Save big money on groceries

Food can seem like one of those non-negotiables in life, like rent or transportation. It costs what it costs, right? Absolutely not. You can easily cut your grocery bill and pocket the difference, saving hundreds, maybe even a thousand or more, each year.

This is important to your long term: What you save now means big money later. Say your cut your food bill by $1,000 this year alone and invest it instead. Add a zero to the end, and that's what it's worth to you in retirement: $10,000. Compounding over 25 years at historic stock market returns of 11%, that grand-a-year quickly climbs to almost $127,000! Okay, let's clip some coupons.

THE RULES
Save money on groceries by watching where you shop
There is little in recent history as shocking as the move way upmarket by some grocery stores. Those fancy new "organic" chains are not about hippies, they about rich people. Hippies don't have $8 for a half-gallon of grapefruit juice. Neither do you. Steer clear. But you should be skeptical, too, of even your normal grocery chain down the street. Cans of beans might be reasonable, but they are making it back and more in the meat aisle and impulse items at the register, like razor blades and magazines. Make a list of the 50 or 75 items you nearly always buy in a month, and find the store where you can consistently buy it for cheap. If that means you get toiletries at a discount store, then buy in bulk there instead. If you live in a farming area, find the local fruit and vegetable stand. It will be cheaper and probably better in terms of freshness and selection. These moves alone will knock a hundred or more off your bill a month.

Slash your grocery bill by comparing price by volume
Many grocery chains now list the price both as a total and as a "cents per ounce" cost or similar measure. When you are looking at that box of macaroni, consider the price of the largest possible box, apples to apples. If the small box is 18 cents per ounce and the large box is 12 cents per ounce -- that 33% cheaper! If you know you will eventually eat all of the macaroni, take the large box, by all means. Look, too, for store brands. These should be consistently the cheapest on the shelf in terms of pennies per volume (although the sizes of products are often similar as well). These products, like dish soap and napkins and soup, are cheaper because the store doesn't have to spend millions advertising the specific product. You might be a total slave to branding now, but once you see your food bill declining by $50 a week on store brands, you'll get over it. If some spaghetti sauce you like is a big part of your childhood memories by all means buy it, but get all the other stuff in store-brand varieties.

Clip coupons like a pro to save even more on groceries
Coupons are a con game of sorts. They are most often for the most wasteful of foods, like frozen dinners and high-sugar snacks. Yet coupons can make a direct difference in your food bill each month, often to the tune of a hundred bucks or more (that's $1,200 a year, remember?). One way around the coupon trap is to make your "essentials" list first, the products and brands you know you will buy, week in and week out. Go to coupon Web sites like (there are many) and only print out the ones you will use. Pick up the weekly circular in the paper and do the same. Don't cut out all the coupons, just the two or three or so you know you will use without fail. That way, you save on already planned food spending, rather than falling into the food manufacturers' trap of impulse buying some food you wouldn't have bought in the first place. If that means you spend 10 minutes online and print nothing, that's okay. You still win.