Want to save money at the grocery store? Use an app, compare brands and come with a plan.

As grocery prices continue to skyrocket, shopping with some strategy can save you money each time you make a grocery run — adding up to substantial savings over the week, month and year. Let’s talk about ways to cut grocery costs before you shop, while you shop and even after you shop.

The best and most efficient way to approach grocery shopping is with a plan. If you like structure and organization, you will enjoy this process. Going to the grocery store can be sheer madness, unless there is a method behind it.

Before you start thinking about what you need to purchase, check what you already have in stock at home. When you open your freezer or pantry, you might find packs of frozen vegetables or canned black beans that you can use to make a soup. Challenge yourself to get creative with ingredients that you currently have on hand.

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From here, map out what you plan to eat for the week. Are you planning to make a big meal for family or roommates a few nights a week? Meal prep your lunches to pack for work? Or would you like to keep it simpler, with salads for dinner? After assessing what you have at home compared to what sounds appealing, you’ll have a much better idea of what you actually need at the store.

Next, make a list. I find that my grocery errands are 100 percent more efficient when I take the small amount of time needed — less than five minutes — to sort out what to purchase. Make this a consistent step in your grocery shopping routine.

Writing out a physical list can also help with budgeting. If you’re allotting a certain amount of money to your groceries each week, this will give you a good idea if you’re within range. Using an app to order your groceries can be another helpful tool that will encourage you to stick to your budget. By using an app, you can take your time to compare prices of various brands, instead of getting flustered in the aisle and making an impulsive decision. You could also consider ordering curbside pickup, which requires you to order groceries via an app. Additionally, this helps minimize distractions in the store, so you can stick to your list.

Since you’ve been thoughtful enough to make a grocery list, stick to it. It’s very easy to walk into the grocery store with a plan, become enticed by new items or flavors not on your list, and walk out $20 over budget. Stay strong! Don’t stray! Furthermore, try not to shop when you’re hungry. Head into the store after eating breakfast or a snack. If you shop when hungry, anything and everything sounds delicious and necessary.

Some consumer analysts recommend staying away from the store on the weekends, opting instead to shop midweek, when supermarkets restock their shelves and lower the prices on items that did not sell the previous week. Of course, you would not want to purchase perishable items like produce that are close to expiration. But such sales could be helpful for nonperishable items such as grains, dried fruit or dried beans. Perishable items should be purchased whole, fresh or frozen, and in smaller quantities, while nonperishable items can be bought in bulk, leading to savings.

Don’t be afraid to buy generic brands instead of name brands. Consumer Reports argues that you can save an average of 25 percent by opting for the generic over the name brand, without sacrificing taste.

Another way to save when shopping is by being strategic about what protein sources you’re using. Buying fresh cuts of meat and seafood can rack up your grocery bill quickly. Consider other protein sources — both animal and plant based — like eggs, canned beans, tuna or lentils. When using canned beans or vegetables, drain the liquid from the can, then rinse the food under water before cooking or consuming to minimize additional salt.

An additional consideration is ready-prepared meals. Many grocery stores conveniently sell well-balanced meals that have already been cooked and simply need to be reheated. While these are certainly handy, ready-prepared meals will add a substantial amount of money to your bill. If you’re short on meal prep time and can afford to add some of these to your grocery cart, that’s great, they work very well for many people. But there are many ways to efficiently prepare a quick, healthy dinner and spend much less.

Now that you’re back from the store and unpacked, pick a day or time to prepare some ingredients or even full meals to save for later. Chop your vegetables, roast them and store them in the fridge; or better yet, freeze them. Cooking and then storing food in the freezer over the fridge allows you to save your ingredients or meal longer. It also gives you more freedom to decide what you want to eat and when, rather than having to eat what’s in the fridge within the next two to three days.

You could cook entire meals and freeze them, such as making breakfast sandwiches in bulk on a Sunday, wrapping them in foil, storing them in the freezer and heating them up each morning before work. Because freezing food is so efficient, there are a ton of cookbooks and online resources out there with recipes for freezer meals.

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Utilizing leftovers is another helpful way to save. Use all the items that you bought and extend your meal from dinner to lunch. Pro tip: When you’re planning your meals for the week, consider if, when and where you plan to eat out. Most restaurant portion sizes are Texas-size, so it’s best to split your meal in half, then save the rest for lunch. If planned ahead of time, this will help you save even more money at the grocery store.

You do not have to sacrifice eating healthy or buying tasty foods at the expense of spending less. By shopping strategically and resourcefully, you can have the best of both worlds.

Emma Willingham is a registered dietitian who practices in an outpatient hospital clinic and through her private practice, Fuel with Emma. You can find her on social media at @fuelwithemma.

Emma Willingham is a Registered Dietitian who practices in an outpatient hospital clinic and through her private practice, Fuel with Emma. In her column, "Fuel Up," Willingham writes about all aspects of nutrition. She specializes in sports performance nutrition, weight management and nutrition counseling, and aims to promote a resilient relationship between food, mind and body.

By Robert Downen and John Tedesco