10 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill 2by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 14 Mar 2008 06:45 AM Who couldn't cut their grocery bill down a bit? Aside from rent or a mortgage, food tends to be the biggest monthly expense that most people have. Just saving a small percentage on your food bill can yield big dollar savings. And if you use all of these strategies, you'll actually save a large percentage. In the previous article, we listed the first five ways to cut your grocery bill. If you missed that earlier article, you can click here: 10 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill. Now, let us continue. 6. Combine coupons with loss leader sales. Loss leaders are the items that the grocery store puts on the front of the flyer. If you combine the sales with coupons, you may even get the item for free. I don't think I have paid for toothpaste, for example, in about six years. 7. Get to know the store. Many times you will find the same item in different places for different prices. Let's say you want cheddar cheese. You can find cheese at the deli, at the cheese counter, in the dairy section and in the gourmet case. Compare the prices in all of these places to find the best deal. For more about how the same items can have different prices, click here: Grocery Sneaks: How One Item Can have Three Different Prices 8. Shop the store brands. A little known secret is that most store brands are made by brand name manufacturers. The factories that produce Bird's Eye vegetables also provides many store brand vegetables, just with different labels. The store brands don't spend so much money on advertising, so their food cost is lower. Always compare unit pricing, though, since some store brands are a better deal than others. 9. Avoid the convenience extras. How many times have you gone shopping and purchased items that weren't on your list? From toys to magazines, these little items can add up. They are generally cheaper elsewhere. First aid and bath and beauty products can often be found for less at a pharmacy, toys at a discount store, toy store or department store, books and videos online. 10. Check out the "must go" and clearance items. Store routinely discount items that are approaching their sell by date, holiday items, crushed boxes, and items that just didn't sell as well as the stores predicted they would. Find out where these items are kept. I have found family sized loafs of bread for 50 cents (compare that to $3.59), instant oatmeal for 60 cents (compare that to $2.99), cereal for 70 cents (compare that to $2.64), meat for 50 percent off and more. Thanks for reading! Keep checking back for great new articles on frugal living every day. Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here. Related Articles: How Grocery Stores Make You Spend More Extra Grocery Rewards: Get Them with A Bonus Card Shop in Season to Save on Produce: Winter Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Community Tags Coupons, Food, frugal, groceries, save Discuss this article
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