Ten Ways to Stretch Your Food Budget

Smart shopping at the grocery store is more than just going in with an armful of coupons. In fact, you rarely even need to use coupons at all if you learn how things work. With these few simple tips you could probably cut what you are currently spending in half and enjoy your meals even more since you’ve added a touch of “smart shopping” to your recipe.

by Jane Lee Bock

1. Family packs are not just for families: Even single people should purchase costly items such as meat in family packs. You can often save over 50 percent of the regular prices. Cook it all at once and freeze the extras.

2. Spice things up: Learning to use spices can turn a cheaper cut of meat into a real crowd pleaser. Spices now come pre-packaged for pork, fish, chicken, etc. Read those labels and then go to the dollar store to buy your spices for about a third of the price.

3. Add-ons that pay off big time: Remember the original premise of Hamburger Helper? It was to make a more filling meal using less meat. The technique works for other items too. Use one can of spaghetti (Chef Boyardee, Heinz, etc.) as a base and add your own pasta. Those cans and pasta can regularly be bought on sale for a dollar or less. And, whenever you cook pasta, use a big pot, cook twice as much as you need and freeze the extra for making quick meals later. You can add chicken, ground beef, or whatever you like.

4. Stock up on sale items: Almost anything canned or in plastic jars will store for up to six months so take advantage of sales since they often result in savings of up to 50 percent. This regularly includes condensed milk (great for avoiding emergencies), fruits, soups, sodas, coffee, tuna fish, peanut butter, jams and jellies, and mayonnaise

5. Fresh versus frozen: Most veggies are flash frozen almost immediately after picking and can often be a bigger bargain than fresh ones. And tests show they keep their nutritional value. Not being able to cook your fresh veggies before they wilt wastes a lot of money.

6. Think outside the grocery store: Back in the day we used to only buy food in a grocery store, oil in an auto parts store, drugs in a drug store. Now many stores carry grocery items.  A bakery outlet store alone can provide your lunch treats, breads, rolls, etc., at half the price of a grocery store and drug stores have great sales on foods.

7. Stop paying for water: If a recipe said “add a cup of water” you could do that, right? So why are you paying for the water in so many of your purchases when you could add it yourself? Purchase cans of condensed milk or orange juice and add water to whatever level you want. Buy “thick” soups and you can serve them like stew to make a hearty meal. Dried foods work the same way.

8. Avoid taxable stuff: Know the sales tax rules for your area and try to avoid buying items you will be taxed for (like some pre-packaged or prepared food, soda, etc.)

9. Always get a rain check: If an item is on sale but the store is out of it, go to customer service for a rain check. Then get your savings on the next trip when they have fresh merchandise.

10. Know the sales cycle:  Most sale items cycle every 6 or 12 weeks. Buy all you need to get to the next sale date.

Do all these things first and then add coupons and you will experience incredible savings, feed yourself well, and make no sacrifices of nutrition for price.