This post may contain affiliate links. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products at no additional cost to you. Read our full disclosure here.
Confession time: Food is my financial Achilles heel. Be it eating out and my favorite restaurants, or buying more than I need at the grocery store, food is one thing that I do enjoy spending money on. Unfortunately, food expenses add up quickly and can significantly hold back any savings goals if left unresolved.
To illustrate this, the average American spends about $8,000/year on food. If you save even half of that, that’s $4,000/year going towards your savings to potentially compound and grow!
If you’re looking to save more, here are the 16 best ways to save money on food and groceries.
Ways To Save Money: At Home
1. Have A Food Budget
First things first: You need to have a food budget. Experts recommend allocating 10% of your budget for food expenses. This means that if you’re making $50,000/year, try to spend less than $5,000/year on food. On a monthly basis, that translates to $417 for food that includes eating out, groceries, deliveries, and take-outs.
As everyone’s budget is different, the key is to set a budget that makes sense to you and stick to it. While the occasional splurge is fine if you have wiggle room from other categories of your budget, try not to make it a habit and start practicing discipline.
2. Cook More At Home
Cooking at home can not only save you a ton of money but is also oftentimes healthier than eating out. There are plenty of recipes out there that you can learn from a simple Google search. Personally, I’ve been using YouTube and TikTok to compile my favorite recipes and make them at home as I’m more of a visual person.
If you just don’t like cooking or don’t have much time, here’s a cheat code: Crockpot recipes. My wife and I got a crockpot recipe cookbook for Christmas and it honestly was a gamechanger! All you need to do is get the necessary ingredients and toss them all into the crockpot to work its magic. Big crockpots can make enough food to feed a family that can last for days as well.
If you have a bunch of random ingredients in your fridge and have no idea what to make, use myfridgefood.com to make a recipe with what you already have!
3. Prep Your Meals In Advance
Meal prepping is not just for bodybuilders and fitness junkies. Prepping your meals ahead of time can save you time throughout the week and also money as you will be less prone to eat out when you already have food ready.
Planning is key here as you’d want to buy enough ingredients and meal prep containers to store your meals. There are many YouTube videos that give you recipes and tips on how to meal prep effectively.
4. The Freezer Is Your Friend
One of the best ways to save money on food is by freezing leftovers or buying frozen food. According to UN Environment Program, nearly 30% of all food in the world goes to waste each year. A freezer does wonders to reduce food wastage which will help you save money on food.
There are four main ways the freezer can help you save money on food:
- Stores leftovers especially if you’re eating out.
- If you’re meal prepping, you can store your meals in the freezer and microwave it when you need to.
- Frozen foods can last for a long time in the freezer and typically cheaper overall. Some meat and seafood are marked down as well.
- Load up on summer fruits during the warmer seasons and freeze them for the winter. Fruits can get pricey during the winter.
5. Have Your Own Backyard Farm
There are many types of products that can be easily planted and grown right at your home. All you need is a few large pots and good sun exposure to get your own produce. Some vegetables, fruits, and herbs that you can plant include:
- Tomatoes
- Herbs like basil, thyme, mint, etc.
- Potatoes
- Lettuce
- Green beans
- Green onions
- Cucumbers
- If you are looking for cheap source of protein and have a backyard, consider raising chickens for free flow of eggs. As chicken coops can be expensive, check out this article for more info on how to raise chickens without a coop.
Ways To Spend Less On Food: Eating Out
6. Eating Out Less
I get it, eating out is convenient. However, eating out too often can definitely put a dent in your food budget if you’re not careful. When you eat out, you’re not only paying for the food at face value, you’re also paying for labor, space, time, ingredients, and overhead costs.
Set a limit for how many times you can eat out in a week and try to stick to that as much as possible. If you are eating out a lot already, try to progressively decrease the times you eat out. For example, if you typically eat out 7 times a week, try to decrease it to 5 times a week the next month, and then 3 times a week the following month. Remember that progress is key here!
7. Use Cash To Pay For Meals Out
Research has shown that paying for cash triggers a “painful” response as you’re physically giving up the cash on hand. Using cash can help curb spending when eating out as you’ll be less inclined to eat out more as your cash on hand dwindles.
Besides, paying in cash can also help with your food budget as the cash on hand is all you can spend for eating out. Once you run through that amount, withhold the urge to withdraw more cash or use a credit card.
8. Maximize Credit Card Rewards
If you just don’t like carrying cash and prefer to use a credit card, be sure to use one that rewards you handsomely for dining out through points or cashback. I personally use the Chase Sapphire Preferred card when I pay for meals out as it offers 3x points at restaurants, eligible delivery services, or takeout around the world.
