How To Buy Groceries For A Month Cheap

With a little bit of planning, you can build a satisfying meal plan around some of the cheapest foods out there. Buying foods that are both low-cost and versatile is one of the best ways to reduce your grocery bill each month.

how to buy groceries for a month cheap

You can really get creative with this cheap grocery item! Make hot oatmeal or overnight oats for a satisfying breakfast. Or make some homemade granola as a crunchy, sweet snack for later in the day! And, of course, you can always use them as the base for homemade cookies.

Most stores have pre-made pasta sauce for less than a dollar per jar which makes for a quick and cheap meal. You could even grab the pasta seasoning kits and combine them with some canned tomato sauce for an easy homemade version as well.

Rice is a very cheap pantry item that practically never expires. You can serve it alongside almost any meat for a satisfying side dish with a little bit of seasoning. You can serve it in a casserole, add it to a soup, use it as a base for a stir fry, or even make it the star of the show as fried rice!

Carrots are healthy root vegetables that are cheap and versatile. And they usually last quite a long time when stored in the refrigerator. You can boil them, roast them, sauté them, or add them alongside almost any main entree!

Another wonderful root vegetable that is cheap and lasts a long time is the sweet potato! This tasty vegetable has risen in popularity over the years! Mash it up, roast it, cube it up and add to a side dish, or fry it up for some homemade sweet potato fries. Are you getting hungry yet?!

Lentils are a fantastic ingredient to make almost any dish a bit heartier. And you guessed it: lentils are cheap! Make some chili, add to quesadillas, toss with a few other vegetables as a healthy side dish, or even add them to a sauce.

Celery can be enjoyed raw or cooked. Add it to a soup or casserole as a healthy filler item. Or enjoy it raw alongside some peanut butter or dipped into a savory buffalo dip. You have quite a few options with this cheap ingredient!

But I also know that staying out of the grocery store is a great way to save money on food. Back when we were first learning how to eat healthy food on a budget, I made monthly meal plans and we grocery shopped just once a month!

You can follow my quick tutorial on how to meal plan once a month here, or if you really need the hand-holding, you can get my course, Meal Planning Bootcamp. You can master my easy 5-step meal planning process in less than a week and start racking up the grocery savings immediately!

PS - If you're interested in easily tracking your grocery spending, check out my cage match between the most popular budgeting apps. They'll help you monitor your spending, avoid getting overcharged on fees, and are what I personally use to track my net worth every month.

Shopping online can keep you more cost-conscious (you see prices going up on your screen), and it prevents impulse buys. You can also easily reference your fridge and pantry to see what you really need, rather than just guessing. Weekly grocery subscription services, like Misfits Market, can make shopping even cheaper.

Most of us love a sale. And when it comes to groceries, you can save serious dough thanks to discounts as you stock up. To take full advantage, see if your grocery store has a newsletter that advertises upcoming sales, so you can plot your purchases around them. You can even stock up on certain types of produce or meat, and toss them in the freezer to avoid spoilage.

The rising price of groceries is the result of a number of different factors, from extreme weather events to increases in global shipping costs to shortages in materials used for packing food. In fact, food companies like Tillamook and General Mills have already announced they're passing price increases on to consumers.

Erin Chase, a blogger at $5 Dollar Dinners, recommends that people pay close attention to the price per ounce or per pound that's listed on the store label so you don't just assume the biggest item or store brands are always cheaper.

You can use half the amount of meat that's called for in recipe or substitute in cheaper ingredients, suggests Beth Moncel, a blogger at Budget Bytes. For ground beef, sub in beans, lentils and/or mushrooms. For chicken, sub in white beans and extra vegetables

By using the right card when checking out at the supermarket, you can end up saving a lot of money on groceries. There many credit cards that have higher rewards on groceries such as the Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express.

The average cost of monthly groceries for one adult on the thrifty plan ranges from $215 to $308.2 And when it comes to a family of four, the average cost for their monthly grocery bill shoots up to about $968.3 Yikes!

Ever wonder how much you should spend on groceries? The average cost of food per month for one person ranges from $150 to $300, depending on age. However, these national averages vary based on where you live and the quality of your food purchases.

