Wondering how to save money on groceries? Below are my top 10+ ways we save money on groceries every week, from meal planning to reducing impulse purchases and much more! Food prices continue to rise and we’ve gotten creative to find ways to stretch our grocery budget.
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Meal Planning
Meal planning is a great way to save money on groceries because you only buy what you actually will use that week. There is less food waste in the back of the fridge or cupboard that’s forgotten about until it goes bad.
Meal planning became a necessity for me years ago when I had to drastically change the way I ate due to health problems. I meal plan once a week using the Plan to Eat website or app and it makes a grocery list for me so I’m ready to go! Click below to learn more about meal planning with Plan to Eat.
Meal planning will also help you reduce impulse purchases since you have a shopping list for exactly what you need including fresh produce, pantry items, and other grocery items.
Cashback with Ibotta and Rakuten
Before I head to the store or place my online grocery shopping order I always go to Ibotta first. They have an app and a browser extension that I use depending on where I’m shopping from. I’m able to connect my Target account to their app so I can automatically get cash back without having to scan my receipt. This also works on online purchases (which is all I do these days).
I use Rakuten as a Google Chrome Plugin so it pops up every time I’m on a site in which I could get a percentage of my purchase back through them. Always remember that in order for Rakuten to work, you have to press the activate button right before your purchase, or it won’t count.
One of the really great things about Rakuten is if you sign up through my link and make a $30+ order at one of the 3,500+ retailers they work with, then you get $30 added to your Rakuten account and so do I. Plus, you get the percentage back from your purchase that you activated. It’s a win/win!
To learn more about how I use Ibotta and Rakuten, click the images below to read my blog posts where I go into more detail.
Cash Back with Merryfield App
Merryfield is another cash back app for groceries that will help you save money on groceries. I started using it three years ago and have earned over $100 cash back.
Merryfield gives 50 points for every $1 spent on the better-for-you brands you can check out on their app. It’s like getting 5% back on all products from their member brands that are on your receipt. Beyond the basic 50 points per dollar spent, there are always special offers as well. There is one right now for Applegate Breaded Chicken where you can get 1,500 points. Another on Justin’s Nut Butter Spreads you can get another 1,500 points (1,000 points = $1).
This app is great for anyone, especially those who like to use more natural products and/or have food sensitivities or allergies. A sampling of the brands they work with include Honest Co., Daiya dairy-free products, Applegate, Canyon Bakehouse Gluten Free breads, Barilla pasta (including gluten free), NadaMoo dairy-free ice cream, Bob’s Red Mill products, Justin’s Nut Butters, Plum Organics, and Wild Planet, just to name a sampling of them.
The way it works is similar to Ibotta, you need to go into the app before you purchase to add any special offers available. Other than that though, it’ll just automatically provide cash back as you shop the brands they work with. You can do this by linking your accounts, such as Target and Amazon, to the app and it’ll automatically check every purchase and credit you the points. OR you can upload a receipt by taking a picture of it if you shop in-person.
Sign up with Merryfield and get $2 to Start you Off Right!
Download the app, and when you sign up, enter my unique code DK2AZ0. Then when you submit your first receipt, you’ll get 2,000 points (or $2 back) and so will I. Wa-hoo!
Opt for Frozen
Another tip to help you save money on groceries is to buy frozen foods when possible. This includes everything from frozen chicken breasts instead of fresh, to frozen veggies and fruit. I still buy many of those things fresh at times, especially fresh fruits and fresh produce, but when I’m looking for easy and inexpensive meal solutions, I opt for frozen when I can.
Frozen fruits and veggies generally are just as healthy as fresh ones and obviously will last a LOT longer! They also help if you need a quick meal. I typically have some frozen mixed vegetables, frozen cubed sweet potatoes, frozen strawberries, and frozen riced cauliflower on hand for when I need to add something extra to a meal or want to make a smoothie (with the strawberries and cauliflower, among other things. It’s actually really good!).
Frozen foods typically cost less than fresh and are great things to buy in bulk if you can. Which leads me to…
Buy in Bulk
Buying in bulk when able helps as often if you get the larger/family size of something such as chicken, it’ll cost less per pound/unit price than the smaller package. I’ve found that with Target getting the family pack instead of the smaller package of chicken breasts can be up to $1 less per pound!! If you aren’t going to use the whole package that week, you can always freeze it for later.
Ensure that if you’re buying in bulk and freezing food that you have a way to keep track of what is in the freezer. We have a freezer attached to our fridge as well as a chest freezer so it’s easy for things to get buried at the bottom. We have a list that we keep in the app ‘Keep’ where both my husband and I can easily see on our phones or computer what we have in the freezer in terms of meal staples such as meat.
