Everyone likes to save money; especially when it comes to an ongoing expense like groceries.  Right now saving is even more important as food prices are increasing due to things like:

• Ongoing droughts
• Cooler weather causing a delayed start to the growing season
• Large export volumes to other countries
• A virus impacting pork product

In total, the USDA expects your food costs to go up about 2.8% compared to last year.  Here is a list of ten ways to save at the grocery store.

1. Shop on Wednesday nights
2. Stock up during deep-discount periods
3. Forgo pre-packed items like meats and veggies
4. Know when not to shop organic
5. Consider “cowpooling” by going in with friends or neighbors on an entire animal from a local farm and sharing the butchered cuts of meat
6. When possible, grow your own fruits and veggies
7. Buy in season produce
8. Join community-supported agriculture (CSA) groups to share in a local farmer’s annual crops
9. Consider frozen foods that are flash-frozen
10. Buy in bulk from retailers like Costco

Not all these tips will work for everybody, but finding ways to implement even a few of them will help reduce your costs.  To find out more on these tips and to learn a few others, click on the link below to read the full article.

http://money.msn.com/personal-finance/10-tips-for-grocery-shopping-on-a-budget

Mark DeFee is a mental health professional who has worked in the EAP field since 2004.  During this time, he has provided telephonic crisis counseling, workplace consultations regarding behavioral risk issues, trainings on various work-life topics, and account managment services.