In personal finance, the low hanging fruit is finding easy ways to save money. It’s the simplest and requires the least amount of time and energy. It also doesn’t require a lot of thought or mental effort.
Why Find Easy Ways to Save Money?
The reason here is simple–it’s fast and easy. There are plenty of complicated things in life. Career, maintaining work/life balance, multiple demands on your time, etc. When you can find a simple thing like finding easy ways to save money, take advantage of it.
10 Easy Ways to Save Money at the Store
Here are 10 easy and simple ways to save money at the store. None of these tips require much effort or exertion, and anyone can do them.
Number 1: Buy Fruits and Vegetables Seasonally
The first tip to save money at the store is one that comes from my book Cash Uncomplicated. Buy fruits and vegetables seasonally. Usually the prices are significantly less for fruits and vegetables in season than out of season.
In season also tastes a lot better. I’ve found that the selection is greater for in season fruits and vegetables as there is more supply. If you have flexibility in your diet, this is a quick and easy tip.
Number 2: Make a Quick List
Make a quick grocery list to keep you on track. This will help prevent you from wandering the aisles and buying items you don’t need.
A list requires intentionality and checking your house to see what you already have, and what you need. A list also helps to avoid buying duplicates of perishables that will go bad, causing you to have to throw them away.
I’ll give you an example from my house. My wife does the big shopping while I’m in charge of getting the produce at another store. She often will buy grapes or strawberries to hold us over for a few days.
If I don’t check to see how much we have left, I’ll sometimes buy too much, causing some of the food to go bad.
This also applies to other perishables like lunch meat and other refrigerated items. A quick check before going to the store is all it takes to prevent issues like this.
Number 3: Ask Checkout Clerk for Coupons
While you’re loading groceries onto the belt, ask the clerk if they have any coupons. Sometimes they will pull out a coupon and scan it for you. I don’t always remember to do this, but I do it now and then with good success.
People are generally friendly and want to help others out. So when they have a coupon available, they’re likely to scan it for you. This is one of those things where it can’t hurt to ask, so you might as well give it a try.
Number 4: Minimize Shopping Trips
The more shopping trips you go on, the easier it is to spend money. The easy solution is to go to the store less. The simple fact that you’re not at the store gives you less of an opportunity to spend.
The second tip in this post to use a list will help out with this. Make a list so you’re not forgetting things. When you don’t forget things, you don’t have to go back to the store for the stuff you forgot.
Number 5: Buy in Bulk
Tip number five on easy ways to save money at the store is to buy in bulk whenever possible. Non-perishable items like cereal, granola bars, paper towels, etc.
For example, compare a ten pack of granola bars to a 70 pack. Or a single paper towel roll to a pack of 24. The prices are much less expensive for the bulk items. Sometimes almost half the price, making it well worth it.
Turbocharge the bulk items by buying them when they’re on sale. You’ll get the bulk discount plus the sale price.
Related: How I Saved $50 at the Store in Less Than 45 Seconds
Number 6: Avoid Impulse Buys
This is one I’m still working on: impulse buys. Here’s how the impulse buy works. You’re at the store intending to buy a selected amount of items.
Then you see this cool new thing, and that new product. You put the item in your cart for something you never intended to buy.
To avoid this, try making a list (tip number two) and shopping with intentionality. Buy only what you originally intended. Then get out of the store and go home.
Number 7: Stay Away from Purchases at Checkout
Stores are very strategic with product placement. They put the fun, little stuff in the checkout aisle. Magazines, gum, candy, fresh baked cookies.
They’re usually small and not that expensive, and they’re right in front of you. Creating an area of temptation while you’re trapped waiting to be checked out.
Keep your hands on the shopping cart and avoid the temptation to reach out for these things. Two dollars for some gum, five dollars for a magazine, another couple bucks for candy doesn’t seem like much but over the course of a few trips, these things add up.
Don’t allow them to become a habit, and you won’t have to worry about it.
Number 8: Shop on a Full Stomach
Ok, raise your hand if you’ve ever done this: You’re shopping on an empty stomach, and it all looks so good. That frozen meal you’ve never tried before, the new brand of chips, the extra-large bag of snacks you never buy. It all looks amazing!
These things really aren’t all that great. You’re just hungry so it all looks really good. That’s why I shop on a full stomach. I know the chances of me making impulse buys and buying stuff I don’t need are greatly reduced if I’m full.
Number 9: Bring Your Own Bags
Small thing here but it’s a good habit that saves a little bit of money. Many stores charge five or ten cents per bag. Multiply that by five bags and you’re paying somewhere between a quarter and fifty cents just to put your food in a bag.
This is not life changing money, but why pay it when you don’t need to? It doesn’t improve your life and it takes no effort to bring your own bag. Even someone with millions of dollars would probably agree that taking your own bags into the store is just as easy as using the store bags.
This tip is really about being intentional and having good money habits. Even though it’s a small amount of money, efforts like these begin to compound and move to other areas of your personal finances.
Number 10: Avoid Convenience Stores
Convenience stores charge a big markup for, well, the convenience. There’s a big value to being able to run real quick into a small convenience store and pick up what you forgot at the store, or need at the last minute. That value of course comes with a premium and a big markup in price.
Now and then you might run into a convenience store to get an item or two. That’s fine to do a few times a year. The problem sets in when it becomes a habit.
If it becomes a habit, you will routinely be paying more for the same product when you could have easily picked it up at the store. For example, a large container of mustard at a store is about the same price as a really small container at a convenience store.
Same with a pack of paper towels or toilet paper–you often will be paying a markup double or triple the cost at a regular store.
Conclusion
There are easy ways to save money at the store. All of the tips in this post are really simple to execute and require very little thought.
It mostly requires intentionality and a mindset that you are going to save by following a simple plan. Repeated enough, this becomes a habit and ingrained into your everyday life. Leaving you with more money to save on things you really value or invest in your financial freedom.
What are some easy ways you save at the store?
