How to Save $760 on Groceries in No Time

The average American household spends over $4,000 per year on groceries. As a result, saving even a small percent on groceries can add up. That said, many cost-savings tactics—like clipping coupons—often aren’t worth the time. The question is: how can one save the most money on groceries in the least amount of time?

In this two-part series of posts, I’ll share 5 ways to quickly save on groceries. Today I want to share my #1 recommendation:

Don’t Go Grocery Shopping

If you live in a Walmart Grocery delivery area, you can purchase your groceries online and either pick them up or have them delivered to you. Amazon offers a similar delivery service, AmazonFresh, for Amazon Prime members in many urban markets where there may not be a Walmart.

I’ll focus on Walmart Grocery as my wife and I have been having Walmart deliver groceries to us since our twins were born about two years ago. We have found that Walmart Grocery provides substantial savings in terms of both time and money.

Walmart Grocery Saves Money, Perhaps 19%

I recently recorded the prices of a random assortment of products sold at my nearest chain grocery store. I then looked up the prices for identical products online at Walmart Grocery. Here’s the comparison:

As you can see, Walmart’s prices were a whopping 19% lower, on average. Saving 19% on $4,000 of groceries per year works out to a savings of $760/year. Many families may spend considerably more than $4,000/year on groceries, making that 19% savings even more significant.

You can order the groceries for free pickup. Alternatively, you can pay to have them delivered.

In my area, at least, it costs $7-10 to have the groceries delivered, depending on the chosen time of day. Taking into account the delivery price, having Walmart deliver groceries every other week would save you $500-575 (12.5-14.5%) per year on groceries. Having Walmart deliver even as often as every week would still save $240-400 (6-10%) per year on those $4,000 of groceries.

Walmart Grocery Saves Time

And that’s to say nothing of the time and hassle savings.

For Sarah and me, what used to take an hour or more and require a lot of getting kids in and out of the car is now done from our iPhones. Whenever a product gets low at home, we just add it to the Walmart Grocery app. When enough products are in our cart, we check out.

95% of the time, we have Walmart deliver the groceries to us rather than pick them up. The times when we pick them up for free are usually when we will be at or near a Walmart anyway.

You can calculate whether it is a better value to pick up the groceries or have them delivered based on the monetary value of your time.

As an example, if it takes 30 minutes to save a $7 delivery fee, you are saving the equivalent of $14/hour. That is only a good deal if you earn less than about $28,000/year. If it only takes you 10 minutes to save that $7 delivery fee, that is a savings rate of $42/hour. That is a good deal if you make less than about $84,000/year.

Quality

For those wondering about the quality of hand-picked items like produce, you should know that the Walmart Grocery pickers claim to select the very best looking items. We’ve certainly been completely happy with what we’ve received.

Final Thoughts

I highly recommend Walmart Grocery for saving time and money on groceries. If you sign up using my Walmart Grocery referral link, you and I will each receive a $10 promo code.

While I recommend Walmart Grocery, you may not have a Walmart nearby. Or you may have other good reasons for shopping in your local grocery store.

In my next post I’ll share 4 ways to save money quickly while grocery shopping in your local store.

Question: Have you ever had groceries delivered? How was your experience? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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