Prices are pretty unbeatable. I would recommend shopping for the meat that is on clearance and freeze it. My tip would be to check the sale tag at the store to see when the sale ends. I normally buy dog food at Walmart but my local grocery store had it on sale for significantly cheaper.

Had I not checked that I would have gone back to Walmart and paid more all summer long. I have started ordering my groceries online and having them delivered from our local grocery store. The delivery charge is minimal and I avoid shopping when I am hungry.

The running tally as I shop online keeps my budget in check. I highly recommend it! Yes, I buy some chips, cookies, etc. Fresh items are so much more fulfilling. There are meal ideas and helpful planning tools included as well. Check to see if you have one in your area.

They carry a lot of basics in generic-unknown brand with occasional name brand items. I have been shopping the majority of our groceries here for over 11 years. We find most items to be as good as name-brand and sometimes better.

Check out their site at aldi. us for a location near you. Andrea , I was just coming here to post about shopping at Aldi. I used to be a heavy couponner. Unfortunately, food prices are rising, coupon values are dropping, and stores are becoming increasingly more restrictive in their coupon policies, so I was not saving nearly as much as a year ago.

Aldi is now my go-to place for low prices. I can also get cheap produce and rice at H-Mart, which is an Asian grocery. I agree. I normally shop at Publix main grocery chain here in Florida and the south , but recently their prices have been going really high.

No complaints with Aldi, yet, and my grocery bill has greatly reduced! They send me an email each week with specials. Check this out…. I agree with everyone. Make more and freeze. Great for busy days. Using less meat and poultry and more vegetables saves lots of money.

Meal planning is essential. Stay out of the store and make the least amoun of trips that you can. My menu plan has generic name sof meals like : caseroles, crock pot, pasta. This way I can substitute chicken vs. beef for a casserole meal or pasta meatl.

Pasta can substitute red sauce for cream sauce. Use what you have and only buy the extras you need for the meal plan. Make sure each crock pot meal will have left overs for later in the week or to freeze.

Thansk to everyone for all the great ideas. I agree that extreme couponing or even mild takes up too muhc time. I would be cooking more with that time and saving a lots of cooking time later. Such great tips!

Over the past year, our family has done a major overhaul in the way we eat. Our perspective has changed a lot. Instead of living to eat — eating to live. We have learned to eat until content instead of feeling stuffed. We eat a lot of beans and rice and eggs, all inexpensive and healthy. We were blessed with a huge garden this summer which fed us for months, and I canned quite a bit as well.

We also live in a community with a large Amish population with a great discount store. Great produce and great prices which I am so thankful for. Thanks so much for your series. I love it! So in other words, instead of driving all over town for the specials that are supposed to get you into their store, you can get those great deals in one place.

All of the door-buster specials are available in one place, as long as the ad has a price and date on it. Yes, you do even better than Wal-mart roll-back prices! I rarely coupon, but I do this money saver every week.

price comparison list. perfect for me do to adhd. thanks so much. Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Subscribe by email and receive my free challenge, 5 Days to Overcome Your Hospitality Woes , plus updates on new recipes, DIY tricks, frugal finds, and more!

Try stretching your meats with additional beans and rice. Try and phase in one or two vegetarian options throughout the week. Enjoy this cool, crisp fall weather and enjoy soups, which are economical and filling. This is critical to slashing your food budget.

Do not meal plan and then shop. You shop and then meal plan. Examine the unit price before you buy bigger is not always better or cheaper, nor are brand name vs. generic brand. Stock pile when things go on sale. That is a stockpile price, even without coupons. Plan a No Food Waste Week.

It was incredibly eye opening to see how much food our family wasted on a regular basis, even though I really thought we barely wasted anything.

I had to get very creative, but it was worth it. I guess I like a challenge. Twice a year, I also do a Pantry Challenge where I attempt to go an entire month with virtually no shopping at the grocery store, except for produce and dairy.

This summer, I did a No spend, Clear out and Eat from my Garden challenge, and it was a huge success for our wallet. I even continued it while our family was in Guatemala. Last year, I shared 13 easy and odd ways to save money in the kitchen — all small tips, but added together over a long period of time really add up.

Other posts you might enjoy. Gina on October 10, at pm. Meredtih on October 12, at am. Jess on October 10, at pm. Celeste on October 10, at pm. Amy von Oven on October 10, at pm.

Jackie on October 10, at pm. Jessica This Blessed Life on October 10, at pm. beth on October 10, at pm. Sarah S. on October 10, at pm. Janet on October 10, at pm. sarah naturallydomestic on October 10, at pm. Annie~Savor This Moment on October 11, at am. Lisa Happy in Dole Valley on October 11, at am.

Shéa MacLeod on October 11, at am. Suzy on October 11, at am. cherise on October 11, at am. Jen on October 11, at am. Lois H. on October 18, at am. Margo on October 11, at am. Michelle willingcook. com on October 11, at am. Barb A Life in Balance on October 11, at am. Great wisdom, Barb — asking those questions are so important.

Angi on October 11, at am. For example, to help extend your grocery dollars, choose apples over berries or carrots or celery over leafy greens. Generally, some of the cheapest fruit and vegetables year-round tend to be bananas, apples, oranges, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and sweet potatoes.

Meat can be the most expensive category for most food budgets, and can account for a large portion of the overall grocery bill. To save money, opt for the ground variety of your favorite protein. Ground beef, chicken or turkey are super versatile, easily frozen and can be used in many different recipes.

Larger cuts of meat will usually cost less per pound, but they may require marinating, braising and slow cooking to bring out the tenderness. If you do prefer to include cheaper cuts of meat, consider including:. Buying a whole chicken instead of pre-portioned cuts can also save money and the leftovers, including the bones, are great for making chicken soup or bone broth.

Consider cutting costs even further by implementing Meatless Monday or meatless dinners a few nights a week. Swap out meat for healthy plant-based meat alternatives such as tofu, tempeh, beans and legumes, as your protein source.

The cost of fresh seafood may also vary seasonally. According to the Seafood Nutrition Partnership , fresh Alaskan salmon is less expensive during the summer when the fish are more abundant. Other popular choices that may be worth buying seasonally include Albacore tuna in season July-October and halibut in season March-November.

