A recent study using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that grocery prices have increased 31% over the past 10 years, with the highest increases on some of the most common household items like eggs, ground beef, fish, rice, pasta, apples and more. Although we can’t stop price increases, we can shop more strategically to pay prices that are lower than average to save our grocery budgets. How to save on these items?
Save on eggs: Compare prices of eggs at various types of stores. You may find that a discount store like Aldi or Save A Lot have much lower prices than your supermarket. Make an extra stop twice a month and buy the eggs with the latest sell-by date and store them in the coldest part of the refrigerator (which is the back, NOT the door).
Save on ground beef: Shop sales and buy the larger family packages. Break large packages into smaller portions and freeze for future weeks. Only buy high-ticket freezable items like beef, poultry and pork when your store features it as a half-price sale item to save hundreds of dollars over the course of the year.
Save on fish: Compare prices for the least-expensive form of your favorite fish. I buy flash frozen salmon, which is also more convenient since I can thaw a piece easily rather than making a special trip to the store to buy fresh fish on the day I need it. Frozen fish is also great for portion control so I’m eating a reasonable portion (5 to 6 ounces) rather than the weight from the fish counter that is always slightly higher than I requested!
Save on rice and pasta: Watch for coupons available for several brands of rice and pasta and stock up when these brands go on sale. Supermarkets tend to put these items on sale very often so there’s no reason to ever pay full price here.
Save on apples: Again, there is a wide range of prices for apples depending on the variety and the size apple you purchase. For lower cost-per-apple and for portion control, compare the cost of bagged apples as compared to buying individual apples by the pound. I like to buy three-pound bags of organic apples from Trader Joe’s which is about the same cost as buying two large individual apples at the supermarket. If your family eats apples regularly, do the math on the cost per apple for small apples vs. large apples and look at your overall cost per week, month and year. For our family, we save a couple of hundred dollars a year buying the smaller apples.