For those that have successfully lowered grocery bill

[Anonymous]

Analyzed grocery bills and determined that limiting the number of trips makes the biggest difference. One or two is ideal. Also, less packaged foods and cooking everything from scratch. Also picking cheaper options, like skip 20 dollar extra virgin and get 10 instead. Not sold out that organic berries for 8 dollars are any better than the 3 dollar ones. Getting mostly organic options vs. conventional is 20-30 dollars more per week for my bill. That can also make a difference. I seek value and taste for price. This excludes WF and more and more TJ, as their prices have steadily grown in the last two years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Making paneer, setting yogurt and making ghee at home.

Organic veggies from Walmart.

Growing my own pumpkin, squash, gourds and chopping and freezing them.

Do not use pre-prepped ingredients or processed foods. I am making most everything from scratch. I have also significantly slimmed down and my kids allergies and skin issues have disappeared because of these changes.

I am not doing all of this to save money though.

(and also - eat less and more nutritionally dense foods).

How do you press/shape the paneer? Is there a presser or mould you recommend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making paneer, setting yogurt and making ghee at home.

Organic veggies from Walmart.

Growing my own pumpkin, squash, gourds and chopping and freezing them.

Do not use pre-prepped ingredients or processed foods. I am making most everything from scratch. I have also significantly slimmed down and my kids allergies and skin issues have disappeared because of these changes.

I am not doing all of this to save money though.

(and also - eat less and more nutritionally dense foods).

How do you press/shape the paneer? Is there a presser or mould you recommend?

I drain it into a plain white cotton cloth and gather the cloth with the paneer in a bundle. Squeeze the water out. Then put it on an upside down flat bottom pot in my sink, and then put another pot filled with water on top of the cloth bundle and leave it overnight. The extra water gets pressed out from the weight of the water filled pot. The liquid drains into the sink. The paneer comes out in a thick flat round shape next morning. Cut it into whatever shape you want. If you do not like the shape of the edges, you can cut it off and use that paneer as a filling in paranthas, sandwich or in bell-peppers after crumbling it and adding spices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to Aldi instead of Safeway/Giant

Aldi and Trader Joe’s. Very affordable and eggs still $3 something

[Anonymous]

Focus on cheaper fresh produce like carrots, apples, bananas, cabbage, right now citrus (I don't buy anything over $2 a lb) and use canned or frozen when it saves money.

[Anonymous]

Less meat is a big one, but also be thoughtful on your meat choices. But a whole chicken vs boneless skinless breasts. Or chicken legs or thighs- those are super cheap and so good. Use meat at an enhancer rather than the main course. For instances, when making a whole pan of lasagna, I only use 1/2 pound ground beef in the red sauce.

We also make a lot of bean, lentil, quinoa dishes. I don’t have a pressure cooker, but as long as you remember to soak the beans the night before they are easy to use.

Bake your own bread. It is easy than you may think, just takes a little work to get the timing right if you are away from home most of the day. Sometimes when I don’t have time for dough to rise, I make flatbread/naan that is just flour, yogurt, salt for the dough and you cook it right away on a hot skillet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Less meat is a big one, but also be thoughtful on your meat choices. But a whole chicken vs boneless skinless breasts. Or chicken legs or thighs- those are super cheap and so good. Use meat at an enhancer rather than the main course. For instances, when making a whole pan of lasagna, I only use 1/2 pound ground beef in the red sauce.

We also make a lot of bean, lentil, quinoa dishes. I don’t have a pressure cooker, but as long as you remember to soak the beans the night before they are easy to use.

Bake your own bread. It is easy than you may think, just takes a little work to get the timing right if you are away from home most of the day. Sometimes when I don’t have time for dough to rise, I make flatbread/naan that is just flour, yogurt, salt for the dough and you cook it right away on a hot skillet.

