How you guys keeping the grocery bills down?

[Bootsie]

The chain grocery stores around me will have varying items on special.  Sometimes you have to be a "member" (which is free--you just have to give a phone number so that your purchases can be tracked) to get the special price.  Sometimes there are special digital coupons you can download on your phone.  Last week a bag of avocados was 39cents.  The week before a 3 pound bag of onions or potatoes was buy one get one free.  Paying attention and eating what is on special that week makes a big difference.

Eggs are easy to fix in a number of different ways.  They are also good for using up left over veggies--spinach and tomato frittata, a mushroom omelete, or scrambled eggs with roasted sweet potato.  

Soups are another way to use items up to eliminate waste or to stretch more expensive ingredients with cheaper ingredients.

[SHP]

I have a spread sheet of staples and their costs at different stores. I shop at 2-3 stores, thankfully, they are fairly close. You may be surprised. Iearned that Whole Foods has the cheapest extra firm tofu in my area. I may not buy anything else but I am not above only buying 10 things of tofu when I am in the area.

We do not eat much meat. We add tons of fresh fruits and veggies to meals. 

We make our own bread products and mixes. Pancakes from scratch isn't more work than a box and so much cheaper. 

With dairy and egg allergies things can get expensive. I try to find knock off recipes for the store bought substitutes whenever I can. 

We volunteered and work at community gardens and get produce in exchange. One morning a week and an occasional evening and enough food for a couple of meals. 

Portion control for adults, many people over eat. Stopping over eating can save lots of money.

[Ausmumof3]

Im terrible at saving money on food - we aren’t extravagant on clothes or makeup or hair etc but we all are really picky about food. I’m lucky that we have venison that my DH preps himself so when things get super tight we eat that and don’t buy any meat. We have gone back to eating a lot of chicken lately because it’s more versatile and easier to eat a lot of vegetables with. 
 

What I’m noticing here is that basic ingredients are stabilising in price but processed anything is soaring I think due to wage increases and power prices. So saving means more prep work which is a challenge because we have everyone in a really busy stage. Dh is working a full time job and running a business, I’m working a part time job, homeschooling one, taking one to school, supporting one in distance Ed and have a very sporadic small business. So figuring out how to handle extra food prep is a bit of a nightmare. I am working  on cooking bigger quantities when I do cook and the family have got better at eating leftovers.

[SHP]

1 minute ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Im terrible at saving money on food - we aren’t extravagant on clothes or makeup or hair etc but we all are really picky about food. I’m lucky that we have venison that my DH preps himself so when things get super tight we eat that and don’t buy any meat. We have gone back to eating a lot of chicken lately because it’s more versatile and easier to eat a lot of vegetables with. 
 

What I’m noticing here is that basic ingredients are stabilising in price but processed anything is soaring I think due to wage increases and power prices. So saving means more prep work which is a challenge because we have everyone in a really busy stage. Dh is working a full time job and running a business, I’m working a part time job, homeschooling one, taking one to school, supporting one in distance Ed and have a very sporadic small business. So figuring out how to handle extra food prep is a bit of a nightmare. I am working  on cooking bigger quantities when I do cook and the family have got better at eating leftovers.

I feel this. I wish I had a time machine to go back and tell younger me how to pre-meal prep. 

I bought drawers for the fridge. They come completely out. When I shop I come home and I put everything for a meal into a drawer, including Pantry items like a can of beans. I measure out spices and miscellaneous things into very small plastic containers, like say 1/4 cup of peanut butter. I count out bread and put it in a zip lock bag in the drawer. This helps keep grazers from eating meal parts and requiring another trip to the store. Everything is right there, already measured and ready to go. No having to stop cooking to hunt down random items. I am working on printing off the recipes and putting them in clear sleeves. The recipe will go on top of all the ingredients. 

 

Here are some drawers:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0CMHNWR3D?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

[Ausmumof3]

One thing I didn’t see mentioned yet is learning how to use as much as you can of what you buy. Connecting with other cultures help hugely with this - for example my lovely Italian neighbour made us a beautiful soup. I asked what the herbs were in it and to my surprise it was the leaves from the celery. I never knew you could use the entire celery in different ways (including the root bowl as celeriac). Also things like beetroot leaves can be used in stir fry instead of beets and very small seed pods from kale plants can be added to stir fry as well. I was chatting to a lady from Cambodia recently and learned that you can use the baby pumpkins and pumpkin leaves in cooking. And making stock with chicken carcasses etc is great (though if electricity is expensive you have to be careful you’re not dropping one bill to increase another)

We also have birds and they love the seeds out of capsicum, core from the apple etc so although this doesn’t help with human food costs it does get variety into their diet without a huge extra effort.

I save on cleaning products by using mostly dishwashing liquid and white vinegar. I buy the better quality chux cloths as they can be washed and reused for a couple of months before going past their prime. But they are cheap enough I don’t feel too guilty if I clean up something really gross and just want to chuck it out. 
 

having one soup/stew day before you grocery shop can be a great way of making sure you cook any vegetables that are getting close to the end and empty the drawer before restocking. It’s also a good time to freeze leftover fruit for smoothies or milk shakes.

