Plan your Menu's
This will save you in 2 ways
1- If you stick to the list you won't buy other things that can quickly add up
2- Think how much food we throw away... spoiled food/food that has gone bad, every time you throw food away, you are also throwing away your money. With planned meals, your produce won't spoil because you will have a plan for every item you buy
Shop the Sales
When I sit down to plan my menu out I pull the add of the store I am going to (or all grocery ads if I am going to
price match at Walmart)
I see what is on sale and try to plan meals around food that is cheap for that week
Stockpile
When there is a super good deal stock up! Some things to consider when stockpiling
1. How much can I use before it expires/ goes bad?
2. How much storage room do I have? How much can I store
Here is my EXAMPLE -
I found Beef Roasts for $1.80/lb on Manager special, it would keep in the freezer for 6 months if I do two roasts a month, I would want 12 but my freezer can only hold 8 right now. Sadly though the store only had 6 left and I took all 6 and considered myself lucky!
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/food/how-long-can-you-refrigerate-freeze-food-10000001210757/index.html
Stretch your Meat
I would never be able to convince my husband to be a vegitatian and my boys are the same, so this family is eating meat.... but meat is so expensive! I try to cut down the costs by stretching my meat, making meat a smaller part of the meal and adding other things to keep our belly's full
1. Vegtables- have side dishes of salad, potatoes, roasted veggies, and I dish a LARGE serving of sides to go with a smaller portion of meat. Vegetable that are super cheap and filling (potatoes, carrots, and celery (I chop this up fine and add it to
everything)
2. Noodles- cutting my meat up and serving it with a ton of noodles
3. Rice, Put your meat on a bed of rice, add rice to your soup, you can even add rice to hamburger paddies, sneak it in where you can to stretch your food
4. Beans-Wash them before (to keep gas at bay, yes I just said gas) beans are hearty and go great with meat
5. Bread- a slice of bread can curb hunger, and make it easier to have that smaller portion of meat and still stay full
6. I have 1 day a week that we would have a vegetarian meal, usually soup for us, but there are many creative meals that are vegetarian
* sometimes dairy can get expensive too and I stretch our dairy
1- Drink Water instead of Milk
2- Eliminate (or use less) cheese and sour cream from certain dishes
3- have apple sauce that month instead of Yogurt
* but I never elminate all of dairy, I just use the cheaper source for that week, because dairy is such an excellent source of calcium, and we LOVE our dairy
Eat Less
I am not suggesting starve, don't do that! but as American we are used to a lot of food we don't need, I decided how many calories I needed to maintain a healthy weight and tried my best to stick to it. Not only was it good for my overall health but it was nice for the pocket book as well
Bonus Tip
I don't take my husband shopping, he sneaks stuff into the cart. We all have our strengths, my husband is amazing at many things, but he realizes I am better at groceries and meal planning so he lets me do it, and tries to stay out of the grocery store :)
