These grocery-shopping hacks could save your family from reckless spending

Most of us easily drop $100 at the grocery store each week, and, for parents with kids in the house, that number skyrockets to more than $160 per week.

Cutting spending at the grocery store could be one of the most important ways to save money for your family. And there’s good news on that front: You don’t have to spend hours clipping coupons to get hundreds of dollars in savings each year. Avoid these grocery-shopping mistakes, and you’ll automatically save at the store, without having to really think about it.

Hack No. 1: Buy items that are in season or buy frozen
Some fruits and vegetables, like the apples, potatoes and other items lining the produce aisles of your grocery store, seem bright and fresh, but they’re often not. A study by branding expert Martin Lindstrom found that the average apple in the grocery store was 14 months old. How can that be? Fruit is often picked and then immediately put into cold storage for months until stores need it; it’s then brought out and put on the produce shelf to look like fresh-picked produce, and priced accordingly.

To avoid this, buy what’s local and in season because those items are far less likely to have met the cold-storage fate. If you want an item that isn’t in season or local, consider buying it frozen. You’ll save a bunch by doing so.

The National Grocers Association, a national trade association of nearly 1,400 independent retail and wholesale grocers, notes that independent grocery stores “share a bond of trust with their customers and carrying a selection of fresh, high quality food items is of surpassing importance.” It adds that “independent supermarket operators are in a unique position to capitalize on this through the relationships they have with local producers in their communities.”

Estimated average savings: $50 per year.

Hack No. 2: Put the butcher to work
It may not be a surprise that it’s almost always cheaper to buy a large hunk of meat — be it a flank steak or a chuck roast — than it is to buy the item pre-cut. But here’s what many people don’t know and don’t do: Buy that large hunk of meat and then ask the butcher to cut it, grind it or de-bone it for you. The people working behind the meat counter are almost always willing to do this for you, you’re getting the same meat as if you’d bought it pre-cut, and it can save you 30% or more.

Estimated average savings: $50 per year.

Hack No. 3: Different departments may have different prices
The same item may be priced differently even within the same store at the same time, as MarketWatch has previously reported. You can’t assume you’ll pay the same price for items — especially things like nuts and cheese — on offer at the same time in the same store. For example, buying cheese in the dairy, deli or cheese specialty section can result in you paying prices that vary by up to 50%, with the specialty cheese department likely the priciest of all, followed by the deli department.

The reason: Different departments in the store have different overhead costs. The deli and specialty cheese departments have more staff to pay typically, so they may price identical items differently.