[gardenmom5]

When we were at our tightest financially - we
bought in bulk.  Costco was a huge blessing.  We have US Chef (or whatever it's name is now - restaurant supply grocery store)
there was a lot of produce we didn't buy, it was too expensive.
we'd buy condiments - but very little processed food, and only if it was being used in a recipe as a base, or important ingredient.

root vegetables - carrots, potatoes, beets, onions  - were real popular because they store well. (comparatively).  - we'd buy canned tomatoes buy the case (on sale) for cooking. (tomatoes have a very short shelf life, and canned tomatoes are good for a long time.)

dairy-  was milk.  margarine was cheaper  (now we buy butter by the case on sale - I loath the unnatural forms of hydrogenated oils.  we also only use olive oil.)
yogurt was too expensive so we didn't buy it - especially yogurt that has fruit (with lots of sugar) added.  It was actually one of the things that said: finances are getting better.  when we started buying it again.  

eggs in bulk - even today, we'll buy 4-5 doz eggs at a time because it's cheaper per egg and we go through them.  (especially if I'm doing any greek recipes . . There are some that I can go through the better part of a dozen eggs for one recipe! but yummy. )

lots of hamburger and pot roasts

we had a lot of pasta.

I made my own pasta sauce (I have a great recipe, and it's easy) - someone once gave me some costco pasta sauce and I nearly gagged at how much HFCS was in it.  it was sickeningly sweet.  I dumped it out.

we buy popcorn in bulk - and a hot air popper.  - no burned popcorn to smell up the microwave . . . 

[Clarita]

Check out your local social media stuff too (Nextdoor or your locale's Facebook group) there are some free food opportunities there sometimes. These are not food pantry type things but business inventory things (restaurants buying too much of a certain ingredient, stuff that's about to go bad at a grocery store, bakeries with extra inventory at the end of the day, etc.).

[DawnM]

When we were on a super tight budget, I followed a woman who wrote a booklet called something like how to feed your family of 4 on $200/month.   And I followed suggestions from The Tightwad Gazette.

The booklet basically stated that she would buy a half of a cow twice per year and that was pretty much their meat.  I didn't follow this part as we aren't use beef eaters, but I did get meats on sales if I could.   She also advocated for vegetable gardens to help supplement shopping.    She has since come out and said that $200 isn't even remotely possible anymore, however, her suggestions can be very helpful.    I didn't ever get to $200.   I budgeted $500 for a family of 5 while the kids were young, and that included toiletries.   Not sure I could do that anymore with prices rising.   It might be closer to $650/mo.    But I didn't do anything extreme, I just budgeted well.

We ate pretty simply.   A starch, a protein, and a veggie.   Everything cooked, nothing prepared in any way. 

I also used to get the weekly flyers, sit down and find the best deals and then create a menu around them.   

One trick I used to also do is to go into the store with say $150 in cash.   I would make sure to only get to $150 for that week (or whatever) and that was a good visual for me to check prices before putting it in my cart.

For snacks, instead of chips, we ate a lot of popcorn, we got a popper and bought kernels.   The kids liked putting different seasonings on it for variety.

[73349]

We've found that beans and lentils can replace most meat (e.g., Vegan Richa's cheeseburger sheet pan dinner recipe uses chickpeas, and Andrew Bernard's cheeseburger wraps use green lentils) without sacrificing flavor. I've wound up buying poultry the last couple of weeks because we're bringing meals to someone on a low-fiber diet, and wow, meat costs a lot more.

We do not eat boxed breakfast cereal. Breakfast is leftovers, fruit, and/or buckwheat groats (most people can just use oatmeal instead).

Tap water is our primary beverage, and we fill water bottles to bring with us when we go anywhere.

Instead of buying pospsicles, I freeze juice in popsicle molds.

I have a meal plan for dinner every night, but only some lunches so we can eat leftovers instead of cooking more.

Non-food savings: I buy TP, laundry detergent, and dishwasher tablets in bulk to get the best unit price for the kind I want. (My laundry detergent is a powder, so I have room to store 6 months' worth on the shelf above the washer.) We use cloth napkins. I use cotton dish cloths instead of dish sponges.

[Melanie32]

I consistently find Walmart to have lower prices than other stores near me. I love Aldi and save a lot of money there-especially on their produce. However the nearest one is an hour away so I don’t shop there much. Down here in south Florida, it’s pretty much Walmart, Winn Dixie or Publix in more rural areas. Walmart is definitely the cheapest of the three. The nearest Trader Joe’s is about an hour and 20 min away so I very rarely swing in there when I am out of town for a dr appt or something. 
 

 

[saraha]

Oh, I thought of something else. Our Family Dollar pretty regularly has a $5 of $25 or more coupon for Saturday. I try to make sure any toilet paper, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, womens products, etc are bought on Saturday on my way home from work. I would buy that stuff there anyway, so just making sure I do it on Saturday automatically saves me $5. Once I had a good supply and didn’t “have to” buy certain things, then I am able to pick and choose which things are on an additional sale.

