If you want to reduce your food costs, the first step is to figure out how much you’re currently spending, family budgeting expert Rob Bertman told HuffPost.
“Sometimes, people will pick an amount out of thin air that they want their grocery budget to be, but that can be challenging to stick to if you don’t know how much you’re currently spending,” he said.
For example, Bertman said if your goal is to spend $400 a month on groceries, and you guess that you’re typically spending $600 when you’re actually spending $1,000, your budget is unlikely to stick and could require some bigger changes.
Once you know how much you’re currently spending (by keeping the receipts from your grocery trips in the past month), Bertman said the next step is to think about the choices you can make to reduce that amount. Instead of trying to drastically cut your spending all at once, Bertman recommends making small, incremental changes — similar to how someone with a goal of eating healthier may find longer-lasting success by focusing on little adjustments at first, rather than suddenly adopting a super restrictive diet. This is where knowing some other common shopping mistakes can come in handy.