Make Supermarket Splurges More Affordable With This Expert-Approved Shopping Tip

According to nationally recognized consumer finance and savings expert, Andrea Woroch, grocery shopping more often, but buying less each trip, will actually save you money. "In fact, Americans waste nearly 40% of the groceries they buy, and if you overbuy fresh food that you don't end up cooking, it will end up in the trash, and that's like throwing away your hard-earned dollars," says Woroch.

Woroch advises that regardless of how frequently you grocery shop, the number one thing you can do to cut back on grocery bills is to make sure you're shopping with a meal plan, so that you know exactly the ingredients needed for the recipe you're making. Once you know which ingredients you'll need to buy, Woroch first recommends comparing ingredient prices at different grocery stores to see where you can score the best deals and then consider purchasing these items in bulk. You can then find other recipes that utilize the same ingredients, ensuring everything gets used. Alternatively, Woroch suggests planning your meals around the sale items.

While Woroch recommends buying certain ingredients in bulk for meal planning, she doesn't necessarily recommend bulk buying at stores like Costco and Sam's Club. "Although bulk purchases offer a better price per unit, you run the risk of some of the extra produce or any other fresh food purchased in bulk to end up in the trash because it spoiled. This holds true for other bulk purchases too, like oversized bags of chips or large boxes of crackers, because they can get stale if you don't eat the whole package right away," says Woroch.

To further maximize grocery savings, Andrea Woroch also suggests simply using a hand basket instead of a grocery cart. "Large shopping carts influence you to add more to them because they seem empty with just a few items, so you're more likely to buy food on impulse," says Woroch. Just in case an impulse item makes it into your hand basket, even though everyone hates self-checkout except for me, studies show people who use self-checkout buy less on impulse. Woroch says she believes this is because people realize how much certain foods cost when they ring up their own groceries, versus not noticing the costs when a grocery store clerk scans items.

When it comes to paying for groceries, Woroch recommends paying with cash whenever possible to avoid overspending and taking advantage of rewards for grocery purchases through free apps like Fetch. Apps like Fetch offer points that are awarded for submitting pictures of receipts in exchange for e-gift cards to hundreds of retailers. Woroch concludes, "Finally, if you prefer to pay with a credit card, make sure you are maximizing grocery rewards by paying with a credit card that offers more cash back for food at supermarkets or for the stores you shop at." Since grocery rebate cards don't offer rewards from big-box stores like Walmart, Woroch recommends visiting sites like CardRates to compare grocery rewards cards and cash-back cards to find the best one for your grocery purchases.