The average weekly home food costs for a family of four with two children under five years old rose from $85.60 in March 1999 to $118.30 in March 2009. That's what the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says, and they should know. That's an increase of nearly 28% in ten years. Unless your income has increased 28% or more, you are spending a greater portion of your earnings on grocery shopping than you were ten years ago.
Other household expenses, such as heating costs, have risen even more recently. That means there is simply less money to go around and every opportunity for saving money is worth considering. You probably already use coupons and look for sales. That's great; keep it up! If you want to save even more, here are five fresh ideas for lowering your grocery costs.
1. Aisle-by-aisle shopping. Organize your shopping trip by setting up a virtual aisle-by-aisle grocery list. You'll spend less time in the grocery store and avoid impulse purchases. Using an aisle-by-aisle organizer makes shopping so much easier you can bring your children and save money on baby sitters. Plus, with a virtual shopping list, more than one person can contribute to the list and that means fewer trips to the store.
2. Favorites list. Keeping a virtual list of food favorites helps you avoid the return trip for a forgotten item. Do you always buy a dozen eggs every week? Do you always buy a jar of peanut butter when your jar is half empty? The favorites list reminds you of items that should go on your shopping list. You'll save gas money if you don't have to go back to the grocery store, not to mention the time you will save and frustration you will prevent.
3. Pay attention to the store's food recipes. Grocery stores often have recipes for featured foods. If tilapia is on sale in the fish department, but you don't know how to cook it, look for a recipe at the store.
4. Set up a grocery coupon organizer and a food recipe organizer. There's no doubt about it - organizing saves money. When you organize your food recipes you can easily find a recipe for whatever is on sale that week. Is pork tenderloin on sale? Just go to the meat section of your recipe organizer, or look under pork, and there you have it. Same with coupons: with a grocery coupon organizer you'll know if you have the right coupons for your purchases. You can also be sure to use those coupons before they expire.
5. Start a grocery delivery service. Share your shopping expertise. Folks who are too busy to shop or who are house bond will actually save money by paying you to do their shopping because you have the skills to save them serious money. Your customers can email their grocery lists to you, making it even easier for you to shop for them.
Eating healthy food is important for everyone. Before you cut back on the quality of the food you buy, consider these and other clever ways of saving grocery money, so you can still buy the food you want for your family.
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Chris Robertson is a published author of Majon
International. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2009 (Sun May 24 2009)
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