Reduce your monthly grocery bill and increase saving

It's been at least a year since I last took a close look at my personal budget.

The rising price of necessities like food, fuel, and home services has prompted me to take stock of my spending habits.

In an effort to better my financial status, I decided to put my weekly grocery expenditure and restaurant expenses to the test.

What happened was as follows:

Examining my regular spending habits

A month of careful accounting revealed that I was spending an average of $188 per week on food and other basics around the home.

I was taken aback by it, especially when I realized it was more than the yearly income of the ordinary Australian household.

Spending the same amount on eating out every month ($151) explains why I always had so much wasted food or food that had gone bad in my fridge and pantry.

Although I did not usually spend so much, the cost of going out for meals and drinks was starting to add up to a substantial sum (sometimes I spent more, and sometimes I spent less).

Round up as a first step.

Over the course of a month, I experimented with each of these ideas and a fifth that I stumbled onto by mistake to see how much cash I might save.

Which one reduced costs while using the fewest resources? "Rounding up" is the term for this strategy.

This is the practice of saving the spare change from each purchase by rounding up to the nearest 10 dollars and depositing the money into a savings account (or five dollars, depending on what you can afford).

Doing a quick search will likely turn up programmes that will do this for you automatically; however, these apps usually have a subscription fee, which is why I choose to do mine manually every week as I eat breakfast.

I used to make a habit of going through my bank accounts after making a list of what I needed and "rounding up" each expense (save for direct debits; this included food, drink, and discretionary items like apparel).

The only real negative was the time commitment; I needed about one hour to plan for my weekly groceries and calculate my "round up." Still, the plan worked.

Simply by rounding up, I was able to put aside $319 at the end of the month. More importantly, I discovered during this trial that my bank gives me free access to this feature. This "hack" is so useful that it has become second nature to me.

The second piece of advice is to create a list of everything you need before you leave the house

For the next week's dinners, I would scour the fridge and pantry for any leftovers. Also, I would watch out for food that was about to pass its expiration date and throw it away.

This was another feature that jumped out to me, and not only because it enabled me to recreate meals without having to buy ten new ingredients but also because it helped me drastically reduce the amount of trash I made.

As I was making my shopping list, I often looked through the online catalogues of many supermarkets to compare prices and selection.

Based on what I already had and what was on sale, I planned my meals and snacks for the next week (more on that later).

I also started purchasing store-brand equivalents to name-brand items, which were usually much cheaper (and still comparable in quality).

Using these three methods, I was able to cut my weekly food expenditures in half, from $188 to $90.21 in the first week of the experiment. After giving it some thought, I settled on a total of $90 as my food budget for the following three weeks.

The third piece of advice is to find creative ways to stretch a small number of staple foods into a variety of meals.

In addition, I tried to include a wide variety of staples, such as rice, bread, and pasta, in my cooking. Because I seldom eat red meat, I like to stock up on canned goods like tuna when they're on sale or when they're staples in my cupboard.

New study from Deakin University suggests that cutting down on meat consumption might save the average household up to $1,800 annually. I realized that certain fresh foods may be rather pricey, so I stocked up on in-season vegetables, either frozen or tinned.

If you have a well-stocked pantry, you may "spider-web" your ingredients, to use a term created by Emma Edwards. Making many dishes from a single ingredient is what this term alludes to. This meant I simply needed to go out and get a few more items to whip up another tasty meal.

For minor cleaning, I produced several homemade cleaners with things like baking soda and vinegar, and they were just as effective as commercial cleaners but cost me $5 to $10 less. Thanks to this, I was able to get more use out of the food in my cupboard than ever before.

That's the definition of getting your money's worth! This allowed me to stick to my food budget, with the exception of the second week, when I blew over $108 since I had run out of staples and needed to restock.

Fourthly, if you want to save money on food, you may try cooking at home

The first week of meal prepping went well, but by the second week, my enthusiasm had dwindled since I was bored with the same old dishes. When that occurred, the want for takeaway food intensified.

Using the first week's spending as a benchmark, my weekly allowance for eating out was $80.

After some thought, I decided that if I cooked all of my own meals during the week, it would be much simpler to stick to my budget, and it would also give me more leeway to spend "freely" on the weekends.

In light of the fact that soft beans and cabbage lose part of their flavor after being stored in the refrigerator, I have reduced the frequency with which I cook in favor of making fresh, single-serving meals like salads and stir-fries.

In spite of my best efforts, things don't always work out the way I want them to, and that's one of the most valuable lessons I've learned.

When fresh food was scarce due to floods, I had to improvise a shopping list.

As another example, there was the birthday celebration I went to in the last week of the trial that sent me over budget. While I did my best to stay on track, it was challenging to do so given that I was eager to keep having fun without excessively worrying about money.

After making that splurge, I resolved to be more frugal with my weekly food shopping and ended up spending just $90.09!

You don't have to put up with a boring line of containers stocked with boring old meat and veggies when it comes to dinner preparation.

Having a variety of alternatives to pick from and being able to prepare items that I enjoy ordering at restaurants like burgers, pizza, and pasta helped me avoid some of that temptation throughout the week, and even helped me save money on the weekend.

Compare prices at many different stores to get the greatest offer

Before doing this study, I had assumed that all retailers selling a certain brand of groceries would provide those products at the same price. No, I was totally incorrect.

I began to browse around in an effort to find better deals, and was able to do so for some items (like coconut milk) by doing so.

After visiting a second shop (still within 5 km of my house), I discovered the identical product (not near its expiry date and with unbroken packaging) for $2.10. The regular price at my grocery was $2.35, but I was able to get it elsewhere for $2.10.

It may not seem like much, but if you're paying a little more for a lot of items every week, the extra money adds up quickly.

Depending on the business and the time of day, when you do your shopping might also make a difference.

As part of the study, I switched between going food shopping in the evening and first thing in the morning. So, I stocked up on fresh meat at steep discounts (around 50% off) and tucked it away in the freezer for later use.

Is it realistic to implement these tips for saving money over time?

I spent $373 on food during the month (about $93 per week, down from $188) and $428 on dining out (around $107 per week, down from $155.25 per week, or $621 overall).

By cutting down on my grocery and restaurant bills, I was able to put away $572 over the course of a year. The 'round-up' savings add up to $891; spread out over a year, that's nearly $10,000 in your pocket.

If this kind of budgeting can be sustained over time, however, is the true question

My weekly grocery run took me around three hours, including making a list, figuring out my total, and driving to each store. Adding in the time spent cooking in the evening, it's easy to see how this might take up almost a full day.

The amount of money in my bank account improved dramatically after following these tips, but I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure how long I can keep it up.

I plan to maintain my participation in some pursuits.

For me, reducing trash has been one of the most significant and satisfying components of this effort, and the round-up method is only one piece of advice that has survived.

Also, I've found that setting aside a certain amount of money every week to pay for food and restaurants has helped me avoid wasteful spending.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that, despite the fact that the cost of food has grown, I have not yet reached the point where I spend as much on groceries as I did previously.