Food is still going up in price, so now is the time to be smart with your shopping and cooking. With a little thought and a change in a few eating habits, you can provide cheap, tasty, and nutritious meals for the whole family every day. Here are some of the best ways to lower the cost of your family’s food bill without compromising on taste or goodness:
- Once a year, use everything you have in your closets. Only buy perishable items to go with what’s already there (you know, all those legumes, pasta shapes, jars of sauces, cans of stuff that’s been there for years!). That will cut your grocery bill significantly for a month and can give you some surprisingly tasty meals with sauces you’ve never had before.
- Shop at markets instead of supermarkets – save around 30% on your food bill. If you do it right (towards the end of the day), you can get whole boxes of fruits and vegetables for a very low price.
- Use the Internet to find unusual food recipes or to use up leftovers.
- If you’ve bought a lot of vegetables from the market at a very low price, make them into soup and freeze some or blanch (quickly boil half and then ‘chill’ under cold water) and freeze to use for later meals .
- Buy online if possible. Avoid being tempted by the ‘offers’ that supermarkets give you to make you buy. It might also be cheaper to pay for shipping (especially if you choose a less popular time) than the travel or gas costs you’d have to pay to get to the store. Also, sites tend to keep your last shopping list so you can go back to order what you need.
- Use Internet comparison sites to find the best prices for the things you want to buy on that site.
- Invest in a Klippits bag. They keep anything fresh: half-eaten bags of chips, opened packets of cereal, etc. They are wonderful things and really save on grocery bills by keeping everything fresh and crisp for weeks.
- Plan meals for the week (or even the month). That way, you can plan ahead, buy only what you need, reduce waste, and save a lot of money.
- Shop with a shopping list, based on the meals you have planned for the week. Try to stick to the list, although it may be a good idea to choose genuine items on sale that are close to their expiration date.
- Start growing your own fruits and vegetables. Even if you live in a flat with no outdoor space, you can grow herbs on windowsills, tomatoes in grow bags, and lettuce in window boxes!
- Cook in bulk on the weekend and freeze in individual (or family-sized) servings. This nicely cuts down on waste and keeps you from buying prepared or take-out meals.
- Check the fridge every day and plan meals around what is likely to go out first.
- Those leftovers from last night’s dinner can make a great lunch to take to work if refreshed with a salad, saving you money every day. For example, stews and soups can simply be put in a plastic box and microwaved at work. Cooked meat can be used in sandwiches, and even cooked vegetables and mashed potatoes can be whipped into a hearty, nutritious soup.
- Replace a meat dish with a vegetarian version once a week. Vegetarian meals are generally cheaper than meat-based ones. If you really want your meat, eat pork which, pound for pound, is the cheapest meat.
- Buy in bulk with friends. If one of you has a cash-and-carry card, shop together and get the benefit of low prices without having to stock up on stacks of cans at home.
- Keep fresh fruits, vegetables and salads in the fridge and they can last up to two more weeks.
- Get free food, especially spring through fall, by picking it up. However, be careful when picking up poisonous plants!
- Keep your own chickens, if you have the space and time. You will have fresh, organic eggs on a regular basis and could earn money by selling extra eggs to your neighbors. Enter freeganism! Freegans are people who pick up food thrown away by supermarkets because it is on its expiration date. Most foods are perfectly safe to eat at this stage, but legally supermarkets have to dispose of them. If you can find the bins at the back of supermarkets and you’re not scrupulous, you could eat for free every day of the year!
