It seems that every time you go to the grocery store lately, prices keep getting higher and higher. No matter how much you try, you keep spending more money, and yet you hardly leave with any groceries! Here are 5 ways that will help you save money on your groceries. The more you follow, the more you’ll be able to save. If you follow all of them, you’ll be shocked at how much you’ll be able to save each week.

1. Shop the circular. Each week before you go food shopping, make sure you read the grocery store circular from cover to cover. This is where the store will put their loss leaders - items that they lose money on because they sell them for so cheap, but they do so to get you into their stores. These are the items that are usually heavily discounted, and you’ll save the most on. Be careful though. Not all items in the circular are at really low prices; so don’t just assume that since they are advertising it, that it’s the best price. But this will alert you to some really good prices each week.

2. Use coupons. Some people seem to think that you’ll only save a few pennies by using coupons, but that’s a myth. If you use coupons each week, and especially if your store doubles coupons (where your $0.75 coupon takes $1.50 off of the price) you can really see the savings add up. Many people regularly save 50% or more on their grocery bill by using coupons each week. You can find coupons in your Sunday paper, online where you can print them out, and usually in the grocery store itself you will find many coupons.

3. Eat before you go to the grocery store. It sounds silly, but it’s true. There have even been studies done on this. If you go to the grocery store hungry, you’ll end up buying a lot more. Just by eating first, you’ll end up buying less impulse items, so you’ll have a lower total at the cash register.

4. Make a list. Just like the previous tip, this will really help you buy less. Before you go to the store, make a list of what you need for the upcoming week. Only buy what is on the list. This will also help stop you from buying items on impulse, so you’ll end up spending less money.

5. Plan your menu based on what you find in the circular, and what’s in season. The items in the circular are what are on sale, so you should plan your menu based on those items. If you plan your menu first, you might end up needing to buy a lot of items that are not on sale that week. If you plan to use items that are in the circular and are on sale, you’ll spend less money on your meals. You should also eat what’s in season. Certain vegetables and fruits are a lot less expensive when they are in season. If you buy them then, you’ll spend a lot less money than if you buy them when they have to be shipped from far away.

6. When you do find a good sale price, buy many of them. If you find something you like that is at a really great price, instead of buying the one you would use for the week, buy many of them, especially if they will stay good for a while. This way you don’t have to worry about buying them at full price a few weeks from now. You’ll have gotten the really low price, and won’t have to buy that particular item again for a long time! It’s a great way to make sure you get good prices on what you need, and save money over the long run. Plus, when you do have a stockpile, you’ll find that you need to run to the grocery store less often since you’ll already have a lot of the items you need on hand.

7. Shop at multiple grocery stores. While you might prefer going to one store, each grocery store has their own circular and therefore has different items on sale that week. If you can stop at a few stores, you’ll be able to get the sale items from each grocery store. Plus, sometimes one item is a lot less expensive at one store, while another item might be less expensive at the second store. By going to both, you’ll have the best of both worlds.

As you can see, there are many ways to save money on groceries each week. You just have to be willing to spend a few minutes planning out what you need to buy, and you’ll find that you’ll start spending less money each week, and still get the great food that you wanted to buy.