If you leave the supermarket having spent two or three times as much as you were hoping to, you’re certainly not the only person in this position. Effective grocery shopping is actually a lot harder than it might seem, and it requires a good bit of planning and disciple to ensure that you don’t come home with armfuls of things you don’t need.
In this article, we take a look at a few great tips that can ensure that you don’t blow your shopping budget every week with unnecessary purchases.
Ordering the right food can save you big
If a stack of cash advance loans in Melbourne are giving you the blues – particularly if you can’t order takeaway anymore – you still have plenty of options to ensure you get a steady supply of delicious food. If you resort to buying ready meals and ordering in because going grocery shopping is too much of a time commitment, you might want to instead consider doing your grocery shopping online.
By using the click and collect services of supermarkets, you can have other people collect of the ingredients for you so that you don’t have to wander around the store for an hour or so. If you don’t have time to go to the store, you can even get your supermarket groceries delivered – there’s no excuse not to use fresh ingredients now!
This process is made even simpler with a little bit of meal prep – think about what kinds of foods you like to eat, and look up relevant recipes online. They might not be cheap all of the time (you won’t be saving big if you only want to eat seafood, for example), but most of the time you’ll be able to find very cheap meals that taste amazing and don’t cost an arm and a leg, such as pastas.
Buy what is affordable
Keeping an eye out for the half price specials that are available at the supermarket every week can not only help you save a lot of money for the same items that you would otherwise buy, it can help you also plan meals. Opting for half price specials instead of your usual fare can help provide variety and great savings, and when it comes to cheap produce, you’ll know that they’re always in season!
If you are finding that your food bill is still to high, why not try and eat more vegetarian food? Legumes like beans and lentils provide a lot of protein and cost a fraction of what meat does, particularly if you buy them dried. Cooking vegetarian food is also very healthy and simple, and you usually won’t have to stress out if you leave dried legumes lying around for a while – it takes years for them to go off (unlike meat, which is a few days).
Start preparing your own food today!
While you can’t avoid grocery shopping, you can avoid most of the problematic aspects of grocery shopping by following the above tips. Although it might take some getting used to, meal prep is always the key to saving big on groceries. Doing your own cooking with affordable ingredients can be a lifesaver for your budget, plus you’ll be able to develop a lot of fantastic kitchen skills that you otherwise would not have had the opportunity to develop.
