I appeared on New York PIX 11 Savings Squad – How To Shrink Your Grocery Bill. The segment hosted by Kirstin Cole spoke how “the average U.S. family spends about $800 a month on groceries“.

I spend less than that because we live with my mother-in-law and she cooks twice a week, saving me two days of groceries and I don’t cook on Saturday’s, we have take out. Which still counts toward food just not in the supermarket category. For the days I do cook, I meal plan for the week and I try to save money any way I can. As I stated in the segment, I shop using store rewards cards, clipping coupons, using store apps like Cartwheel for Target, I bulk shop once a month at BJ’s for meat and other popular items for the kids and I always shop sale items.

Kirstin enlisted the help of Lynnette Khalfani Cox, the Money Coach, to teach families additional ways they can shop smarter in order to keep up to $1,000 in their bank account at the end of a four-month period.

Lynette gave these tips to help save money:

• Leave the kids at home. They are attracted to bright packaging which can be more expensive.
• Avoid the pre-cut fruit. If the store has to cut it for you then you can bet it will cost more.
• Know your seasons for fruits and vegetables so you know when and when not to buy them.
• Shop the unit price, which is the cost of one unit of measure of an item. You could be spending more for less.

Read the complete story for all of the tips in detail here and watch the segment below.

For the entire month of June, I will be tallying up how much we as a family spend on groceries and other household goods for the month and try to save a minimum of $600 by shopping using Lynette’s techniques.

Do you know how much you spend a month on your grocery bill? What are some ways that you try to save money?

Thank you, Kirstin Cole, Lynnette Khalfani Cox and the NY PIX 11 team for the opportunity to participate in the Savings Squad segment.