Other ways to save money on seafood:. Whether you prefer dairy or non-dairy, you can find competitive prices due to the sheer number of products on the market.

While non-dairy milks may be more expensive than dairy, some non-dairy brands offer shelf stable options that can be bought in bulk when they're on sale. Just note that many dairy and non- dairy milks and yogurts contain added sugars and sometimes saturated fats.

Always check the label before purchasing. More ways to save:. When it comes to cheap groceries, pantry staples are the big winners. This category includes dry and canned goods such as flour, oatmeal, chicken stock, nuts, nut butters and seeds.

Among the cheapest staples are dried and canned beans — they're also easy to prepare and provide a great source of plant-based protein and fiber, two very important nutrients that are often only available in more costly foods.

Grains like brown rice and oatmeal also score high in cost-effectiveness and nutrition. Frozen foods can be stored in your freezer for months. posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at AM on October 17, [ 14 favorites ].

Potatoes are cheap, filling and tasty, and go with pretty much everything. Don't peel them, wash them. You can cut them into wedges, microwave them on full blast for 5 minutes, and then fry them in a bit of oil.

posted by Too-Ticky at AM on October 17, [ 6 favorites ]. It also includes tips on how to shop and what kind of bargains to look for, and where paying a bit extra really matters for food quality. posted by ErisLordFreedom at AM on October 17, [ 12 favorites ].

Paying a little more for dish detergent Second Generation is good is worth it--it hurts when you realize it is more costly, but you can use a teensy bit at a time and ultimately it lasts longer. Most people use too much detergent in both laundry and dishwashing machines. It isn't necessary.

Learning to make a nice, passive bread like the No Knead bread recipe that is everywhere is useful--you can make good bread for pennies on the dollar and it's fancy and you really don't have to do much of anything--it is time consuming only in the most passive of senses. Dry ingredients like garlic and onion are underrated and good staple items and great to have if you want to add some flavor to whatever.

It took me a long time to accept this but it's preferable to just buy frozen broccoli if you can't reliably use the broccoli you got from the produce department. If I didn't have those frozen, I wouldn't eat them.

If you can splurge, the olive oil in the cans at the bottom of the shelf are ultimately much cheaper than the smaller amounts if you compare per gallon costs. Typically I don't look too hard at that but with olive oil, I do.

It's worth it to have even cheap wine around. When my husband and I were laid off many years ago, many a cheap-o romantic dinner was had over six dollar bottles of Shiraz. There is a Sunday Meal Prep subreddit , and the Frugal subreddit , both of which are good places for tips.

posted by A Terrible Llama at AM on October 17, [ 3 favorites ]. Response by poster: One additional thought - which Blast Hardcheese mentioned - I have a hard time with produce spoiling because I live alone and can't eat it quickly enough.

I love most fruit, plus spinach, tomatoes, bell peppers, snap peas, broccoli and the occasional carrot. posted by AFABulous at AM on October 17, posted by PMdixon at AM on October 17, [ 3 favorites ].

On update: freeze your produce. Cruciferous vegetables usually do well in the freezer, as do onions and peppers. posted by PMdixon at AM on October 17, Sticking to ethnic markets is a great strategy, and was my number 1 suggestion. The produce quality can vary, however.

It's best to use the stuff up quickly. Our local produce market will often sell discount produce that's on it's last legs. This shit gets turned into smoothies with the aid of a stick blender. Does the beans-exclusion also extend to lentils?

Because Daal is like, super, super fucking cheap. It needs not be spicy hot , but is often rather spiced. Spices seem expensive, but find yourself a grocery store with a good bulk section and get only exactly what you need, and you'll be fine.

Smoked and cured meats, while more expensive per weight, have more intense flavor and far less is used to flavor a dish. It holds well, is easy to scale and sustains. Buy whole chickens and learn how to butcher them yourself it's really just like 7 cuts, here's a great demo , just make sure your knife is sharp.

Whole chickens are almost always cheaper than purchasing their constituent parts. It's fairly easy, and then you get to turn the carcass into broth, which can be used in a dozen different ways to feed yourself. This isn't a time-efficient way of doing so, but you can take a basic broth nothing but chicken and water and add the aromatics in later.

If you have a 'base' broth, you can add in wildly different aromatics and have that one broth service all sorts of meals. There's a trend in produce sections to move towards packaged shit.

Avoid at all cost, as you mention, spoilage is rampant with that game. Now that you have the broth; Noodles. Noodles come in every stripe known to mankind. If you have access to an asian grocery store, you'll have access to tons of cheap, fresh noodles that are nigh endless in variety.

Noodles fill you up. Noodles are cheap. Depending on where you live, your neighbors might have some large rosemary or other herbs growing near wild. I've never felt guilty about snipping an inch or two off for a meal, especially when that amount of herb costs several dollars at a grocery store.

Eggs are a fantastic source of sustenance, and there are like a billion ways to cook them. Personal fave that ties in with broth and noodles is soft boiled.

posted by furnace. heart at AM on October 17, [ 5 favorites ]. To add to the places A Terrible Llama linked, EatCheapAndHealthy on reddit is good for general strategies as well. Some other comments: - Frozen spinach is cheap and really useful for adding some greens to whatever. Like eggs. It's more expensive though.

posted by quaking fajita at AM on October 17, [ 1 favorite ]. Agree on the planning - it's a great way to reduce waste. Buying cabbage to use on tacos? Then you plan another meal using it as well later in the week. Make a list of all the stuff you like and then you can group them easily into meals that use similar ingredients.

Re: bulk items - these are GREAT money savers. You don't have to buy a lot - you can buy exactly the amount of rice or pasta or spices or whatever you need for what you're cooking, with no leftovers to store. Same with veggies - do some prep once a week so stuff is ready to go when you want to cook.

Figure out how to repurpose leftovers so they don't seem like leftovers roast chicken one night, tortilla soup another, a stir fry another. Whole chicken instead of parts. Seasonal produce is cheap, but produce in general is not always and frozen can often be a good alternate.

There are good recipes Serious Eats, Epicurious, NY Times etc. Lots of ideas here. I would read this , too. posted by OneSmartMonkey at AM on October 17, Order some groceries from Vitacost. I buy oatmeal as well as larabars there to save money.

