On Sunday I exposed our weekly grocery budget ($145.00) and yesterday I shared a few simple tips that I use to help reduce my grocery bills each month. Today I am going to dive into how to get the most bang for those precious bucks you spent at the grocery store.
1. Water down beverages
I know this is going to sound gross and weird to some, but in the season of unemployment we recently experienced I figured out all kinds of ways to save. When we did drink juice we diluted it to make it healthier, but it’s also making it go further. WIC forces us to go with 1% milk, but before that I would buy whole milk and dilute it. Another thing I’ve done is add ice to milk shakes. These aren’t huge changes here, but it does make stuff go just a tad bit further.
2. Freezing Food
Of course freezing your food is the most obvious way to get it to last longer. This is a great way to save by buying items on clearance and then freezing them until you can use them. Almost all of the meat I buy goes straight to the freezer these days. I know it’s a hassle to have to thaw it out, but I’ve had too much meat end up trashed that I don’t take any chances anymore.
3. Put asparagus, celery, or herbs in water
I just learned about this one last year. Cut off the tips and stand up the asparagus (or other food) in a glass of water like it’s fresh flowers. It adds days to the shelf life when you store it this way.
4. Do it yourself slicing and prepping
Not only will buying your food unsliced save you money, it last longer if it’s not cut. I used to love the convince of sliced mushrooms, but I got sick of how quickly they became mushy. Now I buy all my veggies whole.
5. Have an organized meal plan
The Food and Agricultural Organization state that 1st world people generally buy more food than they need. They noted that “generally speaking, consumers fail to plan their food purchases properly … that means they often throw food away “ I use an app called List Ease to keep track of what I need from the store and create an ongoing shopping list. I already shared my meal planning techniques. The more you plan your food purchases the more likely you will consume all of it.
6. Eat left overs or make something out of them
Unfortunately with young picky eaters I do throw a lot of food away, but I really hate being wasteful. Anytime I can make fruit that is overly ripe into a bread or pie I do it. Even if I am not ready to make it right that moment, I’ll freeze it to make something later. We also recently started composting.
7. Take inventory on what you have before shopping for more
Another way to plan out your meals and shopping trips is to see what you have that you need to use up. There is a website called Super Cook that allows you to put all of the ingredients you have into a search bar and it will show you recipes that use those ingredients.
8. Eat food past it’s best by date
This is not medical advice here so I don’t want anyone getting sick and blaming me. However there are a lot of items that are fine well beyond the “best by” date. I had salad dressing last week that was past the date shown on the bottle and it/I was fine. Even the FDA states that with the exception of expiration dates on infant formula and some baby foods, use-by dates that appear on food packages are simply guidelines, not hard-and-fast rules. A little sniff test and some common sense may help your food last longer than what the packaging claims.
Those are my tricks for really getting the most out of my groceries. Join me the rest of this week as I continue to talk about saving money on groceries.
Fantastic tips! Thank you for sharing!