5 Shopping Tips Practiced by Savvy Savers to Significantly Reduce Food Costs
Hello!
I'm Suna, a web writer✨
Since food costs are a daily expense,
don't they tend to balloon before you even realize it?
But actually,
by incorporating just a few small tricks and habits,
you can reduce your food expenses without feeling deprived!
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You want to do something about your monthly food costs putting pressure on your household budget
You want to save on food costs, but you don't want to just endure constant sacrifice!
You end up buying extra things at the supermarket...
This time, I will introduce 5
shopping tips to reduce food costs
that I have actually tried and found effective!
All of these are things you can easily
start doing today,
so please use them as a reference😊
Set a budget
To save on food costs,
setting a budget in advance is
very effective!
If you shop based on your mood that day,
it's easy to end up saying,
“I bought too much...”
Just by setting an upper limit,
you will naturally be able to pause and ask,
“Do I really need this?”
I used to be someone who
often made impulse buys, lured by
ads for new products or limited-time items😅
But since I started being conscious of my budget,
my wasteful shopping has decreased!
In particular, what I keep in mind is
“not going to the supermarket on an empty stomach”.
When you are hungry,
you find yourself reaching for
unplanned side dishes or snacks, thinking,
“Oh! This looks delicious~♡”...
If you eat even just a rice ball at home before
going shopping,
you can calmly choose only what you need.
It's a small trick,
but just by setting a budget and being aware of it,
you can prevent wasteful spending!
First, let's start by roughly setting
a “weekly food budget”
based on your family size and
lifestyle✏️
Reduce shopping frequency by buying in bulk
To prevent wasteful spending and save on food costs,
you should reduce the number of times you go shopping.
This is because everyone tends to go to the supermarket and think,
“Oh, this is cheap!”
“I might as well get this too!”
and end up making unnecessary purchases😨
By buying in bulk in one trip,
reducing the number of shopping trips = reducing opportunities for wasteful spending
is what it leads to.
However, what you want to be careful about with bulk buying is
“not buying too much”
At first, I also used to buy things thinking
“It's cheap!”
“This looks like it would be useful to have!”
but
before I knew it, they were left sleeping in the back of the fridge...
that kind of thing happened too💦
If you end up throwing away ingredients because you couldn't use them up,
it's a loss in the end, isn't it.
So, I started planning my menu for the week,
making a list of what I need,
and buying in bulk.
Since then, wasting ingredients has
decreased significantly!
What I especially recommend is,
Versatile vegetables like onions and bean sprouts
Ingredients with high cost-performance and shelf life like chicken breast and frozen vegetables
If you focus on things that can be frozen,
you don't have to worry even if you have leftovers✨
When you become able to use ingredients
systematically through bulk buying,
the waste decreases and the savings effect on food costs
is quite large!
Recently, there are many blogs and sites
that publish “1-week menus and shopping lists.”
Please be sure to check them out😉
Keep track of what is in your refrigerator
By keeping a proper track of what is in your refrigerator,
you will reduce duplicate purchases and forgotten items,
which saves on food costs.
If the inside of your refrigerator is cluttered,
“I already had onions, but I bought more...”
“The cabbage was rotting in the back...”
These kinds of things tend to happen💦
That is why
you should keep your refrigerator organized
so that you can check it easily at any time!
What I am particularly conscious of is
“keeping it in a state where you can see
what is where at a glance.”
To achieve this, I am careful about these three things.
Do not overstuff it
Decide on a “designated spot” for frequently used items
Do not put items in as they are in their bags or packaging
Specifically, I use plastic cases bought at a 100-yen shop to
group ingredients by category
and store them!
The key is to choose transparent cases
so that you can see the contents★
Just by doing this,
you can immediately tell “what you have and what you are missing,”
which reduces wasteful shopping!
Moreover, I feel there is another benefit...
When the inside of the refrigerator is organized,
“I will combine this ingredient and that ingredient
to make dinner!”
I can quickly decide on a menu like that✨
In other words, just by organizing your refrigerator,
“savings” and “efficiency” can both
be achieved✌️
Even if you are busy and do not have time to tidy up,
starting with just the “vegetable drawer” or
“door pockets” is fine!
The important thing is
the mindset of making organization a habit.
Since you open the refrigerator many times every day,
even just tidying it up a little bit "while you're at it" makes a difference😊
Let's start easily,
from the small things♫
Utilizing points and coupons
When shopping,
cashless payment is recommended!
Even for the same purchase, credit card payments or QR payments
accumulate more points
than cash.
Furthermore,
choosing a "card with a high return rate" for each supermarket or drugstore,
or aiming for "point-up days"
will steadily increase your savings effect✨
For example,
at one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan, "Aeon",
you get 1 point for every 200 yen spent when paying with an Aeon Card or AEON Pay.
If your monthly food budget is 30,000 yen,
buying on a day with 10x points
will earn you 1,500 yen worth of points in one month.
When converted to an annual basis,
that is a whopping18,000 yenin savings!
Just by making a small adjustment to your payment method,
you can save on food costs without any extra effort♫
And recently,
the number of stores where you can get discount coupons just by downloading their official app
or registering as a free member is increasing.
It's great that it's easy to manage with just your smartphone
and quick to use!
"It's a hassle to go through the trouble
for just a few dozen yen..."
You might think that.
But these small accumulations
will gradually reduce your monthly food expenses!
Furthermore, with cashless payment,
you can check your payment history on your smartphone,
so it also serves as a household account book, killing two birds with one stone.
However, be careful not to get carried away by points and coupons
and end up buying things you didn't plan to⚠️
The trick is to decide to "only use them for things you were planning to buy anyway."
First,
let's start by "installing the app for the store you always go to"!
Even just doing that is
the first step toward becoming a "thrifty expert"✨
Don't be misled by "bargain items"!
Discount sales are a strong ally in saving on food costs.
But it's important not to be
swayed by advertisements or special sale temptations!
No matter how cheap something is, if you end up throwing it away because you couldn't eat it all,
it's a loss in the end😨
"Today only!"
"Great deal!"
When you see ads like that,
you just can't help but reach for them, right?
But actually, this is
a corporate marketing strategy
that cleverly exploits people's feeling of
"I might lose out if I don't buy it now..."💡
I used to check flyers every day too,
"Milk is cheap today!"
"Meat is half price!"
and I would go out of my way to shop for reasons like that.
But there were times when I bought milk in bulk
and couldn't finish it before it went bad...
At that moment,
"This isn't saving money at all!"
I realized.
Since then, instead of "buying because it's cheap,"
"buying because I need it"I switched to that way of thinking.
Just by judging based on "do I need it or not"
rather than "is it a good deal,"
wasteful spending will drop significantly✨
Starting with your shopping today,
please try to be conscious of [buying only what you truly need]☺️
Summary
Saving on food costs
is often thought of as "painful because it's all about self-denial,"
but that's actually not the case.
With a few small adjustments, you can naturally reduce waste
without having to deny yourself!
■Shopping tips for saving on food costs■
Set a budget in advance
Reduce shopping frequency by buying in bulk
Keep track of what is in your refrigerator
Make use of points and coupons
Don't be swayed by "bargain items"!
It's okay not to try and do everything at once ☺️
Please try incorporating them little by little,
starting with the ones you think,
"I can do this!" 👍️
Small, consistent efforts
will, before you know it,
lead to big savings ♫
Let's continue without overdoing it,
and get both our food expenses and our minds in order.