Frugal Grocery Shopping Tips | Save money on groceries without coupons

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Food is the most expensive bill (usually after our mortgage), which is why it’s crucial to have frugal grocery shopping tips in our back pockets. And no, this is not a “how-to for extreme couponing” post. Believe it or not, there are many ways to save money on groceries without coupons and I’m sharing a few of my favorites below. Although, I’m the first to admit I love a good coupon, sale, or rebate!

According to Google, the average family spends over $500/month on groceries. The average family also wastes roughly $1,500-$2,000/ year on food. This means that your family could be wasting 3-4 months worth of food every year. That is mind blowing to me! That’s what I want to share these 5 frugal grocery shopping tips to help your family save thousands every year.

1. Shop at home first to to save money on groceries.

In my opinion, this is the absolute best way to saving money on groceries for most families.

• It prevents you from overbuying items. If you’ve read my post 10 Practical Tips for Becoming a Secure Single Income Family, you’ll know that at one point I had 3 OPEN jars of relish in my refrigerator. That’s unnecessary, folks.
• It prevents food from expiring and needing to be thrown out, essentially throwing out money.
• Your grocery bill will be less because you are leveraging ingredients that you already have at home instead of adding to the clutter.

While this tip is honestly really simple, implementing it can be hard for some people. It can be easily overlooked because we oftentimes do not make the time in our busy schedules to pause and meal plan or we meal plan only based on what “sounds good.”

2. Reduce food waste and save thousands.

This frugal grocery shopping tip can save your family thousands on groceries every year. As I mentioned earlier, the average American family is wasting thousands on food each year. I’ve certainly been guilty of throwing out an entire unopened package of salad mix more than once. But how do we keep from doing this?

• See tip number 1 above for starters.
• Wash and prep your fruits and veggies within a day two of getting them. The Cross Legacy has some truly amazing resources on her website to help you know how to properly wash and store different fruits and vegetables to help them last.
• Eat your leftovers. Repurpose them for lunch the next day or find creative ways to make them not feel like “leftovers”, like adding some taco seasoning to some already cooked meat and making it a taco night. If you’re someone who doesn’t do leftovers, it’s probably because you are approaching it wrong.
• Stick to your meal plan. We’re talking about this more in tip #3 below.

3. Frugal families use a rotating meal plan

I love doing frugal meal planning for our family of 5 in order to save money on groceries. Oftentimes, meal planning is overthought or not considered at all, but it really does not need to be complicated. Odds are even if you do not meal plan for your family, you still very loosely do. Humans are creatures of habit, so we repeat habits, like eating the same meals over and over.

There are meals that our family absolutely loves and we cook them over and over again. I have a running list in my phone of things we enjoy eating and use that for reference when mapping out our meals for the upcoming week. If you eat many of the same meals over and over again, why not create a repeatable meal plan that not only saves money on groceries, but also spares you stress?

Meal plans, in my opinion, are a key to successful frugal grocery shopping. Why?

1. They are predictable. There is no guessing what is for dinner. No waste. No last minute takeout runs.  
2. Allows you to shop seasonally. When you shop seasonally for your produce, you’ll save tons on groceries. Seasonal produce is the cheapest, so best to stick with that for a season and then start fresh with a new rotation of fruits and veggies in the next season.
3. Successfully stay within your family’s grocery budget. Because you plan the meals, you get to decide how much you want to spend each week or month and develop a meal plan that allows you to stick within your family’s budget.

4. Ditch the snacks and prepackaged foods to save money on groceries.

Many of you won’t like me after this frugal grocery shopping tip, but if you really need to save money on groceries, one of the easiest things to do (but hardest for some) is to ditch the processed snacks and drinks. If we’re honest, we know that these prepackaged foods are rarely a necessity, because as long as we’re eating a healthy and nutritious diet, we won’t be hungry and craving the snacks anyways.

Here are a couple frugal grocery shopping tips for ditching (or at least limiting) the processed snacks and drinks.

1. Skip the soda.
   • I’ll be honest, I love a good (but terrible in actuality) soda every once in awhile. The bubbles and sweetness are addicting, and that’s exactly what the soda companies want. But sodas should only be considered a rare treat, not a staple of your diet. Besides, they are SO expensive these days. If you aren’t willing to cut the soda, you at bare minimum should either buy the store brand or only buy them when they are on a great sale. Never pay full price for something like soda.
2. Make your own snacks from scratch.
   • We love the Bobo’s bars and pb&j’s in our house, but I couldn’t justify the cost anymore when they could easily be eaten within a week, so I played around in the kitchen and created a couple of recipes myself that could replace those snacks, and honestly we like them more! If there’s a snack you really love, search for copycat recipes on Pinterest and you’re bound to find something!
   • Here are links to my Bobo’s copycat recipes if you want to give them a try:
     • Easy No-bake Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars | DIY Bobo’s
     • Simple No Bake Peanut Butter & Dark Chocolate Oat Bars | Bobo’s Dipp’d on a budget

5. Make expensive foods from scratch when possible.

If there are foods that your family eats on the regular, such as yogurt or bread, consider making it yourself if time allows. Be mindful that not every “make it from scratch” recipe will automatically equal cheaper. However, I’d recommend doing a quick audit of your regular items and see if you could make them cheaper than you can purchase them.

For example, I did the math once and I was going to save over $200/child every year that eats yogurt on a regular basis. That’s saving hundreds literally on just ONE item. You don’t have to make every single thing you eat from scratch, but it’s certainly worth taking the time to see if you’re missing some fairly easy wins to save money on groceries.

Which of these frugal grocery shopping tips was your favorite?

While these frugal grocery shopping tips are simple, that doesn’t automatically make them easy. Once we became a single income family, we really had to scale down and re-evaluate our grocery budget. Thankfully, I’ve been leaning on these tips for years well before they were truly necessary. This made the transition easier when I needed to ensure I followed all these tips without fail.

Tell me in the comments below which tip you think will be the hardest to implement and why. I’d love to share any additional tips or insights that could help your family save thousands on groceries every year!

Also, if you’re really trying to work towards meeting your family’s financial goals this year, definitely grab my free printable budget tracker & financial planner below!