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I used to love using coupons. That was when I was in college and I had a lot of time but little money. I would spend a couple of hours per week looking at coupon ad-match ups and finding the best deals at various stores. Sometimes I’d go to multiple stores to get the best deals at each. These days, I just enjoy using coupons less, so it doesn’t feel as worthwhile to spend that time preparing. Instead, I look for easy ways to save money on groceries without clipping coupons. I thought I would share 10 of my tips and tricks for saving on groceries with you! These are great ways to save on your monthly expenses.

1. Buy food at the grocery store only. At least in my area, buying even basic foods like bread or milk from stores other than grocery stores can really add up. Milk that is $2.50 at the grocery store may cost $4 at that little convenience place on the corner. Just buying a handful of ‘fill in’ items at the corner store can increase our overall grocery budget, so we try to avoid that by doing a weekly shopping trip and getting it all at once.
2. Buy larger packaging sizes for items you use a lot. It is something to watch closely because it is not always true, but most of the time, buying the bigger jar of peanut butter or the family size box of crackers will be cheaper per ounce than the smaller packages. On certain items like toilet paper, you can really save quite a bit per unit by purchasing in bulk.
3. Rewards cards. While I don’t clip coupons anymore, I do use rewards cards or discount programs like mPerks for Meijers. This program has online coupons that you can just click on to select. Sometimes I do that from my phone while Ryan is driving us to the grocery store because it only takes a couple of minutes. However, even without adding any specific coupons to my site, the mPerks program always has overall rewards going like save $4 if you spend $150, and those do not have to be ‘clipped’ in the app in order to activate so just entering my account when checking out will always save me that $4 per $150 or so.
4. Buy extra when the price is really good. Meijer often runs 10 for $10 sales in a wide range of items throughout the store and it is mix and match, you do not have to buy 10 of the exact same item to get the deal. In fact, you can buy 8 items and it will only be $8, you do not have to buy a quantity of 10. Sometimes the items included in this sale are items that are typically priced for $1.5o to $1.99 or so. If I see a $1.99 item in the 10 for $10 sale that we buy weekly, I’ll buy two that one week when it is $1 each and skip it the following week just to save a little extra. I wait until canned veggies are 3 for $1 because they are typical $0.65, so stocking up when it is about half off just makes sense.
5. Garden! Gardening can be a great way to save a little money on your grocery bill, by skipping over purchasing the items you’ve grown.
6. Regrow green onions. Ryan loves to put green onions in his omelets and eggs. I like using them for garnish in some of our dinners. Neither of us like how quickly they go bad. A while back he learned that you can cut a few inches from the base and just put them in a glass of water near a windowsill and they will regrow. We just keep them growing, now!
7. Only cook what you’ll eat if you are bad at eating leftovers. If you are regularly left with a lot of leftovers and they just stay in the fridge until they go bad, try to cook in smaller portions to avoid the waste. It’s not just wasted food, it’s wasted money!
8. Meal plan to avoid leftovers. Buying 3 pounds of ground beef to save on the price per pound? Make sure you have 3 meals in your meal plan that each require 1 pound each, so nothing is left over.
9. Re-use leftovers in a new way to make them feel fresh. Leftover ham? Throw it in omelets or a casserole. Have random meats and veggies left over? Great creative with a soup!
10. Buy store brand or off-brands. Of course, we are all brand loyal to certain foods. For many though, the difference in taste, texture or quality is non-existent between brands so buying store brand just makes sense.

Emily

Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.

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