Grocery Shopping on a Budget: The Best Places to Buy Cheap Food in Las Vegas
Living on a budget in Las Vegas can seem incredibly challenging, but one of the easiest ways to maximize your budget is through grocery shopping. By shopping at one or more of several particular chains throughout the Las Vegas area, you may find that stretching your budget really isn’t so difficult after all!
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Best Stores to Buy Cheap Food in Las Vegas
Discover rock-bottom prices at these stores and their efforts to make discount grocery shopping available to all Las Vegans.
Grocery Stores
Smart & Final
At Smart & Final, locals can get the products and quality they’re looking for at bargain prices. Smart & Final stores operate at a number of locations around Las Vegas. They also offer delivery services through Instacart and Doordash, and curbside pickup services through their app.
99 Cents Only Stores
99 Cents Only stores offer a huge selection of goods, from fresh produce to home essentials to pet supplies and more at bargain prices. With 13 locations sprinkled throughout the city, residents can enjoy low prices on everything from beer & wine to snacks to beauty products and beyond! 99 Cents Only stores also offer delivery through Instacart and a huge variety of sales and discounts on their already low prices via email.
Dollar General
Dollar General operates eight stores throughout the Las Vegas area, with weekly ads, coupons, and various other deals to sweeten the pot. With deals on everything from seasonal items to health & beauty items to cleaning, school supplies, and much, much more, Dollar General may become the one-stop shop you’ve been waiting for. You can add deals to your digital account on the website or search the weekly ad to find hundreds of specials and discount prices.
Walmart Neighborhood Market
Walmart has long been synonymous with great deals, and you’ll find amazing bargains and great deals at any of the 10 Walmart Neighborhood Markets scattered around Las Vegas. You can find nearly anything you might want or need at Walmart Neighborhood Market, and even more deals and discounts are available through the app or delivered to your Walmart account.
WinCo Foods
WinCo Foods is a majority employee-owned, Idaho-based grocery chain with a reputation for better prices than CostCo (and no membership fee)! WinCo accommodates online ordering, creates its own generic grocery brand and specializes in fresh foods including meat, seafood and produce. Its two locations in Las Vegas are readily accessible and just waiting for Las Vegans to stop by for any and all of their grocery needs. They also have Smart Shopper Tips built into their website that give you the biggest bang for your buck at their stores, as well as delicious recipes, digital coupons, and regular in-store events designed to help you maximize your savings.
Specialty Stores
You may be thinking, well, this is great for grocery stores, but what about specialty shops? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered there, too.
Seafood City Supermarket
With four locations in Las Vegas and Henderson, Seafood City Supermarket offers in-store, online, and delivery services from their stores. Seafood City caters mainly to the Filipino and Asian market, or anyone who loves to cook Filipino and Asian foods. Seafood City Supermarkets are designed to wow and inspire you in your grocery shopping and cooking.
99 Ranch Market
99 Ranch Markets was originally founded by Taiwanese immigrant Roger H. Chen to maximize the offerings of Asian foods in the United States. To date, it is the largest Asian supermarket chain, and its two locations in Las Vegas -in Chinatown Plaza and Boulevard Mall- are well-known for its immense stock of imported specialty foods as well as meat, seafood, produce and bakery items.
Additionally, 99 Ranch Market offers a wide variety of pickup services (both same-day and next-day) and delivery services through Instacart, Postmates and numerous other delivery apps. 99 Ranch Market also offers weekly ads, in-store ads and easy shopping through their own app.
La Bonita Supermarkets
La Bonita Supermarkets caters to the Hispanic population, offering premium deals on meat, seafood, produce and more. They also offer digital deals and coupons, weekly ads, and in-store specials to entice their customers and grow their following. La Bonita offers seven locations for shopping in Las Vegas , and encourages shoppers to save BIG by using their mobile app for coupons and savings.
More Tips and Tricks For Saving Money On Groceries
Where you shop isn’t always the key when it comes to getting groceries on the cheap. Here are a number of other tips and tricks to help you save cash:
Meal Planning and Budgeting
You can stay ahead of the curve by meal planning and budgeting. Food budgeting can help you determine how you’ll spend the money for each meal, even each person, and helps you to cut down on food waste by only buying what you need. The USDA has a helpful meal planning and food budgeting guide here, and touts meal planning as one of the best ways to save money and eat healthy meals.
How to Meal Plan in 1, 2, 3
#1 An easy way to get started with meal planning is to map out your meals for the next week. Don’t forget things like snacks and beverages, spices and condiments! Use this plan to write down everything you need for each meal. Go through and cross off what you already have later.
#2 Make the most of each dish you prepare by eating it multiple times throughout the week. Make sure you take into account how much time each meal is going to take to prepare. Here are some extra tips on planning your weekly meals.
# 3 With your meal plan and grocery list in hand, you can set a budget for the grocery store and make sure you get everything that you need. Make sure that you don’t go shopping hungry – go after a snack or a light meal so that you don’t end up impulse-buying a bunch of items you don’t need.
Digital Deals, Coupons, & Ads
You may have noticed that we highlighted where grocery stores above have digital deals, coupons, and weekly or other ads. You can find huge savings by combining these to save hundreds or more monthly on your grocery budget.
Sign Up
Most stores have their own apps, and you can sign up for coupons to be mailed to you. They are generally linked to what you buy with your membership card. Many stores have cards that are linked to your phone number, so all you need to do when you check out is input your phone number to get all of the deals.
Use Digital Coupons
Digital coupons are the ones you’ll find in the store’s app.You can “clip” them and they will be electronically added to your membership card. When you swipe your card or input your phone number, they will apply to any of those items you clipped coupons for.
E-coupons and apps
Aside from those available through the store’s app, you can find exceptional savings online. RetailMeNot, BeFrugal, Coupons.com, and Ibotta are all easy-to-use apps that can help you find tons of savings. There are even blogs that list the best coupon sites, like CleverGirlFinance. Some of these coupons will require a printer, but many do not.
Buy In Bulk
Buying staples like rice, beans, nuts, and the like in bulk means big savings, and you get to customize your recipes any way you’d like. Tired of spending $3 or more for that little box of rice pilaf that you like so much? Buy its ingredients in bulk and throw it together on your own, with your own spices, anytime you’d like. You can find loads of nuts, dried fruit, all different kinds of beans, nuts, split peas, and sometimes even honey, as well as peanut or almond butter, by shopping in bulk.
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Las Vegas can be an expensive place to eat, play, and live, but if you’re working with a tight grocery budget, it can seem even more so. Get the most out of every last cent by shopping in discount marketplaces for your groceries, and then max it out even more by employing meal planning and budgeting, digital coupons, paper coupons, the in-store weekly sales, and buying in bulk to stretch out every last penny.
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