How are you saving money on food?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In 2024, I went vegan for a whole year for health reasons and my weekly (or bi-weekly) groceries were $50-$75 max. It was incredible.

If you or your family can't give up meat entirely, try the bulk delivery subscriptions. They come out to be so much cheaper per lb., but you do need ample freezer space.

+1. We’re vegetarian and I feel like we save even more because we don’t need to buy vegan speciality products. Vegetarian proteins are so cheap it’s almost embarrassing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Biggest bang for your buck are menu planning, making the same menus monthly, and then tracking the price of your ingredients so you can confidently stock up when they go on sale.

Next tackle food waste by figuring out a system for leftovers. Freeze, reheat for lunches, or have one day per week when everyone eats leftovers; or use leftover wizardry to turn leftovers into something new.

Find a good cookbook or website with reliable recipes that don't cost too much. I'm quite fond of Spend With Pennies lately. Her recipes usually turn out great, and do not call for a lot of unusual ingredients.

Have some budget Old Faithful standbys for nights when you are too tired to cook so you don't resort to expensive takeout or delivery.

Learn to cook your favorite expensive foods more cheaply from scratch if you can.

Shop at stores strategically. My favorite these days is Lidl. I am a member of their "Club" but honestly the food is already so cheap, the discounts don't save much more.

Raise inexpensive kids who are happy to eat snacks like homemade popcorn and apple slices with peanut butter; eat breakfast like homemade oatmeal or musli instead of boxed cereal, and home made pizza dough for pizzas instead of delivery.

Make lunch sandwiches ahead of time (without the condiments) and wrap and freeze them. Add the coniments later whn you pack the lunch box.

Drink mostly water. Eat whole fruit.

Teach your children how to cook.

If you buy the dominis $6.99 medium 2 topping pizza deal, it is far cheaper than making pizza from scratch.

[Anonymous]

I'm buying wine from Trader Joe's. I'm also blending a bit of water Fiji water into so of my husband's bourbon bottles...shhh.

[Anonymous]

I now insist we do a leftover night where everyone has to eat whatever's left, not just me. I also freeze leftovers before it's time to toss them. And we very rarely order takeout- it's less than once a month at this point. I just make sure we have pantry staples to throw together a last minute meal to avoid takeout (usually a canned bean dish like pasta with white beans and spinach- something like that).

This is very low hanging fruit and I don't know how much money we actually save, but it does reduce food waste and the time it takes to cook all original meals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well right now Im stuck in because of the ice so Im saving and working through my food. The most annoying thing is running out of berries and lunch meat.

Only the rich eat fresh berries in winter.

Giant had berries for 1.99 a pint last week.

I'm a PP. I only buy berries in winter if they're on sale, because my dogs like them. I got organic blueberries last week for 2.49/ pint.

Because your DOGS like them? Holy F pp. no wonder 1/2 country is mad as hell

Not just berries but organic berries. That’s fantastic!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My brother is a really successful discount shopper. He has a family of five and almost no income.

He only buys meat on sale and buys a bunch and freezes it—usually big cheaper cuts like pot roast, chicken thighs etc.

Expensive stuff like yogurt he only buys on sale.

Stuff like milk he buys at Costco — it’s consistently cheaper and that doesn’t often go on sale at grocery stores.

He just checks prices on every single thing and has a pretty good sense of what’s a deal. And he’s not buying stuff like cherries and raspberries that are just slays expensive.

Raspberries have a great amount of fiber, so I buy them frozen. They are cheaper and won't rot in the frig.

[Anonymous]

Learning how to cook with cheaper meats, as some one mentioned before, chicken thighs, whole chicken, even legs, chuck roasts, pork butt, pork tenderloin, ground turkey, frozen cod etc. I keep our freezer packed with these items as you can buy in bulk, portion, season and freeze and make larger meals that make great leftovers. Bulk rice, dry beans and an instapot or crockpot are great money savers and can complement and stretch a meal.

[Anonymous]

We eat beans and lentils for protein as that is much cheaper than meat, and buy different things in different stores. For example, buy apples at Wholefoods instead of Safeway as they tend to last longer for the same price. Buy cucumbers and green bell peppers at Asian markets instead of Wholefoods and so on. We buy some things only at Costco.

