When it comes to sticking to a food budget, the first thing you should look at is how much you currently spend on your groceries and what you are spending most of your money on.
Chances are, you are spending a lot of money on convenience foods that cost much more than the value you get in return.
Here are some grocery items you are probably wasting your money on.
Bagged Lettuce
Bags of lettuce can be convenient, but you are getting a very small amount of lettuce for 2-3 times what it costs to just buy a head of lettuce or romaine hearts in the fresh produce section.
Unless you are willing to spend a little more so you don’t need to rinse and cut your greens, this is something you should start passing on.
Pre-Cut Fruits and Veggies
Speaking of the produce section, it probably comes as no surprise to you that when you buy pre-cut fruits or veggies, you are spending far more than you need to.
On some occasions, this might be worth it to you to save the time and energy on having to prep them yourself.
However, if you are trying to stick to a food budget, this is probably the first thing you should stop purchasing.
You can get an entire cantaloupe or two for the price you pay for 1-2 servings of cut-up cantaloupe in the produce section.
Pre-Portioned Snacks
Moving on to the snacks section, buying them in pre-portioned bags or boxes is going to be a waste of money.
Again, you are just paying for convenience.
If you have a spare 20 minutes in your day, you can buy the big box version of that snack, and separate it yourself into individual snack-sized bags.
It should only take a few minutes, and you save a considerable amount of money.
Bottled Coffee
If you enjoy iced coffee, you might have started to purchase coffee or cold brew in bottles located in your grocery store’s refrigerated section.
But again, you are just paying for the convenience of having the cold coffee brewed for you.
In many cases, it is not only more expensive for the amount you get, but much more processed than is really necessary for a cup of coffee.Â
Brewed coffee keeps for a couple of days in the fridge, so you could make up a cafetiere’s worth, add any extras, and split into individual-sized bottles before storing in the fridge.
Then you can grab one out of the fridge as you leave rather than wasting time heading to the shop to buy one!
Lunchtime Meal Deals
Many supermarkets offer lunchtime meal deals, where you can get a sandwich or pasta salad pot, a snack like a packet of crisps, and a drink, for a set price.
But added up over a whole month, these meal deals can really take a huge bite out of your food budget!
Instead, you could buy a multipack of crisps, and a multipack of orange juice cartons for considerably less money.
As for the main part of the meal, you could make up a pasta salad at home and store it in the fridge, putting a portion in a tub.
You can even buy food-prepping containers with sections in to portion up your lunches.
Or buy some fresh salad veggies once a week, clean and prepare them, combine with a pot of houmous or similar, and keep in the fridge at work all week to dip into during your lunch break.
As you have seen, the best way to save money at the grocery store is purchase as many things as you can in their whole version.
From produce to crackers, this is where you will easily save the most money.
