Get 4 strategies to shop wisely and save a bundle on your food bill.
Money Girl
264 MG Tips to Save Money on Groceries
Building a portfolio with Fidelity Basket Profolios is kinda like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking your stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics. And managing it as one big juicy investment. That's pretty good. Learn more at Fidelity.com/baskets. Investing involves risks including risk of loss, Fidelity Broker Services LLC, Member NYSC SIPC. It's better over here. AT&T customers switching to T-Mobile has never been easier. We'll pay off your existing phone and give you a new one free. All on America's largest 5G network. Visit T-Mobile.com/carrierfreedom to switch today. Pay off up to $650 via virtual prepaid mastercard in 15 days. Free phone up to $130 via $24 monthly book credits plus tax qualifying, port and trade and service on Go 5G next to credit required. Contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits to credit, stop and balance and require finance agreements due. Hi friends. Thanks for downloading the Money Girl Podcast. I'm Laura Adams, the author of Money Girl Smart Moves to Grow Rich. Are you tired of spending so much at the grocery store? Me too. So today, I'm really excited to have a special guest who's going to give us four smart strategies to save money on food shopping. It's Amanda Thomas, the host of a brand new Quick and Dirty Tips podcast called The Domestic CEO. Amanda's a pro at making your home the best it can be for less. So I asked her for some savvy tips on how to keep food from taking a big bite out of your budget. Thanks, Money Girl. These are the tips that I actually use for my own home. So I see how much they save me on my grocery bills and I'm excited to share them with your listeners. The first tip is shop once a week. That's right, once a week. No more. Every time you walk into a grocery store, you're tempted by their marketing skills. The smell of fresh baking bread, the end of the aisles, stocked with your favorite childhood cereals that are conveniently on sale, and the chewing gum and breathments conveniently placed in the checkout line are all marketing tactics. The stores know that people react to these temptations and make impulse buys. The more times you go into the store, the more opportunities they have to lure you into purchasing more than you need and blowing your budget. To shop just once a week, you simply need to do a little planning beforehand. For example, my husband and I cooked dinner at home about six nights a week to make sure that we have everything we need for the entire week. Every Sunday morning, I take 30 minutes to write down six meals we can eat that week. I then go through my kitchen and make sure we have all the ingredients for those meals. Any missing ingredients get added to the grocery list. Then I check all my staple items, milk, butter, condiments, things like that, and add anything that's low or out to the list as well. Finally, I factor in lunches and snacks. Once I do that, I have a list of everything I need for the entire week. I can take this list into the grocery store, and as long as I stick to it, I can easily manage how much we spend on groceries each week. Tip number two, buy when it's cheap, not when you need it. This is the CUBONNERS KREEDO. The reason a couponer is able to save so darn much at the grocery store is because they buy each item when it's at absolute rock bottom price. If you want to save money on your shopping, stock up on items that you know you'll always need when they're on sale. As long as you have space in your pantry, and keep an organized kitchen, you can save a ton of money using this philosophy. I grew up on a farm watching my mom can vegetables at the end of every summer. She stocked up when they were available, and we ate them when we needed. You can do the same thing with vegetables, though I prefer freezing rather than canning. It's just easier. Red bell peppers are one of my favorite examples. Each spring, when red bell peppers are in season, they can be purchased for one sixth of their out of season cost. Whenever you see your favorite veggies take a major drop in price, buy a whole bunch of them, cut them up, and freeze them in zippered baggies. Berries do this major price drop as well. Stock up when the stores have piles and piles of them, then freeze them to use year round and smoothies, oatmeal, and baking. Watch your meat prices too, and you'll see that they rise and fall quite often and dramatically. If you buy your chicken each week when you need it, some weeks you may spend three times as much as other weeks. But if you purchase multiple packages of chicken when they go on sale, then freeze the extras, you can instantly save 60% under your meat bill without changing any of your eating habits. In Colorado, our freedoms are everything. Gabe Evans would rip them away. Just like Lauren Bobert, he'd ban abortion without exceptions for rape or incest, and overturn the right to marry for same-sex couples. Don't let him take our freedoms. Paid for by DCCC, www.dccc.org. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Now at T-Mobile, get four 5G phones on us and four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with eligible traders, all on America's largest 5G network. Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount using debit or bank account, $5 more per line without auto pay, plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phone to be a 24-monthly bill credits for well-qualified customers, contact us before canceling entire accounts to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement to bill credits, and if you pay off devices early, ctmobile.com. I love learning, and anything that makes learning easier. If you're a parent and your child needs some homework help, then Ixcel is a right for your family. Ixcel is an online learning program for kids covering math, language arts, science and social studies. Ixcel has interactive practice problems for topics from pre-K to 12th grade, and everything is organized by grade and subject. As kids practice, they get positive feedback, awards, and explanations for wrong answers. Ixcel figures out what your kids need more help with and recommends more topics to practice. Their videos, lessons, sample problems, and learning games too. One subscription to Ixcel gets you all subjects and all grade levels. Membership started just $9.95 a month. It's no wonder Ixcel is used in 95 of the top 100 school districts. I think the positive feedback that Ixcel gives is really crucial when it comes to learning. So make an impact on your child's learning. Get Ixcel now, and money girl listeners can get an exclusive 20% off Ixcel membership when they sign up today at ixcel.com/moneygirl. Visit ixcel.com/moneygirl to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Tip number three, buy and bulk. Sometimes. Buying and bulk by shopping at warehouse stores can seem like a good idea. After all, you must be getting a good deal if you're buying 40 pounds of jelly beans all at once, right? Not necessarily. If you follow the buy when it's cheap method from tip number two, you'll likely pay less per ounce or pound at your normal grocery store as compared to the warehouse stores. Don't be afraid to walk around both the warehouse store and your normal grocery store with a calculator pen and paper. For each item you normally buy, take note of the price per pound or ounce. You can easily figure this out by taking the total price of the item, then dividing it by the weight. Some stores even post this on the labels for you already. Then, compare the two stores against each other. The warehouse stores will usually beat the grocery store's normal price, but you aren't buying things at normal price anymore. You're buying them when they're on sale, so you may get a better deal at your normal grocery store without having to wrangle that 50 pound bag of couscous into your car. Buying and bulk also runs another risk. The massive amounts of food can go bad before you get a chance to eat them. The great deal you got on 15 pounds of wheat thins isn't a great deal if you have to throw out half the box because they went stale. Make sure you consider how much you can actually eat before purchasing from a warehouse store. All that being said, there are a few items that I recommend buying in a warehouse store a hundred percent of the time, as long as you have the space to store them. The first are rice and dried beans. You can get these dirt cheap if you purchase them in 20 pound bags. If you don't own a Mexican restaurant though, and you need to make sure these stay fresh, grab some plastic storage boxes with gasket seals to make sure moisture and bugs don't get into your stash. The other item that is very well priced at warehouse stores is oil. It'll come in a massive jug, but you can get inexpensive oil jars that you can refill and are easy to use when you cook. Tip number four, skip the packaging. Items like spices, grains, and nuts can often be purchased for much less if you buy them at a store that sells them by weight out of bulk bins. True, this way you won't get the pretty jar of pistachios that you can proudly display on your table. Instead, you get a basic plastic bag that you can fill with as much or as little of the item as you want. But for going, the packaging can save you a bundle because often that plastic or cardboard is a large part of the price of these items. Again, just make sure you have sealed containers in which to store these items and you'll save money without sacrificing quality or taste. Sign up for the domestic CEO podcast for more easy and budget friendly tips for managing your home. Thanks again, money girl. You're welcome, Amanda. I appreciate you sharing those awesome money-saving tips. For more quick and dirty tips for managing your home, visit the domestic CEO page at quickanddirtytips.com. And if you want to read the transcript of this show, which is episode number 264, called How to Save Money at the Grocery, just go to the Money Girl section at quickanddirtytips.com. We always post the full show notes there and give you additional resources. For more money tips, don't miss the free Money Girl newsletter, the Money Girl Facebook page, or following me on Twitter, where my user name is @LaraAtoms. I'm glad you're listening to Qing. That's all for now, courtesy of Money Girl, your guide to a richer life. [MUSIC] There are any number of reasons you might consider selling your home. To move closer to family, live within a smaller budget, or just running a change of scenery. Whatever your reasons, having to figure out all the various housing market trends in your area may not be what you signed up for. That's where an agent who is a realtor comes in. Realtors have the expertise to help you find the right price and navigate the process to sell your home in a way that's right for you. That's who we are. Realtors are members of the National Association of Realtors. Imagine earning a degree that prepares you with real skills for the real world. Capella University's programs teach skills relevant to your career so you can apply what you learn right away. Learn how Capella can make a difference in your life at Capella.edu.