› Budget101 Discussion List Archives › Budget101 Discussion List › Frugal Shopping: Tips for Cutting Your Grocery Bill, Part I
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Frugal Shopping: Tips for Cutting Your Grocery Bill, Part I
By Kim Tilley
Here is a collection of strategies and tips for cutting your grocerybill. Some of these ideas I use religiously, others I am working on
or struggling with. I have gleaned some of these from books, frugal
relatives and my own improvising. By far the best resources are anyrelatives you have who remember the Great Depression (or check out
cookbooks and stories from/about that time period) and The Tightwad
Gazette books, my favorites!Start with strategies that you can implement without causing major
revolt in your family, moving gradually to a goal of a lower budget
for food that is healthy, wholesome and homemade. If I have left someout, please email Cheri with your hints and tips, she would be happy
to add them to this article.
I have tried to arrange these in order from least difficult to mostdifficult. I hope they make sense. This way, you can see the changes
along the way and be willing to make more frugal choices as you and
your family get more comfortable with this way of eating andshopping. Start with a few things and keep adding, soon you will see
a HUGE difference in your food budget!
1. Attitude of gratitude — A long journey begins with a single stepand this is your first step. Begin with your own attitude towards
being frugal, because it will impact the rest of your family. How can
they be excited about changes if you aren’t? So start by beingthankful for all that you have, even if your life seems far from
perfect (Guess what? We ALL feel that way! ).
2. Use Everything — when you are cooking, think about how you canget every last food mile out of what you are making. Meat bones and
vegetable trimmings can be made into wonderful stocks. Leftover
vegetables and meats can be thrown into the same stock for free soupsand stews or put into pot pies, homemade “hot pockets”, crepes,
casseroles, you name it. Look at food waste in an entirely new light,
try to get every thing out of your food dollar!3. The Price Book — This is the most useful tool in making sure that
every food dollar you spend is spent well. The basic idea of the
price book is to have a system for tracking prices so that when yousee something on sale, you will know whether it is really a good buy
or not. I use a three ring binder and looseleaf paper. At the top of
each page, I put several column headings: Date, Store, Item, Size,Price, Unit Price, Sale. At the top right hand corner of the paper, I
put the name of the item (such as “bread”, “milk”, “cereal”, etc).
When I see a sale or even a regular price, I write it down in theprice book. It is easier to do this at home with store receipts or
sale ads, instead of in the store, where some employees may mistake
you for a competitor’s spy — it does happen! After a few months oftracking prices, you will know what is a good deal and what is not.
The most important section of the price book is the unit price,
because that tells you, no matter what size the item, how much youare actually paying per pound or ounce or other unit of measure.
4. Bulk Buying — With the price book in hand, you will be able to
bulk buy with much more confidence. Now when flour goes down to 49cents for a 5 pound bag, you will know that this is an excellent
price and to stock up. Then when it goes back up over a dollar,
you’ll still be using the flour that you bought for the lowest priceand smiling.
Bulk buying can be a little scary at first. Buying so much can be
intimidating. How will I use this all? How will I store it? Theanswer is to get creative.Things that can be kept at room temperature
can be stored under beds, in closets, anywhere. This is especially
true of canned goods. Flour can be frozen (to prevent weevils) andthen stored in airtight containers at room temperature.
5. Use your freezer — Eventually you will want to have a deep freeze
to stock up on good deals on meats and other frozen items. A freezeris a great investment and tightwad tool. If you can get an older one
cheap, it may be a good deal if it is still efficient — 10-15 year
old models are ok, but a 30 year old freezer will cost a bundle inenergy. Check out newer, more efficient models and put the word out
that you are looking for a freezer.
We got our freezer (now 15 years old ) from my husband’s grandmotherwho found they just didn’t eat enough to justify having a big one
anymore. It has served us well and saved us thousands of dollars on
groceries, in the 5 years we have had it.6. Cut down/out on the junk food — If you can get the tribe to
completely give up the soda, chips, cookies, candy, etc, good for
you! We have been working towards this goal for some time now, andhave managed to cut out soda (we still drink kool aid ), most cake,
and alcohol (I consider this to be junk, you have to decide for
yourself). We have cut down on baked goods, and I make any we eatfrom scratch. We still buy chips for lunches only, and enjoy popcorn
and homemade pizza on our weekly movie night.
7. Make it yourself — Ban those convenience foods! If you can’ttotally cut out junk foods, make them yourself. A large homemade
pizza costs about $2-$3 to make, compared to frozen pizzas which are
typically $3-5 for a small size and delivery pizzas which run youabout $8-20 each. If you bulk buy the ingredients and make the dough
and/or sauce from scratch, it can be even cheaper to eat in (follow
this link for pizza making recipes and photo instructions). Whichleads us to the next idea:
8. Cut down or stop eating at restaurants — Make it a special
occasion to go out to eat rather than a common event. Eat out once amonth and use coupons to cut costs even further.
