Some might think of grocery shopping as a chore but I actually don’t mind it. I’m always looking at new products and wondering how I can recreate them from scratch at home. I try to get the most out of a product and ultimately save money at the checkout. Here are 9 ways to get the most value from your grocery shopping.

Healthy Fruit Loaf using Oats

Select multi purpose ingredients

When I grocery shop, I try to get the most out of that one ingredient so I have a lot more choice of basic ingredients in my pantry and can get more value for money. For example, I like eating granola for breakfast with Greek yoghurt. I wouldn’t buy a box of granola for say $6 or upwards for 500gms. I would buy a 1kg packet of rolled oats and make my own granola with a few other basic pantry staples like coconut, spices, golden syrup, nuts and/or dried fruit. The oats can also be used for so many other things like other baked goods, desserts, puddings, hot cooked oatmeal for breakfast, overnight oats, a thickener for hamburger patties or meatloaf, used to soak up moisture when using meat and vegetables in pastry. You can even use oatmeal in the bath to relieve itchy skin conditions or insect bites.

I apply the same principle to just about every ingredient I buy. If I buy oranges for example, I think about how many uses I can get from them like eating as is, baking, juicing, using the skins for my own DIY cleaning products. If I want to bake something using chocolate and peanut butter, I don’t buy the chocolate/peanut butter candy. I buy chocolate and use peanut butter from the jar. There are so many other uses for plain chocolate and the peanut butter instead of getting that one use from the candy which has cost a lot of money.

Try to buy the raw form of the ingredient and think how many different uses you can get from it.

Multi buys aren’t necessarily cheaper

One of the best marketing ploys the supermarkets have been using for a while now is “buy 2, get 1 free” or “3 for $2” etc. If you work out the unit price of the item, you might find it’s not that much cheaper buying more than one and if it’s something you don’t use a lot of, why fill your pantry with unnecessary items? I stick to the brands I normally buy and don’t get influenced by these special deals. If my favourite products do come on special that I use all the time, I will buy them this way. Tinned tomatoes are something I have in the pantry all the time so I’ll always grab them if my brand is a multi buy.

Check the unit price

Here in Australia, supermarkets display the unit price per 100 grams. This is your indicator to easily work out what is the cheapest option on a product. For example, the coffee we usually buy often retails for $10.33 for 150 grams. The unit price is $6.89 per 100 grams. A large 500 gram tin usually retails for $22.00 and the unit price is $4.40 per 100 grams. It might be a larger expense upfront but per 100 grams, it’s definitely the cheaper option. Coffee is one thing we go through a lot of so it will get used up. (I prefer to only buy it on special anyway. For example, it’s on special this week for $14.00 for 500 grams so reducing the unit price even further to $2.80 for 100 grams.) You just have to watch when they reduce those smaller jars of coffee. You might think you’re getting a good deal but always check the unit price. Per 100 grams, it may still be cheaper to buy the larger tin.

This is even more apparent with goods like cheese. I buy a large 1kg block of cheese for around $7.50 which works out to 75 cents per 100 grams. The exact same thing in a 500 gram block is $4.50 or $9.00 per kilo or 90 cents per 100 grams. We eat a lot of cheese. It’s used on sandwiches and in cooking and a lot goes a long way. Don’t even think about buying grated. How hard is it to grate cheese? Seriously. For a 250 gram bag of exactly the same cheese shredded is  $4.00 or $16 per kilo or $1.60 per 100 grams. It might be a convenience but it really doesn’t take that long to grate cheese, does it?

Here’s the comparison:

Product	Unit Price	Price per kilo	Price per 100 grams
Tasty Cheese 1kg block	$7.50	$7.50	$0.75
Tasty Cheese 500gm	$4.50	$9.00	$0.90
Tasty Cheese 250gm	$4.00	$16.00	$1.60
Tasty Cheese Grated 700gm	$5.50	$7.86	$0.78
Tasty Cheese Grated 250gm	$4.00	$16.00	$1.60
Tasty Cheese Slices 500gm (24 pack)	$6.00	$12.00	$1.20
Tasty Cheese Slices 500gm (12 slices)	$4.00	$16.00	$1.60

It really pays to know your products and to check the unit price per 100 grams of each item. 

Forget the cleaning products aisle

Other than dishwashing liquid, I don’t buy any cleaning products. The thought of even walking down that aisle sends me into a fit of sneezing and I really wonder how harmful those products are to my family and the environment. I do buy bleach for those really hard stains but I use it as per the recommended safety guidelines. You’ll save a packet on your grocery shopping if you forget about cleaning products and start making your own.