Oh, and Trader Joe’s. I almost exclusively buy our food there. Great prices, WAY better than Giant or Safeway and produce is amazing. Berries are affordable, eggs cheapest I’ve seen, cereal low priced (1.99!), low prices for dried fruits and nuts. The only things I don’t buy at TJ are paper products and cleaning supplies, and less common herbs/spices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1-2 meatless meals a week
Shop multiple stores and look at ads
Shop at Aldi Lidl and Food Lion
Eat seasonally current produce

+1

Also, minimize food waste. Eat leftovers. Periodically, spend a week focusing on eating down the foods you have in the pantry and freezer.

[Anonymous]

Less meat. We don't eat cereal- make oatmeal or eggs and toast (kids last longer in the in the am without snacks). And for us it's actually making less food and no leftovers as those inevitably get thrown out unless it's something simple to repurpose like cooked plain chicken or salmon. Less waste has been the biggest change but it also means I try fewer new recipes.

[Anonymous]

Avoid union stores

[Anonymous]

* homemade soups - ( make with whatever vegetables and protein you have
* frozen foods ( cheaper than fresh- buy at Trader Joes)
* order from Omaha steak during deep sales ( less food is wasted because it arrives frozen
* buy frozen shrimp from Safeway on deep sales ( make tacos, stir fry and shrimp salad, nachos)
* make things from scratch

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meat on sale in bulk. Increasing use frozen veg where possible (do not recommend frozen broccoli — gross). Stretching ground meat-based entrees with legumes. Getting *really* good at estimating the amount of meat a meal will require. Cooking meals to freeze in advance (shepherd’s pie, spaghetti sauce, taco meat are great to keep on hand). If you haven’t subbed white grains with whole grains, do that too and cook rice and pasta and other grains in advance to quickly put meals together.

Aldi runs for periodically stocking up on meat. Costco runs for things like laundry detergent etc. and shopping loss leader sales.

The thing that is the hardest is that none of this is easy or convenient with full time jobs and kids etc., especially if you have any chronic illness issues or little family support. It is extremely time consuming to save money — you can’t just do a Wegman’s pick up once a week — and to do it well you really have to go multiple places and you need to have the space to store things if you shop loss leader sales.

I LOVE frozen broccoli- especially the stems. I buy the cheaper bag of broccoli cuts (not just the florets) and get mostly stems. YUM.

stems are the best part

[Anonymous]

I buy staples like flour, olive oil, honey in bulk--25 lb bag of flour, restaurant size can of olive oil, half gallon honey, rolled oats in 5 lb bag--these at a natural/international foods store I've shopped at for certain things for years. Rarely eat meat as an entree, usually as an ingredient and like another poster said, less than recipes typically call for. Also sticking to lower cost produce like carrots and cabbage. A bunch of beets for $4 with 4 not very big beets? I love beets but no thanks. I make pita and sandwich bread. I'll sometimes buy some frozen convenience items if on sale just to have in the freezer for emergencies. Absolutely no berries outside of summer and no asparagus outside of spring. Use or freeze small amounts of leftovers. Sometimes I have regrets--I made a corn/black bean/green chili/cheese chowder and dumped a half used jar of mango salsa in and had to put in a lot of other stuff to overcome the fruity taste of the salsa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Less meat. Which means more tofu, beans, etc...

More in-season produce. So more apples and oranges and root veggies in winter, more berries and tomatoes in summer, etc... you can make this really delicious if you cook seasonally and punch things up with herbs and citrus and sauces.

Less processed food. Oreos and beverages and coffee creamers get expensive.

This. When I started eating less meat, my grocery bill went way down. Tofu is so cheap, as are bulk dry beans and grains like rice and oats. Also I get frozen fruit instead of fresh to make smoothies, and it's much cheaper

[Anonymous]

This may not be for everyone, but we order the blue apron meals. For us the alternative is eating out, so we have been able to significantly back on eating out the past few months. There is usually enough leftovers for to to take for lunch, so I never buy lunch out anymore.