Find Money in Your Grocery Budget up to 20%

This article came out of a changed lifestyle of WATCHING each dollar when life changed.

Not all financial problems are a result of bad decisions. Some are due to life’s unplanned changes; like death, divorce, separation, moving, job loss or a retirement. But most is as a result of – having more expenses versus income coming in monthly – and or even as a result of bad financial habits picked up over the years.

One of the ways people try to balance not having enough money is to get a second job, only to be back where they started, with no money left at the end of the month. There is no guarantee that pulling two jobs will increase your income. Sometimes you will live from paycheck to paycheck with one job, and still thrive. I believe that people should live on one income if they are married and less if single.

Getting a job is not even a choice for most people, they just learn to live with what they have. A parent may not be able to work any other job if they have other responsibility e.g. (a younger child, or a physically challenged family member or an older adult parent).

Now that you created a budget and it has worked for a few weeks let’s see if we can take money out and put it in some other budget category or use it to pay off a bill or debt.

Find Money in your Grocery Shopping Budget

Since this article is about finding money in your budget up to 20%, we will be starting with (1) identifying your shopping trip pattern so we can put that money in other spending categories. (2) review last month’s bank statement, to help decide your frequency at the grocery store. This actually ends up saving you money and time.

Change your Grocery Shopping Habits

How often will you go to the GROCERY store? One of the things you need to decide on is how often you will be going to the store (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). More time is needed upfront to prep and plan if you are a monthly shopper than for someone who will be shopping on a weekly basis. This will help you plan your driving schedule and stop unplanned grocery trips. Take a minute or more and think, so what did you decide?

Weekly
Bi-weekly
Monthly

Now that you’ve changed your way of shopping, let’s go save money.

THREE #3 – PLACES TO FIND MONEY

#1 – Shop from Page 1 ONLY

This is my favorite and easiest way to save, once you have your store circular you will be shopping from the first page only. I grant you permission to toss out the rest of the circular.

Your food will be purchased around that circular cover page; the first page, see Giant Food circular below, first page and only page. You will plan your menu and shopping trip around the items on the first page of the circular ONLY.

Why you may ask? There is a well-kept secret; the items listed on the first page are called “loss leaders” and are marketed to bring you into the store to lead you into buying all the other full priced items in the other pages of the circular while you are in the store.

Giant Food Circular

#2 – Use a store circular/flyer you save MONEY

When going with this option you can shop from any of the pages and are not limited to page one only. When you find 10 -15 or more minutes in your busy, and overloaded schedule and devote it to pre-planning your grocery store trip you can save up to $25 or more.

Pre-planning for grocery shopping is when you prepare your meal plan, grocery list and coupons before going to the store. For this you need the store circular/flyer to the store you will be shopping at, and of course a pen and paper.

Where can you get a Circular from?

Saturday newspaper subscription.
Your local grocery store, restocked at the beginning of every sales cycle and you will find they are normally placed in the front of the door as you walk in, or at the customer service desk.
Electronically at your grocery store’s website.

#3 – Use COUPONS:

Coupons are like money, but really are codes that are in paper form and have an expiration date. You get them from your weekly paper, mostly with the weekend paper or sometimes with Saturday paper. From the manufacturer’s website and you may also find them online – facebook, instagram, twitter, pinterest or at fairs and store events and promotions.

Coupons are tendered mostly at times of purchase sometimes you can return within a few days to still get the discount. Once tendered it reduces the amount of cash you pay at the store. Coupons can range from as little as $.10 to as much as $20; it all depends on the manufacturer of the product and if it is a product that is new, so they are promoting it or well-known and just helping loyal customers out.

GM,

XOXOXO

Change Watch: Let us know how this worked out.