Being an adult means that you are now in control of your money, and are responsible for making it stretch as far as it’s needed. When you have a family to support, this often means being very conscious of how you spend your money, and trying to save as much as possible wherever you can. Grocery shopping can be a large portion of the budget, and while you can’t cut it out entirely (we’ve got to eat!), there are some things you can do to lighten the strain that it makes on your bank account. I hope these tips for how to save money on groceries can help!
How to Save Money on Groceries
Make a List
If I head into a grocery store without a list, crazy things happen. I’ll end up coming home with jars of unusual pickled things that I’ve never heard of, cereal we don’t eat, ice cream that we didn’t need, and all kinds of other things that I grabbed purely because they were on sale. You may think you’re saving money by automatically heading to each yellow tagged item and snapping it up, but trust me, you’re spending more by buying several items that you never would have purchased had they not drawn you in with that flashy yellow price. A lot of times, these “sales” aren’t even priced much lower than regular, boasting huge savings with the colourful tags, but when you look closely, the “savings” are mere pennies.
Save yourself some time, money, and sanity by making a list at home, looking closely for what you really need and use, and sticking to that list when you shop.
Say No to Junk Food
I used to go shopping with the idea that I needed to stock up on treats and junkfood, too. After all, I knew I would get hungry and crave some potato chips or gummiesat some point in the week, so preparing for this was a smart decision, right? Wrong. Here’s the thing: All those junk foods add up to more than you’d think when you take a close look. Unecessary spending on “food” that isn’t giving your family anything in the way of nutrition and sustenance. When I stopped stocking up on these kinds of fillers, I found my grocery bill shrinking. Also, since there were rarely readily available junk foods in the pantry, we would get the cravings, but be unable to act on them, and end up opting for more nutritious snack foods, like veggies, fruits,healthy cereal, or chips and hummus. Double win!
Review the Flyers
This is something I am awful at doing. I’ll admit it. If it weren’t for my husband, I would never be aware of the different sales at the different stores. He’s the one who takes a peek at the flyers when they come in, and chooses the sale items that we would use and either stopsthere himself, or lets me know that we should get this from there and that from the other place. It’s amazing the difference in prices that two stores can have for the same item, and being conscious of where you choose to shop for what certainly helps us save those precious dollars.
Coupons
Coupons are a classic idea for how to save money on groceries. There are a plethora of different places to find coupons for items that you would buy. From flyers, to store shelves, to the back of boxes, to couponing websites, you can find a lot of savings if you look in the right places and make the effort to bring the coupons with you. Every little bit helps, and with a couple dollars here and there in coupons, you can wind up saving significant amounts if you’re consistent with that coupon clipping.
Caddle
Caddle is a website and app for iPhones, and will be available as an app on Android soon. This programessentially gives you back cashfor certain items you buy at any Canadian grocery store. Actually, this goes beyond simple grocery store purchases. The opportunities available to complete for certain amounts of cash worth (I’ve seen anywhere between $.25-$4.00) might be grocery purchases, other purchases, or tasks like sharing the app on social media, answering questions, watching short videos, uploading pictures of your favourite places, and on and on. All you have to do is upload an image of the receipt, or a photo documenting your completion of the task and you will be credited for the amount indicated. To be honest, I was surprised at the wide variety of ways there were to make money off of purchases and tasks.
Once you reach a minimum of $20 in your cash back total, you can cash it out. You simply click on “Cash Out” in your account, and a cheque for the amount owed (a minimum of $20 is required to cash out, remember) will be mailed to you.
What I like about Caddle:
- You don’t need to remember to bring a coupon to the store, and can get your cash back for purchases after you buy them (so long as you have the receipt).
- It’s a very straightforward process.
- There are options to make cash back for completing short tasks that really don’t take much time, and can be completed in your spare time, like when you’re waiting in line for you coffee.
- There are some pretty decent savings on grocery items. (For instance, $4.00 back on a box of Larabars – pretty significant savings.)
- 10% of everything Caddle makes is donated to charity. I do love businesses that give back!
What I would like to see improve:
- I found that uploading long receipts was somewhat tricky, as the captured image didn’t quite line up with the predicted image when trying to take pictures of each receipt section. That being said, the receipts I uploaded were honored even though they weren’t exactly perfectly captured.
- The uploading time for the receipts took a few minutes. I imagine as the process perfects itself, this time may be decreased. As long as you don’t need to use your phone for a few minutes while you wait for the receipt image to upload, it’s not really a problem, though.
Now, here’s another way for how to save money. Caddle has graciously offered to donate $50.00 cash as a giveaway for you awesome readers. Enter for your chance to win $50 using the Rafflecopter form below.Contest is open to Canadian entrants only (Quebec, since this doesn’t exceed $100 you can enter, too!). Make sure to bookmark this page, because you can come back and enter by Tweeting each day until the giveaway ends. Full contest terms and conditions can be found within Rafflecopter. Contest ends July 4th, 2016. Good luck!
How do you save your money on groceries? Now it’s your turn. Do you have any tips to share with us? Comment below or connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest, and share all your trips for how to save money so we can all benefit.
Disclosure: This post has been sponsored by Caddle. However, all of the above opinions and experiences are genuinely my own. To see my full disclosure policy, find it here.
