PowerPoint PresentationGrocery Savings Secrets Overview Prepare to pick your jaw off the ground: Most Americans spend 10% of their income on groceries. Talk about a budget buster! Though feeding ourselves (and our families) is a necessary expense, there's no harm in looking for strategic ways to save money when you fill up your cart. One way to tap into genius ideas is to go straight to the source. Here are amazing (and effective) tricks for cutting back and saving money at the grocery store, according to employees who know all the insider secrets. Look at the price per unit Though you may need a magnifying glass or get up-close-and-personal with the shelf, scour the sales tag for the price per unit. It can help you better understand its value. Sometimes, the cheapest price isn't the best deal. Take, for instance, you're looking to buy frozen blueberries. One company charges $5 for ten ounces, so that's 50 cents per ounce. Another company costs $4 but has six ounces, which comes out to 65 cents per ounce. This simple math equation can end up putting much more cash in your pocket! Buy baked goods frozen If you're not super-picky about your late-night sugar fix, you may want to take a detour from the bakery to the frozen food section. As one Reddit user and former Costco employee shared, frozen cookies, bread, bagels, and other goods are significantly cheaper than fresh varieties by the same company. As they put it, a 24-box of fresh cookies is $7.99, while a box of 180 is $34.99. (Note that these are Canadian dollars, not USD, and you won't find the Costco bakery's frozen cookies in U.S. warehouses.) deli, bakery, or prepared-food sections if they have any open containers of products you're interested in buying. Chances are high that if they have them, they'll give you a nibble. (Just know that you may not be able to sample food during the pandemic.) Grocery stores often bring attention to the products that aren't selling. This makes sense because they don't want to lose out on their investment. Sometimes, this works in your favor; you could discover a new item you love. But more often than not, it just collects dust (or mold) in your kitchen. Pay attention to sales on frequently-bought items Most of the time, shoppers assume that once they buy an item at a grocery store and take it home, it's a done deal. Surprisingly, for many stores, this isn't true. In fact, a former manager at Costco shared in a Reddit thread that if a product goes on sale less than 30 days after you've already bought it, they'll give you the difference—no questions asked. Shop the store brand Whether it's Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Walmart, Target, Smart & Final, or any grocery store, it's almost always cheaper, and likely, your tastebuds can't tell the difference. Sometimes, you impulsively buy a snack when you're suffering from hanger, only to get home and well, dislike it. It happens, but it doesn't mean you have to bear the financial consequences. If a customer isn't thrilled with a product, they can always return it and receive their full money back. And yep, that's true even if it's an open bag. Many grocery stores have similar policies, so make sure to Google before you whip out the credit card. If you don't like it, return it Figure out the sales day for your local store grocery store, ask them what day of the week their sales begin and end. And on Fridays, the 'One-Day' sale begins for everything that didn't make it into a cart the past two days. Every store will be different, so once you figure out yours, you can time your weekly run to when you will save the most. Not only are they directed from the corporate level, but many stores will also have local tech support to manage malfunctions. Then, of course, you have the biggest risk: cashiers. It's safe to say that sometimes, mistakes will happen. Though you should be kind if it does, pay attention to every price as it's rung up. Buy a case bulk, even if you aren't at a bulk store. Say you enjoy a few sparkling waters every day as a break from plain H20. Instead of getting the 12-pack, splurge and take home the whole case; you know you'll drink them, and they don't expire. You could end up saving up to 10%! Many grocery stores will accept coupons, but they do have a limit to how many you can apply to the same food. Sometimes you can add a coupon to a sales price, and other times, you can do what you calls "coupon stacking," where you use both a store coupon and a manufacturer coupon. Check with the closest grocery store in your zip code to better understand their policies. Discounted meat doesn't mean it's a lesser quality, but rather, that it has a shorter shelf life and needs to be consumed ASAP. The majority of high-traffic grocery stores will discount their meat once the weekend has passed. They know it'll be less busy on Mondays and Tuesdays, making the start of the week a smarter time to find delicious protein but pay less for it. Make your trip early in the day One of the tricks to best understand how to cut back on your spending is to think of the day-in-the-life of an employee. Because there are fewer people in first-thing in the morning, that's when they will do their rounds of discounting, going through inventory, and determining what is about to expire. If you happen to be around in the first few hours of opening, you'll be among the first to score the deal. Some frugal grocery shoppers will drive all over town to take advantage of every coupon, ad, or rewards program. But there’s an easy way to learn the ins and outs of grocery store coupon policies and promotions. Just ask your store manager, who will happily tell you how to save the most at their store. Use the store’s loyalty programs Stores try to attract you with special rewards for shopping at their stores, but not all stores have these loyalty programs. At CVS, you can earn Extra Bucks (cash built up on your Extra Care rewards card) for qualifying purchases that you can use as cash off your next purchase. There’s even a coupon machine in front of every store where Extra Care cardholders can scan their cards and get special unadvertised coupons. CVS also has a coupon app for mobile devices. At Costco, an executive membership earns 2 percent cash-back rewards (up to $1,000 per year) on qualifying Costco purchases. Stock up at outlets and closeouts Outlet and closeout stores have a lot to offer, Economides says, especially when they sell a brand-name item you eat or use regularly. If these stores offer a deal on items you need regularly, you should buy as many as you can afford and stockpile them. Watch out, though, because some manufacturers will provide these outlets with a smaller size to sell for cheaper, so know your regular sizes and prices before buying. Do the math determine the best deal. That’s what cellphone calculators are for. many stores have shelf tags that show you the per-unit price so you can compare deals without doing any math. Many stores mark down and repackage produce that might be below the standards for full-price display, but that is not the biggest secret in the produce department. It’s this: Bulk-packaged produce is usually up to 50 percent less expensive than loose produce because packaged produce is priced by the unit and not by the pound. Each bag must contain at least the advertised weight. To avoid underweight-error problems, she says grocers will throw in an extra food item so you get a few more ounces in the bag. Just weigh your bag and see how many extra ounces are provided and pick the heaviest one for the best deal, especially if you eat a lot of apples, potatoes, grapefruits, etc. real cash back, you should try to take advantage of it, Kay and Economides agree. Some retailers, such as Target and Kroger, offer discounts or points for using their store-brand debit or credit cards. • A CVS email program notifies you of unadvertised specials. • At Publix, if an item scans at the register at a price that’s higher than the shelf price or advertised price, the store gives you one of those items for free. • Target, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s offer reusable bag rebates that take cash off your final receipt. • Register rewards from Winn-Dixie give you coupons for your next purchase. • You can activate a Upromise account (a Sallie Mae program) at a participating grocery store in your area to earn college money on items you’re buying and saving on already. • Many grocery stores offer special deals on their websites. Conclusion If you’ve diligently followed all these tips and still feel like you’re spending an inordinate amount of money at the store, it might be time to bring your business elsewhere. Take a break from your regular stomping grounds and head to a nearby competitor to see what the damage is—you might discover you’ve been getting fleeced all along.