Spend less on groceries with these tricks thrifty shoppers use

Inflation has affected all of us, and grocery bills have skyrocketed as food prices rise. It’s tough to stick to a grocery budget right now, but armed with a few smart strategies, you can save hundreds of dollars each month, along with making sure you don’t fall for the tricks supermarkets use to get you to spend more, and how to make your produce last longer.

Every store has an aisle or two that has no temptations for you (pet food, paper goods, baby supplies, cosmetics, and so forth).

Make that aisle your passageway to the departments you need at the back of the store.

Why tempt yourself by using the chocolate aisle?

Special offers at the supermarket aren’t always what they seem. Here’s how to tell when a special deal is not so special.

Never buy chicken parts (breasts, wings) when you can buy the whole thing and make more meals from it.

Forget about fancy butchering: using strong kitchen shears, cut the chicken up the breast bone, up the back bone, and then cut those halves in half again.

Cut off wings and legs, and you have the kind of pieces that you’d pay big bucks for.

A large whole chicken is amazingly economical. It will give enough meat for about 8 portions, or you can serve 4 people and have plenty of leftovers for sandwiches, salads and other dishes.

Planning weekly meals and making grocery lists can be time-consuming, but there’s no  better way to save money at the grocery store than going in with a plan. Look ahead at your week and think through meals. Note any nights when you’ll be away from home for kids’ activities or meetings. This will impact how much time you have to prep and cook dinner. Once you have your budget and cheap dinner ideas, then it’s time to tackle your grocery list.

To save time and money, cook double batches of dinner recipes when you can, which means you can eat the leftovers as a second meal that week, or later if you freeze the leftovers.

It will last twice as long than when stored right side up.

It may not be great for the wasitline but mashed potato enriched with cottage cheese and parmesan and enlivened with garlic and herbs makes a marvellous filling for ravioli.

Sellers don’t want to bring unsold produce back home, so they often sell their inventory at reduced prices before the market closes.

You may find sweet savings of up to 80 percent.

If you cut your food cost, reduce your waste and improve your eating habits you could have heaps left over to spend on choice food at the market.

Instead buy a reusable water bottle. Assuming a store-bought bottle costs $1, you’ll recoup your costs after only eight or nine uses of the reusable bottle.

Reusable bottles also help you do your part in taking care of the earth.

Grocery stores constantly have popular products on sale as a way to lure you into the store.

And to get the word out, they advertise a lot through mailings to your house, inserts in newspapers and local shopping guides, TV or radio commercials, and sometimes even online.

They are worth studying each and every week.

That’s because what is on sale changes on a weekly basis.

Knowing that lettuce is on sale, you might map out menus that focus on that ingredient: a mixed salad one day, as a taco topping the next day, to wrap chicken for a low-carb dish the next.

While we can’t solve the issue of food waste overnight, getting the most out of every ingredient is a good way to start.

Food essentials (produce, meats, dairy, and bread) are usually located around the store’s perimeter.

Middle aisles have the more costly prepared and processed foods.

The more you steer clear of the inner aisles, the healthier and cheaper your groceries will be.

Special offers at the supermarket aren’t always what they seem. Here’s how to tell when a special deal is not so special.

Here’s a well-kept secret: When a grocery store advertises a special – say, buy ten containers of yoghurt for $5 – you don’t have to buy the number of items they’re advertising.

In this case, you could buy one container for 50 cents.

Unless the store specifically states otherwise, you should buy as few as you want.