I used to buy all our over the counter medicine  there too, but they seem to be phasing their store brands of those out, so will have to come up with a new plan before I run out. Walmart doesn’t really work for me, it is 40 minutes in a direction I might go once a year. I am going to have to work on that one.

[gardenmom5]

there were "gleaner" type clubs that would join together to get items,

also

the frugal gazette had some good ideas.  I think some of her stuff is online.  She was active in the 80s

[katilac]

9 hours ago, SHP said:

I bought drawers for the fridge. They come completely out. When I shop I come home and I put everything for a meal into a drawer, including Pantry items like a can of beans. I measure out spices and miscellaneous things into very small plastic containers, like say 1/4 cup of peanut butter. I count out bread and put it in a zip lock bag in the drawer. This helps keep grazers from eating meal parts and requiring another trip to the store. Everything is right there, already measured and ready to go. No having to stop cooking to hunt down random items. I am working on printing off the recipes and putting them in clear sleeves. The recipe will go on top of all the ingredients. 

Wow, that is an impressive level of organization!  I might have to try this for at least one or two meals.               

[SHP]

10 minutes ago, katilac said:

Wow, that is an impressive level of organization!  I might have to try this for at least one or two meals.               

I cannot take credit for the idea. We do meal kits by mail for a couple of meals a week to kick us out of our rut and to try new foods. They package the meal ingredients in a plastic bag and is labeled with the meal name. It is amazing how much time it saves when the only things we have to get are olive oil, salt, and pepper, which we keep in the cabinet above the prep area.

Bonus: the bag is used for trash generated from cooking. Remembering to get the small trash can from under the sink and moving it 10ft away on the floor near the prep area before starting is too difficult. I wish I was kidding. 

 

It really is the little things that add up and eat away time and energy.

[Innisfree]

During the pandemic I discovered that I saved a huge amount of money simply by never setting foot in a store. I planned meals loosely (could save more by literally planning everything), placed orders online, and picked up the groceries in front of the store. If we ran out of something, we’d substitute or do without until the next scheduled grocery trip. No impulse buying at all. I was worried at first about the quality of produce, but it was usually really good.

At an earlier time I did plan everything, and go through the store with a written list and a calculator in hand. At that point the goal was to keep spending to $250/two weeks, for four of us plus occasional other people joining us for meals. We’ve always had to work around sensory issues and dietary pickiness, so ideas like substituting beans for meat have never worked, but careful planning has let us control expenses.

[prairiewindmomma]

4 hours ago, saraha said:

 

I used to buy all our over the counter medicine  there too, but they seem to be phasing their store brands of those out, so will have to come up with a new plan before I run out. Walmart doesn’t really work for me, it is 40 minutes in a direction I might go once a year. I am going to have to work on that one.

Make a shopping list for Walmart and once you hit $35, order it for free delivery at home. The walmart generic medicine prices are so good compared to almost everywhere else (at least for what we buy). Family Dollar and Dollar Tree are usually more expensive per ounce when we have priced things out compared to WM store brand….might be worth a little math to see if that plays out for you too.

[Spryte]

47 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Make a shopping list for Walmart and once you hit $35, order it for free delivery at home. The walmart generic medicine prices are so good compared to almost everywhere else (at least for what we buy). Family Dollar and Dollar Tree are usually more expensive per ounce when we have priced things out compared to WM store brand….might be worth a little math to see if that plays out for you too.

In the WalMart topic, if anyone else has allergies and can’t eat “may contains” — WalMart’s generic brand is good with labeling for them. Not all companies do, and almost no house brands do it, so this was a surprise for me. 
 

We don’t do a lot of WalMart shopping, but occasionally order staples to be delivered for free.

[KungFuPanda]

My last year or so of homeschooling I subscribed to The Dinner Daily. It was a cheap subscription but what it did was make menus from sale items at your store. You choose the store and they’d generate a menu and shopping list. It really did save money. If you’re good at doing this yourself you won’t save, but if you need a tutorial for this sort of thing it might be helpful. I’m sure they have a free trial. 

[ScoutTN]

Soup! I make stock that is healthy, tasty, and filling. 

 

 

[heartlikealion]

8 hours ago, saraha said:

Oh, I thought of something else. Our Family Dollar pretty regularly has a $5 of $25 or more coupon for Saturday. I try to make sure any toilet paper, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, womens products, etc are bought on Saturday on my way home from work. I would buy that stuff there anyway, so just making sure I do it on Saturday automatically saves me $5. Once I had a good supply and didn’t “have to” buy certain things, then I am able to pick and choose which things are on an additional sale.

I used to buy all our over the counter medicine  there too, but they seem to be phasing their store brands of those out, so will have to come up with a new plan before I run out. Walmart doesn’t really work for me, it is 40 minutes in a direction I might go once a year. I am going to have to work on that one.

I used to do the $5 off $25 coupons regularly… I think one of them doesn’t require you to shop on Saturday. I used to clip the digital coupons for Dollar General & Family Dollar. At least one of those stores sells the cat food I buy so that was an item I’d get.