99 Great Ways to Save Money - Saving Tips From AARP
This year, the nation faces 1970s-style price hikes on everything from garbage bags to gasoline. Want to whip inflation now? Try these 99 tips to stretch your dollar when inflation is squeezing it.
Read the 2023 version of AARP's 99 Great Ways to Save
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Groceries
Fact: Grocery prices have gone up 10 percent in the past year, the largest annual rise in 40 years, according to the USDA.
1. Use ground chicken in your chili. Beef and veal prices rose the most of main food groups this year, at 16 percent. Fresh poultry increased less — and it was much cheaper to begin with.
2. Plan this Friday for next Tuesday. A proven way to contain grocery costs is to plan out the week’s meals and to buy food from a shopping list based solely on that plan. Friday is a great day for planning, as many stores post their week’s discounts and deals that day or the day before.
3. Search before you shop. Flipp is a free phone app that consolidates retail circulars. This makes it a snap to compare your shopping list to circulars from your local supermarkets to determine which store’s virtual coupons will save you the most money. You can also use the app to generate your shopping list.
4. Make Thursday a “pantry cooking” night. Americans throw away 30 to 40 percent of our food supply, often because it goes uneaten until it’s no longer edible. The antidote: Cook at least one meal a week based entirely on foods lingering in your refrigerator or pantry.
5. Have an “eat me first” spot in your fridge. Designate a shelf or bin in your fridge for all of the leftover food bits (think nubs of cheese, a half serving of pasta,a lemon wedge) or overly ripe foodstuffs that should be eaten before fresher items.
6. Yes, order online. What you might lose in delivery costs often is more than made up by avoiding impulse purchases when browsing a store. The trick: Lower your delivery costs. Look for coupons at sites like CouponFollow.com to find deals, such as $20 off your first order at Vons, 15 percent off Kroger grocery shipments, and $10 off your first delivery of $20 at Instacart.
7. Pay with the right card. Many credit cards offer cash back today, but the amounts often vary by category. Search the Internet for cards that offer the most cash back for groceries; you might find a card that will give you 5 percent back on food purchases. Websites like CardRates and NerdWallet let you compare your card with others.
8. Double up with cash-back apps. With services like FetchRewards, Coupons.com or Ibotta, your grocery purchases earn points toward gift cards for various shopping options such as Amazon, Target and Walmart. Fetch Rewards, for example, has a section where you can see which brands will get you the most points.
9. Go all-in on store brands. Many major grocery chains have greatly expanded their store-brand lines, and their reputation for quality has improved. Chains are highly secretive about who makes their products. But simply compare the ingredients list with name-brand versions to see how close they are. Store brands can run as much as 25 percent less than the name-brand version.
How I saved on groceries
With my always-hungry son coming home from college last Saturday, I needed to stock up on food. I pulled every money-saving trick in the book: digital coupons, in-store flyer coupons (cherries for $1.99 a pound!), opting for store brands, scouring the shelves for member-only and manager’s special markdowns (ground turkey for $2.28 a pound? Meatballs tonight!). I then went to the Asian market, which charges substantially less for produce. In all, I went to four nearby stores to get the best prices. Bottom line: What could have been a $350 food spree came in around $200.
—Neil Wertheimer, deputy editor
10. Use self-checkout. A study conducted by IHL Consulting Group reveals that people who used self-checkout spent less on impulse purchases. This is likely because shoppers are paying attention to what they’re buying, as well as the prices, when they're scanning goods themselves — rather than getting distracted by their phone or the magazine rack while a cashier does it for them.
For food gardeners
11. Focus on high-cost foods. Many of the most common garden vegetables — green peppers, zucchini, cucumbers — cost very little at the store come harvest time. Focus on edibles that routinely cost more at the store. That could include most fresh herbs; heirloom tomatoes; organic lettuces; and vegetables for ethnic or regional cuisines like Chinese choy, okra, tomatillos or Jerusalem artichokes.
How I saved on groceries
With my always-hungry son coming home from college last Saturday, I needed to stock up on food. I pulled every money-saving trick in the book: digital coupons, in-store flyer coupons (cherries for $1.99 a pound!), opting for store brands, scouring the shelves for member-only and manager’s special markdowns (ground turkey for $2.28 a pound? Meatballs tonight!). I then went to the Asian market, which charges substantially less for produce. In all, I went to four nearby stores to get the best prices. Bottom line: What could have been a $350 food spree came in around $200.
—Neil Wertheimer, deputy editor
This article originally appeared on AARP.org in September 2017
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