10 Easy Tricks To Save Serious Money On Groceries

Here’s how I keep my monthly bill under $70 with consumer prices on the move.

Trick #1: Shop on a full stomach

While the smell of freshly baked bread right as you walk in the store is meant to make you feel hungry and that when you’re hungry you’d logically buy more food, that’s not the meat of this tip. Instead, when you’re hungry, your ability to make sound purchasing decisions tends to rapidly deteriorate. In fact, USC professor Norbert Schwarz found that hungry shoppers tended to not only buy more of what they need, but that they also made more nonessential purchases. With food being one of the largest line items in most household budgets, eating something small before doing your shopping can add up to significant savings over the course of the month.

Trick #2: Limit in-store surprises with an anti-list

If you frequently come home with unnecessary items, taking the time to identify the pattern underlying those purchases can pay dividends over time. In the case of my Trader Joe’s and Target impulse purchases, I found that junk food, beauty products, and cheap home items were the major contributors.

Once I came to that realization, I decided to write out the items that I would not be buying at the store underneath my primary grocery list before I went out…