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Slashing Grocery Bills

© Rachel Paxton

Even the thought of spending a lot of time tracking grocery prices from store to store gives me a headache. I know a lot of people who keep detailed notes of every grocery item they regularly purchase and routinely note the price fluctuations at the grocery stores they frequent.

I used to not pay attention to grocery prices much at all. I have never been one to spend excessively, and have always been pretty good about only getting what's on my shopping list (a necessity!), but it took me awhile to realize that I could save some extra money if I started paying a little more attention to grocery price variations.

I recognize the fact that some people need to reduce their monthly bills as much as possible, and how necessary it is for some to spend as little as possible on groceries, especially if you have a lot of mouths to feed. Although we have no money leftover at the end of the month, so to speak, I never tried to drastically reduce our grocery bill until quite by accident I discovered that if I spent less on groceries, I would have more money to spend on other things! That's when I really started to change my ways. You'll find that my approach to being frugal-minded is not as drastic as some, but I consider myself to be a person who saves money when I can, and have made it a personal challenge to not spend money I don't have to. If you follow my advice, you will definitely see a reduction in your grocery bill. If you want to make drastic changes, I highly recommend Amy Dacyczyn's book, The Tightwad Gazette, if you don't already own a copy. You can also order a copy at Amazon. This book is indispensable in all areas of frugality. Amy recommends keeping a price book, which I won't go into detail about here because I haven't created one myself, but if you are serious about making big changes, she can show you how. Another book I highly recommend is Jonni McCoy's Miserly Moms. She also has a lot of great ideas you might find helpful. You can order her book from Amazon or from the Miserly Moms web site, and she also has a mailing list where frugal moms who have read her book can share ideas with each other. Here I will share with you my own changes that helped me take a big dent out of my grocery bill.

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