I also get my toiletries there, but that's because I try to buy cruelty-free, which is more expensive in regular stores. What's cheaper for you will vary, so you'd have to go through the website. They're definitely oriented toward what I'll call "health" brands.

posted by FencingGal at AM on October 17, [ 1 favorite ]. Cheap protein without beans is tough but doable: Plan on lots of eggs and cheap cuts of meat in stews.

Get some vegetarian cookbooks from the library if you don't already have the knowledge. Tofu, tempeh, and vital wheat gluten for making seitan are all pretty cheap. Whole grains have lots of protein, and brown rice and steel cut oats are very cheap. Quinoa is expensive but you can mix it with other grains like rice.

Powdered milk is also a good sub for protein, works best in recipes rather than straight. Yogurt is great and cheap if you make it in batch from scratch pretty easy. Peanut butter cost pennies and can be a base for many meals peanut noodles, African peanut stew.

Can you eat peas? Split pea soup, etc is very cheap. posted by veery at AM on October 17, [ 1 favorite ]. I have a hard time with produce spoiling because I live alone and can't eat it quickly enough. One tip I use that saves me money and prevents this from happening: for produce sold by the pound, you can pull out what you need.

I will sometimes pull two kale leaves out from different bunches, and I end up paying 31 cents for it, and it doesn't spoil. You can break off a tiny piece of ginger. You can buy two loose mushrooms to chop for a stir-fry.

You can pull out one cluster of grapes, even if all the bags contain This works best if you are close to a store, and doesn't work with places like Aldi, but it can make a difference with cost and waste. posted by a fiendish thingy at AM on October 17, [ 7 favorites ].

The most drastic cutting to my grocery bill happened when I was really serious and diligent about making menus and sticking to them. I HATE doing it, sadly, but it really did make a huge difference. There are some grocery items at Target if yours has a grocery that are, at least in my area, cheaper than they are at the grocery store.

Off the top of my head: cereal, milk, snackies like chips except for the super cheap Kroger tortilla chips , and some frozen stuff.

On preview: seconding a fiendish thingy's suggestion on pulling out only what you need in produce sold by the pound. posted by cooker girl at AM on October 17, Yes, seconding the broth idea.

Crock pot? You're golden. Buy soup bones, turkey necks, oxtails--that kind of thing, at the right store: if it's a hipster store, they'll mark it up because it's peasant food--and throw in crockpot on low with water. Flash fry cheap vegetables like carrots, celery and greens, and add them to the broth with cooked noodles, rice, barley, potatoes, whatever--do a different assemblage every day so you don't die of the dull.

Buy just a few of the high end vegetables you like to use as freshcrunch garnish on top of the soup. You can make a bell pepper last a few days this way.

Add water to the crock pot to replace what you take out, until it gets too low in umami, whereupon toss and start over with a new base meat. You can put an entire uncutup frozen chicken directly into the crock pot, add water to cover, and start drinking the proceeds the next day, and you can live off of that for nearly a week before it gets too tired.

Oh: ONIONS. They're cheap as dirt and they make everything delicious. posted by Don Pepino at AM on October 17, [ 2 favorites ]. One of my big cooking-for-one discoveries has been frozen produce. Budget Bytes has converted me to the virtues of frozen broccoli , which is cheap, doesn't spoil, and comes pre-chopped and ready to go.

Frozen veggies work for stir fries. Aldi has cheap frozen produce, although I'm not sure there's a huge difference between Aldi and the store brand at the supermarket. Chicken thighs are pretty cheap. I make a batch like this and then put them on salads or in sandwiches over the course of a week.

I get salad stuff at Aldi. posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at AM on October 17, [ 3 favorites ]. How tight we talking? It's not a cheap diet. here's how: Visualize every plate in thirds. Choose one item per category.

You can make it into a soup, salad, stir-fry, roast, slow cook stew or sandwich. Greens esp, and frozen.. Drizzle as much oil, fat and mayonnaise as you like over everything. Choose fatty cheap cuts of meat — eat the gristle, or turn it into stock!

Don't buy prepackaged or highly processed food at all — any supplements you buy should be things like "herbs, spices, pickles, olives, pesto, mustards, flavorful sauces" that pack a punch and last a long time. I follow the same pattern every day. Breakfast is 2 eggs and sweet potato hash with slivered onions, greens, bell peppers.

Lunch is soup or salad. Dinner is stir-fry made of whatever's in my fridge or, possibly, a classic midwestern meat and vegetables dinner. When I have time I make big batches of more prep-intensive food. You can substitute leftovers for any of the above. If I'm really lazy, I visit my favorite cheap Mexican stand or Thai restaurant and order three days worth of tacos or pho.

posted by fritillary at AM on October 17, [ 2 favorites ]. I forgot the king of side meats: the ham hock.

Ham hocks and collards. I guess this might depend where you are, but where they grow collards should always be cheap, especially if you buy the enormous bunches.

Wash in the washing machine, strip them off the spines, cook in enormous soup pot with ham hock, freeze in batches, food for months. Further pursuant to side meat, bacon. Freeze in two-strip allotments which you dice, fry and drain.

Fry onion in the bacon grease 'til part-done, saute squash or okra or whatever hearty vegetable 'til soft, add the bacon back in, salt, pepper, delicious. If you really want to save, don't toss traditionally tossed parts of vegetables.

Like those collard spines. I've minced them and cooked them this way with bacon and onion, and they're fine. Not, you know, like eating yellow squash cooked the same way, which is sublime, but perfectly edible.

posted by Don Pepino at AM on October 17, May I suggest noodles, if you have a passion for them. Noodles with cheese, noodles with red sauce, noodles with peanut butter, noodles with olive oil, noodles tossed with ground beef and cabbage, noodles with garlic and yogurt.

They are easy to make and easy to add variety to, I guess. If you can trick yourself into feeling enthusiasm or excitement for a couple of recipes, that could help! There are so many delicious and novel recipes that you can make with chicken drumsticks and tofu, to name two cheap protein sources.

