Tips and Tricks: Thrifty Shopping

Grocery shopping can get expensive, especially for college students! Money can be tight a lot of the time, and if you’re an inexperienced shopper, you might find yourself buying food that you won’t actually use. Planning ahead of time and shopping smart will save you a lot of money in the long run! Here are some of our favorite tricks for saving money while grocery shopping: 

• If you tend to grocery shop before thinking of recipes to make, check out the app Ibotta! It shows current deals on a variety of groceries, and if you’re willing to try new things Ibotta can help you find new ideas for meals. You can also look online for manufacturer’s coupons – these will work on specific brands across any store! Before we shop, we usually check Ibotta and our local grocery store flyer or shopper so we can make our shopping list based on weekly sales. 
• If your town or city has a local market, stop in and see if you can find anything there! Depending on your location and the season, food markets could have fresh produce, homemade bread, local eggs and dairy, or preserves and canned goods. Oftentimes buying fresh, local food ends up being cheaper than doing your shopping at a grocery store, and it’s usually better quality too. Our college town has a biweekly farmer’s market where we’ve gotten food like cabbage, garlic, bread, cheese, tomato sauce, and even homemade potato chips for a lot less than they would be at a grocery store.  
• Bring your own bags! Lots of stores give you a discount on your purchase for every reusable bag you bring. Some stores even charge for plastic bags now, and although this doesn’t seem like a big cost in the moment, every little bit helps with saving money. Reusable bags are great to take to farmer’s markets too, and they also help the environment – something that’s always a big plus in our dorm! If you do get plastic bags, keep them and use them for something else, like trash bags for small waste bins. This saves money on trash bags – but reusable bags are still the best way to go! 
• If you find a good sale on frozen veggies (and have enough freezer space), stock up! Frozen food will stay good for a long time, which saves money on throwing out old produce. Frozen fruit is great for smoothies, or you can thaw it and use it like you normally would! Frozen veggies are also super versatile, and they’re just as good as fresh ones. Some of our favorites include: broccoli, spinach, mixed veggies, and cauliflower. Although frozen vegetables tend to get soggy if you try to roast them, they’re great steamed or sauteed! 
• Speaking of groceries that last a long time, canned goods are another great staple to have on hand! Beans and tomatoes are usually less than $1/can and can be used in a variety of recipes, so as long as you don’t have a long walk back home, they’re great to stock up on. Recipes that use canned goods are often quick and convenient, so they’re good to have if you find yourself in a pinch. Dry beans are usually slightly cheaper than canned but tend to need more prep before you can use them. We like cans because they store well in a small dorm, but if you have the space and time to prep your ingredients, you can save even more money by buying them dry!

❤ Juliana and Sarah