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Grocery Shopping
Grocery Shopping
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TAMU | Career > Her20s

Shop Smart – A Guide for College Students

Annika Wooten Student Contributor, Texas A&M University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TAMU chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

As the new school year starts, we all have to adjust our grocery shopping tactics in one way or another. Whether that’s due to having more or fewer roommates, or just because we got used to being with our family for the summer, we all need a bit of help at the beginning of the year with being efficient in the grocery store. That’s why I’m sharing this as the ultimate guide to the best grocery shopping strategy, based on my personal experience as someone who (hopefully) has my grocery shopping down. 

Step 1: Find the best grocery store

Whether it’s shopping at Whole Foods, HEB, Kroger, or Costco, the first step is to find the one with the best price options and the least crowds. This strategic move, picking a store a little further away from campus, not only ensures better stock but also minimizes the chaos of hundreds of college students all trying to find the cheapest option. Usually, test out the closest stores the first month or so, and if that whole experience is awful, start branching out to other stores, maybe a few miles farther.   

Step 2: Make a list in advance

Usually, when we go to the store, we have a general idea of what we need to buy, but by the end of the shopping trip, we have way more things than we originally planned on getting. This is why making a grocery list in advance helps us see exactly what we need and avoid those other “well, this looks good” items. I recommend using our phone’s notes app or texting a friend what we need to buy so it’s readily accessible. Additionally, taking a friend or two along might help us stick to the exact list, especially if the friend is good at being brutally honest about what we need and what just looks appetizing. 

Step 3: Budget out the week

Do we need to spend under a certain amount at the store? Create a budget for the necessary groceries and check that it falls within the spending limit. If it’s under, add an extra item that’s wanted, or if it’s over, try to buy things that aren’t pre-made, such as instead of buying pre-made meals, buy the ingredients for it, because usually it’s relatively cheaper in the long run, and can be used for more than just one meal. There are also budgeting apps made for this! Try an app such as Rocket Money, Spending Tracker, or Budget App. 

Step 4: Use Coupons

Coupons can be a big help when we are at the store, and they don’t have to be the paper or sign deals we see while shopping. Try downloading the app for the current store and searching for deals, or use an external couponing app like Honey or Capital One Shopping Extension. 

With all these things in mind, we will be better equipped to plan and execute our shopping trips over the next few months. And hey, eventually this might become a habit that will better prepare us for the next year of shopping. 

Annika Wooten

TAMU '28

Annika Wooten is a member of the Events committee. She helps plan and host events, study dates, socials and, of course, participates in them. Beyond Her Campus, Annika is a business major on the marketing track. She is also involved in IBA (International Business Association), which is a global business program focused on helping involve study-abroad students and educating domestic students on the benefits and possibilities of foreign education in all sorts of countries through professors' and students' experiences. She was also involved in FALL, a freshman leadership program (aka FLO), in the first semester and was part of the social committee, which helped her to become familiar with planning, hosting, and budgeting different events. In her free time, Annika enjoys cooking all sorts of dishes, painting, baking, sculpting, and doing various things with her friends, whether it be Friendsgiving, Galentines, movie nights, or so much more. Some fun facts about her include that she is a level one certified florist and loves making arrangements, that she is learning Japanese to study abroad one day, that she lived near a river, so she grew up swimming and camping, and that her dream pet is either a ferret or a bunny.