Lots of interesting Youtube resources. I think coming up with a Signature Version of these kinds of dishes could help. I personally need a protein of some kind not to feel deprived.

posted by karmachameleon at AM on October 17, [ 1 favorite ]. You can freeze just about anything you buy including dairy products like cheese. Now the texture might be a little different when you thaw it out, but it still tastes pretty much the same.

What I do is buy milk, cheese, meat, and produce when it's at a deep discount and freeze most of it in plastic zipper bags for use at a later date. It's the only way I can afford to eat good food that is healthy.

Also, find printable coupons on the internet. Many different sites. Google for printable coupons. Then "stack" the coupons with the sales at the grocery store for even more savings!

Check out the coupon blogs online, not to get into extreme couponing, but to find out how other people save money on groceries and other goods. It's possible to save a lot of money with a little bit of work before you head to the market.

Good luck! posted by strelitzia at AM on October 17, [ 1 favorite ]. I know you said that you didn't want recipes, but then you also said that you had trouble with vegetables spoiling.

Are you looking for the cheapest food to save on your grocery bill? Here are 45+ options for the cheapest pantry and fridge staples you can For even greater savings, purchase canned food items at discount stores — like Big Lots and Dollar General — and budget grocery chains like Aldi Get access to cheap groceries and low cost food. Non-profits run programs that offer cheap groceries, inexpensive food boxes and low-cost items both online

Frugal food vouchers) Affordable canned goods - Being affordable and nutritious, apples are a great fruit option for those seeking to cut down on spending. Key Takeaways: Canned fruits and Are you looking for the cheapest food to save on your grocery bill? Here are 45+ options for the cheapest pantry and fridge staples you can For even greater savings, purchase canned food items at discount stores — like Big Lots and Dollar General — and budget grocery chains like Aldi Get access to cheap groceries and low cost food. Non-profits run programs that offer cheap groceries, inexpensive food boxes and low-cost items both online

Also, before you actually read our budget-friendly menu plan, here are a couple of things that are helpful to know:. Below you will find our lunches and dinners. Monday through Friday, 3 days a week the lunches are just for the two youngest and I, the other 2 days my husband joins us.

Our son gets lunch at school and 3 days a week my husband takes a packed lunch with him to work. His lunch typically consists of sandwiches, fruit, homemade yogurt and sometimes random leftovers too.

It has 7 easy dinners for a family of 5. Hey Danielle, thanks for the feedback. Also, some of the recipes are ones that I got from a cookbook or my mom etc. However, I started to realize that some readers use these to duplicate as their own meal plans, so in my more recent meal plan posts I have started finding similar recipes online and link to those instead.

Your comment made me realize that I should go back through some of these older menu plans and update them. So you will see that I added links for the chocolate brownies, macaroni beef skillet, tomato soup and vegetable soup. I hope that helps!

If you are looking for a fully done for you meal plan that includes a grocery list, I do have this one week meal plan that I based off Aldi ingredients that might be useful. I hope that helps you out a bit!

Thank you so much! I also realized, oh my gosh, food prices have gone up soooo much — even cutting this plan down some. We are on track to be way over for the month.

I know. They really have! It can be really tricky to figure out how to stay within budget, especially with the costs rising so much! I hope you can figure out some things to do that work well for you to get it to where you can feel good about it.

I absolutely love this! Going to check out that fugal recipe post too. Most of that food is in my cabinet now. Great for college students trying to figure out too! These are all really great options. I will pin this for future reference. These are all great budget conscience tips, I think it is great the you also offer links for healthy recipes too.

This makes saving money and eating well easy. Cheese singles?! are you kidding me? There is nothing more expensive that already sliced cheese plus the crap that they wrap individually! Slice your own- thats the way to save money! Judy, I would have to agree.

A cheaper way to buy cheese would be to buy in a brick and slice it yourself. Thanks for the tip! I have found that making your own mac n cheese can be alot cheaper than buying boxed And tastes so much better! Bag of elbow noodles Mac n cheese seasoning from McCormick Milk Butter Cream Cheese Delicious!!

Thanks for the tip Carmen. I love to make my own Mac n Cheese. I have to try it. Also, I switched from Shoprite to Walmart for groceries. I chop up cabbage, onions and carrots and dump in a crockpot. After it is cooked I add a can of diced tomatoes.

This is nutrient dense and waistline friendly. I put frozen chicken breasts in my Instant Pot and shred them when they are done. These items are versatile and can be mixed with other foods.

When I was broke with two growing boys, I followed the directions on powdered milk and added it to whole milk. If you have a gallon of whole milk, add quarts of the powdered milk. Plain powdered milk tastes awful. Your email address will not be published. Wanna know how this blog makes money? Canned fish is better to buy when broke, and you can make cheap meals like tuna salad or casserole in a flash.

Canned chicken is an excellent option for those looking for the cheapest groceries that are also healthy. This protein-rich food can be used in various ways, from chicken salad sandwiches to casseroles. While the quality and taste of canned chicken can vary, some brands offer a good product at a reasonable price.

Anyone who has ever gone grocery shopping knows that dairy products are not some of the cheapest groceries to buy. Milk is a staple in many households, but it can be expensive at many grocery stores.

There are a few ways to save on milk for the budget-conscious shopper. Another way to save some money is to buy milk in larger containers and plan to use it all rather than waste it. A gallon of milk costs less per ounce than a half-gallon, so buying more saves you more.

When it comes to a cheap grocery list, there are a few essential items that you can permanently save some money on by opting for the cheaper option—for example, butter or margarine. Margarine is typically cheaper than butter, though butter does have a richer taste.

Use butter for some dishes that need that buttery flavor, but use margarine on others that have a lot of other seasonings to provide flavor. Plain yogurt is relatively inexpensive, making it one of the cheapest foods and an excellent option for budget-conscious shoppers.

Plain yogurt can be used in place of sour cream or mayonnaise in recipes or enjoyed as a healthy snack by adding honey and canned fruit to it. You can buy it in bulk to save money and have it on hand for other cheap meals on your list.

What makes cottage cheese one of the best cheap foods to buy? It can be used in dishes like dips, salads, sauces, and baked goods, such as muffins and pancakes. Try pairing cottage cheese with whole-grain bread or crackers or adding it to your favorite soup or chili recipe for a budget-friendly meal.

