7 Grocery Shopping Mistakes That Cause You To Overspend

If you’ve been experiencing sticker shock at the grocery store checkout counter, it’s not necessarily because you’re adding more to your cart than usual. The entire country is confronted with the rising cost of groceries , which is only expected to continue. It really makes you think about just how badly you want those avocados , right?

Though you can’t do anything about inflation, you can slash your grocery spending by making a few changes to the way you shop — while still enjoying your favorite meals and not going hungry. The secret is shopping smarter.

Experts who have mastered food shopping for cheap know the biggest pitfalls that trap people into overspending. Want to avoid them? Here are seven grocery mistakes to keep in mind the next time you do your weekly food haul.

1. Not Knowing How Much You’re Currently Spending On Food

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