6 Ways to Save at the Grocery Store<br/>

Are your athletes eating your pantry dry? Do you feel like you spend so much money on groceries? The truth is right now with the supply chain issues food across the board is more expensive. Here are 6 ways to save on your next grocery run.

1. Divide up your grocery list.

Write down a list of the most expensive things you buy and the staples in your house. Once you have these 2 lists, go through each item, and identify if you can switch to the store brand or buy them in bulk.

2. Choose the store brand.

The store brands sometimes get a bad rap, but the reality is they are great products. Store brands save you an estimated 25% in comparison to the national brand. The reason the store brand costs less is they don’t have the marketing and advertising costs of national brands. You likely won’t be able to swap out everything on your lists (we all have our favorite brands) but making one or two swaps to the store brand on each list can shave off a few dollars. Swapping items like sugar, spices, seasonings, canned/ frozen fruits and vegetables, pasta, rice, beans, cheese, eggs, chicken, ground beef, and turkey will be easier to swap for the store brand rather than everyone’s favorite cereal, or cookies.

3. Buy in bulk.

This one may seem obvious, especially when it comes to buying proteins with athletes in the house. In that case, a Costco or Sams Club membership can come in handy. Best steps: Look back to your lists and identify, what can be bought in bulk that you have room to store. If you don’t have a wholesale-retail membership, take full advantage of the local grocery store sales like, buy one, get one free. I use this rule of thumb for rice, pasta, soup, crackers, chips, pasta sauces, oatmeal, apple sauce, granola bars, canned and frozen foods (when my freezer permits). Bonus savings when you buy store brand in bulk!

4. Shop seasonal produce

Buying in-season produce can be a game-changer for your wallet. In-season produce is less expensive! An easy way to incorporate this is to choose 5-6 recipes on rotation using in-season produce. When you head to the grocery store, choose produce to make a few of those recipes that week.

Here is a great guide to see what produce are in-season.

https://snaped.fns.usda.gov/seasonal-produce-guide

5. DIY.

This one may require more thinking and internet diving for some recipes. Is there anything that your family consumes so much on a regular basis that is just draining your wallet, like sports drinks, soda, smoothies, etc? Making a big container of homemade Pedialyte or Gatorade that can be put in a reusable bottle for practice could significantly increase your savings. Buying frozen fruit and all the ingredients to make a homemade smoothie may cost more upfront, but over the long haul could lead to saving by not visiting the local smoothie shop every few days.

Here is a DIY Electrolyte Drink to keep on hand for your athletes:

6. Unit pricing.

This one is for all the math lovers out there. Calculating the unit price between two items can show you the better-priced option. To calculate: take the price of the item and divide it by the number of units in the product to get the price per unit. Example: One condiment is $2.89 for 32oz which equals $.09/oz. Another condiment is $3.39 for 48oz which equals $.07/oz. Sometimes the larger packaging cost less per unit which can be a better deal when feeding hungry athletes. To cut time calculating use the Spend Smart Eat Smart App that has a unit calculator so you can punch in the number and compare prices.