Grocery shopping in 2025 feels like entering a battlefield. Prices are up, product sizes are down, and even store-brand pasta and canned vegetables start to feel like luxury items. If your cart looks empty, but your receipt looks like a car payment, you’re not alone.
There are tons of “save money on groceries” tips out there. To be perfectly honest, these strategies are nothing truly revolutionary or secret. You’ve probably seen them before. However, there is always someone who doesn’t have the inside information yet, and I think this type of content can reinforce the idea that you can eat better for less.
1 – Plan Your Menu Around Sales
When you don’t have much money in your budget, you have to avoid impulse purchases based on cravings and personal taste. Start your week by looking at the online sales circulars for the grocery stores in your area. Write down the things that are the cheapest that your family will actually eat. Then, come up with a meal plan around those items.
If chicken breasts are on sale for $1.99 a pound, it’s chicken week. In fact, if you see a price considerably lower than normal, it might be chicken month. If you have the cash on hand, stock up on anything cheap.
2 – Avoid the Coupon Trap
It is very rare to find a brand-name item that costs less with the coupon than the generic product does. Never use a coupon for $0.50 off a box of crackers that costs $4.00 when you can buy similar store brand crackers for $2.00. Also, for best results, only use coupons when the item is on sale to begin with.
3 – Cook Once, Eat Plenty
Leftovers are your friends. Cooking from scratch is always cheaper than buying ready-made meals. However, dealing with this takes time and energy. People living paycheck to paycheck are in short supply of both of those. Meal prepping is really popular online, but you may not be able to do that in your free time or with the kitchen equipment you have either. Everyone can to some degree. Cook twice or three times as much rice and save the next two meals worth in the fridge. That is not hard. It doesn’t take much more time.
4 – Buy Pantry Staples in Bulk
Stocking up on things when they’re on sale makes tons of sense. However, there are some things that don’t often go on sale but are still excellent staples to have on hand all the time.
- rice, pasta, and/or potatoes
- canned or dry beans
- canned or frozen vegetables
With these things, you can create healthy and affordable meals at any time. Understand the cheap meal formula: carb + protein + vegetable = meal. Ideally, you would have some sort of seasoning to throw in there too.
For everything else, buy in bulk or choose family-sized products as long as the unit price is cheaper than other options. You do not need cute little pouches or single-serving cups. You undoubtedly have a plastic container and a spoon at home so you can portion it out yourself.
5 – Use Grocery Apps for Rewards and Cash Back
You should already have an app for your local grocery store and give you digital coupons sometimes. Other grocery apps like Ibotta and Fetch can share additional ones or even let you upload your receipt to earn points, which you can trade in for discounts or even gift cards. Always take advantage of as many reward systems as possible to make your money go far.
Beating rising grocery costs may force you to cut out everything fun for a while, but you can still eat healthy meals without spending a lot. Make rules for yourself, get strategic about what you buy, and stock up when you can.
