One of life’s biggest challenges is shopping for healthy food when your budget is tight. Everyone has gone to the store, shopped unrestrained and ended up with a large grocery bill. There may have also been times when you shop and your bill is right within your budget. If this happens often, you may realize you need to learn how to grocery shop on a budget to keep your food bills consistent from week to week.

You won’t need to cut favorites from your diet completely. Grocery bills don’t go up and down based on what you’re eating; they go up and down based on what you are buying. If you want to shop smarter, healthier and more budget friendly in the future, check out these smart tips.

15 Genius Tips on How to Grocery Shop on a Budget

Eating healthy can be cost effective for you if you make a few changes to your shopping habits. Many people believe that healthy foods cost more, but you can balance your grocery budge by making changes by cutting some foods and adding others. Look at these 15 helpful tips on how to grocery shop on a budget.

Tip 1: Go Shopping with a List

Go through your kitchen and make a list of necessary item such as eggs, milk, bread, butter, sugar, vegetables, fruits and meats. Add in any extras like condiments, spices and seasonings and just one or two treats. The most important thing is to stick to your list!

Tip 2: Friend with Coupons

For budget grocery shopping, coupons should be your best friends! Clip coupons from grocery store weekly ads, weekly newspapers and online. Sign up for grocery store savings cards and/or coupon apps on your phone. Some stores will even honor other store coupons, and look for doubling to save even more.

Tip 3: Shop in Season

When you buy fruits and vegetables that are out of season, shipping costs are added into the price and the prices will be much higher. Plan meals with in-season ingredients. Know when the seasonal fruits and vegetables will be ready in your area.

Tip 4: Buy Store Brands

In-store brands can be just as good as name brand items, but it can make a considerable saving in your pocket. Compare ingredient lists and you will see that most items have exactly the same ingredients with a different label.

Tip 5: Consider Frozen Products

Frozen fruits and vegetables are a great way to get out-of-season items at a cheaper price. They are frozen at the peak of freshness and are vitamin rich for good healthy additions to your meals.

Tip 6: Don’t Go Grocery Shopping Hungry

If you go shopping while you are hungry, you will be tempted to buy more food than you need because everything looks good. Eat a light snack before shopping, even if it’s just some cheese, or crackers, or even a piece of fruit.

Tip 7: Be Careful When You Check Out

It is a marketing gimmick to place impulse items at the check-out lanes. Even a small snack or candy item that costs $1.59 can add up to $10 or $15 to your bill if you buy more than you need. Some displays placed near the check-out lanes are marketing ploys to get you to buy more. For instance, in summer they usually place the chocolate bars, the marshmallows and graham crackers in one display to encourage you to buy the things needed to make “s’mores,” but are you really going to have a bonfire anytime soon?

Tip 8: Double Check the Prices

Watch the register screen as you are being checked out. Computers and pricing is not fool-proof and items can ring up at the wrong price. Check your register receipt before you go home for price differences. If you have a question about a price, you can always ask for a “price check” on the item.

Tip 9: Buy in Bulk

Buy as many “non-perishables” in bulk as possible. You can store things like flour, sugar, pasta, oil, oatmeal and cornmeal. You can even freeze some perishables, like cheese and butter. Look for these items when they are on sale and stock up.

Tip 10: Buy Family-Sized Packages

Small packages can actually be more expensive. Buy family sized versions and then re-package into smaller ones yourself. If you like the “snack-packs” of chips or cookies, you can make your own with snack-size bags.

Tip 11: Match Price

Shop around for the best price. You can compare between name brand and store brands as well as price differences from store to store. Make sure when you see a lower price that the amount of product is the same in the package. Sometimes you may be getting less product.

Tip 12: Shop in Different Stores

Think about shopping at two or more different stores. Different store gets sales activities on different items at different time. If you shop between two stores on alternate weeks, you may find out you make a huge saving that you did not expect.

Tip 13: Buy Junk Food as Little as Possible

Stay away from junk food and sweetened cereal. You’re only paying more for sugar; choose fruits which are better for you. You can buy a plain bran cereal and add raisins for flavor. Use fresh fruits to make a great dessert without all the extra calories.

Tip 14: Don’t Waste Anything

Learn to use your leftovers to make new dishes. A store bought roasted chicken can be torn up to make “chicken enchiladas,” or you can have a leftover “buffet” at the end of every week.

Tip 15: Try Not to Bring Your Kids

Stores are designed to encourage impulse buying, especially for kids. Kid-friendly junk foods are always placed at the eye level of kids. They may try to talk you into items which are not in your plan at all. Leaving kids at home will prevent unneeded purchases.

This video shows how a family of five shops every week on a budget. You can definitely learn how to grocery shop on a budget from this!