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Do you want to do all you can to cut your grocery bill? Would you like to have a few more tricks up your sleeve for saving on groceries? If so, here are five quick reminders to help you get out of the grocery store with more food while spending less money:

1. Go it Alone. 
This one may be difficult to do, but if you can leave your kids and spouse at home, you'll probably find grocery shopping easier and less expensive. Each additional person on the shopping trip increases the temptation to buy on impulse.

2. Love those Loss Leaders. 
Loss leaders are those very good deals that grocery stores offer in order to get you in the door. They are usually found on the front and back pages of the sales circulars. Some of the biggest grocery savings can be found by shopping for only the loss leaders at three or four different stores in your neighborhood. Buy the best sale items from each store and then buy the rest of what you need from whichever store seems to have the best prices in general.

3. Plan Your Menu Around What's on Sale.
Speaking of loss leaders, another saving strategy is to plan your menus around what's on sale. For example, if your local grocery has chicken parts at 29 cents a pound, stock up. Plan to use the chicken for a variety of meals such as chicken spaghetti, chicken on the grill, fried chicken, chicken soup, etc. If the same store also has potatoes at a good price, you can use them to go along with your chicken by making mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, potatoes cooked on the grill, and by adding them to your soup.

4. Be a Savvy Coupon User. 
It's fun to get things for pennies on the dollar by using coupons, but you have to be very careful to use coupons wisely. Most coupons are for convenience foods that can be made cheaper from scratch. Only use a coupon when the item is something you really need and when using the coupon makes the national brand cheaper than the generic equivalent. Also remember that there are costs involved in couponing: the price of the Sunday paper, the time it takes to clip and organize. Make sure that these costs don't exceed what you really save by using coupons.

5. What's in a (Brand) Name? 
If by some chance you haven't gotten into generics yet, what are you waiting for? Rumor has it that most generics are actually made at the same factories as name brand products. In the rare case that you aren't satisfied with the generic equivalent after one serving/use, you can most likely take it back to the store and ask to exchange it. Many store brands actually have their satisfaction guarantee printed right on the package.

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