Looking to save at the grocery store? Local expert shares her secrets

For at least a decade, Sylvia Selgestad has been sharing her secrets to budget-conscious grocery shopping as a financial counselor and educator at the LSS Center for Financial Resources.

But her experience stretching her food spending started much earlier than that.

Her first job was at a grocery store — Sunshine Foods in Yankton — where she started as a cashier while still in high school.

“So I always paid attention. We had to know what was on sale,” she said. “And my mom was a single mom, and money was tighter. She said: ‘You work there. You take care of the groceries.'”

Selgestad would make a list, her mom would review it, “and I’d go with a handful of coupons,” she said. “It was part of how I’d help my mom as a teenager.”

Now, she acknowledges, “groceries have definitely become a challenge for people.”

While she offers classes on the subject originally designed for those on a fixed income, the interest has broadened in scope, she said.

“In the long run, it’s going to save you time and money, and once you get in the habit, it gets easier.”

Here are a few of her tips for making the most of your grocery budget.

Start with what you’ve got

Before you even go to the grocery store, Selgestad suggests taking inventory of what’s already at home.

“A lot of times, we go to the store and forget we’ve got all this stuff in the cupboard, where you may just need one more thing to pull something together,” she said. “Many people tend to stockpile a little bit and forget about the can of whatever in the back of the cupboard.”

Same with the fridge: “Clean it out before you go to the store. What needs to be used up? Is a vegetable going bad, or has it wilted and you need to make soup out of it? Always keep an idea of what you have on hand and supplement that rather than starting from scratch every dish.”

From there, look at what’s on sale and make a list.

“The list helps us stay focused,” Selgestad said. “I use a phone app to make my list, looking through the sale ad. Try to come up with a week to a week and a half worth of meal plans.”

Don’t sleep on deals

The days of clipping paper coupons likely have passed in many cases, but digital replacements are still a good option to stack up savings.

“Most grocery store apps have coupons available,” Selgestad said. “You just load those into your profile, and they’re available for use. And there are websites like coupons.com where you can search for coupons and download and print.”

If the item you want is on sale and not available in the store anymore, ask for a rain check, “which means you’ll get the sale price when it comes in.”

Not seeing savings on what you’d like to buy? It never hurts to contact the manufacturer, Selgestad suggests.

“Send an email and say you like the products, can you send me some coupons?”

At the same time, “don’t buy something or use a coupon just because it’s on sale,” she added. “Sometimes we think it’s a good price, and it languishes on the shelf at home.”

Understand store strategies

The layout of many grocery stores isn’t exactly designed to help you focus on sticking to your list, Selgestad said.

“They put the necessities toward the back so you’ll walk through the store,” she said, adding that where she shops, “to get to the milk and eggs,  you walk through the seasonal candy aisle unless you take the wrong way.”

Everything the retailer hopes people will buy “is at eye level,” she continued.

“If you’re looking for a larger quantity that might be cheaper per ounce or a smaller amount, look up and down. The end caps are going to be the things they want you to buy, and sometimes those are sale items, and sometimes they’re not.”

Don’t pass on private labels

It depends on the product, but often non-name brand or private-label products can save you money without skimping on quality.

“I encourage people to try them and see if you like them,” Selgestad said. “Peanut butter we’re pretty sure is the same manufacturer, just a different label. Lots of soup is. Pasta is essentially pasta. You just have to give it a shot and see if it’s good.”

She also suggests starting with something less expensive such as macaroni and cheese or even ramen noodles and adding to it with proteins and vegetables.

Know the difference in dating

Dates printed on food can be confusing and lead to unnecessary discarding if you don’t know what they mean.

If an item has a “best by” date, “it’s at its best quality by that point, but it’s still safe to eat,” Selgestad said. “Canned goods can be good a long time after the best-by date, and you decide your own comfort level with those dates.”

She’s “pretty comfortable using a can of soup six months past the best-by date,” she added. “But you can always open it, and if it doesn’t look or smell right, then throw it away.”

Expiration dates “are more of a hard line,” she added. “That’s fresher things that could really expire, that aren’t in cans necessarily.”

And “sell by” dates “is a date they want it out of the store, but they allow it to be in the fridge a few days,” Selgestad said. “If I have a ‘sell by’ date of Tuesday, I probably want to use it by Friday, but use your best judgment. Does it look and smell OK? Then it’s probably fine.”

Be careful with pickup 

On one hand, reserving your groceries online for pickup outside the store can be budget-conscious: It likely prevents impulse buying.

But Selgestad warns to be mindful when placing your orders.

“Make sure you let them know if you will accept substitutions,” she said.

“It’s happened to me that they’ve been out of an item and have replaced it with a higher-cost item. So I say no substitutions, and at least at Hy-Vee, they will text me if they’re out of it, and I can make a decision if I want to substitute or not.”

Be strategic in shelving 

The tactics don’t end once you’re done at the grocery store. Selgestad suggests being mindful of how you store your groceries in the fridge, cupboard or pantry.

“Put the new stuff in the back, and pull out what you want to use to the front,” she said. “In your meal plan, pull those things forward. Even if you commit to eating out of the cupboard or freezer one or two days a week, that will help you go through your food.”