Shopping for groceries can be expensive. It’s even more expensive if you don’t pay attention to the cost of what you are buying. There are ways to save money on the groceries you purchase. All it takes is a little time and some organization and you will be on your way to big savings.

Shopping the sale ads is an easy way to start cutting your grocery bill, as long as you need what you are buying! Here is a list of ways you can save money at the grocery store by shopping the sale ads each week:

1.Save the junk mail- Start by getting the sale flyers from each of the grocery stores in your area. In most areas, these flyers come every week in the mail. You may have thrown this out in the past and thought it was junk mail. Be sure to start saving them because you will need to do some prep work before you get to the grocery store.

2. Get your list- When you have gathered all the flyers, start going through them one at a time. Take a sheet of notebook paper and make a list of the items you see that are on sale that you need from the sale flyers. Include both the item name (including brand) in one column and the price in a second column. That way when you get to the store, you will know the specific brand to look for as well as what the price should be. If you find something at the store that isn’t marked with the sale price, be sure to have the cashier do a price check before you buy the item.

3. Are you out? If you are out of something, but don’t see it on sale, decide if you can wait another week to see if it goes on sale again or if you want to purchase it now. If it is not on sale but you need it, consider buying another cheaper brand or the generic version.

4. Get your total – Once you have your list made for each store, add up the total for each store. Is the total of these numbers within your budget? If not, remove some items that you don’t need this week until you are within your budget.

5. What to do when you are short on time- If you do not have time or don’t want to shop at multiple stores, look for the store that has the best prices on the most items you know you will use and plan to shop at that store for the week.

6. Just say no! Don’t just buy something because it’s on sale! If you don’t like it, it will just end up going to waste and even though it was on sale, you didn’t really save anything if it gets thrown out.

Remember that most sales rotate every 3 months or so, depending on the store. I find it helpful to keep a list of things I am out of as I use them up so I can use that list when I’m looking at the sales flyers. That way I don’t forget things I’m out of and have to pay full price for it later.

If you want to take that savings one step further, match the grocery sale ads each week to coupons. This is where you really will start to see big savings. Check out my coupon resource page for more information on how to get started with coupons!