Five Tips for Saving Money at the Grocery Store Without Coupons

I am not a coupon clipper. I never have been. My dad used to clip coupons for me and mail them to me, but even then, I rarely used them. It just seemed like things I bought never had coupons.

That’s not to say coupons don’t save you money. I have watched many friends save hundreds of dollars on groceries with them. Here’s how I save.

I only buy meat when it’s on sale. The Alberston’s store around the corner has great sales on meat. I buy chicken breast at $1.49 a pound, and I buy steak when it’s buy one get two free. I buy a lot of meat on sale and freeze it. This, alone, save hundreds of dollars over time.

I do the math. If there are two sizes of something, like peanut butter for example, I divide the number of ounces into the price. That tells me how much the jar of peanut butter is per ounce. If a 14 oz. jar of peanut butter is $3.18, it’s costing me $.22 center per ounce. If the bigger jar is 32 oz. for $5, it’s costing me $.15 cents an ounce. Bigger is often cheaper, but not always. Do the math.

I look at ingredients. A few months ago, I was shopping for salad dressing, because it was on sale. I noticed that some flavors had two different bottles on two different shelves. One said “made with olive oil.” The other did not. The one with olive oil was the same price, but it was several ounces smaller. Out of curiosity, I read the ingredients on both bottles. They were exactly the same. Both were made with olive oil. The manufacturer had found a way to sell less salad dressing for more money and still make it appear to consumers that they had two different options. Don’t fall for that.

I buy in cycles. Everything in the grocery store has a price cycle. Just about everything will be on sale within a month to six weeks. That’s when I buy my non-perishable items like toilet paper, snacks for my kid, pastas, sauces, soft drinks, etc. I’m not like those people you see on TV who use their showers as storage areas. I buy as much as will fit in the normal spaces of my home.

I don’t buy what I can make at home. Individually packaged items like applesauce are a lot of money. I can make my own apple sauce with two apples, add no sugar, and package it individually so my son can have it in his lunch box. The same goes for things like pudding, jello, sauces, etc. If it doesn’t take that long to make – and applesauce is super quick – I don’t need to spend the extra money at the store.

What are some other ways you save money on groceries? Leave a comment hear and let’s continue the discussion.