggs, and cream.

And the best part about one quick glance at the spreadsheet is you know you need to use something fast and there's your idea for dinner!

Answer 6

Seriously coupons are the way to go! If you don't have access to them...you can buy them on ebay for really cheap! If I really try I can save almost $70 on a major shopping trip. I have a friend who is so awesome with sales/coupons he's been know to walk out of the grocery store with money the store paid him for buying a cart load of groceries. It's all about double coupon day and what kind of sales the stores have going on at the time. It may take a little time to organize but it really is totally worth it. Good Luck!!!

Answer 7

Aside from buying in bulk and not buying name brands, buy cheaper cuts of meat. If you have a crock pot you can use almost any kind of cheap meat and it will come out delicious and feed many people. Also, don't buy the already trimmed chicken breasts, by normal or buy whole fryers and do it yourself. Make a grocery list before you go to the store and do not buy anything outside of what's on your list. Most important: NEVER go grocery shopping hungry!

Answer 8

Invest in a vacuum sealer which can keep foods fresh in the fridge or freezer for 4 times as long as regular storage containers.
after you purchase your vacuum sealer start buying your produce at the produce store in bulk, You meat at the meat store in bulk. Bring it home and split it up, freeze and refrigerate proper items.
Buy the rest of your groceries at a discount store, soups sauces, canned goods and packaged food items.
Walmart is the best place for kids snacks soda, cereal, juice ect.
Do NOT eat out, its too expensive, You can buy 3 dinners for your family for the same cost as eating one meal at a restaurant.
Learn how to prepare portions so you never have leftovers.
Eat alot of ramen noodles for 15 cents a pack!!!!!

Answer 9

Well, I don't have much to say, but if you plan your meals out right then you can re-use your leftovers. Such as say your making chicken stew monday night, your at the store and the pack of chicken you have is 5 dollars for 2 pounds. If you buy the 4 pounds for 8 dollars then you can use the leftover chicken the next night and so on.

Answer 10

Instead of buying boneless, skinless chicken breasts, I bought bone-in, skin on. It's about 40% cheaper. I even saved up the bones and made my own chicken stock for soups and whatnot. You can buy them in larger quantities and separate them into individual portions and freeze them, which saves money as well as long as you have the freezer space. I also usually take any leftovers to work to eat for lunch the next day, instead of buying a lunch.