Such is the state of one of the richest countries in the world. Got to think before we eat!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Biggest bang for your buck are menu planning, making the same menus monthly, and then tracking the price of your ingredients so you can confidently stock up when they go on sale.

Next tackle food waste by figuring out a system for leftovers. Freeze, reheat for lunches, or have one day per week when everyone eats leftovers; or use leftover wizardry to turn leftovers into something new.

Find a good cookbook or website with reliable recipes that don't cost too much. I'm quite fond of Spend With Pennies lately. Her recipes usually turn out great, and do not call for a lot of unusual ingredients.

Have some budget Old Faithful standbys for nights when you are too tired to cook so you don't resort to expensive takeout or delivery.

Learn to cook your favorite expensive foods more cheaply from scratch if you can.

Shop at stores strategically. My favorite these days is Lidl. I am a member of their "Club" but honestly the food is already so cheap, the discounts don't save much more.

Raise inexpensive kids who are happy to eat snacks like homemade popcorn and apple slices with peanut butter; eat breakfast like homemade oatmeal or musli instead of boxed cereal, and home made pizza dough for pizzas instead of delivery.

Make lunch sandwiches ahead of time (without the condiments) and wrap and freeze them. Add the coniments later whn you pack the lunch box.

Drink mostly water. Eat whole fruit.

Teach your children how to cook.

If you buy the dominis $6.99 medium 2 topping pizza deal, it is far cheaper than making pizza from scratch.

The last time that I ordered Domino’s Pizza, I ended up throwing it in the trash anfter eating one piece . And I’m no foodie. It was terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We eat beans and lentils for protein as that is much cheaper than meat, and buy different things in different stores. For example, buy apples at Wholefoods instead of Safeway as they tend to last longer for the same price. Buy cucumbers and green bell peppers at Asian markets instead of Wholefoods and so on. We buy some things only at Costco.

Such is the state of one of the richest countries in the world. Got to think before we eat!

Pp again here. We have trained kids to hog on fruits and peanut butter more than store bought snacks. That is much healthier and cheaper too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My brother is a really successful discount shopper. He has a family of five and almost no income.

He only buys meat on sale and buys a bunch and freezes it—usually big cheaper cuts like pot roast, chicken thighs etc.

Expensive stuff like yogurt he only buys on sale.

Stuff like milk he buys at Costco — it’s consistently cheaper and that doesn’t often go on sale at grocery stores.

He just checks prices on every single thing and has a pretty good sense of what’s a deal. And he’s not buying stuff like cherries and raspberries that are just slays expensive.

Raspberries have a great amount of fiber, so I buy them frozen. They are cheaper and won't rot in the frig.

Yes. I buy the big bag of mixed berries from Costco, and keep some of them thawed in the fridge and eat them almost every morning with my breakfast.

[Anonymous]

I can cook any cuisine from scratch. So, I don't worry about the cost of ingredients.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My brother is a really successful discount shopper. He has a family of five and almost no income.

He only buys meat on sale and buys a bunch and freezes it—usually big cheaper cuts like pot roast, chicken thighs etc.

Expensive stuff like yogurt he only buys on sale.

Stuff like milk he buys at Costco — it’s consistently cheaper and that doesn’t often go on sale at grocery stores.

He just checks prices on every single thing and has a pretty good sense of what’s a deal. And he’s not buying stuff like cherries and raspberries that are just slays expensive.

Raspberries have a great amount of fiber, so I buy them frozen. They are cheaper and won't rot in the frig.

Yes. I buy the big bag of mixed berries from Costco, and keep some of them thawed in the fridge and eat them almost every morning with my breakfast.

Same. Homemade yogurt or overnight oats and frozen berries from Costco = my standard breakfast. Cheap and healthy for the win.

[Anonymous]

Wednesday night is stir fry or soup to use up random veggies and meats from the last few days. Thursday night is leftovers or breakfast for dinner if we don't have a lot of leftovers. This double header has almost eliminated food waste.

[Anonymous]

I keep a list on the refrigerator that itemizes all the ready to eat food plus precooked frozen. It's eliminated a lot of out of sight, out of mind food waste for us. We're only a family of two so leftovers accumulate rapidly.