How We Save Money on Groceries

Food is most people’s third largest expense, after housing and transportation. The average family spends about $6,000 each year on food.

If you can find ways to cut down on food costs, you can free up money you can use for other things.

I’m definitely not one of those extreme couponer types. (No offense if you are.)

Most of us just don’t have the time to dedicate to finding and clipping the number of coupons necessary to get a whole cart full of groceries that the store ends up owing you money for.

I’m also not trying to have a mini store in my house. I just want what my family needs to make it through the week.

Even though I won’t be invited on Extreme Couponers (does that show still come on?), I like to save money on groceries where I can.

Related: How to Save $1,000 in One Month

We save money on our groceries by using coupons, using our grocery store loyalty card, buying generic brands, and using the Ibotta app.

To date, only 3 months into the year, we have saved $116.51 through coupons and loyalty card promotions. We’ve also received another $16 in rebates through the Ibotta app.

Let’s look at this in more detail.

Use coupons

I know I just talked about how no one has time for extreme coupon tactics, but hear me out.

We don’t have binders full of coupons, but we’re not opposed to using coupons to get deals.

Where can you find coupons?

Grocery store app. Our local grocery store has an app that shows the available coupons for that week. The app is tied to our loyalty card, so selecting the coupons we want automatically loads them onto the card.

At checkout, we simply scan our card, and the coupons we selected are applied.

Weekly store ads. Many stores still publish a weekly circular with all of the available deals for that week. Typically, it’s available at the front of the store.

Checkout. Sometimes buying a particular item triggers coupons for the item at our grocery store. The coupons print once we checkout, and we save them for the next time we purchase that product.

Product packaging. Some manufacturers include coupons on product packaging that you can use to save money, as well. I may have spent some time deconstructing a Gain detergent box or two in my day because of the coupons printed on the inside…

Store competitors. Some stores accept coupons from their competitors or even match their competitors’ prices. If you see a coupon or a lower price from another store for a product you want, it’s worth asking if your preferred store will honor it.

Look for some coupons to help you save money on your next trip to the grocery store.

Get a grocery store loyalty card

Many stores offer special deals for members of their loyalty programs.

You may see that certain products are listed with two prices—the regular price and the one for loyalty members.

Typically, all you have to do is fill out a short form, and all these amazing deals are available to you. Not a bad return on investment, no?

We use our loyalty card every time we go to the store.

We don’t buy purely based on the items that are on promotion, but if products we’re already planning to buy are on promotion, we may purchase more to take advantage of the savings.

I love Chobani Flip Greek yogurt. I typically bring one with me to work every day.

These yogurts are normally priced at $1.50 each, but our store sometimes offers them on sale 10 for $10 for loyalty card holders.

Because we buy groceries each week, I really only need 5 yogurts to get me through the week, but when this promotion is on, we’ll buy more to save.

Just make sure you pay attention to the unit price to be sure that you’re actually getting a deal. I’ve seen stores offer a “deal” on a larger size of an item, but if you look at the unit price, buying two of the smaller size saves you more money.

Don’t let them get you.

We’re trying to save money, not spend more.

Buy generic brands

This one is pretty self-explanatory.

We buy the name brand of the items we care about, but we’ll buy generic brand for the things we don’t.

I don’t care what anyone says, Rooty Tooty O’s in the big bag don’t taste the same as Froot Loops. They just don’t.

We buy name brand cereal, as well as a few other things that taste different to us from the generic brands.

We don’t notice a real difference with many things, though—things like spaghetti noodles, olive oil, granola bars, nuts, trail mix. We’ll buy those generic.

Figure out which foods you can live with eating the generic brand and save a little money. In many instances, the generic brand and the name brand are the same product with different packaging.

Use the Ibotta app

The Ibotta app is great for saving money at the grocery store.

The app has a number of rebates available each week. You go through the available rebates and select the items you purchase. Then, upload your receipt and get money.

They’ve even made it where you can connect your grocery store loyalty card to your Ibotta account now, so you don’t have to upload the receipt. As long as you use your card, Ibotta will recognize the purchase and give you the rebates you selected for the items you purchased.

We literally get money back on things we were already planning to buy.

The key, though, is making sure you don’t go out of your way to buy items just for the rebates on Ibotta.

Often the items with the largest rebates are the most expensive. You could spend much more than you plan to by chasing these higher rebates, but the rebate won’t be sufficient to offset the increased cost. Don’t do this.

We don’t even look at Ibotta until we’ve already finished our shopping and checked out. Then, we search for any rebates on the items we purchased.

Sometimes we strike out, but most times, there’s at least one rebate available for something we bought.

No one is getting rich off Ibotta earnings, but it’s nice to get a little money back for things you’re already buying anyway.

We’ve earned a little under $100 so far with Ibotta! Not a fortune but nothing to sneeze at either.

You can get a $10 welcome bonus after you redeem your first offer if you sign up through my link using your email address!

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Anything you can do to reduce your expenses allows you to reallocate the money to other goals. These quick tips are easy ways we’ve been able to reduce our grocery budget.

What do you think of these tips to save money on groceries? Do you have anything else to add?