Planning to Shop, Checking the Sales Flyers

A great way to save money each and every time you shop is to check the sales flyers. Picking up those deeply marked down items each week can really save you money over time. So before you shop you’ll want to see what’s on sale and stock up if you can.

Before I’ve talked about how to shop your pantry before you even leave for the store. In this post, I’m sharing about how to save before you even leave the house by using the sales flyers.

When you know what you have on hand you can start to build meals from those items. Then add in items on sale to save money.

How to Plan your Shopping Trip around Sales

To get started you want to gather your sales flyers or login to your account at your local grocery stores and see what’s on sale on the weekly ad.

Why pay full price when you don’t have to? There will be inevitability items that you may have to pay full price for but when you plan your purchases around what is on sale you can keep your grocery spending lower.

Then we are going to scour the ad to find the best deals possible. Let’s check out the meat sales first.

Look for Meat on Sale

You’ll want to look for sales on meat first. Meat is usually the most expensive item in a meal and if you can save on it, you can cut the cost of your meal quite a bit.

Usually the items that are the best price are on the first page of the ad. But that isn’t always true. Look over the ad and see what meat deals you can find.

While looking at the meat sales think about what you can make with those cuts of meat. You’ll also want to think about if your family is willing to eat one kind of meat all week? Or will you purchase some for this week and put some into the freezer for next week? This can help you determine how much you’ll want to buy.

It can also help you stock your freezer with meals for the upcoming weeks at great prices.

Look for Deals on Produce

After checking out the deals you can find on meat move onto the produce sales. Produce is something you’re likely to buy each week and if you are willing to plan meals around produce that is on sale you can reduce your grocery budget.

Like with the meat often the best deals can be found on the front page, those are usually the lost leaders. A lost leader is a sale that the store is losing money on to get you into the store to buy other items.

Pick the best priced produce items and plan to use those as much as you can in your meal plan.

Look for Deals on Canned Goods

Canned goods is another item you’ll want to look for closely.

Often you’ll be able to save quite a bit if you only purchase canned goods when they are on sale. And the great thing about canned good is they keep for a long time. So you can stock up when you see a great price and keep those items longterm in your pantry. Keeping them ready and waiting for when you need them all while paying rock bottom prices for them.

This is the great advantage canned good have over meat and produce. You can really stock up and it will keep. Unlike meat that needs to be frozen to be kept longer. And fresh produce that can go bad more quickly.

While shopping the sales I’m always on the lookout for items at my stock up price.

If I see canned tomatoes for $.59 a can, I know I will want to stock up, as that is a good price for my area. If they are at $.69 a can, I might purchase a few if we are getting low. And if they are at the regular price $.89 I will skip it since I know I can always get tomatoes at that price.

So be sure to be on the lookout for good buys on items you keep in your pantry so you can stock up on them when the prices are good. By stocking up when prices are low you can avoid buying them at full price.

How Do You Know When to Stock Up?

How do you know what a good price is? You’ll know a good price when you see if you use a price book.

You can use a price book to keep track of prices in your area. You can start by just tracking about 5-10 items and then add more as you can. Eventually you will have a book full of current prices so you will know what a good price is in your area.

This is the best way to know when you are getting a great deal and when it’s a deal you can pass on.

Putting it all Together to Save

If you track what you have on hand in your pantry by shopping your pantry first.

Then you add in items you can get at a rock bottom prices by checking your sales flyer.

You’ll have a list of items to build your meals from that week that can save you the most money. Then you can make your meal plan for the week.

Make Your Meal Plan

By combining what you have on hand with the best sales items you can cut your grocery spending each time you shop.

This is how I meal plan. Which helps me feed my family for less even if prices are on the rise. Because I try to get the best price I can get every time I shop.

Not too bad so far, right?

It might sound like a lot to do but I can usually meal plan for a whole month quite quickly using my monthly meal planning method.

If you are planning for a week then you should be done in about 30 minutes once you get the hang of meal planning this way. After using this method for a while, you will get quicker at it too.

How do you meal plan? Just what sounds good or do you look for what’s on sale and then make a plan?