Keep in mind that you may need a credit score of or higher to qualify, says Ted Rossman, an industry analyst at CreditCards. Embrace coupons. Focus on reducing food waste. Also, use the free FoodKeeper app from the Department of Agriculture for guidelines on how to store foods.

Get senior discounts. Harris Teeter and Hy-Vee offer 5 percent discounts, either on specific days or when you present a special store ID card. Fred Meyer and New Seasons Market discounts are 10 percent.

The discount may be available only on certain days or on select items. Buy in bulk. And larger packages often have lower per-unit pricing. WinCo Foods, based in Boise, Idaho, is one notable vendor of such products, selling low-cost bulk barrels and bins of dried fruits , pasta, spices, snacks, legumes, nuts, candies, and other items.

Barter and share. If you buy in bulk or find yourself with more of some items than you need, consider trading with neighbors and friends. Economides from MoneySmartFamily says she has bartered the citrus that grows on her property for food from folks she has found through a local Facebook gardening group.

Early in the pandemic, for instance, she got a carton of eggs, which had been hard to come by, in return for oranges and rosemary that grow on her property. Track prices. For a few weeks, record the prices of the items you buy the most when food shopping.

Do the math on grocery delivery annual memberships. If you expect to use grocery delivery on a regular basis, calculate the value of an annual membership before you sign up.

Over a year of use, that means you order about every two weeks. Learn where stores have their clearance sections, Economides says. Grow your own.

Yvette Beltran-Southwell, who lives north of Dallas, says her family grows rosemary, English thyme, two types of oregano, sage, Italian parsley, basil, and numerous other herbs to economize and reduce food waste. Homegrown plants also last longer than bunches purchased at the store and refrigerated, she says.

And, of course, they regenerate throughout the growing season. Get creative with how you use, store, and eat food. Use your freezer right. Buying fresh blueberries in season, and stocking your freezer, is better than paying two to three times that much for frozen blueberries the rest of the year.

The Economideses even freeze milk and cheese. You can get amazing deals on dry goods that last you all year long! Barbara recognizes that membership might not make sense for smaller families, so she also suggests splitting the membership with another family if you can. Shrinkflation is when the price of an item hasn't changed, but there is less in the package than you're used to.

When this happens, manufacturers have basically raised their prices by giving you a fraction of the amount. Shop by unit price! Grouping is when stores typically put three or more related items together to try to make you want to purchase all of them.

For example, you head to the store for chips and see that they're grouped next to salsa and dip. Your initial intention was to buy a bag, but now you're considering purchasing more items than needed.

End caps are those displays that highlight items between isles. This marketing tactic highlights items you weren't necessarily looking for and might impulsively buy.

Before throwing these in your basket, consider why you're buying them. Do you really want it? If so, that's your weekly impulse buy. If not, put it back. The Best Spring Jackets for Women. Shop Alex and Paige's Wedding Guest Dresses.

The Best Medium-Length Hairstyles for Thick Hair. The Best Bedding Sets for a Good Night's Rest. The Most Comfortable Women's Sneakers to Shop Now. Shop Alex's Pretty Floral PJ Set. Skip to Content Ree's Life Food and Recipes Home And Life Beauty Style. sign in.

Dinner Ideas for Two Brownie Recipes Soup Recipes Valentine's Day Desserts Crock-Pot Recipes. Life and Style. And considering the opportunity for savings, they're certainly worth a taste test.

While some brand-name products are unlikely to have a generic equivalent, like, is anyone seeking off-brand Cool Ranch Doritos?

commodity items like canned beans or rice would seem especially safe bets in the store-brand category. Trader Joe's beloved pepita salsa is just one example of a store-brand item that's gained fandom and loyalty all its own.

Discount grocery stores such as Trader Joe's and Aldi keep their costs low because they deal primarily in their own brands. Wegmans is an interesting example since it has a lot of brand loyalty, not only as a grocery store chain but also for its Wegmans label.

Seriously, I know people who would cross state lines to stock up on its flavored seltzers. Take that, LaCroix. Store-brand prices were within 20 cents of each other for the full list at both stores. Granted, this doesn't represent a complete shopping list, since certain grocery categories were excluded intentionally.

Some of these items, such as condiments, are products that you might shop for once in a while, rather than weekly. Regardless, the math is clear: Store-brand products are significant potential savings in your grocery shopping experience.

Certain grocery stores including Trader Joe's and Wegmans have managed to cultivate cult-like fandom for their own brands. Using grocery shopping list templates available online, I generated a list of 20 common staple ingredients from the pantry, bakery, dairy, deli and freezer sections, covering a variety of prices.

Items such as whole fruits and vegetables and butchered meats aren't typically subject to brand or they're rarely revealed and I discluded them for this analysis. For each of the items I selected, I compared prices between national, well-known brands and the store brand of the same item, at roughly the same size, using Instacart.

If there's a discrepancy in size, I've noted that with an asterisk, but did not adjust the price accordingly, since I wanted to reflect an accurate total of what you'd pay for a grocery list's worth of either name-brand or store-brand products.

In most cases, the store-brand model was the larger size of the two items anyway, meaning even more savings if you factor in its relative value. Certain upscale and imported goods like Bonne Maman preserves will cost you significantly more than store brand.

