As bad economic news continues to make headlines, many people are battening down the hatches. Everyone is looking for ways to save money in this economic downturn.
We slash the cable bill, cancel the gym membership, lower the thermostat, and take fewer trips to the mall. Yet these steps pale in comparison to the savings we can realize simply by reducing our grocery costs.
Your grocery bill is typically your third largest expense, falling only behind housing and transportation costs. Yet your grocery bill is typically the easiest expense to trim, creating the largest savings with the least amount of extra effort.
Unfortunately, we sometimes suffer from paralysis by analysis. Not knowing where to start, we SIMPLY don’t get started toward slashing our food cost. One way to start cutting your grocery bill and begin saving money is to simply start. You don’t need a grand plan. Just take baby steps.
In a previous post I showed how just one simple change in shopping behavior can create an avalanche of savings. Your task is to implement just one simple change into your shopping routine. Implement this change for several weeks until you’ve made it part of your normal shopping behavior.
Then add another simple change to your routine until, like the first change, it becomes second nature. When you reach this point, you guessed it – add a third simple change to your normal shopping routine.
The amazing thing about this is that once you see the savings start to pile up, you’re going to get even more excited about implementing additional changes. It turns into a pleasant money saving cycle. The more you save, the more you’ll want to implement changes that allow you to save even more!
Start with the easiest baby steps first – those that create the biggest savings with the least amount of work. Then graduate to baby steps that may take a little more effort like clipping, organizing, and using coupons.
Here’s a sample BABY STEP plan:
Month 1 (BABY STEP 1) : Stop by an Aldi’s supermarket. Aldi’s is a clean, no frills grocery store with high quality food at low prices. Shoppers can save 40-50% at Aldi’s compared to conventional grocery stores. Find an Aldi’s discount grocery store near you by visiting the store locater at the Alidi’s supermarket website.
During your weekly grocery shopping trip, make Aldi’s your first stop. Then proceed to your regular grocery store of choice. This one baby step alone could easily save you $75 to $100 or more a month! This is an easy extra $900 to $1200 in your pocket each year.
Month 2 (BABY STEP 2): Once you’ve made a habit out of stopping by Aldi’s, move onto the next baby step. Take a look at the products you buy on a regular basis. For those products that you purchase consistently, chose one and try the store brand version. If your family doesn’t like it, return it for a full refund. Most stores offer a no questions asked refund on all of their store brands.
Try a different store brand product each week. If you find just four products for which you can purchase the store brand alternative, you’ll easily save $5-$10 a week. Doesn’t sound like much until you realize that over one year you’ll save $260 – $520.
Month 3 (BABY STEP 3): Meat is one of the most expensive parts of any food budget. Just once a week cook a meal without meat. Check out websites like meatlessmonday.com and vegcooking.com for great meatless recipes. This one simple step could save you $7-$10 a week. Again a yearly savings of nearly $364 to $520.
Month 4 (BABY STEP 4): The simple habit of stockpiling will lead to some incredible savings. This one simple step takes advantage of the tremendous savings inherent in “2 for 1″ and “buy one, get one” free sales. For products you purchase frequently, wait and stock up only when these items go on sale at a deep discounts.
For many products this type of sale occurs every four to eight weeks. The key is purchase enough of the item to last until the next significant sale. Stockpiling basically cuts your costs in half. Because of limited freezer or pantry space you may only be able to do this for a few items, but the savings will still be tremendous. You can easily save $15 to $20 a week using this method, a yearly savings of $780 to $1040.
Month 5 (BABY STEP 5): Plan your meals around the supermarket sales circular. As we mentioned above, meat is one of the most expensive parts of your food budget. In addition to skipping meals that contain meat one night a week, you can save money simply by planning your meals around the sales found in your local grocery store circular. Almost always some type of meat will be on sale for a significant discount. You’ll also find sales on the rest of the items needed to make complete meals. This habit of planning your meals around the supermarket sales circulars can easily save you $10 a week or $520 a year.
Now these baby steps are just a small sample of the number of ways you can save money shopping for groceries. You don’t have to implement or follow these specific examples. The point is to illustrate that by taking one simple action and over the course of a month or so making it a normal part of your routine, you can easily start racking up impressive savings.
The key to the BABY STEP plan is to focus on one small change at a time until it becomes a habit, second nature. Once this happens, you then focus on another small area of improvement until that change becomes ingrained.
Each baby step may save you a few hundred dollars a year, but add the savings from several baby steps and your yearly savings will be in the thousands. Implementing the five baby steps we mentioned above, for instance, would save you between $2744 to $3760 a year! Now that’s a lot of money and something to smile about.
Update: We’d like to thank Living Well on Less for including this article in the Carnival of Pecuniary Delights personal finance blog carnival.
Loading ...
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }