One of the easiest ways to save money on food is to cook for yourself. This does not mean microwaving a TV dinner or heating a prepackaged meal. I am talking about putting together real ingredients into a home cooked meal. I know most people today feel they have too much to do already and preparing home cooked meals everyday may seem like an unrealistic goal, but there are ways for even the busiest cooks to make their own food. And for those of you who hate to cook, or think you can't cook, you would be surprised how quick and easily you can prepare real meals that your family will enjoy.
Here are my top Money Saving Tips for Grocery Shopping:
- Always shop with a list. It is too easy to succumb to impulse buys without your list, and studies have actually shown people spend 50"% more when shopping without a list.
- Don't buy more fresh produce than you actually need. You can break up large clumps of bananas, broccoli and other bulk produce items.
- Remember anything that has been peeled, chopped, cut and packaged costs more than whole food you prepare yourself. Lettuce, vegetables and meat is more expensive pre-cut.
- Buy cheese in bulk blocks and shred it yourself with a food processor.
- Coupons can be a real saver but unfortunately their are few coupons for whole, fresh foods and produce. I get around this by shopping the sales. Check your Wednesday paper for grocery store coupons and plan your week's meals around the sales.
- Know the best price for your staples so you know when a sale is really a good deal. Compare you local grocery stores and find the one that offers the best prices.
- Buy generic or store brand items. These usually taste just as good only you don't have to pay for the expensive TV commercials.
- Buy meat on sale. Meat that is near its expiration date will go on sale and many are afraid to buy this meat thinking it is bad, but you are fine if you cook it right away or freeze it. I have been doing this college and have never gotten sick.
- Buy meat in bulk and freeze it for the month. This way you can plan meals around what you have in your freezer and avoid paying full price for your meat.
- Invest in a freezer to store extra food and home prepared meals. If you can fit one of these in your basement or garage it will be well worth the investment.
- You can also save money by investing in a vacuum sealer. There are many inexpensive models today that will pay for themselves in no time. Vacuum sealed meat will lasts for months. You can also seal meals and have your own frozen convenience foods ready for quick meals.
- Be creative with leftovers and don't waste anything. A rotisserie chicken can be dinner one night and soup the next. Shred extra steak or chicken and toss with pasta for a quick, inexpensive meal.
- Don't buy anything but food at your grocery store. Paper products, beauty supplies and household items are much less expensive and discount and warehouse stores, while grocery stores will mark up these items as the profit margins on food are fairly low.
- Beat high food costs by growing your own food and herbs. Even a small vegetable garden can save you money on produce and fresh herbs are very expensive at the store. Herbs are extremely easy to grow and can be dried for use during the winter months as well. You can even grow herbs fresh indoors year round and save considerable money.
- Buy produce when it's in season and you can find good prices. For off season vegetables, you can find good deals on frozen bags of vegetables which are actually very nutritious and can be kept on hand for quick meals.
- If you eat a lot of bread and sandwiches you may want to invest in a bread machine. The price of bread, particularly healthy loaves, have gotten quite expensive and an inexpensive machine can pay for itself pretty soon. They make bread making very easy and fill your home with a wonderful aroma.
- Plan your meals in advance and prepare and precook as much as you can. Many people have found "once a month" cooking a great money and time saver. You need to invest one day to shop and one day to cook and package all of the meals, but the rest of the month you can relax and not worry about meal planning or shopping. If cooking for a whole month seems too daunting try two weeks or even one week at a time. There are cookbooks that can help you with recipes and shopping guides.
I hope you find these money saving tips helpful and hopefully you will be inspired to try cooking some meals at home. Home cooked meals are tastier and healthier as well as being less expensive than takeout or prepackaged meals. Perhaps is families start eating healthier meals at home again, something good will come out of this recession.
Try some of these easy dinner recipes...
