3 Best Tips for Grocery Shopping on a Budget

Cutting your grocery expenses is one of the best ways and one of the more drastic changes you are able to make when it comes to lowering your bills. I love to see other’s experiences so this is how we do it for our family. My hope is that you get some new ideas to help you with your grocery shopping on a budget experience.

My husband and I decided one of the main ways we’d cut costs for our home was to go grocery shopping on a budget. We have a pretty tight budget at $50 A WEEK. Some weeks are easier than others, but it’s more than doable!

So, how do we do it?

Our BIGGEST tip is buying your meat in bulk. For us, we buy an 8lb bag of frozen chicken breast from Walmart. The other type of meat we get is a 10lb tube of ground beef from Walmart as well. We cut that up and bag it into 1lb bags and freeze it.

For the weeks we buy meat it’s an extremely tight budget. We can only afford a few things, so we plan ahead and have those become the weeks we eat extremely cheap. Like $2 or less per dinner that week, cheap (minus the meat cost).

Due to us buying meat in bulk, we have a supply of meat for at least 2 months if not longer. Leaving room each week for higher-cost meals we are wanting to have, freezer convenient food, and drinks we want. 

This makes us feel like we aren’t on a tight budget even though we are. 

Along with buying meat in bulk, I like to meal plan meals for a given week that have similar ingredients needed for each dish. This way I don’t waste any ingredients if the recipe doesn’t call to use it all. I found this to save lots of money for us.

Example: If one recipe calls for half an onion I make sure to have another meal in the week that calls for half an onion. That way I am able to use up all of my ingredients and get the most out of them.

Where is the best place to grocery shop on a budget?

Spoiler! It doesn’t really matter. It’s wherever you decide is best for your family’s needs:)

I shop at Walmart. I’ve looked into Aldi and other stores, but we don’t tend to eat fruits and veggies(yikes! I know) I always say I am good at cooking comfort food. I’m hoping to expand our palettes as I get more comfortable cooking on a budget. For now, I like Walmart’s prices for the items we choose to buy.

It doesn’t matter where you decide is best for you and your family to go grocery shopping on a budget. What matters is checking what place has the cheapest prices per unit, per item you buy for your family. Walmart has this info on the price tag on the shelf, which makes it a lot easier to decide what brand or amount to buy.

I found that what we tend to buy most is the cheapest at Walmart. We also love Great Value food so buying the off-brand is definitely a game changer for grocery shopping on a budget.

There are only a few things I buy the name brand of and the main one is Craft American Cheese. If you know you know.

I have noticed some things are actually cheaper name-brand so I buy name-brand things in the frozen aisle often too! So, make sure to be diligent in checking the price per unit. Just because it’s off-brand does not always mean it’s cheaper.

How do you shop the sales?

I’ve been tempted to shop at Aldi because I see so many people grocery shopping on a budget there and getting a bunch of things. What stopped me was knowing what I typically buy and what I’m making the following week.

I realized, that while yes, they got the items for cheap, none of it was things my family uses or eats. We don’t eat many packaged snacks or chips. We also don’t buy ingredients just to buy ingredients that we don’t have a purpose for.

We also DO NOT buy things because they’re on sale even if they’re dirt cheap IF we do not buy them for ourselves typically.

Get a good sense of the food you eat and the ingredients and food you want to have in your home. 

Meal plan for the next week and make a grocery list. Get a basic understanding of how much that’ll cost.

If there’s room in the budget to get more, I like to add things I know the house will need. It’s helpful to buy it now when you have room to add it while you have the spare money rather than squeezing it in when you don’t. 

My go-to things to add when I only have a dollar or two to add (or even more) are cream of chicken/ mushroom soup or cans of corn/peas.

If you don’t have enough try and see where you can cut costs or push to the following week.

If the items your home uses happen to be on sale, great! If not, oh well you’re saving money by not buying unnecessary things that won’t be of use to you and your family just because it’s on sale.

What does a week of meals look like for us?

I try to make between 2-3 “real” meals a week.

For lunch, we buy frozen food that my husband can warm up in the microwave like pizza rolls. We get something that will last for many meals. We also have leftovers from dinners that week as lunch.

I always make a meal that can last for most of the week as a leftover meal. That typically means a soup like beef and noodles or a meal with noodles like fettuccine alfredo.

I then make smaller meals for the rest of the week to ensure I’m not making too much and cut the chances of wasting food.

I found that making sure all the food we have gets put to use before making more meals makes everything so much cheaper. The less food you can waste the less money you will have to put into grocery shopping.

Now it’s your turn to go grocery shopping on a budget!

That’s it! Becoming more mindful while grocery shopping and planning ahead has been a game changer!

Remember next time you’re planning on grocery shopping to buy your meat in bulk when possible, find the cheapest brand for cost per unit, and only buy things you know your family uses.

Whatever your reason is for trying to cut costs just know it’s most likely easier than you may think. It just may take some adjusting to and you may need to get creative with it.