How One Person Saves Money On Groceries

Like many Americans, I decided to make saving more money a priority this year. One of the areas with which I've had some success is food. Here are five tactics I instituted this year to cut my grocery expenses: Coupons - Although I've always considered myself a frugal person and I've tried to use coupons whenever I could, I never really got into the whole couponing thing. This year, I decided to jump in with both feet to see how much I could save. I discovered that the real savings from couponing doesn't come from coupons alone, but rather from combining manufacturers' coupons with store coupons or sales -- or both. It's amazing how much you can save when two or three of these stars align. One recent example: My parents eat Fiber One cereal every morning, which runs up to $4.79 a box. Well, this past week, Target put it on sale for $2.50 a box, and if you bought five boxes they gave you a $5 Target gift card. They also had a $1 off store coupon on their website, and I had a $0.75 manufacturer's coupon. All told, I got them for $1.15 per box or over 75% off the regular price. Another key tenant of successful couponing is to stockpile when that once-in-a-year deal comes along. We bought 35 boxes, which should last through much of the year. We checked the boxes use-by date to make sure they would still be good several months later. One of the pitfalls of couponing is that the deals sometimes cause you to buy stuff you otherwise wouldn't, and thus what appears to be a savings strategy quickly becomes an overspending strategy. I only use couponing for items I would normally buy, and I'm careful not to let it dictate my shopping list. All told, couponing has saved me hundreds of dollars so far this year; I saved over $100 on my recent Fiber One purchase alone. Going Generic - One of my vices is diet soda. I've always been a huge diet coke drinker, consuming roughly one liter per day. This year, I decided to switch from Diet Coke to my local store's brand of diet soda. We develop a taste preference after repeated consumption of a particular brand, and I've found it takes several weeks after the switch before I start to enjoy the new brand's taste. Comparing regular price to regular price, I save roughly 75 cents per 2 liters, which ads up to just over $136 in savings per year at my rate of consumption. My next step is to reduce my overall soda consumption and eventually eliminate it entirely. I've also switched to generics when it comes to ice cream, ketchup, cereal, you name it. Buying from the Bulk Bins - Fortunately, I discovered a supermarket nearby with a great bulk foods section. I've found that, for many items, the bulk foods price beats the pants off of both national and generic brand prices. I buy old fashioned oatmeal for around 40 cents per pound, which is more than 50 percent cheaper than Quaker Oats brand at my local supermarket. For some items, there isn't much savings to be had, but for others, especially spices, you can save up to 90%. Bakery Outlets - If you haven't visited a nearby bakery outlet, you should try it at least once. My family goes through about two loaves of bread a week. Unfortunately, we've developed a real fondness for Oat Nut bread, which can run $4.00 at my local supermarket. I decided to visit our local bakery outlet near my home. The price for my beloved Oat Nut bread was just $1.69. What's more, the outlet offers a senior citizens discount of 10%, and they give you a stamp card (you get a stamp for each loaf of bread you buy, and after ten stamps, you get one loaf free). I learned another tidbit from the clerk at the outlet: Thursday is double stamp day, where you can get a free loaf after buying just five loaves. So, if you're a senior citizen and you shop on Thursdays, you can pick up Oat Nut bread for just under $1.20 per loaf. We buy several loaves of bread at a time and freeze the extras. I've heard some people say that bread out of the freezer doesn't taste right, but I've tasted bread from hundreds of loaves that come out of our freezer and they taste perfect. On average, I figure we're saving $2 per loaf and, at our rate of consumption, that's a savings of $208 per year. Food Substitution - Another tactic I employed this year to save money on food is substituting expensive processed foods for cheaper healthier foods. When I looked back at the previous year, I noticed I was spending a lot of money on convenience foods like Stouffer's pizzas, Eggo waffles, or pretty much anything that came out of a box that I could easily throw into a microwave or toaster. I reasoned that if I could get more of my daily calories from healthier home-cooked options like oatmeal at 15 cents per serving, rice at 10 cents per serving, or popcorn also at 10 cents per serving, I could save a decent chunk of change. So far this year I've saved well over $200 by not buying packaged convenience foods and replacing them with healthier options. According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average economic unit (I believe that's their jargon for a family) spends roughly $3,500 on food at home each year. By just making small changes and shaving 10% off the grocery bill, the average family could save $350 a year.

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