Grocery Saving Suggestions
Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:59 pm
I thought I'd branch out from the previous post, which was questioning how much folks are spending on groceries, to collect suggestions on how people are cutting back, pinching pennies, and spreading their food dollar farther without cutting back on nutrition. The more who respond, the more useful this thread will be!
Here's what I've been doing:
1) bake bread. This is basic! It may seem time consuming at first - so go ahead and teach all your kids to do it! Bread is really simple once you get the hang of it. You can bake two or three loaves once a week, or do like we used to do with the kids were home, and spend one Saturday a month and bake 30 loaves for the freezer. Either way, a bag of flour is just not that expensive, and bread is $3.00 a loaf or more! When you bake your own, you can leave out the crappy ingredients and make it wholesome.
2) shop at discount stores first, (Like Aldz's or Save-A-Lot) then get the items you couldn't find there at your regular store.
3) stock up when something is on sale. This may seem basic, but I mean REALLY STOCK UP. Don't just buy twice as much toilet paper when it's on sale - what about buying a year's worth of toilet paper? I mean, you know you're going to use it anyway... <G>. Some stores have limits on their sales, so you can't always do this. But every time you can use something that was bought at sale price, you've saved money! I found a restaurant supply store in Middleton, Wisconsin, for instance, where I could buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts, frozen, for about $1.50 a pound. That's like 60% off the regular price around here. You had to buy the chicken breasts in 25 pound boxes, though, but we had a freezer, so that's okay.
4) Cook once, eat twice. Maybe this saves some money because you're using less electricity, I'm not sure. But how this saved me money, was that I was less likely to run out for something "fast and easy" if dinner was already made. With this method, you cook twice as much, and put half of the casserole or hot dish into the freezer for later. There are entire cookbooks based on this concept - "Dinner's IN the Freezer" and "Once a Month Cooking" are two I can name right off the top of my head. I have Dinner's in the Freezer, and I love it!
5) Take good care of your left-overs and your fresh produce, use them and don't let them go to waste. There are right ways and wrong ways to store food. If you often throw things out that have spoiled before you could eat them, then either buy less of that item, or rotate the items in your fridge so you eat the older items first. I hate plastic, and avoid using plastic in my kitchen as much as possible. I store dinner left overs in glass pyrex dishes, to be reheated the NEXT DAY for lunches. If you aren't going to eat the casserole left overs within a day, then freeze them. I wrap lettuces, greens, celery, fresh spinach, and other raw fruits and vegetables in damp kitchen towels, and set them on the bottom shelf of the fridge. (I don't use plastic "celery keepers" or plastic "lettuce keepers".) I can keep celery about two weeks, and lettuce about 10 days. The best way to keep fresh foods fresh, though, is to EAT them <G>.
6) go vegetarian. Not all the time, maybe. But start eating at least one meatless meal a week. Then maybe two. Vegetables are healthier for you, and most Americans at least, don't get enough of them. If you can't give up your meat, then consider what you can raise yourself (even city dwellers are starting to raise chickens these days) or what you can buy in bulk, "off the farm" at wholesale prices.
7) Eliminate snacks and junk food. No soda pop, no chips, no ready-made snack cakes. Make your own old-fashioned popcorn (not microwave stuff that is full of chemicals) or bake your own cookies for treats. Commercial junk food is not just junk, it is expensive junk. <G>
8. ) Try a fast . That is probably the easiest way to save money - don't eat! Of course you can't fast forever, but it can become a once-a-week style of life. ( Children shouldn't be fasting) There are many positive health and spiritual benefits to fasting, yet few of us ever do it.
9) make your own mixes. You don't have to buy taco seasoning mix. You can buy the spices and make your own. There are recipes online, or I can post in another spot. Whatever you normally buy, see if there is a cheaper alternative. Do you often cook with olive oil? Then try to find the best price on olive oil. If you rarely cook with olive oil, then don't spend too much time looking for a bargain on that item. Time is valuable, too. You can make your own cake mix, your own "instant oatmeal" mix. You can make your own granola cereal.
10) make your own "non-edible" items! I've been making my own laundry detergent for about three years now. A bottle of commercial brand liquid laundry detergent may cost $10 / month to use. My home-made kind costs me less than fifty cents a month. It works great, and isn't harmful for the environment, either. You can find the recipe for it on my blog, or you can google "home made laundry soap" and find a dozen hits at least. It's all about the same recipe, using bar soap (home made or commerical bar of fels naptha or ivory) washing soda and borax and water. I make my own shampoo, and even my own dog-flea product! If you aren't going through a 50 pound bag of baking soda a month - you aren't saving as much money as you could!
