Cost of living giving you major stress and anxiety? We get it. Here are some clever tips and tricks for saving money on grocery shopping.
By Mama Disrupt®
Like all multitasking mamas, we often listen to podcasts while doing other things – driving home from school drop-off, pushing the babe in the pram through the park, doing the laundry.
And one of our favs this past week has been the Bounce Forward podcast with gorge mama Tiff Hall. In her latest episode, she chatted to The Fitness Dietician Leanne Ward to get her top tips for saving money at the family grocery shop.
“IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO REALLY BUDGET DOWN YOU WANT TO REDUCE AS MUCH PACKAGE FOOD IN YOUR SHOPPING TROLLEY AS POSSIBLE, BECAUSE THAT’S WHERE THAT BIG SPEND IS ADDING UP.”
1. PLAN YOUR MEALS IN ADVANCE
The first thing would be to really plan your meals in advance, because what tends to happen is we get to the supermarket and we’re like, ‘Oh, this looks good, and this looks good, and some of this’. And then we get to the checkout and we’re like, ‘Oh man, I came in for three things and my bill’s at $89’. So really planning your meals in advance to avoid as much wastage as possible. And I’m a big fan of meal prepping because I kind of like to make my meals in bulk, I might put them in the fridge for a couple of days, or put them into the freezer.
2. FIND WHOLE FOODS IN LOTS OF DIFFERENT FORMS
The next one is really going for as many whole foods as possible. Particularly things like canned lentils, canned beans and stuff, and also frozen fruit and veggies as well because they’re just as nutritious as fresh. And really depending on what season it is.
3. DON’T RELY ON MEAT FOR PROTEIN
Obviously a lot of people would have realised the cost of meat rising. So just doing some really smart budget hacks where you’re not having meat in every single meal. So there’s a bit of a trend, it has been for a few years now – Meatless Monday.
Try to give your family like a really nice vegetarian meal once or twice a week. Making sure you try to get a little bit of protein in that meal still, whether that’s from a bit of dairy, whether that’s from legumes, whether you’re using an alternative source.
4. BUY IN BULK FROM FARMER’S MARKETS
Even look at doing some of your shopping at a local Farmer’s Market. I know a lot of places will sell a kilo of apples or two kilos of you know, sweet potatoes or something. And sometimes the portions sound massive. But if you can split that with family or friends or you’ve got, you know, a couple of mums in your mum’s group that were happy to go halves on that each week, that can again be a really affordable way to get some good produce in.
5. AVOID PACKAGED SNACKS
A lot of people like the package-based snacks, but unfortunately, obviously they’re going to be much higher in cost. So if you’re looking to really budget down you want to reduce as much package food in your shopping trolley as possible, because that’s where that big spend is adding up.
6. LOOK OUT FOR SALE ITEMS
The last thing I do is I kind of get the catalogues, but I go online. I google the Coles catalogue, the Woolworths catalogue and I look for things that are half price. And then I stock up on that, particularly things that last a really long time.
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