Ways to save on groceries?

I'm a single mom with a 4 year old daughter and 2 very large German Shepherd dogs to feed. My grocery bill is usually $30 per week and we all eat VERY well. Learn to cook all the things you like at home. Meals, desserts, sweets, biscuits, cake - whatever. Don't buy pre-packaged meals. It's much cheaper to make as much as you can and most things really don't take too long to cook. If you have the room, grow vegetables and salads and fruit. I do this every year and you quickly learn to make recipes for whatever's ready to pick that day.

Here's a tip. If you are planning to buy grocery items, make sure that you are not hungry. I have noticed that when I got to the grocery and I'm hungry, I tend to buy more than what I need. Then when I wasn't hungry, I only bought those that I need. Saved me almost half of the bill. Cheers!

Try generic brands and compare them to the cost of name brands, with or without coupons. Always try to shop alone. Taking a child or spouse usually increases the grocery bill. Buy the basics then cook from them instead of buying food that's already prepared in some way. Eat less meat. When you make a dish that calls for a pound of ground beef, use 3/4 of the package and put the rest in the freezer. When you've done that three times, you'll have enough saved for a "free" meal. Never go shopping hungry. Everything looks better then. Watch for sales and stock up then to avoid paying full price for an item. Watch for marked down items. Some stores mark down meat when it's close to its expiration date. You can cook it right away and/or freeze it and it will keep fine. Read places like Dollar Stretcher (stretcher.com) and you'll find a lot more tips.

I learned this from spending a lifetime working in and around the supermarket industry--look up and look down. The most expensive items are right in your face. Also, don't just look at the overall price, look at the unit price. I taught that to my daughter a few years back, and when we were in a grocery store again recently, she looked first at the bottom shelves (she's shorter than me) but then I reminded her to look at the Unit Price. I might have paid a few cents more up front, but I'm getting more uses out of my purchase. Hope that helps!

Things i do to save money on groceries are: Buy items only on sale unless its things that never go on sale like milk eggs bread etc. Use Coupons Price match - i go through the fliers of each store and then find where the item is cheapest (theres only 2 stores locally here for me to go to though so its not as time consuming) I grow a garden - potatoes, carrots, peas, radishes, lettuce, dill. Its really good fresh and the seeds cost me 25 dollars for the entire garden. (oups forgot cucumbers and pumpkins) I do the garden work myself and i end up not having to buy potatoes until about june the next spring. Carrots i run out of sooner...peas depends on how may i freeze. It saves me a bit of money and gives me exercise and i spend less on movie rentals and stuff because i have something i have to do. If you cant grow a garden farmers markets are AWESOME - fresh veggies but lower prices...it also helps the local farmers. I buy my meat from local farmers - do one pig/one cow and split the meat with my parents...you get charged market price for the animal not after its been sold, butchered, wrapped cut and marked up price. You do have to pay for cutting and wrapping however its way cheaper to do the whole thing at once then buy stuff peice meal..We store it in a deep freeze. Buy in bulk - its cheaper per unit. you can even split the bulk items with a friend and split the cost. Make a list, dont shop hungry, OR make a list and send someone else to shop - they tend to not add to the list!