Best tips for buying grocery stores at a lower cost, 12 -year -old

I am a 12 year old mother and buy food for 14 people can cost dearly.

If I am not careful, my grocery bills can easily crawl more than $ 2,000 per month, which is much more than what I planned. Fortunately, I have learned a few strategies over the years to help maintain low food costs.

Here are my best tips for grocery store with a budget.

Start by making a meal plan and decomposing the ingredients you will need

Before putting my feet in a grocery store, I plan what I’m going to cook in the coming days or weeks. In this way, I know that each ingredient that I add to my basket has a goal.

When you know that you will use everything you buy, you save money and also prevent food waste.

Determine which reference method works for you

There is not a good way to make a shopping list – but if you find the creation and keep one to be boring or embarrassing, you probably don’t.

I have tried several styles of racing lists over the years. What works best for me in this life season is to create my list in Microsoft Excel, print it and bring the paper copy with me.

It’s readable – unlike my scribbled writing – and I can cross items because I add them to the cart.

In addition, regardless of the order in which I add things, I can quickly sort them by store and category in Excel. This makes the part of the real shopping much easier, because I do not walk without purpose in each part of the store or that I had to go back.

Bring a list of shopping with you to the store

When creating your list, go through your kitchen and check the condition of essential spices and pantry staples. It is easy to assume that you have something basic at hand, only to realize that you have come out once you start cooking.

After creating the list, it is also crucial that you do not remember bringing it with you to the store.

Too often, I make a list of races but I forget it and I am stuck to shopping memory, which generally makes me forget the ingredients and buy things that I do not really need.

When I shop, I put my children in charge of the list

I almost always take some of my children with me at the grocery store, and I use it to my advantage.

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I turn my list and a pen to my intermediate children at the start of the shopping trip. They can read each article to help make the shopping trip go faster.

Most of my children take the work of the list manager very seriously. If I add something to the basket that is not on my list, they ask me about it. This responsibility helps me to decide if it is something that I need to buy or just an impulsive purchase.

My children will generally write the article in question on the list if I decide to buy it. In this way, they can always cross it – their favorite part.

Know the prices of basic things that you buy a lot

On each shopping list, I include the estimated price of each item I buy so that I can stay above my budget before even entering the store.

Having a general price in mind also helps me to identify good deals. If something is on sale, I can quickly compare it to see how much I will save.

This also allows me to compare prices between stores if I suspect that one has a better price. If the price changes radically on an article that I often buy, I take the time to note the new number on my list while I am in the store.

Then I update the main list on my computer the next time I plan my shopping trip.

If you are not going to use it, do not buy it – regardless of the quality of the agreement

I like to have food on hand, so I know that my family will always have things to eat if we cannot get to the store for a while. However, it is easy to take this attitude of extreme preparation.

I used to fill up on almost everything that was on sale because I liked to keep the pantry full and I thought it was a frugal way to do it.

It was a mistake. I ended up with a lot of food in my cupboards that nobody in my family liked or wanted. Many things have sat for years until they finally reached their expiration dates and had to be launched.

Go to a few stores for articles on your list

When I go shopping, I almost always visit the same three or four stores.

This allows me to take advantage of different products (and sales) to everyone without exhausting myself to go in too many places.

I usually strike Costco first because I buy products in bulk there, and they take up a lot of space in the van. I do not want to crush bags of food from another store by stacking large boxes on the top.

If you shop less often, you will probably end up spending less money

I live in the middle of nowhere. The closest grocery store is 15 miles away and I have to drive almost an hour to go to a decent city with more than one shopping option.

I can’t just run quickly to the grocery store if I forget something, which makes all my planning and my list even more important.

Even if you live near the store, you can use this tip to save money on food. Whenever you go to a store, you have the possibility of spending more than you plan. If you go less often, you can reduce these purchases.

I have a big shopping trip once a month so that I can enjoy the best price in the largest city. Then, every week, I make a quick trip to the local store to collect staples such as milk, eggs and products.

Additional drinks can increase your grocery bill if you are not careful

Things like juice, soda and sports drinks can really add up.

To stick to our budget, I have my family to drink water throughout the day, and that’s often what I serve with meals. Sometimes we will have iced tea or lemonade, but it is not the norm.

You might have complaints at first, but my children finally learned to drink (and even appreciate) water.

Cut the middle man whenever possible

I found that buying some items directly from a farmer can save us a lot of money.

I used to raise my own cattle for meat, but when I stopped, I connected with another farmer. As I have the space of the freezer and that I know that it will be used, I often buy an entire cow at a time, with a whole pork and sometimes a sheep or two.

It is definitely a more important initial expenditure, but I receive steak and roasts for the same price per book as the burgers, so it saves me in the long term.

Meat is not the only thing you can buy from a farmer. Do a little research and see that pushes what surrounds you. For example, you can usually find decent prices on products on local farms.

Just make sure you have a plan to preserve what you buy so that it is not wasted. Learn to dehydrate, can or freeze the extras so that you can benefit from your savings all year round.

This story was initially published in September 2021 and more recently updated on April 7, 2025.