We Teamed Up with Oscar Mayer & Ellie Kay to Save You Money on Groceries!

We talk a lot about smart grocery shopping and saving money on cooking here at Homemaker Barbi. So I was very excited when Oscar Mayer contacted me to work with them and Ellie Kay, America’s family financial expert, as part of their “Smart Saving Tips” Value Challenge!

My family took the “Smart Saving Tips” challenge over the past two weeks. It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot about our grocery spending. Check back tomorrow to read about how much money we saved on groceries in two weeks using these 12 simple tips, as well as our video teaching you how to save money on snacks and kids’ lunches!

Here’s how it worked: Ellie Kay gave us 12 smart grocery shopping tips to use for two weeks. Many of her tips were things that we already practice in my house –I’ve been very lucky in converting my family to the frugal lifestyle! However, she touches on a lot of areas that can be huge money-sinks, such as kids’ school lunches and breaking down for fast food when we don’t have time to prepare a meal.

Grocery shopping is an area in the family budget that we have a lot of control over, so it’s usually the place that we can save the most money. The recession has hit not only the country’s economy, but also many of our home economies as well. As parents, we don’t want to sacrifice nutritional value and healthy food for our families. At the same time, we can’t afford to spend a fortune during our weekly grocery shopping trips.

To read the full list of grocery shopping tips from Ellie Kay, you can view, print, or download it here.  Here is a recap of the basics:

12 Smart Grocery Shopping Tips from Ellie Kay

1. Pack a lunch to take to school or work instead of buying lunch.

2. Buy large packages in the store, and split them into small serving sizes at home (see tips for this on our video tomorrow).

3. Pack kids’ lunches in advance to avoid the morning rush (and keep yourself from running out of time –forcing hot lunch to be your only option).

4. Have a soup and sandwich night one dinner a week.

5. Have a “restaurant food at home” meal once a week, meaning that you buy convenience foods similar to your favorite restaurants. It’s true that convenience foods cost more than ingredients to make meals from scratch. But on nights when you’re running behind schedule and don’t have time to cook, convenience foods from the grocery store are still much more economical than eating at a restaurant.

6. Let kids pick which ingredients they want to make their sandwiches. Choosing fixings they like will mean they’re more likely to eat the sandwiches once they get to school (and not complain about their lunches)!

7. Use technology in grocery shopping. If your spouse or teens are helping with grocery shopping, they can text or “tweet” the items and prices in the grocery store so that you can help them pick the product that is the best value. What a great idea! This works especially well if you and a spouse are in separate stores to compare which has better prices.

8. Use e-coupons and link them to your grocery shopping cards. That way you won’t even have to remember to bring the coupons with you.

9. Combine store coupons with manufacturer’s coupons on the same items for double discount. Big plus if you can combine these two coupons on an item that is already on sale! Have you ever wondered how people buy things for free or nearly-free? Now you know!

10. Start shopping with cash instead of cards. When you make the family budget, setting aside cash to use for grocery shopping will ensure that you stick to the spending limits you’ve set.

11. Shop at a store that does price matching. Choosing a grocery store that will match competitors’ sale prices allows you to save time and gas by not having to drive to different stores.

12. Forget the old rule of sticking to your shopping list. You can find clearance markdowns, discontinued items, rollbacks, unadvertised specials and more in your store aisles for items that aren’t on your shopping list. It’s OK to stray from your list if you’re stocking up on items which are a great value.

Join us tomorrow for Part 2 of the Oscar Mayer & Ellie Kay “Smart Saving Tips” challenge. Find out how much money we saved on groceries in two weeks using these 12 grocery shopping tips, and watch the video I made showing how to stock up a kids’ lunch-making station. See you then! If you found these tips helpful, consider subscribing to our updates for free!

You might like these articles too:

1. 13 Easy Ways to Save on Groceries
2. How to Save Money by Getting Almost Everything for Free
3. How I Saved $228 with These Grocery Tips
4. Announcement: I’m Going to the Oscar Mayer Kitchens!