How to Save Money Grocery Shopping -

1. Know what food is already in your kitchen

This is key for me because I am a pro at buying food that I already have in my kitchen. This isn't necessarily bad because the food always gets used. However, a better use of time will be to buy food that can go with what is already in your refrigerator especially if you have perishable items. This will allow for you to use these items before they go bad because I am pretty sure this happens to some people.

Reason for this one:

We don't want to buy things that we already have in our refrigerator.
We want to make sure that we buy foods that we can turn into meals.

2. Create a grocery list based off items on sale

Based off of what you have in your kitchen, start thinking of ideas of what meals you can possibly cook. Then refer to the weekly ad and see what real meals can be made between what you have and the items on sale.

You can also decide what snacks to buy by getting the goods that are on sale.

Once you have decided all of this then make a grocery list. You will only buy the items that are on this list.

P.S. Make sure you write down the meals you have in mind at this moment to save energy on the back end so you will already know what to cook later.

3. Sign up for the store loyalty card

Make sure to get the store card so you can get savings right off the bat. It would be a tremendous disservice to be paying more just because you did not get the free card.

These are for stores like:

Kroger
Trader Joe's
Bi-Lo
Food Lion
etc.

4. Stockpile on sale items

If there are any items that you love that are on sale splurge and buy a lot to last you for a while. This could work for meats, canned vegetables, non-perishable snacks, and drinks.

For example, my roommate loves Goya black beans, which normally cost $1.49, and she stocked up when they were on sale for a cheaper price. If you have room go ham on those items.

I even did this when I bought 4 bags of Lays chips when they were on sale. The only things is that I don't know anything about portion control because they were all gone before the week was over when they were supposed to last for a month.

5. Use Grocery Cash Back Apps

I might do this just to make myself feel good versus it actually being beneficial, however there are a few cash back apps out there that reward you for grocery shopping. I haven't been able to cash out on any of them yet but with more consistent use it will probably be possible. The cash back app will definitely not make me or you rich but we will get a lil' somethin' somethin'.

Ibotta(referral link) is the grocery cash back app that I use the most. I have racked up about $13.95 on there but I bet you could get more. The reason I say this is because I have not been that consistent so I bet could have earned more by now. The best way to make sure you take advantage of this is by claiming your rebates as soon as you get home from grocery shopping. The rebates I typically qualify for are any brand (bread, milk, any grocery store receipt).

I find that their items tend to lean towards the more expensive side or are healthier items.

Reciept Hog is another one that I use where you upload your grocery receipt and based on how much you spend depends on how many points you earn. This is another one where you need to be consistent so that you earn money. I currently have 350 coins and you need 1000 points to redeem $5. The up side to this is that you can upload about any receipt from grocery store, gas station, and clothing stores.

The other two I have are Checkout 51 and Saving Star which I have not been able to use long enough to even recommend. If you have time to check them out, do it because it could fit your lifestyle.

My goal is to see how much I can make in a year with each of these. I will make sure to keep you all up to date.