Why It Pays To Always Read Your Grocery Store's Weekly Flyer
While a trip to the mailbox can feel like a waste when all you find are grocery store ads, if you're tossing these flyers sight unseen, you're missing out on an opportunity to save a lot of money on your weekly grocery shopping. Since the prices of many grocery store items haven't shaken off their inflated prices, this tip is more crucial than ever. Instead of simply avoiding buying those often high-dollar items, let those weekly ads tell you what to grab instead.
Various grocery stores use these promotional ads to draw out potential customers, featuring a hit list of sales. Most of these products are popular food items that would pop up on your grocery list anyway, at one time or another. Some weeks you'll get a deal on spinach and chicken breasts, on others, chuck beef and zucchini. Think of this list as a helpful tool for meal planning for the best budget, curating your menu around what you can get for reduced prices. Let's dive deep into all the ways you can use this info to your advantage.
How to save big at the grocery store
If you're not much into browsing the snail-mail ad, it's the 21st century, so feel free to download your local grocery store's app if it has one. This is an easy way to track all the currently available deals in case you misplaced your most recent flyer. Second, compare the sales from various stores; there may be a great deal at one for produce, while another offers a nice sale on meat.
Another important thing to understand when browsing is what a deal truly represents. While what's in these ads is often an effort for stores to pass on savings from big orders from suppliers, stores will often employ some common gimmicks to unload stock, like BOGO or "Buy 3 for $3," which makes the shopper think they need to buy three of the item to get the discount. You can often buy one and still get the deal; it's just a little marketing word game, so be wary of these pitfalls when shopping.
From there, you just need to plan your cooking accordingly, finding an excellent way to incorporate the big sale items into your meal prepping. If you don't particularly want to cook with chicken breasts this week but can't pass up a hot deal at your local store, buy it and freeze it for another day. These days, truly useful ways to save are drying up, so try to cash in on the promotions that are being offered.