Swap expensive cuts of meat for cheaper options Buy generic products Avoid buying hygiene products at the grocery store

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Cheap grocery savings - Shop during the quietest days of the week Swap expensive cuts of meat for cheaper options Buy generic products Avoid buying hygiene products at the grocery store

This can reduce impulse purchases and save time. A good place to start is by perusing grocery circulars, which typically are available online. Or have groceries delivered, but only after checking store policies to make sure you stay on the right side of the deal.

Use a store loyalty card. Utilize shopping apps. Also, look into independent apps; three we like are Basket, Ibotta, and Flipp. Basket shows real-time grocery prices online and in-store at local grocers, so you can see where to shop for the best deals; it crowdsources its data, the same way a traffic app like Waze works.

Ibotta and Flipp both identify manufacturer promotions and coupons, and offer direct rebates after you buy from a participating retailer. Compare unit prices. Unit price shelf stickers under each product can help you better compare prices of like items. Go with store brands.

Store-brand food and beverage products—also called private label—can cost 20 to 25 percent less than name brands of the same product. You can often find store brands on shelves just to the right or left of comparable name-brand items. Use a cash-back credit card.

Some offer rewards for grocery purchases. Keep in mind that you may need a credit score of or higher to qualify, says Ted Rossman, an industry analyst at CreditCards. Embrace coupons. Focus on reducing food waste. Also, use the free FoodKeeper app from the Department of Agriculture for guidelines on how to store foods.

Get senior discounts. Harris Teeter and Hy-Vee offer 5 percent discounts, either on specific days or when you present a special store ID card. Fred Meyer and New Seasons Market discounts are 10 percent. The discount may be available only on certain days or on select items. Buy in bulk.

And larger packages often have lower per-unit pricing. WinCo Foods, based in Boise, Idaho, is one notable vendor of such products, selling low-cost bulk barrels and bins of dried fruits , pasta, spices, snacks, legumes, nuts, candies, and other items. Barter and share.

If you buy in bulk or find yourself with more of some items than you need, consider trading with neighbors and friends. Economides from MoneySmartFamily says she has bartered the citrus that grows on her property for food from folks she has found through a local Facebook gardening group.

Early in the pandemic, for instance, she got a carton of eggs, which had been hard to come by, in return for oranges and rosemary that grow on her property. Track prices. For a few weeks, record the prices of the items you buy the most when food shopping.

Do the math on grocery delivery annual memberships. If you expect to use grocery delivery on a regular basis, calculate the value of an annual membership before you sign up. Over a year of use, that means you order about every two weeks. Learn where stores have their clearance sections, Economides says.

Grow your own. Yvette Beltran-Southwell, who lives north of Dallas, says her family grows rosemary, English thyme, two types of oregano, sage, Italian parsley, basil, and numerous other herbs to economize and reduce food waste. Homegrown plants also last longer than bunches purchased at the store and refrigerated, she says.

And, of course, they regenerate throughout the growing season. Get creative with how you use, store, and eat food. Use your freezer right. Buying fresh blueberries in season, and stocking your freezer, is better than paying two to three times that much for frozen blueberries the rest of the year.

The Economideses even freeze milk and cheese. Lynnette and Barbara note that coupons are a great tool for saving money, but paper versions are a bit less available now.

In addition to physical coupons, download your favorite grocery store's app, which often features special sales or specific bargains. Sign up for their alerts and notifications, so you have the info ready when you walk into the store.

Lynnette also suggests web browser add-ons like PriceBlink , which scans the internet for the lowest price and available coupons. The unit price total cost divided by number of units is often listed in the left-hand corner of the shelf label above the item price. Use that to your advantage, and find out which version of the item actually costs the least.

Nobody tell Ladd, but Barbara has a fair point! Meat is expensive, particularly beef and lamb. But that doesn't mean you have to switch to tofu. Use smaller pieces of meat in stir fry or pasta," she suggests.

Phew, okay—we can get on board with that! Or try Meatless Mondays , a growing trend that helps introduce families to meat-free meals by having them once a week. Of course you want to buy that big-name national brand! It feels so familiar! This is called "brand recognition" in business talk, and it's very lucrative.

Look, we get it: pre-chopped vegetables and fruits are a godsend on busy weeknights. A container of chopped onions or peeled garlic saves precious time, but they also tend to cost more than whole produce. If you want to save on groceries, avoid pre-prepped produce.

Instead, invest in long-term kitchen tools that do the work for you like food choppers , mandolins, and garlic crushers. An attractive sale or two-for-one deal is perfect for stocking up for the future if it's not perishable. This will save you money in the long run. Don't cut the nutritious stuff if you have to buy less food.

You always need dinner, you can save money by making dessert a special thing. While you're at it, avoid a large cart and go for a basket or a smaller cart. Lynnette explains, "Grocery delivery is certainly necessary for many people, but if you can shop in person, you'll save money.

If you do decide to use the service, make sure you get your money's worth with larger order sizes and place fewer orders to cut down on fees.

As Ree said, warehouse stores are magical places for home cooks. You can get amazing deals on dry goods that last you all year long! Barbara recognizes that membership might not make sense for smaller families, so she also suggests splitting the membership with another family if you can.

Shrinkflation is when the price of an item hasn't changed, but there is less in the package than you're used to.

When this happens, manufacturers have basically raised their prices by giving you a fraction of the amount. Shop by unit price! Grouping is when stores typically put three or more related items together to try to make you want to purchase all of them.

For example, you head to the store for chips and see that they're grouped next to salsa and dip. Your initial intention was to buy a bag, but now you're considering purchasing more items than needed.

End caps are those displays that highlight items between isles.