A $13 lunch out might not seem like much, but it can blow your food budget fast if it becomes a habit. Push your monthly food budget further with delicious lunches from home. Salads, sandwiches, and leftovers are all easy, inexpensive, and nutritious.

Many packaged products have a huge price disparity between brand name and generic items, and store brand items tend to be cheaper without sacrificing much quality. You can easily save 10 cents to a dollar per item, which adds up quickly over many trips.

"Chuck roast tends to be pretty cheap and since it's fatty and filling, you only need a little to feel full and satiated," says Vered DeLeeuw, author of HealthyRecipesBlogs.com. Currently, at Kroger, you'll find a boneless beef chuck roast for $6.99 a pound.

How cheap are oats? Prices vary depending on where you shop and the type of oats you buy: steel-cut, rolled or instant oats. A 42-ounce container of old fashioned whole grain oats currently goes for $3.98 at Walmart.

Versatile and inexpensive, pasta is a pantry staple of many cost-conscious shoppers. "Pasta is the ultimate cheap food. College students immediately think of ramen, but most pasta is inexpensive," Mantilla says.

The same money-saving value can be found in making other items from scratch. Part of the reason our grocery bill is so low each month is that we almost always make items such as cookies, cakes, biscuits, pasta meals and other foods from scratch.

I know this might sound taboo to some of you who grew up in homes where there were always complete and fancy meals at the dinner table. But I save serious money on my grocery bill by serving a couple of cheap and easy meals each week.

And no feeling guilty about serving your family a super cheap meal; I can assure you many, many people around the world eat a lot worse. In fact, you might find your kids enjoying cheap meal options once in a while.

As I've explained in detail in my envelope budget system post, the standard I've always suggested is $100 per person in your family per month. Whether it's a newborn, a teenager, or an adult, each person living in your house gets that same $100 every month.

Once you get that monthly amount figured out, I recommend to break down your budget by week, NOT by month. Take that $400 grocery budget and divide it by however many weeks there are in the month. If that month has 4 weeks, then you'd end up with $100 per week. Keep up with it on your envelope budget and you'll start saving some major buckaroos!

I don't mean to completely stop serving meat, just rethink how you serve it. You can make a casserole, wrap, soup, pasta, or rice bowl for crazy cheap, and they're not only filling but they're delicious!

Alright, well now that you know all about how much to spend on groceries, what are you waiting for? Get started on it and get that grocery budget under control. It may be a little hard in the beginning, but you will be so grateful once you do!

What I am unclear on still even after watching several of your videos, is if this means $100 per person per month starting at $300 as in, start with $300 and then add on $100 for each person? Like, if there are two people it is $300 + $100 + $100 = $500?

What are your recommendations when there are food allergies? We are a family of five that eats mostly plant based. We are all gluten free and dairy free. A loaf of bread costs around $6 budget and meal plan and it takes a lot of work to keep out budget to $1500 monthly. For some time we spent $2500. My kids are athletic and have huge appetites as well. We live in Canada as well so our food prices are higher. Any tips?

I have been using this method of figuring up about what our groceries/supplies should cost each month, but with prices in the grocery stores increasing with inflation, do you now recommend a higher number? Or do you feel that $100pp is still about right? Thanks!

Now that the price of groceries has gone up significantly, will this $100 per person per month still work. I am trying, but it is really difficult. Curious about your thoughts on this as this video/post was made many years ago.

What does the average U.S. household spend on groceries per month? According to 2021 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is the most recent available, the average spending on food at home is $5,259 annually, or about $438 per month for U.S. households. However, food-at-home prices increased 11.4% from 2021 to 2022, so these average spending figures are a bit lower than what currently applies.

The figure also varies depending on the type of food each household buys, the amount consumed, the prices for groceries where you shop and whether you use one of the grocery delivery services that charge additional fees.

To determine how much you should be spending on groceries each month, consider the food plans created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which detail monthly at-home food costs for February 2023, depending on four spending levels: thrifty, low cost, moderate cost and liberal. 041b061a72