The price of groceries has skyrocketed in the last year. What used to be a $7.00 package of ground pork is now $11.00 for a small, standard package! I noticed the price of groceries particularly sky-rocketed while doing our regular grocery shop at Superstore. What used to be a regular trip to buy groceries, turned into my partner and I pointing out how expensive this and that had become... at Superstore (which is generally the most affordable place to purchase groceries, along with Wal-Mart and in some cases, Costco)!
For many of us, housing and food takes up most of our budgets and makes up for the majority of our expenses. However, there are ways to save on food prices and this is what I'll get into in this post.
Shop Store Brand. What I mean by this is to compare the ingredients of the name-brand grocery item to the store brand. In many cases, the ingredients are the same, saving you money that you'd be paying for the name-brand item (marketing) by opting for the store brand, or in the case of Superstore, the President's Choice or No Name Brand item.
Flyer Shop. When you shop from the flyer sales, you're typically getting marked down, best-priced items. Try to flyer shop as much as possible, stocking up on items that are marked down for the week.
Price Match at Save-On and London Drugs. It can pay to check out the flyers each week and compare prices, especially if you shop at Save-On or London Drugs where they have a Price Match Guarantee. See a lower price advertised in an online or paper flyer at a competing store? Print out the advertisement showcasing the lower price, or keep the physical flyer that shows a lower price than Save-On and London Drugs and they will price match, I believe, within 30 days of the flyer being published.
Use a Cash Budget. Number 4 is my favourite tip of all: use a cash budget. What this means is that a percentage or dollar amount of every paycheque is allocated to groceries. This cash budget then gets used for groceries ONLY. The beauty of this is that once you're out of cash, you're out of cash. There is no more to spend (unless you take it from one of your other budget categories). I love the physical nature of handling cash, counting it, saving it, monitoring it. I love it!
Shop the Outer Aisles. It's not only healthier to shop the outer aisles of the grocery store where much of the produce and dairy items can be found, but it can also save you money because the items in the middle of the store are usually items that are "nice to have" but not necessary.
There you have it: 5 tips on how to save money on groceries in an ever-increasing grocery climate. I hope this gives you ideas and habits to implement into your own grocery shops and helps to save you money in your overall monthly grocery budget. Do you have more grocery money-saving tips? We'd love to know in the comments below! Signed, Filipina Budget Girl.
