Groceries can make or break your budget.  Usually, they are the total budget buster.  Why does this happen over and over?

More often than not, the grocery budget is where good intentions go to die.  Meaning you have a plan to make certain meals during the month, life happens and you don’t make the meals.  Then you end up eating out, swinging by the drive-thru and making impromptu and frequent trips to the grocery store to pick up odds and ends you didn’t originally plan to need.  

If you are looking for a quick win this week to majorly cut your grocery budget, I have four key things that will help you accomplish this.

4 Grocery Budget Hacks to Save You Money Right Now!

1. Meal Plan

You knew this was coming!  A meal plan will save you so much money!!  Don’t fight it, just do it. I want you to sit down and write out 7 dinners this week.  You do not have to be fancy.

I actually recommend you keep these meals as simple and low-key as possible.  Let’s not try to reinvent the wheel here.  I’m talking about spaghetti, tacos, frozen pizza, burgers, even some Mac n’ Cheese if you want!

USE OUR FREE WEEKLY MEAL PLAN BY THEME TO GET THE CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING!  SIGN UP BELOW TO INSTANTLY HAVE A PLAN FOR YOUR NEXT WEEK!

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Monthly Meal Plan on a Budget:  Less Than $100 For Dinners For a Family of 4

The Life Saving 12-Week Rotating Meal Plan

Once you have your meal plan, I want you to:

2.  Shop Your Own Cupboards

This is a missed opportunity all the time!  Look in your own cupboards first before you go to the store.  See if you have any ingredients you could use as substitutes or the real thing for your planned meals.  

People who don’t meal plan just accumulate so many ingredients and wasted items in their pantries.  You have so much food, but nothing to eat! Sound familiar?

I used to live this way until I started meal planning.  Now every ingredient has a purpose. Nothing is wasted, including my money.

Shop at your own personal store first.  Try your best to use what you have to save some bucks!

3.  Join iBotta

This app is amazing!  I do not coupon at all because I have not made it a priority for my time.  Instead, I use iBotta. This is a super simple app that saves me money on groceries.

iBotta is one of those super easy to use apps. This app gives you cash rebates on purchases you make (both store brands and generics). Even if you buy generics all the time, this is still an awesome app to use!

This app will give small amounts of a cash rebate on these items that you would be purchasing anyway (milk, eggs, pasta, bananas, etc.). I have also used this for things like diapers and toilet paper (Pampers and Charmin).

All you have to do is find the rebates on the specific items you plan to buy and “unlock” them. Once you have made your purchase, you just scan your receipt and receive your rebate!

The amounts you get back may seem minimal, but even a small rebate of $3-$4 dollars a week can save you up to $200/year! This kind of savings can help with your grocery budget!

Finding rebates and scanning your receipt will literally take 5 minutes to save you hundreds in a year.

Sign up for iBotta and start saving today! Signing up is free and you will get a $10 bonus!

Related Post:

Top 3 Ways to Save Money on Groceries (No Couponing!!)

4.  Only Make One Grocery Trip

The grocery store will steal your money without you even realizing it.  You may go in with a list, but come out with 10 additional items you weren’t planning on.  This is what happens, even to the best of us.

If you have a monthly meal plan, you should only grocery shop once a month.  Here’s how to make that happen.

If this is a totally new concept to you, I want you to make one grocery trip for your meal plan for the week.  You are not allowed to go to the store more than the one grocery trip. No other stops at the grocery store.

Decreasing the times you are in the store will drastically cut your grocery budget.  You won’t be tempted to spend extra money on things you don’t really need.

Since shifting our entire family to one grocery trip a month and doing one Target order a month for cosmetics, toiletries and pet supplies (kitty litter, chew toys, etc.) our costs have decreased dramatically.

I am only asking you to do this for one week, but I promise you will see a difference.

If you make a meal plan for a week, use your own ingredients first, get some rebates with iBotta and stay out of the grocery store you are going to majorly cut down your grocery costs!  

IF YOU ARE SUPER MOTIVATED AND WANT TO TRY THIS FOR A MONTH, GRAB OUR FREE MONTHLY MEAL PLAN CALENDAR TO GET STARTED!  GET IT INSTANTLY WHEN YOU SIGN UP BELOW!

Work the steps and start saving major bucks right now!

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