Sour cream is a versatile dairy product that can be used in various dishes. While it is often used as a topping for baked potatoes, it can also be used in soups, stews, and casseroles.

In addition, sour cream can be mixed with other cheap foods even frozen vegetables to make a dip or spread. You pay for convenience with shredded and sliced cheeses, and you can do the same stuff with block cheese for a lower cost! With Capital One Shopping , you can save on your grocery list when you buy online.

Simply install the extension and start grocery shopping as usual. One helpful tool to help you save more money is Honey , a free app that you add to your browser. It helps you save money on your groceries by looking for price drops and coupons for your food orders.

Ibotta is another app to save money when you need to buy food. It offers cashback rewards on certain items, which can help you save money on your overall grocery bill.

Ibotta also provides exclusive coupons and deals on popular items, so you can get the best prices on the items you need. By signing up for Rakuten , you can instantly start receiving coupons and discounts on your groceries.

Just like the other programs, Rakuten also offers a cashback program to earn money while you shop. Hopefully, my list of the cheapest food has given you some options for your next grocery trip. By being mindful of your spending, you can further your budget and stock your pantry with some cheap foods.

Take advantage of apps and websites that offer cash back, coupons, and discounts on cheap groceries to save even more money.

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Frugal food vouchers) Affordable canned goods - Being affordable and nutritious, apples are a great fruit option for those seeking to cut down on spending. Key Takeaways: Canned fruits and Are you looking for the cheapest food to save on your grocery bill? Here are 45+ options for the cheapest pantry and fridge staples you can For even greater savings, purchase canned food items at discount stores — like Big Lots and Dollar General — and budget grocery chains like Aldi Get access to cheap groceries and low cost food. Non-profits run programs that offer cheap groceries, inexpensive food boxes and low-cost items both online

My rent budget is five to ten times what my food budget is, and my income tax budget is three times that. If you live in the U. you might want to give TurboTax a try. TurboTax knows about every tax deduction there is and can save you quite a bit on your income taxes when you file.

Great post. I am vegan so I chuckle at comments that a vegan diet is expensive. Like you point out, if you avoid the processed stuff and stick to whole foods then it can be crazy cheap!

We do have slightly higher grocery bills because we balance shopping for a committed vegan me with my omni husband and kids. The family eats lots of vegan dishes with the odd bit of meat served on the side to keep them happy.

It works. As requested, this is a homemade vegan granola bar that we love. Here is a link to the recipe. She also has a blog which has some fantastic and freely shared recipes if you google her name for those looking for recipes.

Like you I am an avid hiker. I am in the process of completing the Bruce Trail in Ontario just shy of km. These bars, along with a pb and banana sandwich are my go to hiking snack. Delicious recipes! Good, basic vegan food. This post is excellent! Thank you! We buy whole ingredients, waste almost nothing and bulk cook so we always have something to eat even if we are lazy.

Just ate NC pulled pork bbq last night. From the freezer! That will be pulled pork tacos for lunch today along with home cooked crock pot beans from the freezer of course. That was pretty much a perfect list.

Whenever I get into discussions on MMM on how to eat frugally — often people are frustrated that they cannot get their bill as low as others.

I make many of those points. The big 3 for me: 1. What you eat. Paleo, Vegan, Omnivore, whatever — everyone has different needs I, for one, cannot maintain my weight at a healthy weight by eating a carb-heavy diet anymore. So sad. Carbs are cheap. Where you shop. We have a couple of stores that have produce REALLY cheap, and we eat pounds per day.

It adds up. Where you live. Some areas of the country are more expensive. Some towns do not have a lot of competition. I love your list. And I love that it sounds like you help people figure out what will work in THEIR situation — or at least to think about their own variables.

But I have found that roasted sweet potatoes are okay for me for whatever reason. I roast up a couple a week and eat those for breakfast. I also throw them in soups.

Ahhh food. Such an expensive thing, that. We have a few allergies, some of which we choose to buy our way out of and boy does it get expensive! My spouse eats one between work and squash, nights per week. My parents alive on green smoothies and they throw the Entire Bag of spinach straight I to the freezer when they get home from the store, then take what they want.

We buy the big bags of mixed greens — spinach, kale, etc. and the big size of broccoli at Costco and I blend it with some whey from my homemade yogurt and freeze it in cubes.

We throw them into our daily fruit smoothies. Now I keep some out to use fresh and freeze the rest. Eating in is just a matter of habit and practice. Cheapheart and I are in the food and wine business.

There is absolutely no excuse not to learn to cook. There is an endless wealth of information about how cook anything and everything on the internet. Serious Eats is a great resource. It is ready in half an hour. Cheapheart and I banged out a big pot of lentil, sausage and kale soup and a pot of tomato sauce and meatballs in a half an hour.

Long ago, I gave Mr. Cheapheart the gift of a pizza making class at the awesome King Arthur Flour Baking Center near you Frugalwoods! It was not cheap, but it was nice to spend time together away from the baby and learn something new.

Years of confidence in pizza making have certainly paid for that class many times over. The dough takes 5 mins to asssemble and 45 minutes in the bread machine unstylish and very useful appliance, buy one used, people are always getting rid of them.

Tastes way better, and is healthier and cheaper than delivery, plus the pride of doing it yourself is the best part! I have been encouraged to embrace them by two women I admire. You can assemble a loaf in10 minutes. Takes hours of bread machine magic for a nice loaf of tasty homemade bread at a fraction of the cost.

Once you become accustomed to eating homemade bread, the stuff out of the bag is pretty appalling. Better, healthier, cheaper. I recommend the Panasonic YD, look on Craigslist or eBay.

Yogurt is another easy thing to make that is just a matter of practice, a million recipes on the internet and no special equipment required other than maybe a thermometer. For the price of a half gallon of milk I can have a half gallon of yogurt for 10 minutes active time.

Plus no stabilizers and gums. Better, healthier, cheaper, pride! For better nutrition and even more savings, have you considered milling your own flour? Most modern whole wheat flour is actually white flour with the germ added back later. Is that a challenge snowcanyon? When I lived in the city I did not have this option!

King Arthur has a great website and they are customer-friendly, but their flour is mass-market and not particularly good, nor do they have all the varieties necessary for classic European-style unsweetened whole-wheat bread. You can mill flour in one minute in a vitamix!

I will give it a try for sure. KAF has a beautiful teaching facility in Vermont that offers lots of great classes with state of the art equipment. I was just planning to mention that King Arthur chewy granola bars are the best. I make them weekly.

It calls for cups fruit and nuts, any combo, so it is good for remnants of bulk purchases. I LOVE King Arthur Flour recipes, so this sounds great! And in a frugal win- we got our bread machine for free when a family member was moving.

If you can make split pea soup, you can make lentil. The primary difference is you WANT to cook the peas into oblivion, with lentils you generally want them to retain their shape.

We love both. Leftovers are great. Random bits of leftover veggies can go into either. A dollop of sour cream or yogurt on top makes it seem more special, or a very little sherry.

Homemade pizza can also accommodate bits of leftovers. Top with pizza-type toppings and heat in the oven. Sounds fancy. Pasta, veggies, and a sprinkle of parmesan, a little pepper. Can be hot or cold. Warming even slightly may be preferable to stone cold out of the fridge.

This means you also get less added sugar. Frozen veggies when on sale can be a great find, especially for things not seasonal or not readily available in your area.

I like to cook dry beans for chili. So cook a batch of beans pinto or kidney , make some into chili, the rest into refried beans.

Both freeze beautifully. Explore vegetarian and vegan recipes to cut down on meat consumption. Find something else. I really appreciate your note at the top about being sure to find your food priorities and then figure out how to frugalize is that a word? We try really hard to buy organic and to be frugal.

Even that though has changed our habits to encourage frugality. I follow many of the tips you gave, already, but somehow, seeing it in plain writing makes it impressed upon me to really watch how and what I buy.

I know I can still reduce our food budget if I think more strategically. Thanks for the encouragement and reminders! I work outside the home, full-time, so I do this on weekends or evenings — it can be done!

I second your comments about coupons. The only exceptions to that will likely be from a local market. Kroger or Giant Eagle central Ohio will sometimes have coupons in the paper or their mailings for their house brand products usually a good deal , or occasionally for produce.

Favorite go to meal during the week is garlic, onions, tomatoes, rice,shaved carrots, and jalepenoes. I throw in sweet red peppers and sometimes left over chicken. Saute in some olive oil and yummy. Babywoods is so darling! Thank you very much for the list! May I ask how long do you store the homemade food in the freezer and at what tempetature?

We have a small freezer inside the refridgerator, not a separate freezer, and I am not how long cooked food will be good there. How long do you store food soups, lunches in the usual fridge and at what temperature?

Do you maybe know if there are any safety rules in this respect? Thank you very much! Food stored below freezing will stay safe indefinitely, as bacteria cannot grow in freezing temperatures. I finally feel very secure in feeding my family and myself… it only took 10 years of trial and error!

I have also learned about cutting down food waste by going through my kitchen once a week and putting stuff on the counter that needs to be used up… right now I have corn meal, a can of cream of chicken, a can of cream of mushroom, fried onions, apricot preserves and pie crust mix… all items gifted to me by my Buy Nothing Group.

I make it a point to collect unwanted food items from my BN community and then build recipes around them. Last week we had salmon cakes and pumpkin pie because of my BN gifts. My food bill is still not as cheap as others, but I think it has to do with geography.

In general living on the west coast means that our costs are higher. and you can sub different types of flour and mix-ins nuts, seeds, etc. Our biggest foods savings, besides raising some vegetables and chickens in the summer, comes from eating bone-in chicken.

I agree that being judicious about your proteins can make a huge difference. Love the tips! We use most for our family of five healthy eaters—buy bulk raw ingredients, add beans and onions to everything to stretch it, slow cooker soups and stews, planned leftover meals, etc.

We also finally invested in a pressure cooker, which is proving to be a game changer! Less temptation to give into take out or eat through our entire stash of freezer meals when you can cook beans in 30 min or frozen chicken in 10!

We used to do more of our meal prep on weekends, but as the kids get older and have more activities popping up on weekends, it was getting hard to keep up with the prep. Our other strategy is frittatas of every variety. Do you make it in a high speed blender like a Vitamix?

I never enjoyed homemade hummus made in the food processor, but in the Vitamix or other comparable one the texture is so much smoother. We bought canned beans from target most recently and they were super firm and make very chunky hummus. If you cook your own garbanzo beans, you can make sure to get them thoroughly softened first.

Are you using dried chickpeas? which I personally think is superior Is your water hard? Our new house has very hard water so I now use distilled water to cook my chickpeas and other beans.

It makes a big difference with the texture of the chickpeas. I suffered though a year of horrible beans before I discovered water can make or break your beans and it is definitely worth the extra dollar for distilled water.

I tried those once with no luck, so I went back to canned, though that may have been at my old apartment which had really hard water…. I may get some dried ones though and try out the crockpot method of soaking.

Dumber people than I have mastered homemade hummus! Otherwise, make sure you blend, blend, blend. I use a Cuisnart as well — it should get fluffy. Make sure you have a little lemon juice in there.

Great post! If you want to get all fancy with your hummus because I like the taste the tahini adds to it , you can always make it yourself. And the bonus is that you can also use the sesame seeds for your homemade breads which we do quite a lot. We fed our Demon Child the same way and I can report, three years on, that she is willing to eat just about anything.

The kid asks for snacks of broccoli and fourth helpings of beans! but she eats it just fine. Thank you for sharing! FW will have her in the kitchen with him as soon as possible!

Hey guys! It just might be my all time favorite tv show! Just wanted to share the link for my favorite granola bar recipe.

One thing that has helped us consume more of our leftovers is packaging them in individual serving size containers. Then, when we need to grab food for lunch or dinner, we can just grab a meal out of the refrigerator and warm it up.

The book itself is available at our library. As someone who lives in a city with limited grocery stores but TONS of restaurants I have had to work on this- especially since I have a LOT of severe food allergies one epipen or ER visit is definitely more than my grocery bill!

so I have to be careful of what I eat. I love making soup from scratch and taking it to work, and buying basics rather than premade food. I also do use coupons a few times a year when I know basics like tp, paper towels, shampoo, etc will be on sale.

