REDUCE YOUR MONTHLY GROCERY BILL WITH THESE 8 TRICKS.
Reduce your Monthly grocery bill with these 8 tricks.
Have coupon collector or smart shopper reward envy? With these 8 ways on how to save money on smart grocery shopping, you won’t feel the need to be envious. These are tips for the US and South Africa.
- Buy lettuce by the head, not by the bag. Sure it might take slightly more time to wash and curt your lettuce compared to buying it pre-washed and cut but you get the same amount of lettuce for almost double the price, besides it could also benefit the environment by not buying it in a plastic bag. In America, you save on average $3.50-$4.50 and if you are a South African who shops at Pick n Pay, they literally charge more than double with a lettuce head being R9.99 and washed lettuce R21.99.
- Milk. This depends on where you live, but a gallon of milk in a grocery store is more expensive than from a convenient store, In South Africa if you shop at Pick n Pay the PnP brand milk is the way to go as it is definitely cheaper by R3, it may not be a huge difference but at the end of the month it all adds up, Also refrain from getting milk at petrol stations! They really do make a markup.
- Try not to buy fresh produce in bulk. I would advise creating weekly menus of what you will be making for dinner and lunch etc. This way your grocery list will be made up from your dishes you will be preparing this way you also will leave you with minimal food to waste and throw away.
- Preparing your Vegetables yourself. I know, I know, we work all day and all we want to do when we get home is relax, cutting and peeling and washing whole vegetables may seem like such a mission, but if you are a student or are on a tight budget, cutting your vegetables ahead of time when you get them from the grocery store, placing them in a Tupperware (Not Plastic) adding a crumpled up paper towel to absorb moisture will save you quite a bit of money and you will feel good doing the environment a favour at the same time.
- Don’t buy watered down Juice. It's just a money-making scheme. You pay the same amount as the regular juice, you might as well buy the regular juice and water it down yourself from the comfort of your own tap at home.
- Bottled water. It's debatable whether you should or shouldn’t buy bottled water, however some tap water in different areas aren’t great, however, there are some waters that are more acidic than your clean tap water, to find out what water you should or shouldn’t be buying, YouTube Bottled water pH level test.
- Look through sale catalogs or ask the Deli Clerk, Butcher etc, to see if anything is on sale. Who doesn’t love a sale?! Plain and simple, save a couple bucks by looking to see what is on special and if you are a loyal Pnp customer, try stick to Pnp brands as your slip at the end of your purchase will tell you how much you saved, and if you collect all your slips and purchase a lot of store brand products you could end up with a month of free groceries.
- Shop at a Fresh Produce Markets. Most Fresh produce markets are good for the environment as they do not package every single thing and it's amazing in your pocket. North America and almost the whole of South Africa has a Fruit and Veg City (Food Lovers Market) and they are cheaper with their meat too! These stores always have specials, buying in bulk your meat and repackaging them at home to fit in your freezer can really last you a good 2 months and it's super cheap.