How to save money on your grocery shopping

Want to know how to save money on your weekly grocery bill? Here are seven strategies that helped me make huge savings for my family! Plus a free weekly meal planner and shopping list designed by moi, that you can simply click to download. 

By far one of our biggest expenditures each month, after our mortgage is food shopping. So when I was trying to streamline our finances, I knew that was the most important area to tackle. We’d got into bad habits – not writing a meal plan, shopping daily, having at least a couple of takeaways per month.

When I took a closer look into our finances I was really horrified at how much more we spent than what I’d budgeted! So for the past few months we’ve undergone a food shopping makeover. Our goal was to eat healthier and save money. 

While we’re on the subject of healthy eating, if you’d like to lose a few pounds (but you still want to eat chocolate and come to think of it, a cheeky glass of wine) check out my post about slimming world. It’s the plan that has helped me lose 17 lbs in 6 weeks, without going hungry or having to give up the foods I love.

Anyway, back to saving money on said food! Here’s my tips…

How to save money on your weekly food shop

1# Meal plan

I know you’ll have heard this a thousand times, but it’s so important to help you stay on budget! Every Saturday I write the meal plan for the next week and a detailed shopping list.

Avoiding multiple trips to the supermarket means that you’re less likely to waste money on random items that you fancy on a whim. I mean how often do you pop to Aldi for a loaf of bread and come home wealding tennis rackets, a steam mop, several Jo Malone knock off candles and a rug you have absolutely no purpose for?  

I find it handy to write the date that the meat is required on the list, so that you don’t buy meat that will actually be out of date by the time you use it. 

I’ve created a free printable meal planner to help you with this one, just click to download my friend!

2# Stock check your cupboard regularly

So much food goes to waste, because you’ve forgotten you have it! I cleaned out all the kitchen cupboards, which desperately needed doing anyway, threw away anything out of date and re-organised my cupboards to make it easier to see what we’ve got. I’ll just ignore the fact that I found a box of mince pies leftover from Christmas.

3# Have at least £1pp dinner each week

Lately we’ve been having a weekly ‘cheapo night’ as we like to call it. It can be as easy as a Jacket potato with beans and salad or pesto pasta with vegetables, but we challenge ourselves to create something for under £1 per person. This can make a huge impact on your monthly shopping bill.

I recommend joining my blogging pal Sarah’s Frugal Homemakers Community Facebook group for more cheap meal ideas every Monday. Group members also share lots of other ideas on how to save money, so it’s really worth joining if you’re all about that budget lifestyle.

4# Make batches

We make bigger batches of dinners that are suitable for freezing and pop them in the freezer. On the last week of the month we have enough dinners for the entire week, which also gave us a week off from cooking – score! All we had to do was heat it up. 

5# Switch shops

If you don’t already, try shopping at Aldi. I’ll admit I wasn’t really keen on shopping there at first, it reminded me of the kind of supermarket that you go to on holiday, that never has quite what you’re looking for.

It turns out, I was wrong! You can save an absolute fortune without compromising on quality. The only disadvantage is that we generally have to go to Sainsbury’s as well, because they don’t stock absolutely everything we need. The range is expanding all the time though.  

6# Fridge raider soup

Because we’re eating more healthily, we buy a lot of vegetables and generally we have some left over at the weekend. Gather all veg from the fridge that’s about to go bad and make an epic soup. All you need to add is some vegetable stock and seasoning. Perfect for lunches the next week! You could also freeze it for later in the month.

7# Use coupons and loyalty card points

Don’t forget to actually use any coupons or loyalty card points you have. Keep coupons in your purse, right by your preferred payment method so you will be more likely to remember them. Maybe even keep a note of the ones you’ve got that you’re likely to use if you’re a fellow list lover like me!

We generally save nectar points all year and this helps us to buy food and drinks over the festive period. In fact if you need a few tips for how to save money at Christmas, without looking like a Scrooge check out this post. It’s never too early to start planning for Christmas in my opinion : )

And if you haven’t tried shopping for your groceries online before, many supermarkets have a large discount on your first order, so it’s worth doing at least once.

Do you have any more tips on how to save money on your grocery shopping? Let me know your tips in the comments below. 

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