NBR ideas for saving money on food

painttheair14 · August 2014

I've been looking at our budget for ways to save money. I like to think I'm pretty good at budgeting, so we don't have lots of wiggle room.

Food is my weakness. We do pretty well on weekly groceries (80-90 a week) but then splurge on pizza and booze once a week.

What are some ways that you save on food?

Obviously I realize I could save by not buying the pizza and booze but was just wondering if anyone had any brilliant ideas.

SandFHasse · August 2014

All I do is make sure I'm shopping sales, download coupons to my VIP card and use my VIP card. This actually helps us a lot. For example this week's food bill came to around $211. After the coupons and VIP card my bill was $145. I was able to stay in our $150 limit.

Frys does the 10 for $10 and the buy 5 save $5. This is how I buy a lot of our snack food. I bought cookies that are normally $3 for $1.50 and juice boxes for 99 cents by going off what's on sale.

When stuff we buy frequently goes on sale cheap I make sure to stock up. Like the Capri Suns I bought 8 boxes since they were 99 cents a box. I bought a crap ton of goldfish because they were 10 for $10. Plus then sometimes you can download a coupon for the sale item making it even cheaper.

P&G has a new coupon program out where you can go to their website and download coupons directly to shopper cards too. This is how I save on laundry soap, diapers, pull ups, etc.

Hope this helps

CopperT0p · August 2014

I'm not sure if you're doing this already, but something that helps us save is planning meals for the week before we grocery shop. That way I can make veggies and meats work for multiple meals.

painttheair14 · August 2014

Good tips so far! We go to Kroger and only use in store sales. I should start looking into coupons.

xanadu94 · August 2014

I will shop sales with coupons and we also go to cheaper stores for everyday items. We usually get our groceries at Aldi's, since they seem to have the cheapest prices around here. Try not to buy name brand and you will save a ton there.

LittleMommaBlueHen · August 2014

Meal planning has been key for me.

Babychuu · August 2014

One thing I've learned from my MIL is to never throw anything away. No left-overs get thrown out in her house, ever. She makes just about everything into soup, and she freezes left over rice, pasta for future meals. Freezes/cans sauces for the next time she need a sauce, and she save juices from meats and boiled vegetables for using as broth for soups or skillet meals, instead of buying swansons broth in cans. She makes home-made marmalade and jelly from left-over fruits, though that's a skill not most people have. Left over bread can be dried in the oven (heat on low, cut into chunks and spread on cookie sheet until dried through) and used for croutons on salad or crushed for bread crumbs to cover casseroles.

Blend left-over veggies and add cream, heat in sauce pan with salt, pepper, seasoning for 15 minutes and ta-da! Soup!

Slice up old previously cooked meat OR almost expired lunch meat, fry potatoes in a pan and after potatoes are mostly cooked add sliced meat, transfer to baking pan and cover with almost-expired cheese (or fresh cheese) and bake. Its delicious.

It's a lot of work, but she saves a ton of money on groceries and its a time saver in the end. On days where she has no idea what to make or doesn't have time she simply re-heats what she's saved.

jcwinsto · August 2014

I realize that this is probably not helpful at all but we don't usually have to buy too much meat. We have our own chickens, we hunt each fall for deer, and the last beef we got was from my dad. We'll have to buy another beef soon but it will cost less to do it that way than buying in the store. When I do buy meat at the store I buy when on sale and buy in bulk at Sam's. We also garden and can and freeze whatever we can eat summer. We have 2 deep freezers. This keeps our bill at about $120 a week and I by no means watch prices or buy cheap. If I lived someplace that was easy to coupon and I watched prices, I imagine I could cut it a lot further. Almost all our meals include at least 1 or 2 ingredients from the freezer.

sehudson821 · August 2014

Coupons and meal planning! I shopped yesterday (for the whole month) and got $268 worth of groceries/household items for $114. We also set a budget for going out to eat. We have started going to the ATM and getting that money in cash. We keep in an envelope at home and when it's gone, it's gone.

painttheair14 · August 2014

@babychuu your mom sounds amazing!

We are vegetarian, so the meat price isn't an issue. We could be better with using up the produce though. I like the idea of making leftovers into sauce or soup!

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