eating less

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.

Shop only sales.
Shop multiple stores for only sales if they are near each other, or rotate.
One meat less meal per week. And reduce the amount of meat per serving in other meals. When I .ake tacos I saute meat with a variety of vegetables to make it go further.
No or few junk food purchases, only as special treats.
Premade or processed food has increased the most, at least by my observation.
Make as much from unprocessed ingredients as you have time to make.

Do a freezer / cupboard inventory then try to use what you have instead of buying. It’s a challenge, but free.

Buying meat on sale in bulk and portioning/labeling/freezing. I have weeks where I meal plan from my freezer and spend very little.

I also try hard not to waste—
—leftover chicken becomes chicken salad
—leftover bones become stock
—leftover baguette becomes croutons
—excess milk becomes yogurt
—know how to cut up a whole chicken.

We use leftovers, even small amounts. A little leftover salad gets saved and put in a tortilla with deli turkey for someone’s lunch the next day. A little leftover rice and a piece of chicken gets saved and I put it on the salad I bring to work. I’ve had friends laugh at me for saving small amounts of food, but it adds up to real food and real savings.

Shop at Costco, Asian and ethnic grocery stores, WF for only organic milk, protein and berries.

Menu plan.
More seasonal produce in meals.
Good quality ingredients,
Less meat, more vegetarian options.
Cooking at home, cooking from scratch.
Minimal packaged products.
No bakery products including bread.
No junk food at all.
No alchohol

Shop sales, esp for meat and things like coffee. Keep your eye out for a chest freezer from a buy nothing group.

Cooking for leftovers and beefing things up with beans, etc. Also, keeping an eye on leftovers and making sure things go in the freezer before they go bad.

Anonymous wrote:Meal planning for each week and shopping at Aldi for almost everything. I plan for two big cooking nights per week so that we can have leftovers two other nights. The other three nights are clean out the fridge nights or breakfast for dinner/fend for yourself nights.

This is my advice too. Shopping at Aldi reduced our costs because prices are lower and selection is smaller. We also cook about 3 days a week and eat a lot of leftovers.

Meal planning for each week and shopping at Aldi for almost everything. I plan for two big cooking nights per week so that we can have leftovers two other nights. The other three nights are clean out the fridge nights or breakfast for dinner/fend for yourself nights.

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.

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

Going to Aldi instead of Safeway/Giant

What change helped the most?

Did you start couponing?
Did you start substituting, like canned salmon instead of fresh, grow your own salads, herbs?
What was the most worthwhile change.

I am not looking for anything extra radical like buying your own meat grinder or changing diet to ramen noodles, beans and rice.
But just something simpler that actually helped