3TV Arizona—5 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill

Annette covers 5 ways to cut your grocery bill. These are common sense things you can do right now — starting today.

This spot was produced and written by Jay Crandall from KTVK. Jay is a tireless worker and a great video story teller.

Here's the article they posted on their web site:

Frugal family reveals how they save money
By Jay Crandall / 3TV

to start saving money," Annette said.

 And, you don't need to drive all over town to save money.

 
"We don't favor any one store," Annette said. "We look at the ads for that week, but we pick the two that have the most things we need that are on sale." 

3) Plan a Menu

This leads to your next step. Plan a menu based on those good deals, like, chicken breasts at half price.

"So let me give you an example," Annette said. "For chicken, you can do chicken with barbecue sauce and chicken and dumplings and chicken a la king and chicken barley soup, although we don't do soup this time of year, and chicken enchiladas and chicken quesadillas." 

This does take a little time, but Annette draws up both a list of dishes she makes with certain items and plans out her dinners in advance, saving both money and time. 

"The average person is going to the grocery store three to four times a week," she said. "So even though we shop once a month, I've told people to just do it once a week, sit down, spend 15 minutes planning just your dinner menus."

4) Stock on when the price is down   And if you can stock up on things you use all the time, meaning a deal like 98 cents for jelly, lasts for months.

"Don't buy one jar when it's 98 cents," Annette said. "That's the rock bottom price for jelly. Buy six or 10 jars of jelly.

5) Avoid Impulse Buys   "Grocers count on 60 percent of the items going into your cart to be impulse items," she continued. "So if you sit down, plan a menu and write a list, it is going to save you hundreds of dollars this year."

With a little planning you'll always be stocked on staples at a good price and never be caught with your cupboards or your wallet bare.

"The more stuff you have in your cupboards, the easier it is to throw things together and not say 'there is nothing in the house' and go out to eat," Annette said. "And there you have tripled your costs to live."

Watch the video here