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Grocery Hacks – How We Save Money on Groceries

01.20.2012 by Matt Jabs //

How we save money on groceries

This is the story of how we reduced our grocery budget from $400/month down to less than $250/month!

My wife and I have very different personality types… and what a blessing that is!

  • I am the eternal optimist – the visionary – the idea guy – the spontaneous one – the encourager – the free spirit.
  • My wife is the responsible one – the realist – the finisher – always keeping things on track – always grounded.

Our different personality types definitely combine to make us into a better whole, and we have learned that each of us is particularly strong in certain aspects of every project.

For example, when we need to go grocery shopping we sit down together and combine our gifts to come up with our best grocery shopping plan.  If it wasn’t for my wife, there would be no plan!  If it were not for me, we would not be eating nearly as healthy.  If it were not for her, we would spend more money due to not planning a menu.  If it were not for me, we would not have a specific budgeted amount of money for groceries to stick to each month.

As you can see, both of us have different gifts and we work to combine our gifts to yield the most beneficial result for our family (which is currently just her & I.)

The other night we sat down — together — and compiled a list of ways we have successfully reduced our grocery bill over the last 7 months.

Jabs Grocery Hacks

I am including this awesome list of Jabs Grocery Hacks in a printable .pdf format that you can print and keep in your purse and/or stick on your fridge. Enjoy and happy hacking!
  1. Plan a menu – 2-3 dinners for the week and eat leftovers the other nights.  Base meals on what needs to be used up in the refrigerator.
  2. Make a list – only purchase items you will need to add to the recipes you’re making from #1 Plan a Menu.
  3. Stick to the list – once at the store, DO NOT deviate from the list.
  4. Use coupons – when available use coupons… but ONLY for the items on your list!  Do not buy things just because you have a coupon. In fact, here’s a resource to teach you how to coupon properly.
  5. Stock up – on your favorite/frequently used items when they are on sale.  Clear out space in your cupboards, pantry, basement to store overflow.
  6. Grow a garden – use your own produce in all of your recipes and if it is harvest season – plan your recipes around what you are harvesting.
  7. Pick your own – when it comes to fruit and veggies, pick your own and preserve them by freezing, canning, etc.  Use these frozen goodies to make your own jam, add to muffins, ice cream, breakfasts, etc.  We picked strawberries and we picked blueberries, we saved a boat load on both.
  8. Make your own – use fruits and veggies you grew/picked to make homemade jam, tomato sauce, salsa, etc.  You can also make your own bread, crackers, cleaners, etc.  We decided to use up a lot of what we already have in our pantry, then when we run out of something we decide if it is something we can make ourselves instead of purchasing new.
  9. Preserve food – Even if it is not something you grew, buy large amounts of in-season produce then go home and preserve it.  I have already made mention of this in a few of the other tips, that’s how important it is… this tip permeates so many of the other tips.  You can freeze, can, dry, smoke, cure, etc.  The predominate methods are freezing and canning.
  10. Use more beans – this has been a HUGE change and a HUGE benefit for us.  You should definitely increase the amount you use.  Beans are cheap, healthy and delicious.  They are much healthier and less expensive than meat.
  11. Frequent local farmer’s markets – my wife and I have switched to a predominately fresh, healthy, and organic diet.  We have found a farmer at our local market who sells organic produce, honey, maple syrup, butter, cheese, meats, etc. for cheaper than the grocery stores!
  12. Check “price per unit” – despite popular belief, when at grocery stores sometimes it’s actually cheaper per unit to buy 2 smaller items than it is to buy one larger portion.
  13. Pack breakfasts and lunches – do this everyday so you are not tempted to buy these meals “on the run”.  Make this part of your nightly routine every night so it becomes habit.  My wife & I pack our healthy delicious breakfast idea every week day.
  14. Pack healthy snacks – place these in small containers early in the week.  Keep some in your car, purse, office, man bag, etc.  This will keep you from purchasing unhealthy and expensive snacks form vending machines, gas stations, or other places.
  15. Do more baking – this kind of fits in with #8, but deserves it’s own description.  Set aside a little time each month to bake bread and healthy cookies then freeze them for the consumption throughout the month.  The ingredient to bake cost much less and will go much further than purchasing pre-packaged cookies and breads.
  16. Make fruit salad – using some of your pick-your-own fruits from number #7, combine delicious, fresh, snackable fruits into a Tupperware as a “salad”.  This is a great way to keep family members from purchasing and eating unhealthy/expensive snack foods.
  17. Eat more nuts – another great snack food.  We get an organic trail mix blend from our health food store for $3.79/pound.  This is another healthy and cheap alternative to expensive snack foods.
  18. Test generic brands – persistent and clever advertising has tricked us into thinking we need certain brand name foods.  Make sure you try generic brands at least once — with an open mind — before you decide how much you dislike them!  My wife and I eat predominately generic/store brand foods.  Also, generic health and beauty items, along with medicines, are often made up of the exact same ingredients as name-brand items.
  19. Organize your pantry – this is VERY important.  Most people waste a lot of food and money because it simply gets lost in the black hole that is their pantry!  I’m lucky because my wife and I are both pretty organized when it comes to our food stuffs, so we excel in this area and it is a blessing.
  20. Work together – like my wife always says… “Teamwork makes the dream work!”  Just like any other good thing in marriage/family life — saving money on groceries is much easier if both spouses are working together to reach the common goals of physical and financial health!
I am including this awesome list of Jabs Grocery Hacks in a printable .pdf format that you can print and keep in your purse and/or stick on your fridge.  Enjoy and happy hacking!

Using these tips and principles me and my wife have been able to cut our grocery budget from $400/month down to less than $250/month on average!  We have also lost a combined 60+ pounds and have never felt better.