Also, befriend your local butcher! Easy protein source. Great list of tips and resources! Thanks again for always impressing! A big key for me has been to reduce the thinking behind. well, everything. Every two weeks I put on a pot of dry beans to cook for two hours, and add seasonings and oil as they cook down.

Then I scoop out half cup portions into lunch containers, let them cool, add cheap bulk frozen veggies, and shove all ten plus containers back in the freezer.

At the beginning of every week, I portion out nuts in small containers for lunch, and oatmeal with cinnamon and chia and yogurt with honey for breakfast. The savings in time, money, and stress have been terrific. All I have to do is fend off the folks who think eating beans and oatmeal every day reflect a serious lack of imagination.

Great article! My approach is similar, but I have yet to give up the semi-weekly meal out at UNO or one of our local establishments.

You mentioned that you buy granola bars… I thought I would share this recipe for homemade granola bars , which I made recently and LOVED. I changed a few things around, like adding toasted sesame seeds, pecans, walnuts, and I used sliced, skinless almonds instead of whole ones.

Oh, and I added a tablespoon of butter and a little bit of salt to the mix. I toasted the oats and all the nuts first, which I think adds a nice flavor note.

After cutting the bars, I kept them from sticking together by wrapping them in little pieces of waxed paper. When I have had dinner failures…. hot sauce.

We make what my husband calls salsa soup. Any bulk hot sauce you have can save a bad fish stew or similar. I actually save up my scrap vegetables in a freezer bag in the freezer…when I have a couple full bags I make a batch of vegetable stock.

Love this post and your blog. Do you ever buy Frugalhound treats? Or do you make them homemade? Dog treats are one of the food priorities in our house. My mother grew up in wartime Europe and these were lessons necessary for life, not just lifestyle.

We are currently working on less packaged food. More of a health choice than frugality actually. I will say you are lucky with your little ones eating habits. My oldest daughter has always been a great eater. We are working with an occupational therapist to expand her horizons.

Unfortunately feeding your kids is not always as straightforward as one might think. Fresh veggies are usually cheaper than most packaged options, you can get a lot of vegetables and fruit for less than it would be for prepackaged foods.

The best part of this extremely informative article is the picture of Houndlett licking food off of Babylett. Yes, you have been upstaged by the younger generation. My desire to eat gourmet food often was my incentive to learn to cook.

The restaurant scene in Vancouver was vibrant and expensive! so I began researching recipes. And, of course, the savings have been incredible.

Because food is our hobby, we have no problem with sourcing great ingredients, eating out and generally spending most of our variable income on food. Having said that, there are plenty of things we happily do without to fund that one particular lifestyle choice.

Your discussion about babywoods and healthy eating reminds me of our toddler. On another note, you can freeze flour. I freeze my whole wheat flour to keep it fresh longer, which lets me buy larger bulk amounts than I could use in the normal run of things before it went bad.

But, may I point out, there are also things you CAN expect. Not to get too personal, but, every month there are a few days that come where I know I will not be cooking.

Like spaghetti, really any type of pasta, with a package of frozen veggies to go along with it. He takes them for lunch too so I never seem to have any full dinners around for those occasions.

I do plan on working that in though so thanks for the ideas. Thanks for all the encouragement and the regular flow of ideas. It helps so much! We have many of the same tactics. We stay regimented with our grocery shopping always on the weekend and always one trip per week.

We compile the list as we go throughout the week adding items as we use them up or think of recipes to make. Thank you for all the great posts on grocery expenses! We do love those Costco pizzas! Grocery budgeting is a fun challenge, but the other big killer of flexible expenses for me is non-food consumables: toiletries, paper goods, disposables I have cut down our plastic consumption drastically, but sometimes you just need freezer bags for frozen meals!

Do you have any advice on these, or could you point me to a post on it? not wearing makeup and getting LASIK. I would love a comprehensive post on non-food consumables in the same vein as your grocery posts.

I love your writing! We also try to use re-usable products as much as possible. For example: our glass tupperware gets used over and over again, I store our bread wrapped in a tea towel, I use rags instead of paper towels. We also invest when it makes sense, such as in re-chargeable batteries, low-energy-use lightbulbs, etc.

I hope this helps! Our power company lets us order LED lights at a HUGE discount. Check and see if yours does. Coconut oil makes a divine moisturizer. I also make a whipped body butter I love for winter coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and almond oil in equal proportions, chilled and whipped.

I make a whipped body butter too with those same ingredients! Smells heavenly! Did you get from the Trash is Tossers website, like me?

Frugal weirdo toiletry tip: try Tibetan crystal deodorant! Mix previous. Press into a baking sheet. I tend to think we have the food thing down, but even I picked up some great tips here! I also really enjoyed how long it was, much longer than you usually write. More Frugalwoods is a good thing in my book!

My current frugal boss move is to make a giant egg bake for the week. I top with whatever bits and bobs of cheese are still hanging about, then 12 beaten eggs. Love this post! I have bought barley, millet, buckwheat, wheat berries, amaranth, and more at Whole Foods and is just insanely expensive.

I would love to source these great grains online and see big box. Any suggestions? I buy mine at the local grain elevators; wheat berries, oats, rye and corn.

Just notice when and what the farmers are harvesting to determine when to stop at the elevator. You can not pick up oats when they are harvesting wheat! We eat a lot like you do Mrs. We rarely eat out. It makes a huge difference in our food budget, but we do splurge on the specialty ingredients to make yummy Asian dishes.

So we pay a little extra for that good life. Such great advice all around. We had split pea soup last night and there is enough in the freezer for several meals. I want to give another thumbs up for freezer meals. They have saved me so many times.

Monday I got home from a weekend out of town and we had lasagna from the freezer. I make 3 at a time — still one left! Today we skied all day and came home tired and famished. There was a time this would have meant order pizza or Chinese take-out, but I had thawed a chicken and noodle casserole before we left.

That and some steamed broccoli will make a great meal. We are also big on packing lunches for road trips and anytime we will be away at lunch time. We prefer a homemade sandwich with homemade bread! to fast food, and so does our bank account. Food is hard for me, since I have 14 allergies.