This really helps me when I’m meal planning instead of having to get up and hold the freezer open while I dig through everything to figure out what we have. This way I can easily see what we have on the list, if I want to use it for the next week I put it in the meal plan that I need to thaw it two nights before, and then I’m all set!
We also have a reminder that goes off every evening after dinner to remind us to thaw the food for that night if there is anything to thaw. Since we meal plan with Plan to Eat it’s as easy as looking at the Plan to Eat App on our phone and looking at the notes section for the day to see if there is anything we need to thaw.
Below is a picture of the food in our chest freezer and our Keep app where we keep track of the frozen foods, especially frozen meat.
Shop Your Local Store or Farmer’s Market
Often buying at a local farmer’s market is cheaper than in the store, especially for organic produce. In terms of meat, buying from local farmers will be cheaper per pound as long as you have the freezer space to store it. If you can’t fit a half or even quarter cow or hog in your freezer, see if a friend or neighbor wants to split it with you.
Buying local also has the benefit of supporting local famers, cutting down on energy costs of trucks driving food to your local store, and often connecting with others such as at Farmer’s Markets.
One caveat here, while buying local can save money, be sure to compare prices for your local grocery store if they’re on the smaller size and you want to shop there. Our local grocery store has 3 locations and in an analysis I’ve done I found that their prices are 30% more expensive overall than if I shop at Target, Walmart, or Aldi. I do get some items from our local grocer as I do want to support them but not a lot due to the higher prices.
Overall, buying local not only helps you save money on groceries but also helps your local economy and reduce greenhouse gasses!
Grocery Loyalty Programs & Coupons
Many stores have loyalty programs in the form of a free program where you can add coupons and/or get a percentage off your purchase. Sometimes this is just a card you have and get scanned at the store or an app. Or both!
Our local grocery store has a loyalty program, as do most grocery stores. If you want to see if yours does just ask the next time you’re checking out at the store or check their website.
Target has such a program that used to be called Cartwheel but now is Target Circle. It’s free to sign up and you can get discounts on different things each week. We’ve saved hundreds with this program by shopping the deals.
There are also physical coupons you can either get in a newspaper or print off the website of the item that you’re wanting to purchase. These are typically for name brand items.
Shop Online for Specialty Items
In our home we have food sensitivities, including gluten, dairy, and soy. This means our grocery bill is much higher than most people, especially since we all had to go gluten-free last year, instead of just some of us.
I’ve found that buying specialty items at places such as Vitacost.com and ThriveMarket.com can save money if I wait for sales, stack online coupons, and get cash back with Rakuten.
The prices in those cases are much more reasonable than in-store prices for those items. I always have a cart going at Vitacost, where I can stack the most coupons they offer, and build my cart until I reach the free shipping threshold, then I order.
The main difference between Vitacost and Thrive Market is Vitacost doesn’t require a membership whereas Thrive Market does.
If you decide to sign up for Thrive Market by clicking the button below, you’ll get an extra 40% off your first order AND a free gift!
Subscribe and Save
In conjunction with the tip above, shopping online, utilizing Subscribe and Save on sites such as Amazon and others, can save you a significant amount of money over time.
We have 20+ items on our Amazon Subscribe and Save which saves us 15% each shipment on things we routinely buy. We can schedule things out for when we need them and skip them if we don’t need them that month. We can set the frequency to be as long as 6 months between each shipment or as little as every 2 weeks.
Amazon isn’t the only online store with a discount for subscribing. Be sure to check your options the next time you are checking out online to see if you can save more on things that you buy routinely.
Opt for Store Brands
One of the biggest ways we save money is choosing store brands instead of the name brands. Often, they taste about the same and the sale price of the name brand item may even be more than the store brand. Sometimes they’re even made at the same place! Of course, when it comes to gluten-free foods, I have to be more careful with store brands but if that isn’t a concern for you, I highly suggest trying the store brands and see if you can even notice the difference in terms of taste and quality, just a simple way to spend less.
Comparison Shop
Often I comparison shop before deciding where to get groceries for the week. I like supporting our local store but I also know that they are often more expensive so if I’m ok with going to two places I will. Or I just go with the place with the best deals and lower prices that week.
Shopping online has really helped with comparison shopping as well as limiting impulse purchases. Gone are the days of having to go from store to store to see their grocery prices or bringing along your receipt from store A to compare with prices at store B. Now you can compare grocery prices online before you or before you order from them or shop in store.
I’ve also done some of the comparison shopping for you in the blog posts below that I’ll keep updated with over 30 common items to help you save money on groceries!
Throughout my parenting journey with 3 kids on a single income, I have become an expert in living comfortably within our means without feeling restricted and I will help you do the same.
I'm a former school psychologist who left my career to stay home with my children, hence the one-income family and needing to adapt to that mentality while still living comfortably.