Always check for marked down items

I don’t seem to have much luck in this area but the supermarkets are often marking down freshly baked items or meat nearing it’s use by date at various times of the day. Find out when that happens and try to do your shopping around this time. All of these products are perfect for freezing. For example, I can buy 1 dozen doughnuts marked down for say 50 cents and I’ll pop them in the freezer for the children’s lunch boxes or snacks. It’s not something they usually eat as I’m always baking my own treats for them but for 50 cents, you couldn’t bake something for that price.

Same with meat. Meat is ridiculously expensive from the supermarket but if it’s nearing it’s use by date, the supermarket just has to get rid of it. Some of these products are perfect for one off meals that you normally wouldn’t buy. For example, a marinated split roast chicken isn’t something I would normally buy. I’d be more inclined to buy the whole raw chicken myself and make it but if I see something like this marked down for a really great price, I’ll buy it and pop it in the freezer for those nights when you are struggling to get dinner on the table. 

If you don’t need it, don’t buy it

I don’t suggest buying up everything you see just because it’s marked down. I don’t have the room and sometimes my family just doesn’t eat that stuff. If I saw something like a 2 pack of “cherry struesel desserts” marked down to say 50 cents, I wouldn’t buy it. It’s not something we eat nor am I going to eat it just for the sake of it. You could pick up every marked down item you see and finish up spending $30 to $50 on items you normally wouldn’t have bought so it wouldn’t be very economical at the end of the day.

There’s nothing wrong with homebrands

Most of you will know that I love to bake and I buy nothing but homebrand flour, sugar and other baking goods. There’s nothing wrong with it. Same as with most of the products I buy. My husband is fussy when it comes to his favourite brand of canned spaghetti but we don’t eat it so I don’t buy it, homebrand or his favourite brand. It would finish up sitting in the pantry until he remembered it was there. 

It’s the same for pasta, rice, oil, canned goods, ketchup etc. Other than recognised well known brands, that’s all supermarkets like Aldi stock. It’s their own homebrand. I’m not personally a fan of shopping at Aldi for a number of reasons but I do buy the homebrands at my favourite supermarket because they are products I trust and that work for a lot less than well known brands.

Don’t pay for convenience

As mentioned before when talking about the unit price on cheese, I never buy grated cheese. I seriously can’t think of anything easier to do in the kitchen than grate. I’m not going to pay for the convenience of paying for a machine to grate my cheese. Same as already peeled and cut vegetables. It seriously doesn’t take that long to prepare vegetables yourself. My family like to eat potato wedges. I can buy 5kg of potatoes for $5 sometimes and if I was to buy 5kg of ready made frozen wedges at $3.33 per kilo it would cost me $16.65! I could put that other $11.65 to much better use.

Heat and serve products like rice or quinoa, for example, are ridiculously priced. Every time I need rice for a meal, I cook double or triple and freeze into family sized serving bags. I’ve always got rice in the freezer ready to go.

Ready made products

In saying that, I do like to keep a few ‘ready made’ products in the freezer for our busy nights or just in case Mum gets sick, which happened just the other week. A couple boxes of crumbed chicken or fish can be popped away for a chicken or fish burger, with salad, in a wrap or with a homemade sweet and sour sauce (with the frozen rice). I also have frozen bread rolls at the ready all the time for a quick homemade burger meal. Before freezing ground beef, make up enough burgers for the family and freeze. It will save you a ton of money on going out for takeaway.

Forget fancy laundry products

I only buy homebrand washing detergent and use half the recommended quantity. Combined with the agitation from the washing machine, only a small amount of powder/liquid is required contrary to what laundry detergent manufacturers want you to believe. There are many homemade recipes available to make your own laundry liquid or powder. With a bit of research you’ll find the right recipe with the ingredients that are available to you.

You also don’t need fabric softeners. Recent studies have proven they have no more effect on the clothes than water. They contain a lot of chemicals that are harmful to us and the environment. A couple drops of your favourite essential oil in the final rinse stage of the washing machine cycle will make your clothes smell nice if you like that. You don’t have to have nice smelling laundry for it to be clean. 

Never buy more than you need

I’m not one for stockpiling. For one, I don’t have the room and also, I think it’s a waste. We don’t have couponing here in Australia so don’t have the opportunities to buy up big on a particular product with a coupon but really, just how much toothpaste or toilet paper does one family need at any one time? I run my kitchen like a restaurant and keep my pantry, fridge and freezer stocked with just the right amount of food we need. If it can’t be frozen or used up straight away, it’s a waste as far as I’m concerned. If you have more than you need you may forget exactly what you’ve got and it’ll just be wasted.

I hope you pick up a few ideas to help you save on your grocery spending.