Onions, garlic, rice, wheat, oats, eggs, peanuts, etc. That does mean that I never eat out, which is budget friendly.

I buy only raw food, in bulk when I can. I have a friend who has a severe corn allergy along with concurrent related food allergies. So totally hear ya about how hard it can be dealing with food.

Most of the squash will be the main ingredient in soup. I season with herbs, a little bit of salt, and a dash of chipotle chili, but you could use anything and could make it more sweet than spicy. You would have to skip the few that involve oats.

Potatoes in 15 minutes, brown rice in Beans, lentils, kale, soup — no more standing over the stove — dump in and set. Love these tips. I have brown basmati rice frozen in pint-sized packets for quick meals, too, plus lots of quart-sized soups and stews ready.

Our biggest food priority is eating healthy fish sourced in the most environmentally responsible way. So we invest in shipping pounds of wild-caught Alaskan salmon every year, plus 80 cans of sockeye for salmon salad and fish patties. Some people buy a side of beef, we buy Alaskan salmon and follow a Native American version of the Mediterranean Diet, which is a little seafood, lots of greens and vegetables, and some nuts, beans, legumes, and a few grains.

That quinoa bowl looks yum! Do you scramble the egg? Did I really say that?!? Must have been a moment of delusion was I pregnant at the time? The thing is that Mr. FW is really good at cooking and he enjoys it, whereas me, not so much on either of those. If I absolutely had to cook, I would.

But I prefer to clean and do the laundry while he manages all things culinary :. Have you considered purchasing an instant pot? Worth every penny in my opinion. I use it to make yogurt, rice, quinoa, and so on. I currently have frozen chicken breasts in there that will cook up in 15 minutes flat.

It helps me avoid to the temptation to buy takeout and premade foods because it is so quick and easy to use. Yes, I agree the Instant Pot is great!! I make yogurt, soups, stews, and breakfast and lunch preps for the week.

After considerable research, and hemming and hawing, I finally purchased an instant pot for many of the same reasons. Totally worth it! One big purchase we feel has paid us back tenfold. A friend, however, makes them regularly and said the secret is brown rice syrup.

She buys it from a co-op grocery store, it seems to be the kind of thing you either find at a health food store or at an Asian supermarket. Worth a shot! Around here, regular price is about ¢ a pound, but every so often they go on sale for ¢ a pound and I buy the max the store will allow.

I bake them, shred off whatever meat I can, and then turn the bones lots of bones! into broth. I priced it out as being about 50 cents per quart of broth made to store-bought strength, though I do reduce it for the freezer to save space.

The meat is useful for soup, casseroles, chicken salad, etc. Other protein— the cut of meat called top blade steaks, or Spencer steaks in the midwest, or flat iron steaks.

All the same. They are usually rather thin cut, oblong shape well-marbled meat with a line of gristle down the middle. The other cut I get is called chuck eye, only one of my local grocery stores carries it. I use that to make homemade cured salmon, aka lox. We also use that salmon to make salmon sandwiches, basically eaten just like a burger with a piece of salmon instead of beef.

Each piece is about ¼ lb so a sandwich runs about a dollar. Can you provide a recipe for the cured salmon? Salad greens pretty much stay at a constant price year round and if you have Aldi they are always a great price there. A package of each makes a large daily salad for hubby and me.

Raw spinach is a nutrient powerhouse and we try to eat it daily. I mentioned in a comment on the site before that we are not vegetarians, but we do not eat meat for at least 2 meals a week. This is a big cost-saver since meat is so expensive.

At this time, we buy all of our meat in bulk. Hubby eats his veggies and we save money! Something I used to do when I was in the grocery store was to check the mark-down bins to find cheap meats that were close to their sell-by date. I just stick them right in the freezer when I get home.

If you can barely afford to buy chicken breast, instead, go for legs or thighs. Ready to go for the next meal. Soup is one of my biggest money-savers in winter. I use the Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey bones to make stock and freeze it, and use it to make a ton of soup over the winter.

Also, I love dollar stores. I go to our local 99 cent store when they stock on Tuesdays, and they often have really great stuff like organic Romaine hearts, portobella mushrooms, half and half, eggs, mangos, red bell peppers, etc.

that would all be pricey in regular stores. They also have a great brand of bread that is tastier than most store-bought bread.

Think about cooking for the future. However, I do like to challenge myself to have at least one meal in the freezer at all times. We tend to slip up on our food budget when we get hungry but feel too tired to cook. If you can, take part in one day out of each week and create some things for food for the week.

While you are cooking during the week, just make a double batch of something you are cooking and just put it in the freezer. No extra fuss and no extra mess.

I hope this helps and gives you some healthy grocery shopping tips for the winter that you may not have considered before! Do any of my readers have any other tips? How do you shop and try to be eating healthy in the winter without coupons? Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple life since and has internationally published 2 books on the topic.

You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page. This article on Eating Healthy in the Winter was originally written on Little House Living in January It has been fully updated as of January Support Little House Living by Sharing This. Your email address will not be published. Here is my Saltine Cracker Recipe , and my Cheese It Recipe.

We are doing fairly well at budgeting but still eating well… and so far its going ok… will have to get more fresh produce end of this week or beginning of next but spent….. Take it one step at a time and you will get there! I am so delighted that what I am sharing is helping you. Thank for taking the time to let me know!

And I love too that you are thinking about ways to incorporate cooking into your homeschooling. So smart! Well, I do actually work for a living. It definitely is easier to cook at home when you are there most of the time because of your work, but I know lots of people that work full time away from home and still eat similarly to this.

A lot of it comes down to mindset. If we decide something is doable, we are more willing to figure out how to make it work and willing to make the sacrifices to do it.

No judgment! Just know that it can be done even if you are working full time. Crockpots and prepping food ahead are two things that help a lot! Lydia, I am so thankful to have found your page. I feed 4 teenagers, a 9 year old, hubby, and myself. I appreciate the work that you have put into your site!

Thank you! Sorry for the slow reply, Stephanie! We just went through a bit move and I got a bit behind with things. Thank you so much for your kind words. You are so welcome! Your email address will not be published. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar Home Welcome!

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