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Economical grocery shopping -

If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more about our review process. Get to the checkout line of any grocery store these days and you may be shocked to see the amount at the bottom of your receipt.

One of the best ways to find cheap groceries is to create a budget-friendly, healthy grocery list and stick to it. By prioritizing seasonal items, frozen foods and certain cuts of meat and seafood, shopping strategically can help keep sticker shock to a minimum.

The key to locating cheap groceries is to create a system for shopping, and that begins before you even grab a cart. Start by identifying the closest supermarkets to you hello, high gas prices! and cross check the cost of your favorite items online before you shop.

Think about what you spend the most on and prioritize finding the best price for those items. The next step is to follow that quintessential shopping advice: Don't go to the grocery store hungry. You're much more likely to make impulse and unhealthy purchases if you do, so shop after a meal or grab a healthy snack before heading to the store.

And remember: The cheapest groceries are not always the most nutritious; consider spending slightly more for foods that are filling and nutrient-dense. For tips and recommendations for a more economical shopping experience, see below for advice from the experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute Nutrition Lab.

Fruit and vegetables are among the groceries with the largest price jumps lately , but you can still find affordable produce by buying seasonally. Purchasing when produce is abundant helps lower the cost and will all but assure the best taste and highest levels of nutrition.

Seasonal Fruits. Seasonal Vegetables. Another way to save money on produce is to opt for fruit and vegetables that have a longer shelf-life. For example, to help extend your grocery dollars, choose apples over berries or carrots or celery over leafy greens. Generally, some of the cheapest fruit and vegetables year-round tend to be bananas, apples, oranges, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and sweet potatoes.

Meat can be the most expensive category for most food budgets, and can account for a large portion of the overall grocery bill.

To save money, opt for the ground variety of your favorite protein. Ground beef, chicken or turkey are super versatile, easily frozen and can be used in many different recipes.

Larger cuts of meat will usually cost less per pound, but they may require marinating, braising and slow cooking to bring out the tenderness.

Every time you have to go back to the grocery store, you run the risk of making impulse purchases and blowing your budget. A master grocery list is a reusable list that contains a list of all the foods, ingredients, and household necessities you buy, and you reference it over and over when you write your shopping list.

In addition to food, this list will help remind you of other household items you may be running low on. Trust me, I love using coupons.

But the danger comes when you buy things just because you have a coupon. The final key to your success will be how well you use the cheap grocery list you created. Whatever you do, do NOT walk up and down each aisle looking at everything.

That is recipe for budget disaster. Keep a laser-like focus on your list, and get in and get out. Keep a list of dirt cheap meals you can cook for cheap.

Now that you know what you can spend, the next step in creating your basic grocery list is figuring out what you already have at home. One of the keys to planning your meals for the week on a budget is not having to buy every last thing.

You probably have some meals already hiding in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Read Next: Learn How to Save Money This Month with a Pantry Challenge. The idea is just to start assigning meals to the days of the week. The act of having a written list will help everyone in your home know what to expect, and helps you stick to your plan.

These are the beginnings of your healthy grocery list. Okay, you have come up with a few meals based on what you already have, and started making your list. Or if chicken breasts are on sale in the big family pack size, plan dinners that use chicken this week.

Even at those loss leader prices, meat is more expensive than most other food ingredients. Dinners are the first thing people think of when they plan out their meals. The bottom line is that you have to be honest about your time, energy, and sanity, and do what works best for you and your household.

If you want to save money on your groceries, there's perhaps no better store to shop at than Aldi. You'll find Aldi locations across the country and overseas, all of which guarantee competitive prices compared to the other grocery stores in your area. So, how do they do it? There are a few ways the chain keeps its prices so low.

First of all, Aldi doesn't carry many name-brand products. Instead, the chain focuses on selling its own store-brand products. These items are often cheaper but many report that these goods are nearly identical to the name-brand versions of the same products, which makes it a no-brainer to shop here if you're trying to save money but don't want to sacrifice when it comes to taste.

Additionally, Aldi stores tend to be smaller than the average supermarket, which means the selection is more limited and the staff is streamlined. Since you have to bag your own groceries and take your own cart back to the store, you don't have to pay for those services through the price of your groceries.

Sure, the shopping experience at Aldi is a little different than what you may be used to at other grocery chains, but the low prices are totally worth it in our book.

Trader Joe's is another one of those super-popular, more affordable grocery chains that customers tend to flock to on a regular basis. If you like the feel of Aldi but are in the market for more specialty products, you may want to make your way to Trader Joe's.

The store is similar to Aldi in that it doesn't offer many brand-name products, instead stocking its own unique offerings. Some of these products have become cult favorites amongst Trader Joe's shoppers , so you're not sacrificing much in terms of quality by shopping at this store.

Additionally, the chain keeps its operational costs low by building smaller stores that require fewer staff members to manage.

Since it doesn't offer coupons and run ads, you're not paying for all those extra incentives and advertisements. Rather, customers know that they're almost always getting a pretty decent deal when they decide to shop at Trader Joe's. There are currently locations in 42 states plus Washington D.

and if you live in an urban or suburban area, chances are you've got a Trader Joe's somewhere near you. Walmart has long been known as a place where it's possible to snag cheap groceries.

But why are the store's products so cheap compared to other, similar stores? There are a variety of factors that contribute to the cheaper-than-average prices.

Low operational costs are one such strategy, but so is lack of competition. Often, you'll find Walmarts in places where there aren't many other retailers to compete with. In smaller towns and more rural areas, Walmart may be one of the few places in town where it's possible to snag groceries.

Because the local population depends on the store, Walmart has a reliable customer base. This customer loyalty means that they don't have to charge quite as much for its food and other products. However, some of the chain's affordability factor comes from the fact that it doesn't pay its employees very much.

Human Rights Watch has outlined major issues with Walmart's labor practices , including encouraging employees to work off the clock and refusing to grant overtime. Lidl is a grocery chain that was founded in Germany but can now be found in various towns and cities across the U.

Like so many of the other chains on this list, this store keeps its prices low by limiting its name brand offerings and providing customers with store brands instead. Additionally, it tends to stock products that people use on a regular basis — think pasta, canned tomato paste, and produce staples like cabbage and carrots — that often move in and out of the store pretty quickly.

There aren't many products that are going to sit on the shelf for a long time, which means that the company isn't waiting around for a return on investment.

Plus, it takes less labor to run a Lidl than it would to operate a larger, more expansive grocery store. Fewer products means less need for a ton of workers, and the fact that the store displays its products in the boxes they're shipped in is just one of the ways the store cuts its labor costs.

For those with big families or just a lot of roommates , shopping at Costco seems like a no-brainer. The chain cuts down on costs by keeping its stores relatively simple — you'll notice the bare-bones design that's more about utility and function than it is about style and ambiance.

Meat and protein plus many prepackaged items are cheaper than average at Costco, even when you're opting for brand name items over the in-house Kirkland brand.

Are you Ecknomical to delete your favorite delivery app? Here are five cheap groceries Promotions with sample deals should always stock up on, Economifal to chefs. Every week I make Pressure Cooker Beans Sample giveaway events Economical grocery shopping leaf sbopping other Economical grocery shopping and a big pot of rice in my rice cooker. We add salsa, sliced avocado, or any leftovers like grilled chicken or vegetables to make an affordable, quick meal. Then McCord uses the leftover rice to whip up a variety of recipes including Rice CakesLeftover Rice Puddingand Breakfast Rice Bake. So both of these ingredients can stretch your dollar and time as far as possible.

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