Categories // Expenses, Money Management, Spending, Tips Tags // food, groceries, reduce, Reduce Expenses

Save Money by Buying Sale Items in Bulk

12.23.2009 by Matt Jabs //

Just a quick post today to help you save money on groceries.

As you know I am big into taking control of your own income/debt situation by focusing on giving yourself a raise.  By this I simply mean slashing expenses, reducing your debt load, and saving some for emergencies as ways to increase cash flow on your terms.

In the spirit of these principles I wanted to offer you a specific example of yet another way we save money to give ourselves a raise…

Save money by buying bulk items while on sale

Although I don’t always do it, last night I accompanied my wife on her trip to the grocery store.  We had our list and were only in need of a few items, although we always check our frequently purchased items to see if they are on sale or not.  Well… they were.

Since changing our diet over a year ago now, we focus on eating healthy and have cut out virtually all junk foods.  Prior to the change ate a ton of “snack foods” like Triscuits®, Cheez-Its®, Doritos®, etc.  Knowing that we had to replace these snack foods with a healthier option we turned to organic blue corn chips and fresh salsa instead.  *Note: Some may think of Triscuits® as healthy but remember that they are made with GMO wheat.

We did grow a garden this year and were able to make about 20 jars of homemade salsa, but that was consumed rather quickly and now we have to purchase that as well.  Because we eat chips and salsa so often, we always buy it in bulk when it goes on sale… and last night was a perfect example.

Buying in bulk is fun…

My wife and I got a HUGE laugh out of stuffing 10 bags of chips and 14 containers of salsa into our cart.  As a matter of fact, we had to go switch carts half way through shopping because the short cart we started off with was no match for the bulk sale we discovered half way through shopping.  🙂

We ended up clearing the store out of their stock of each item, and laughing as we walked through the store getting strange looks from other shoppers.

How much did we save?

Here is a break down of the savings from this purchase:

  • Chips: regular price = $5.69 | sale price = $4.49 | $1.20 savings per bag times 10 bags = $12.00 in savings
  • Salsa: regular price = $4.00 | sale price = $2.00 | $2.00 savings per salsa times 14 salsas = $28.00 in savings
  • Total money saved = $40.00

As you can see… buying staple items in bulk, while on sale, is just one more way for us to win at money!

We store all bulk item dry goods on shelves down in our basement, and we freeze refrigerated items… like salsa.

Money savings adds up fast

We adopted this way of thinking and have applied it to all areas of spending.  As you can imagine, it builds upon itself and over time adds up to quite a bit of money saved.

Thinking like this and shopping like this is just one more example of how to take control of our own money situation and give ourselves a raise!

Categories // Expenses, Savings, Spending Tags // groceries, money, save

Save Money | Dining Out vs. Groceries Analyzed

12.07.2009 by Matt Jabs //

It is amazing how powerful this is when you REALLY analyze it.  I know it was for me.

The Temptation of Dining Out

The other day after church we had a moment of weakness.  We were feeling lazy and wanton, and had no Sunday afternoon meal ready prepared… so when the preacher mentioned tacos in his sermon, it was all over.  As we walked out to the car after the church service I knew we were destined for one place and one place only – The all-you-can-eat buffet at the local authentic Mexican restaurant.  Mmmm.

Sounds honest enough right? Church couple goes out to eat after the service, you see it all the time.  So what’s wrong with going out to eat once in awhile?

Well… because we are in debt!

Also… since we know how overpriced and unhealthy restaurant food is we normally go without and choose instead to eat at home.  Many times if one of us gets lazy and wants to eat out, the other is there to quickly bring the situation back on track.  But not this Sunday.  For some reason both of us had lost our edge.  The tacos were too much for us… so off we went.

Money Spent Dining Out

The food was great!  I loved every minute of it… at least while I was eating anyway.

As soon as I was done eating, two things started to bother me.

  1. The meal would cost much more than I wanted to pay. And I was right, it did.  After leaving a tip the damage came to around $26.00, which may sound cheap to some reading… but to us that is a lot to spend on one meal.
  2. We ate way more food than either of us needed. Overeating unhealthy restaurant food was a behavior we practiced often before adopting our frugal and sensible diet and weight loss mindset.  Like most Americans, when we go to an all-you-can-eat buffet it is very hard not to get our fill – especially considering how much was being spent on one meal.  In this situation most of us really want to make sure we get our money’s worth!  🙂

Now $26 poorer, for a meal that would sustain us for about 6 – 8 hours, we left the restaurant grossly full, hopped into the car and headed over to the grocery store to pick up a few things before heading home.

Money Spent on Groceries

This is the part that really helped set our priorities back in order!

At the grocery store we picked up the following groceries for a total of $20.49:

  • 6 – 32oz. jars of organic applesauce (good for about 36+ servings)
  • 10 organic apples (for use in 10 lunches)
  • 4oz. of bread yeast (enough for at least 12 loaves of homemade bread)
  • 75 sq. ft. of aluminum foil (should last at least 3-4 months)

The grocery items purchased would serve us many times over far into the future.  You can also use a costco membership discount to cut grocery costs.

Save Money | Cost Analysis

So what is the moral of this story?

Dining out is much more expensive than purchasing groceries. Is this breaking news?  No.  But bringing the point up and analyzing the numbers so plainly gives us a very clear picture of the high cost of dining out!

We already have pretty strict rules in place for dining out… right now we loosely limit it to special occasions and business opportunities.

Do we miss dining out?

I would be lying if I said we are never tempted, but I can honestly say that since we began focusing our eating habits on healthy, frugal, homemade meals… most of the time we crave our own food more than restaurant food.

The less we eat out and the less junk we eat… the less we crave it!

Categories // Expenses, Money Management, Savings, Spending, Tips Tags // dining out, groceries, Savings

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