How to Have a Frugal Pantry without Using Coupons
Stocking the pantry can really put a dent in your grocery fund but there are ways to go about it cheaply and if you don’t want to use coupons no problem, my tips and tricks can be done without them and you can achieve similar savings. The key to drastic savings is to know when to hit the stores, identifying sales patterns and having good attention to detail.
Marked down clearance items are going to be your best bet if you don’t want to use coupons. Ask your store manager when they mark down items, a lot of times it is a certain day or end of the month. Once you know the days then go during those times and have a list of items you need to stock up on. Don’t completely stick to your list because you will find good deals that aren’t on it and you don’t want to be too restrictive on yourself plus finding good deals is what cuts your food budget and allows you to spend more on items that are rarely on sale. At my stores I often find staple items marked down by more than 50% in fact I have found nuts marked down as high as 95%. It’s all going to depend on how badly the store wants those items out of the store. The greater the loss the higher the percentage is going to be on those marked down items. Most stores don’t want to take the loss, so they will mark down significantly in order to encourage it to sell.
Save money by purchasing larger cans of canned goods like beans, pastas, and soup, snack and dessert items. Smaller ounces are cheaper but if you break it down by price per ounce you get a greater amount of product for less money. The only time this may not be true is when you find these items on the clearance shelf. I have seen the larger cans of beans marked down less than the smaller cans and sometimes the price per ounce ratio will warrant you to be buy these cans. Be warned though, check the price per ounce and if it is more than the larger cans that aren’t discounted then don’t buy them because it isn’t a good deal.
You can find clearance deals on practically anything, even meat, dairy and produce. The key to saving money on meat is to purchase it when your store has put it on clearance and use it the next day. This may be a bit controversial to some but I purchase meat products and immediately freeze it. I haven’t became ill in the 5 years I’ve been doing this and I am saving a bundle of money every month just from that, plus when you purchase packaged meat products you typically freeze them anyway, right.
One thought on “How to Have a Frugal Pantry without Using Coupons”