Here’s a Quick Way to Save $2500 a Year on Groceries
One of the biggest monthly expenses for most families is the cost of food. Other than your house payment or car payment, groceries are the biggest drain on your wallet. The average family spends more than $6,000 a year on food. Fortunately, it is not that difficult to shave hundreds of dollars off of your monthly food expenses by following some of these great tips.
1. Switch to store brands
One of the biggest ways to save money on food is by simply switching to store brands instead of the commercial name brands. As most of these store brands are 30% cheaper than the average commercial brand, this can lead to a saving of up to $1,500 per year. You will also be surprised to know that in a taste-off study by Yahoo Shopping, the store brands were found to be comparable in terms of taste, quality and nutrition.
2. Plan your grocery spending
Another way to save money on groceries is by implementing a little planning. On average, families today throw out about 15% of the food they buy at the grocery store because it went un-used. When you consider that the average annual grocery bill as detailed above, that is an extraordinary $900 a year on wasted food. With a little planning, however, we can cut down this waste dramatically. Plan your meals for the week and only purchase what you need for those meals. Take a look in your refrigerator and think of great uses for the ingredients you already have. There was a reason you purchased that food in the first place, why let it go to waste? Also, stop making daily trips to the grocery store. Most Americans don’t think about what they want to eat that day until they start to get hungry. Then they jump in the car and drive to the grocery store to pick up what they are in the mood for, sometimes forgetting that they have certain things in the fridge or freezer already. A little planning can therefore save a lot of money.
3. Stop Paying For Convenience
There is a lot of truth in the saying that we pay for convenience. For example, you can get a head of romaine lettuce for about half the cost of the pre-packaged, pre-washed chopped lettuce bags that you find in every grocery store. This is a huge waste of money for the sake of a little convenience, especially when you think that most people use the entire bag in one meal instead of just cutting up what they need.
Another huge cause of over-spending due to convenience is eating out. It is so much easier to go to Subway for lunch instead of making your own sandwich and bringing it with you. Bringing your own lunch can actually save you over $2,000 per year. That is the equivalent of a $1 per hour pay rise!
4. Save Gas
With the average price of gas climbing to over $3 per gallon in the U.S., the family car is a huge drain on your wallet. Group your trips and errands together so that you make less trips in the car and you can save a substantial amount of money. For example, planning your meals for the week will result in one trip to the grocery store each week instead of seven. While you are out, why don’t you also go and pick up that rake you needed from the hardware store instead of making another trip later?
5. Eat Less by Drinking More Water
A Washington University study recently proved that most people who think they are hungry are actually just thirsty. In fact, in their study, when people drank a glass of water when they were hungry between their meals, the hunger pans went away almost every time! This is especially true when the midnight hunger pangs hit. By drinking more water, not only are you living a healthier lifestyle, you will also find that you are eating less and saving more money.