9. Clone your favorite brand name and restaurant recipes — This is
not as hard as it sounds. Most popular convenience foods andrestaurant foods were inspired by their homemade counterparts. Ther
secret to recreating these foods well is to go back to the original
homemade versions. Many basic cookbooks have wonderful recipes forhomemade sauces, breads, etc. There are some great cookbooks that
strive to duplicate some of the more favorite purchased foods. One of
the best is called Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur. He has threebooks out with more in the works. Click here for more information or
to order through Amazon.com.
10. Eat less meat — Does spaghetti really have to have all thosemeatballs? Does your pizza really have to have all of that meat on
it? Only you will know for sure what your family will miss and what
it won’t. Many other cultures use meat sparingly in their dishes.Check out Asian and Indian recipes in particular. Try to think of
meat as an accent to the dinner rather than the main course. If this
is too difficult, try cutting portion sizes of meats and adding moreside dishes to compensate. There is always a way to cut down on meat
consumption.
11. Stretch Meats — You may be able to get away with extending yourmeat by mixing in extra veggies, grains or even TVP (textured
vegetable protein). TVP is made from soybeans and there are quite a
few restaurants that use it, so it may be more familiar than youthink (it’s also very healthy). It comes in chunks or crumbled. It is
dry and can be rehydrated before using or in the actual recipe you
are using it in. You can hide it best in ground beef dishes,especially, dark ones, like chili. If TVP is not an option, stretch
meats by cutting amounts in recipes and adding more beans, veggies or
grains to the dish until your family complains, then ad back in aenough to make them happy.
12. Use your leftovers — Get a free meal by saving those leftovers.
If you think you will forget about them, label them and freeze. Onleftover night, have a smorgasbord. You can also create “party trays”
with smidgeons of this and that arranged prettily. Restaurants offer
these, why can’t you?13. Pack your luches — This is a great way to use up leftovers.
Lunches don’t have to be boring either. Think of items you might
order at a deli and duplicate them at home. I send the hubby and kidswith homemade hoagies, pitas stuffed with tuna, BLTs, pigs in
blankets, cold pizza (they love this), bologna burritos (just a
bologna sandwich on a tortilla instead of bread), and homemade hotpockets. I always have them participate in the lunch decisions or in
actually making the lunches. This helps stem complaints. I include
nonmessy fruits like bananas, apples and grapes, dried fruit, trailmix, popcorn, chips and homemade goodie — cookies, pudding, rice
krispy treats, etc. Click here for lots more creativ brown bag lunch
tips, ideas and recipes.14. Take drinks with you — If you are working and spend money on
coffee, buy a thermos and take your own. Take along water or tea in a
big jug on outings, especially during the summer months — this willhelp you resist the temptation of stopping at a fast food joint and
ordering an overpriced, undernourishing soda. Pack drinks for the
kids if you pack their lunches. When I did the math with my pricebook, I found to my amazement that the half pints of milk from the
subsidized milk program are much more expensive than sending milk I
buy at the store! Here a half pint (1 cup) of milk at school costs 25cents, but the milk I buy at Aldi is $1.79 a gallon, or 11 cents a
cup. I can send my kids to school with twice as much milk and still
save money.15. Fill up on healthier foods — As you may have noticed from the
selection of lunches above, I try to include healthy foods in the
kid’s lunches. I try to offer fruits and popcorn as snacks, ratherthan junk food, I offer them water between meals with the occasional
Koolaid. I buy whole grain breads only and try to make mostly whole
or half white/half whole grain baked goods. Any change is better thannone. Whole grains and healthy foods fill you up and nourish you. You
will eat less and crave less because your body is nourished more.
Think of wholesome foods as an investment in your health. You mayalso find yourself visiting the doctor less often.
Some suggestions for putting more healthy foods in your diet: try
eating brown rice instead of white, wheat bread instead of white,offer water between meals instead of koolaid and soda (and try to
actually drink 8 glasses of water daily), keep fruits on hand instead
of candy and cookies, fix veggie trays and dips for snacks instead ofoffering chips. These little changes, done daily can add up to big
savings in money, loss of weight and better health. For more ideas
and recipes, check out the Fit & Fabulous channel.
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› Budget101 Discussion List Archives › Budget101 Discussion List › Frugal Shopping: Tips for Cutting Your Grocery Bill, Part I