By Brandon Koll | Last Updated 8/24/2025
Food is possibly the third biggest expense that we have outside of housing and transportation. The good news is that you can save money on food in a lot of ways. We are going to cover some of the major ways you can save money. Let’s start by avoiding going out to eat.
Save by grocery shopping
We can get busy with work, kids, hobbies, and many other things throughout a typical week. When this happens, it is easy to justify going out to eat. These meals out at restaurants, or grabbing takeout, or even swinging by a drive through can be costly. Instead of doing this, try to plan out your week and make a grocery list. Doing this can keep you from eating out so much and save a bunch of money at the same time. Now that we are better at going grocery shopping, let’s look at some of the options.
Find a cheaper store
When you are ready to go grocery shopping you have a lot of options available. There are your typical grocery stores like Safeway, Dierbergs, King Soopers, Kroger, or many others depending on your part of the country. From my experience the quality is higher at these stores but not high enough to justify the prices. I only recommend shopping at these types of stores when you need a few items or some higher quality produce.
Another common option is the big box stores like Walmart and WinCo. I prefer these because of the huge selection and reasonable prices. You can also go to Sam’s Club or Costco and buy in bulk. If you are going to use large quantities of something, this might be one of the best options. You can also get some good prices at some other stores like Aldi. Make sure you try out the different options to find where you can get what you need at the most reasonable prices.
Get the store brand
Once you have figured out the right store to shop at, next you can look for deals in that store. Many stores have a lot of items produced from their store brand. As an example, at Walmart you can buy the Great Value brand. Typically, these items are much less expensive than the name brand options. From my experience, for most items, the store brand is not noticeably different. On occasion there are some items that still require me to buy a brand name product instead.
Don’t shop when hungry
Another tip to saving money while grocery shopping is to never go hungry. When you shop hungry, everything looks good and ends up in your cart. After this happens, you get home and have more groceries than you can eat. It is always good to make a list and stick to it as closely as possible.
Buy some things in bulk
One thing that is helpful especially for larger families is buying in bulk. The prices of items it bulk will usually be a good bit less than buying the typical grocery store quantities. I find that most things I buy in bulk work out well. For this, you must know your family’s habits, and you can pick the right things to buy large quantities of. As a bonus, these stores have great deals on non-grocery items as well. If you really want to kick up the grocery savings, you can plant your own garden.
Planting a garden
Growing your own food is a great way to save a little on food. This may take a little extra time and patience, but it can be rewarding in multiple ways. If you have extras for certain items, you can trade someone for other items you need. You can also learn to jar or can, so you can use those fruits or vegetables year-round.
Finance Hack – Avoid expensive grocery stores and stick to the store brand as much as possible.
There are lots of ways to save money on groceries. Shop at the cheaper stores as much as possible. Choose the store brand or other cheaper brands. Never shop when you are hungry and try planting a garden. Do what you can to save on groceries and that will free up your money to spend it on what you value most.
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