Stop spending all your money at the grocery store.

Groceries is where a lot of people can really overspend, here are 12 tips on how not to.

My family recently did a home budget update in the hope of saving some extra money towards building our dream home.

Food, while obviously an essential, is an area where I can really over spend. I got thinking about ways to save on the weekly food bill.

Here are the tips I discovered:

1. Plan meals – take the time to sit down the night before your grocery shop to plan what you’ll be eating for the coming week. Once you have a few good plans written out, rotate them from week to week to save some time in the long run.
2. Write a list – I have been known to shop with out a list. We have at one time, had three bags of carrots in the fridge because my memory for what we already had was so bad. Now I keep a magnetic list on the fridge and as soon as we run out of something, it goes straight on the list.
3. Don’t go shopping hungry – my tummy gets the better of me when I shop hungry and I end up spending more money on snack type food.
4. Family pizza night – instead of buying takeaway, have a family pizza (or stir-fry) night where the kids can create their own meal sensations. I find Dora is more interested in eating meals that she has helped prepare.
5. Don’t buy fruit and vegetables pre cut – as convenient as it is to buy pre cut fruits and vegetables, you pay a lot more for the privilege.
6. Use rewards cards – I always use my rewards cards when at the checkout and eventually have the opportunity to cash the points in for a gift card.
7. Don’t take the kids with you – the nag factor will see you spending money on the carefully placed, ‘especially priced for kids’ products.
8. Buy home brands – It’s difficult to find flaw in the quality of the supermarket’s home brand products.
9. Cook with cheaper cuts of meat – what’s especially good during Winter is when you can slow cook with cheaper cuts of meat. Steer clear of the pre marinated meats in the fridge section too. They are way more expensive and it’s difficult to see the quality of the meat through the marinade.
10. Go vegetarian one night – have a meat free night once a week to save on the cost of meats. There are so many delicious meat free recipes floating about on the internet.
11. Shop online – if you can, shop online. I try and get free delivery which means being organised and ordering about a week prior to delivery. Even if I don’t get the free delivery deal, I like the way that the online store I use puts specials at the top of each item I search for. I usually save by making the most of their recommendations.
12. Grow your own herbs – I always seem to be throwing away bunches of spoiled herbs from the crisper after only using a handful. It’s such a waste. I have successfully grown a few different herbs and it’s actually quite rewarding using produce you’ve grown.

This post was originally published here and is republished with full permission.

Have we missed anything? What are you grocery shopping tips?

Want more? Try this:

How to Budget-proof your family.

The 10 healthiest foods your kids can (and will) eat.