For those that have successfully lowered grocery bill

[Anonymous]

Leftovers and/or pb&j sandwiches for lunch.
Meatless meals 2x a week
Frozen fish from TJs - 2x a week
Breakfast for dinner once a week
Pasta once a week - usually with a pound of hamburger
Make your own pizza on Friday nights - instead of going and picking up

Oatmeal base for breakfasts and no boxed cereals
Roast veggies very night for dinners and lunches

[Anonymous]

Certain veggies freeze really well (peas, edamame and corn particularly), so I buy big bags of those and keep them around.

Avoiding buying precut stuff, it doesn't save that much time.

Baked potatoes are a good cheap lunch/dinner as well.

[Anonymous]

frozen veggies vs fresh, they actually paste just as good if not better if you know what you are doing. That's probably $20-30 a week in savings. literally about $1000 a year.

[Anonymous]

Shop at ALDI!!!!

I filled a whole cart at Aldi on Saturday for $150. Then I ran to Safeway for a few extra items and got one bag - ONE BAG - for $62.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get away from the American slabs of meat. Buy meat on sale. Eat more ethnic dishes - they have wonderfully complex flavor that makes you more satiated vs. just eating a lot.

most ambiguous word. what counts as "ethnic?"

DP, with Indian heritage. You are so tiresome. It’s not an ambiguous word at all in this context. But I’ll define it for you - cuisines, recipes, and ingredients that are outside the standard white American repertoire - even though you absolutely know what she meant.

It’s not othering or condescending or whatever other word you want to use to call ethnic food that in the context of this board, which is largely populated by UMC white people. It’s helpful. And true!

[Anonymous]

I started eating more meat because the protein fills me up and I have to eat less overall.

[Anonymous]

I won't be much help, but I while I was able to cut down all shopping for clothes and eating out, my grocery shopping took over. While there, even though I bought mostly on sale, the frequency clearly has done me in.
I'm going 2 meals a day for me and see it that will make a difference.

[Anonymous]

2 pots of soup per week. They go in the freezer in small containers.

[Anonymous]

No name brands.

[Anonymous]

Only bUy what is on sale. I never pay full price.

[Anonymous]

Nothing too different from what's been said, but I'll list mine:

Very rarely eating red meat anymore.

Making soup/stew/chili dishes out of poultry and beefing them up with beans and frozen veggies to get 3+ nights out of them.

More legume-based meals.

Buying spices in bulk from Asian grocers and making my own blends.

Salads made with the tub of spring greens from Costco. Rolled with peanuts into rice paper for more heft.

Chest freezer for stocking up on sale meat. When Giant was selling cheap turkeys around Thanksgiving, we found out that they weren't enforcing their minimum purchase or limits.

Old fashioned oatmeal with on-sale frozen fruit for breakfast.

Bananas, bulk apples, or veggie sticks for snacking. No processed pantry snacks.

Don't know if this has lowered the bill, but it keeps things in check.

[Anonymous]

We are vegetarian and we eat a ton of fresh fruits and veggies. I agree only on sale. Frozen is good too.

[Anonymous]

No meat. Legumes, tofu, sunflower seed butter, fish,

Shopping at Lidl or Trader Joes. Even just rotating these with a more expensive store helps

Restraint in the produce aisle. It's easy to over buy and then stuff goes bad

I walk to the store and carry things home. It's like rucking, and you tend not to overbuy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I won't be much help, but I while I was able to cut down all shopping for clothes and eating out, my grocery shopping took over. While there, even though I bought mostly on sale, the frequency clearly has done me in.
I'm going 2 meals a day for me and see it that will make a difference.

I find that doing grocery delivery and / or pickup forces me to only buy what I need rather than being tempted to buy more items. As long as the pickup or delivery service it's free, or that coupons make it so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More Aldi and Lidl. Less Safeway and Giant. No more Whole Foods nor Balducci's.
No meat a few days a week.

Compare prices. You could be surprised at how little difference there is between Whole Foods and other places. If you shop Whole Foods for dairy, meats and berries, you could buy other items there also. Save that time you would running to other stores and on gas, or shopping at multiple places online.

Nah, there might be a couple low cost items at Whole Foods but it's easier/cheaper for me to just skip it all together. It's an UMC store - not for my economic strata.