Do note that this is NOT a license to spend more money on eating out in the name of getting rewards. Treat your credit card like a debit card and stick to the budget that you have and never accrue credit card debt!
9. Source For Online Deals And Discounts
Most restaurants have running deals and discounts online if you know how to find them. You’d probably have to either create an account or sign up for a newsletter to access them but it may be worth it to make meals out less expensive.
Here are some examples to find these deals:
- Groupon: You can often find discounted deals on Groupon for nice restaurants. I remember going to a steakhouse for 50% off the menu price!
- Restaurants’ newsletter: Most restaurants have a newsletter that’ll update you about promotions and deals. Some also may give you a discount code to use for just signing up!
- Apps: Fast food apps often have great deals and rewards for customers as part of their loyalty program.
- Birthday discounts: Check out this list for all the restaurants that gives out free food on your birthday!
- Promo codes: Add an extension like Honey to find promo codes for you when checking out.
10. Eat Out At The Right Time
Another way to save money on food is to eat at restaurants that have discounted prices for lunch and happy hour.
If you’re going to eat out for lunch, look for restaurants that have a discounted lunch menu. Asian restaurants have pretty good deals and serve up big portions that you can save for later too.
If you are going out for dinner, look for restaurants that have a happy hour menu and eat an early dinner. Happy hour typically lasts from 3 PM – 6 PM and may offer discounted prices on appetizers, food, and drinks.
Ways To Save Money On Food: Groceries
11. Have A Grocery List
Before you go to the grocery store, be sure to have a list of what you want to buy. This simple way to save money on food is effective as it helps you prevent buying more groceries that you don’t need.
Why do we buy more groceries without a list? According to Paul Mullins and colleagues of Bangor University, the demands of so much decision-making at big stores quickly become too much for us. After 40 minutes of shopping, most people start shopping emotionally and that is where we fill 50% of our cart of things we didn’t intend to buy.
Having a list also helps you take fewer trips to the grocery store. Fewer trips mean fewer opportunities to spend impulsively on unnecessary groceries.
12. Use Online Grocery Shopping
Online grocery shopping platforms like AmazonFresh, Shipt, InstaCart, Walmart+, and many others have revolutionized the way people shop for groceries.
So how does online grocery shopping help you save money on food and groceries?
- Time is money. Online grocery shopping can save you time from driving to the grocery store, waiting in traffic, walking down the aisles, checking out, etc.
- Save on gas.
- Reduce impulse purchases.
Do note that you’ll probably have to pay for a subscription to use these services and also pay tips to the delivery drivers.
13. Know Your Grocery Store
Most grocery stores have ways to make customers spend more than they intend to. Here are some examples:
- Grocery stores like to place more expensive items at eye level so that you’ll pick them naturally. Be sure to compare similar items on different shelves.
- Dairy products (milk, eggs, yogurt, cheese, etc.) that most consumers need at typically placed the back of the store so that you’ll need to walk through all the different aisles to get to them.
- Displays at the end of aisles are placed there for impulse buying. Think twice before grabbing that expensive bag of chips!
This is why having a grocery list is so important so that you don’t fall for these psychological tricks to spend more money!
14. Buy In Bulk At Wholesalers
Buying in bulk can often save you money as it typically sells at a lower cost per unit. The cost per unit (unit price) is the price that you should use to compare the different brands and sizes of the product that you want to purchase.
If you look closely at the price tags at grocery stores, you can find the unit price (highlighted in orange) as seen in the picture below.
If you want to buy food in bulk, go for food with longer expiration dates so that you don’t end up wasting food that you overbought. For example, frozen food, can foods, cereal, etc. are great for buying in bulk as you can store them for a long time.
Wholesalers like Costco and Sam’s Club are the go to’s for buying in bulk and have saved many people money.
15. Visit Multiple Stores For The Best Price
I am a big Walmart guy as you can find almost everything you need there at relatively low prices. However, if you’re looking to save money on groceries, there are other grocery stores that may have cheaper prices for different products.
For example, Aldi trumps the list of cheapest overall grocery stores; Trader Joe’s offers low prices for produce and has many unique products, and Publix has “buy 1 free 1” offers on many of their products. Ultimately, it boils down to what you are shopping for and how much time you have to shop around for it.
16. Use Cash-Back Apps
Cash-back apps like Ibotta are great to get some money back for items that you were already planning on buying. Go to the page of your favorite grocery store on the Ibotta app and start looking for items on your grocery list. Once you add them to your list and purchase them in-store/online, you can submit a receipt to claim your cashback.
This post may contain affiliate links. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products at no additional cost to you. Read our full disclosure here.
