When is the Best Time to go Grocery Shopping

Meal Planning is a great way to save money on groceries. But choosing and prepping meals with intention isn’t the only way to cut your grocery spending.

When it comes to grocery shopping, the where and when can make a huge difference in your total bill.

I have to confess that I am a reformed grocery-shopaholic. I used to go into the local market or Walmart and wander aisle to aisle, picking up whatever caught my fancy. No coupons, no list, no plan.

Needless to say, I spent a ton. My husband and I marvel at how we spent more doing weekly grocery shopping for just the two of us than we spend on all seven of us now.

I’m not saying this method was all wrong. The biggest benefit was that I would find deals in odd corners of the store, discover interesting ingredients I otherwise would have missed had my eyes been plastered to a shopping list, and I got inspiration for dishes from what I found.

But there has to be a middle ground. Without taking the creativity and inspiration from the shopping experience, there are ways to save money on groceries before you even enter the store.

Here are some tips on the best time to go grocery shopping:

1. After Meal Planning. Having a plan doesn’t mean you’re locked into it. But the best thing you can do is peruse the store circulars or Flipp (an awesome website and app that collates all those circulars right on your phone) and make up a meal plan, capitalizing on the sales that are running that week.

 

2. On a Wednesday. By and large, grocery stores start their new sales on Wednesdays. This is the day when everything is in stock, plentiful, and not picked over. Everything should be out on the shelves by early afternoon.

 

3. After Making a Budget. It’s hard to calculate to the penny how much you will spend on the entire bill, unless you’ve created a price list to keep track of the more common ingredient that may not be on sale and in the circulars (e.g. ground pepper, olive oil, etc.). So create a spending limit and have the cash in hand to avoid overspending.

 

(Bonus: Click here and sign up for my Homemaker’s Toolkit, which includes a price list printable that I use, as well as weekly newsletters!)

 

4. After Deciding on Wiggle-Room. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes you find a deal you weren’t expecting or an ingredient that you really want to try. Decide whether you have a little extra to spend in this area, and then add it to your grocery cash. Keeping it all in cash (and leaving the cards at home) can keep you from going overboard (been there and done that, many times).

 

5. Check out the Bakery Mid-morning to Early Afternoon. I am the queen of discount bread. It is cheap, versatile, and tasty. It’s also easily frozen and thawed, making it perfect to stock up on when the price is low.

 

At my local Walmart, the bakery section fills up an entire shelving unit (strangely enough, in the frozen food section) with breads, cakes, cookies, donuts, and rolls from the previous day. They are usually half price and I can bring home a loaf of French bread for pizza or rolls for chicken salad sandwiches for fifty cents! Anything I don’t use right away goes into the freezer.

 

6. Look for Meat at the End of the Day and on Mondays. Normally, stores stock extra for weekend shoppers. So by Monday, they need to move the excess before it expires. The same is true of the end of the day when the deli is closing up. Look for manager’s specials and discounts on ground beef, chicken breasts, and pork cutlets.

 

Remember that meat can be frozen, so if you find a huge roll of ground beef nearing its expiration date, grab it. Separate what you want to use and freeze the rest. I like to separate the extra into one-pound balls and then bag them individually. That way, I can take out what I want without having to thaw a huge hunk (and, of course, it’s not safe to thaw and refreeze meat).

 

7. Produce is best in the Mornings. A lot of stores stock their produce overnight or first thing in the morning. This is when you’ll get the best picks of the lot, before they get picked over and damaged by other shoppers. Pick from the bottom of the stacks, if you can, because produce is normally stocked with the soon-to-perish on top to move it faster.

 

8. When it’s not busy. Trying to shop when the aisles are jammed is not only a pain, it also increases your chances of missing deals and rushing through a decision to get out of someone’s way or because someone’s in yours. Try shopping when it’s least busy, which would be in the early mornings or during the 9am-5pm work hours (excluding lunchtime).

 

The busiest times are on the weekends (especially afternoons) and after 5pm on weekdays (for everyone who is grabbing dinner items on the way home from work).

 

9. When you’re not tired or hungry. Hungry shoppers spend more. One study found that they spent 64% more than those who were not hungry! So make sure you eat before you go. If you’re tired, your decision-making process is hampered, so try to make your grocery shopping a one-and-done trip, rather than one of a long line of errands that leave you exhausted.

 

10. When You Need to. Before heading to the grocery store, make sure you inventory your pantry and freezer. You can save a lot of money by shopping from what you already have on hand and getting creative with the options. Think of it as an episode of Chopped. But without the geoduck.

 

I hope these suggestions help you save some money the next time you head out to the grocery store. Eating is one of the great pleasures in life, so let’s enjoy it without breaking the bank. Good luck!

 

Do you have any tips to add about the best time to grocery shop? How do you save money at the store? Let me know in the comments!