Saving Money At The Grocery Store

(Disclosure: This is a compensated post but all thoughts are my own.)

I wrote a couple weeks ago about how I was cutting down on expenses to save money. I had a list of 8 things I was doing in the month of January and one of them was to eat less fast food and more of the leftovers we had in the fridge. Trying to pinch every penny, I have been looking into saving on food even more. Ideally I’d love to find out how to provide my family with quality food but just find a more cost efficient way to do so.

I checked out the Illinois Farm Families blog to learn more about healthy eating and shopping for food. Some of the posts were written by moms I know so I knew I could trust what they wrote. I was really interested in food labeling since food that is “better for you” is often more expensive. I wanted to see if I was really getting what I paid for.

The first article I came upon was called Five Misleading Food Labels and had one key line that stuck out to me:

I know that if I was comparing two products next to each other I’d probably choose the one that was labeled “no _____” on it but the one next to it could be free of whatever the other label claimed as well. No reason to pay extra for the one with a special label if they both are free from the same thing.

The next article I read was from a mom who toured the Dean’s Plant. From this article I discovered that the milk in my grocery store’s dairy case is all the same. Why am I paying more for a gallon of milk labeled “Dean’s” when it is just the same as the milk that is sold under the store’s label. Yay for saving money on something we buy tons of!

Another thing I read about was a store that I’d consider a “discount” food store and all of the guidelines they have about freshness (read the article here). It made me rethink where I get my groceries and the fact that I can find quality food for cheaper prices. I will be checking out all of my local grocery stores and seeing where I can find good deals while still maintaining the quality of food that I want.

So excited to be able to cut our food budget down. What other tips do you have for me when it comes to saving money at the grocery store?