Okay, friends! I challenge you! How do you save money grocery shopping?
Here's what I've been doing:
1) bake bread. This is basic! It may seem time consuming at first - so go ahead and teach all your kids to do it! Bread is really simple once you get the hang of it. You can bake two or three loaves once a week, or do like we used to do with the kids were home, and spend one Saturday a month and bake 30 loaves for the freezer. Either way, a bag of flour is just not that expensive, and bread is $3.00 a loaf or more! When you bake your own, you can leave out the crappy ingredients and make it wholesome.
2) shop at discount stores first, (Like Aldz's or Save-A-Lot) then get the items you couldn't find there at your regular store.
3) stock up when something is on sale. This may seem basic, but I mean REALLY STOCK UP. Don't just buy twice as much toilet paper when it's on sale - what about buying a year's worth of toilet paper? I mean, you know you're going to use it anyway... <G>. Some stores have limits on their sales, so you can't always do this. But every time you can use something that was bought at sale price, you've saved money! I found a restaurant supply store in Middleton, Wisconsin, for instance, where I could buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts, frozen, for about $1.50 a pound. That's like 60% off the regular price around here. You had to buy the chicken breasts in 25 pound boxes, though, but we had a freezer, so that's okay.
4) Cook once, eat twice. Maybe this saves some money because you're using less electricity, I'm not sure. But how this saved me money, was that I was less likely to run out for something "fast and easy" if dinner was already made. With this method, you cook twice as much, and put half of the casserole or hot dish into the freezer for later. There are entire cookbooks based on this concept - "Dinner's IN the Freezer" and "Once a Month Cooking" are two I can name right off the top of my head. I have Dinner's in the Freezer, and I love it!
5) Take good care of your left-overs and your fresh produce, use them and don't let them go to waste. There are right ways and wrong ways to store food. If you often throw things out that have spoiled before you could eat them, then either buy less of that item, or rotate the items in your fridge so you eat the older items first. I hate plastic, and avoid using plastic in my kitchen as much as possible. I store dinner left overs in glass pyrex dishes, to be reheated the NEXT DAY for lunches. If you aren't going to eat the casserole left overs within a day, then freeze them. I wrap lettuces, greens, celery, fresh spinach, and other raw fruits and vegetables in damp kitchen towels, and set them on the bottom shelf of the fridge. (I don't use plastic "celery keepers" or plastic "lettuce keepers".) I can keep celery about two weeks, and lettuce about 10 days. The best way to keep fresh foods fresh, though, is to EAT them <G>.
6) go vegetarian. Not all the time, maybe. But start eating at least one meatless meal a week. Then maybe two. Vegetables are healthier for you, and most Americans at least, don't get enough of them. If you can't give up your meat, then consider what you can raise yourself (even city dwellers are starting to raise chickens these days) or what you can buy in bulk, "off the farm" at wholesale prices.
7) Eliminate snacks and junk food. No soda pop, no chips, no ready-made snack cakes. Make your own old-fashioned popcorn (not microwave stuff that is full of chemicals) or bake your own cookies for treats. Commercial junk food is not just junk, it is expensive junk. <G>
8. ) Try a fast . That is probably the easiest way to save money - don't eat! Of course you can't fast forever, but it can become a once-a-week style of life. ( Children shouldn't be fasting) There are many positive health and spiritual benefits to fasting, yet few of us ever do it.
9) make your own mixes. You don't have to buy taco seasoning mix. You can buy the spices and make your own. There are recipes online, or I can post in another spot. Whatever you normally buy, see if there is a cheaper alternative. Do you often cook with olive oil? Then try to find the best price on olive oil. If you rarely cook with olive oil, then don't spend too much time looking for a bargain on that item. Time is valuable, too. You can make your own cake mix, your own "instant oatmeal" mix. You can make your own granola cereal.
10) make your own "non-edible" items! I've been making my own laundry detergent for about three years now. A bottle of commercial brand liquid laundry detergent may cost $10 / month to use. My home-made kind costs me less than fifty cents a month. It works great, and isn't harmful for the environment, either. You can find the recipe for it on my blog, or you can google "home made laundry soap" and find a dozen hits at least. It's all about the same recipe, using bar soap (home made or commerical bar of fels naptha or ivory) washing soda and borax and water. I make my own shampoo, and even my own dog-flea product! If you aren't going through a 50 pound bag of baking soda a month - you aren't saving as much money as you could!
Okay, friends! I challenge you! How do you save money grocery shopping?