Even though I try and share money saving tips often here on One Hundred Dollars a Month I thought I would reiterate a couple of my top money-saving techniques when I hit the stores.
Next to most people’s’ housing expenses, food is one of the highest overall monthly expenditures. If you are looking for ways to save this year, here’s how I do it:
- Convenience costs. Convenience foods, on average, costs way more than foods you have to prepare yourself. Even whole food convenience costs extra. A package of pre-cut carrots will cost you a lot more pound for pound than carrots you take home to peel and cut yourself. The same applies for pre-cut fruit and pre-bagged salad. The more you cook from unprocessed whole foods, the more you’ll save.
- Make your own spice mixes. If you keep your spice cupboard stocked with the basics {check out ways to save by purchasing these in bulk}, you can make pretty much any spice mix and save tons.
- Shop top and bottom shelves. Grocery stores put all of there most expensive items at eye level. Next time you’re shopping, compare prices on the top and bottom with those on the middle shelves.
- Shop weekly and look for discounts and markdowns on expensive items such as meat. If you can menu plan on the fly, this can be a really great option. Stores will mark down perfectly good food in order to ensure they get rid of it in a timely manner.
- Shop alone. I know this is easier said than done, but if at all possible, leave the kiddos at home. It’s easier to stick to a list and avoid junk and flashy packaging when their cute little faces aren’t staring up at you.
- I’m sure you’ve heard this, but don’t shop when you’re hungry or tired. You’re more likely load up on dense carbohydrates you wouldn’t have if you had been well-rested and full.
- While it is awesome to score a deal on an in-store markdown, make sure to have a list too. It will keep you from throwing items in the cart “just in case” you were out at home, only to find you had plenty.
- Look at unit price {price per ounce, etc.}. Sometimes the “family size” isn’t a better bargain.
- Don’t be afraid of generic or store brands. Brand names come at a cost–someone has to pay the bill for advertising and packaging, and that someone is usually you.
- Don’t buy what you want, buy what’s on sale. Our weekly produce purchases center entirely around what is on sale. I comb ads, and sometimes pick up good deals on the fly. If that means we are having the same thing all week, well then, that’s what it means.
- Eat seasonally. This is right in line with #10, but eating seasonally will likely get you the best deals and the best nutrition. Grapes in January? Probably not.
- Use what you have. This is the entire reason I can. There are periods during the year that are like a produce void. Those weeks, I skip the stores entirely and pull jars from my pantry instead. Canned pears, canned green beans and frozen Zaycon chicken end up on the menu a lot. Using what you have also minimizes waste–which is like tossing money into the garbage.
- Keep 10% of your monthly grocery budget for stock-up items. If a sale hits on a staple item, you’ll have money in the budget to stock up, without dipping into your weekly allotment. Buying staples when prices are low will save you tons too.
- Clip coupons. The days of extreme couponing are over, but that doesn’t mean every penny counts. Clip those coupons if it was something you planned on buying anyway!
- Menu plan. We all know that I suck at this, but really, I think I do it more planning than I give myself credit for…I just keep most of my standard go-to meals up in my head, and plan out our week of meals as I shop the deals. I only buy what I need to make the meal. For EXTREME savings, create a standard rotating menu that you don’t deviate from. This can be 3, 5, 10 meals–whatever works for you. Shop for those ingredients and nothing else. You may want to change up the plan seasonally to accommodate the produce savings.
Any that I missed?
~Mavis
SHARE:
Lunch Lady says
Hi Mavis,
I have one that maybe not many think of but might be worth their while. Apply for free or reduced lunch at school. Not all will qualify but you won’t know unless you apply. If you can get you school aged child to eat at school do it! The meals are varied and pretty healthy. Grapes in January Yes! the school has them. With federal guidelines of whole grains, reduced sodium, low fat milk, the kids can fill up on all the fruits and vegetables they can hold. Even the salad dressings are low-fat. If your kids are not too keen on school lunch, have lunch with them a few times. See what school lunch is all about help them make good choices. School lunch has gotten a bad rap over the years but now days the items are varied and delicious. These are your tax dollars at work, use them!
Lunch Lady says
Forgot to add: Breakfast is included in the free lunch program too!
Tejas Prairie Hen says
With 5 kids, it was impossible for us to buy the school lunches,but we were always just above the income limit. Day after day, year after long year, our kids took peanut butter sandwiches on homemade bread. They couldn’t understand why “all the other kids” (who were on food stamps) got steak and our whole family split one pound of hamburger.
