First, Plan.

Planning makes perfect, this adage holds true for grocery shopping as well. If you fit into the trend of the average American family, and throw away 14% of what you buy, you could cut your grocery bill by 14% simply by better planning out your shopping so to not have excess. You want to do your best to plan menus that require you to use every food item you buy. You will use it if you already know how you plan to use it. For example, on Monday night you could make tacos, then use the leftover taco meet and condiments for a taco soup that you serve on Thursday or Friday. Make a pot roast and Tuesday, and use leftover meat to make enchiladas, or poor BBQ sauce on it and make shredded beef sandwiches. Plan your meals so ingredients overlap, and have one day be a leftover day so that you do not throw out perfectly good food.

Sometimes when you buy food it is less expensive to buy larger portions. For example, the 16 oz can may cost only a few cents more than the 12oz can. If you can, make larger meals, and freeze portions of it to serve at a later date. Of course this needs to go along with planning. If you plan ahead, and cook and buy in bulk you can always have meals ready to eat, and spend far less on groceries. For example, you could cook meals three weeks of the month, and on week four, eat freezer meals made from excess portions of meals you ate earlier in the month. Instead of throwing that serving of potatoes away, you can package it up and freeze it, and serve it later.

Next, be conscious of what you are paying for.

One of the best ways to cut your grocery costs is to not overpay for premade, packaged meals. At the store you can often find chicken breasts for 2.99 a pound. On the same aisle you can get premarinated chicken breast for 3.49 a pound. If you buy enough for a family of four, you may end up paying $2.00 to have someone else marinate your chicken breasts for you. Is it worth it to pay that premium on shortcut foods? You can buy a head of lettuce for about $1, but to buy a bag of precut and washed lettuce is usually closer to $4. Would you really pay someone $3 to wash and chop lettuce for you? So, recognize when you are paying for product versus work, and quit paying for work when you do not need to. This can really help you save.

Next, to cut your grocery bill, have a use what you have night.

If you really want to cut back on grocery expenses, take one night a week and just use the odds and ends of what you have in the fridge to make a meal. If you have one banana, half a cup of OJ left, a few lonely strawberries, etc. make a smoothie. If you have a third of a carrot, half a zucchini, a handful of this, half a chicken breast, etc. make a stir fry. If your odds and ends foods are really different, consider making a great pasta dish. You can combine vegetables, meats, cheeses, dairy, etc. to create a great casserole or pasta, and it is far less expensive then tossing those odds and ends and buying food for a meal. You may want to consider investing a little in a cook book that focuses on using what you have, as when times are tight, buying specialty items, or excess food is just not realistic.

Next, make lists for shopping

While everyone knows this, not as many people do it as they should. This is why you can go to the grocery store, spend $100, and still have nothing in the house for dinner. Instead of heading to the store to shop haphazardly, plan a few meals, and keep a running list of things you are out of so that you can pick it all up in one trip, and always know what you have and how to use it. A lot of people will be at the store and think, "We are low on cheese." So they buy a big bag, stick it in the fridge, and never plan a meal that uses it, so they end up using a little here and there, and tossing the majority of it out when it molds. This happens with lots of foods. So, make a list, reduce waste, and make fewer trips to the store, which inevitably helps you save. If you go to the store and get everything you need except dishwasher detergent, what makes you think you can go to the store again and only get dishwasher detergent? Chances are you will buy other things too, and up your grocery bill. So, making a list means getting what you need, and not forgetting stuff, so you make fewer trips to the store, inevitably spending far less.

Shop online.

A lot of people shrug away from shopping online for groceries because of delivery charges, but guess what, for many of us it results in less spending, cheaper groceries, and saved time. When you shop online you naturally plan better because instead of emotional shopping based on smells, and seeing foods, you buy staples and items you need for specific meals. This means that instead of tossing out tons of expired, over ripe, and composting foods, you get what you need when you need it, and it takes you hardly any time at all. Usually online grocers will have your typical purchase on file, so you can simply pull up your normal shopping items, and add anything special or extra. It is easier to plan for your expenses, and even with delivery charges may end up costing you less.

Use the Internet for research.

There are tons of websites dedicated to helping you save money on groceries. One great example is the Grocery Game. This is a Web site that provides you with a weekly list of products on sale at your local supermarket, cross-referenced with the coupons in your Sunday circulars so you can find the cheapest priced items. This site does all your research for you, tells you when to stock up, and when not to. Most stores have their items divided into 15 sections, and each week two of those sections are put on sale. This site helps you see what two are on sale, and how to take advantage of it so you never have to pay full price for anything. Many sites are free, others require subscriptions, and when times are tight, and finances are strained, a lot of people are wary of paying a subscription. However, a subscription is $10 for eight weeks, but you can get a four-week trial for just a dollar at thegrocerygame.com. This can translate into a lot of savings. It is possible to figure this out yourself, but if paying a subscription ensures that you do, it would probably be worth it, no matter how tight your finances are.

Stock up.

When times are tough and your grocery bills are high, it is hard to justify stocking up on items, but seasoned shoppers know that if you buy items when they are their cheapest, even if it makes a little strain on your budget, it means significant savings. For example, if you buy BBQ sauce in the summer at 99 cents a bottle, when you need it in the winter and it is $3.49, you can feel good about buying extra when you had tight finances. You do not need to overstock up, but if something is at a great low price, and you know you will use it, buy one or two extras.

Plan shopping trips for when your time is limited.

If you really want to save money and reduce your grocery costs to make it easier to get through tough times, it is important that you do not spend too long in the store. Stores employ marketing experts to make things tempting, sales attractive, and "deals" too good to pass up. Research has shown that the longer you are in the store, the more you are likely to spend, whether you need it or not. So, familiarize yourself with the layout of the store, and plan your list so that you can start on one end of the store, and end on the other without going back and forth, and so you can get in and out fast. If you have somewhere you have to be, and your time is limited, you are less likely to browse, and thus less likely to temptation shop, reducing your overall grocery spending.

Try store brands

If you are going to use items inside of a recipe, the brand won't matter as much, so try the cheaper brands. For example, if you are making cookies, buying generic butter, versus the expensive kind is hardly going to matter. However, for on top of your toast, brand might matter more. So, consider when buying items if you will notice a quality difference enough to buy a more expensive brand. It is not likely you will notice differences in frozen vegetables, pastas, etc. And, the savings are often substantial. For example, a 14-ounce package of the store-brand broccoli is 44% cheaper than the brand name. Of course, some store-label products make better deals than others, and some are not really a deal, so look into it first.

Use coupons.

You do not have to be cheap to use coupons, but they can significantly reduce your overall grocery bill. Take a few minutes to go through the Sunday paper, or to look online for coupons. Ten minutes can mean savings of $50 a month on groceries. There are coupons for things you buy, like cereal, mayo, tomato sauce, etc. And if you learn how to best combine coupons with sales, you can often buy grocery items for deep discounts. There are lots of websites dedicated to helping you to do this, some subscription based, some not. If times are tough, and finances tight, it is worth your time to look into these.