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Groceries are a predictable event. You can prepare for it, unlike life’s unexpected events where you need online personal loans. And it’s not as hard as you might think. If you can spare a few extra minutes of preparing at home, you can even spend less time at the grocery store. We’ve all had days where we wander up and down the aisles wondering what to make and picking up whatever looks good. Follow these tips to save money the very next time you go grocery shopping:

1. Make a meal list
If you know exactly what you’re going to make for the next week, you can do shopping for only those meals (and snacks). Make a meal list, deciding what your family will have for breakfasts, lunches and dinners. When you buy only for what you need you don’t spend more than you have to and you don’t buy too little and have to go back again.

2. Use what you already have
If you have a family, you are probably well stocked when it comes to food. But except for emergency food (which you won’t use until an emergency occurs anyway), you really don’t need loads of food stocked up for regular use. Many people stock up on foods and seem to never use them. They get pushed to the back of the shelves and hidden behind the new, good stuff you want to use. So this week, pull all of those items into the forefront. Canned foods, cereals, freezer foods etc. Examine it all and work them all into your meal list. If you are really over-stocked, this could go on for a number of weeks, meaning you save money!

3. Buy less junk
If you buy a lot of chips, cookies and the like for snacks, buy less. You’ll not only save money, but calories too. Start only buying one of these kinds of snacks for the week and more fruit. If you and your family really enjoy the sugary snacks, make them yourself. Making things from scratch is often cheaper in the long run. You can buy large bags of flour and sugar for not much money at all in fact and buy the rest of the ingredients as you need them.

4. Apply quantities to your list
Writing a meal and grocery list is part one, but part two is also important. Beside each item on your grocery list, write how much of that item you need. How many times have you picked something up, wondered how many you needed and now you have them still sitting in your pantry? Exactly. This goes for everything, canned foods, meat, fruits and vegetables etc. If something is on sale that you know for absolute sure you are going to use again soon, pick up an extra one or two, not six. The item will be on sale again sometime, there is no need to be overzealous.

5. Buy Store Brands
Store brands are usually cheaper

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