KC says
This is perhaps half cooking, half grocery shopping, but avoid buying expensive single-recipe many-serving things for a mystery recipe, even if it sounds good – if you don’t usually use smoked hungarian paprika, then don’t go for an untested recipe that’ll require you to buy a whole fancy spice canister of it. If you’ve got a store with bulk-bin spices, that can be a great way to test new recipes/spices. Asking friends if they’ve got cloves or cumin or whatever can also be a good option. I loved trading spices with friends when we lived nearby – there are just some spices that no individual family is likely to go through a whole bottle of within a reasonable amount of time (ground cloves, for instance, where almost all recipes use 1/4 tsp max!), so trading off is great.
Also with spices: find the cheapo spices. Many stores have super-expensive tiny glass bottles of spices in one section (typically the baking section?), then many of the same spices for much lower cost per unit (and often much more recent vintage) in various parts of the international foods section, plus some stores (and, oddly, drug stores) often have a cheapo rack of spices somewhere random that are closer to $1 each for larger plastic bottles (they’re not gourmet, but they work fine for almost everything).
And, when grocery shopping for a specific recipe, compare alternatives where you can – with recipes you’re familiar enough with, you’ll get to know where you can flex things (using frozen broccoli instead of fresh, or using one large can of tomatoes instead of two smaller cans, or swapping in a different kind of topping on a casserole). There are definitely limits to how far any given recipe can stretch, and there are sometimes unexpected side effects to swapping things out (canned diced tomatoes remain firmer when cooked than canned whole tomatoes that you’ve chopped up yourself, for instance) but slavish adherence to ingredient lists, especially for recipes that specify high-cost brands, can be a budget-buster.
Susan says
To add to KC — I’ve become a big fan of frozen vegetables for convenience, affordability and minimizing produce waste. For instance, I can buy a bag of frozen sliced red and green peppers for .99. That’s probably equivalent to 2 peppers, so a nice savings and oh-so-convenient. I chop them roughly to use them in soups, but even for fajitas and morning eggs. Same goes for cauliflower (which can be pricey fresh, and go bad quickly), green beans, broccoli, etc. I even roast frozen vegetables (like green beans) with good results. These work great in curry, soups, roasted, etc. Trader Joe’s also has some great quality, affordable frozen veggies (sliced leeks, excellent corn, peas, cauliflower rice, etc.).
Cass says
One of my biggest savings is going to a discount grocery store (Aldi’s in my case) once every 6 weeks to pick up staples and whatever else they have at greatly reduced prices (Sugar $1.69 for 4 pounds? TY, I’ll take 4) I never pay full price for sugar, flour, coffee, vanilla (the real kind), chips or hambuger. (interesting fact ground turkey is only $1.89 a pound in the freezer section of my Aldi’s….tastes just like beef in meatloaf due to spices)
Kathy Gardner says
If you only need a little of something for a recipe, sometimes you can go to the salad bar in the grocery store and it turns out to be a lot cheaper than buying the item off the shelf. I’ve seen marinated artichoke hearts at the local grocery salad bar along with all the regular items.
suzanne says
Don’t waste the fresh food you’ve worked so hard to buy. Chop it up and freeze it for cooking if need be.
Lee says
I can squeeze my grocery dollars like nobody’s business but because we have some quirky eaters in our house, we were throwing away far too much. I scoured the internet for ideas to use things up before they spoiled. Ex. leftover eggnog makes delicious pancakes and French toast. Leftover fruit salad makes an excellent sorbet. Small amounts of meat make dumplings. I am trying to think outside the box, and it’s making a difference.
Camille says
Leftover eggnog? What’s that?
Sandra says
I save carrot tops and tips, onion trimmings, celery trimmings, and parsley stems in a bag in the freezer. When I have enough chicken bones and scraps saved up I boil them with water to make broth. It’s hardly any time and is the same as free. I make all our salad dressings. They are easy to make and cost pennies compared to the bottled dressings at the store. I also grow herbs to use fresh and I dry them to store for later. I have some growing in pots on my deck that are convenient to the kitchen and I can just walk out and cut what I need for a recipe or garnish. It’s convenient and cheaper than buying fresh herbs at the market over and over again. I also agree that throwing out spoiled food is wasting time and money. If you can’t finish it, freeze it for later…..just be sure to label your packages, once frozen it is sometimes hard to recognize.