As the second or third largest expense in your budget, the money you spend on your groceries is something you have lots of control over. It’s almost always the easiest and most effective way to reduce your cost of living.
After paying for housing, the money you spend on food each month will be the second or third largest expense in your monthly budget.
Your highest costs, housing and transportation, are fixed. You can’t change them easily. However, the money you spend on your groceries is something you have lots of control over. It’s almost always the easiest and most effective way to reduce your monthly cost of living.
Let’s start with the obvious: eating at home saves huge dollars! We estimate that every meal eaten outside the home is on average $15 more expensive than a meal eaten at home.
If you’re a family of 4 and you eat out once a week, cutting back to eating out once a month will save nearly $250 from your monthly budget. Imagine what else you could do with that money! Now that you’re in your kitchen, what else can you do to save money?
1. Meal planning
Good meal planning is an essential starting point to save on food expenses. Meal planning sounds intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be.
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“The meal plan makes sure you’re only buying what you need”
Your meal plan will depend on factors such as:
How many people are there in your family?
Do any of them have special dietary needs?
How close are you to where you usually shop?
Do you have a deep freeze?
What’s already in your pantry or freezer that might be close to expiring?
Adapt your plan to the above factors, but generally, you should be looking to plan a week at a time. The meal plan gives you guidance for your trips to the grocery store, so you’re only buying what you need. Often it helps to have a rotation of meals your family enjoys, and this rotation becomes the basis for your weekly plan.
For example, you can have Meatless Mondays, fish on Friday and roast something on Saturday or Sunday. Make a point of regularly using the items in your freezer or pantry, so you don’t throw them out.
There are great apps available to assist with meal planning. Do a Google search on meal planning apps and experiment with different approaches until you find what works best for you. Regardless of your approach, effective meal planning will guarantee you’re spending less on food every month.
2. Plan your trips to the grocery store
This step follows naturally from your meal planning. Whether you’re using an online app or making an old-fashioned grocery list, having a list helps you focus on what you need.
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“More trips to the store generally mean more dollars spent.”
In most circumstances, limit your trips to the grocery store to one per week. Why? More trips to the store generally mean more dollars spent, often because of impulse purchases while you’re there.
The exception to this general rule will be if you live within walking distance of a store or have limited fridge or freezer storage. Having a weekly meal plan will allow you to make the best use of what you already have on-hand and avoid impulse purchases.
3. Meat Reduction and Substitution
Meat and seafood purchases are usually the most expensive items on your grocery list. If you don’t already do this, make at least one meal a week meatless. You don’t have to become a vegan, but there are also significant health benefits to reducing meat consumption, in addition to the financial benefit.
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“Meat and seafood purchases are usually the most expensive items on your grocery list”
Beans and other pulse crops such as lentils are a great protein source and can be turned into some delicious and healthy dishes. Ideally, buy these items dry—they are super cheap that way. Beans and chickpeas will need to be soaked overnight, so they take a bit of planning—this is where your meal plan helps you stay organized.
Find ways to extend the meat you do buy. With ground meats, add grain products such as oats, flax or bread crumbs to burgers or skillet dishes. Chop meat into smaller portions, such as you might do with a stroganoff or a stir fry, to provide the feeling of eating meat while consuming less of it.
Nuts, seeds, dairy, grains, green vegetables and eggs are also excellent protein sources. Many of these protein sources are less expensive than meat and can be combined in almost limitless ways to make tasty, nutritious and inexpensive meals. Experiment with these until you find combinations that your family enjoys, and then work them into your regular meal rotation.
4. Shop for sale items and stock up on them if you have the storage space
You might want to consider investing in some storage space if you don’t have it right now—a deep freeze can save you hundreds of dollars a year if used correctly, as well as make meal planning more comfortable and more convenient.
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“Don’t buy items you may not use just because they are on sale—they probably will be thrown out”
One of the best examples of stocking up on sale items is turkeys—they always go on sale in the weeks before major holidays. Buy two or three of them if you can, as they are an incredibly affordable and flexible source of protein. You don’t have to wait for those holiday seasons either—work turkey into your meal planning at any time of the year.
Look for discounted items in the grocery stores. While some discounted fruits and vegetables may not be usable, many will be if they are used right away or frozen for later use, even in baking. Meat can also be discounted as much as 30%. Buy it and use it immediately or freeze it. Check flyers for savings as you’re doing your meal planning and focus on purchasing sale items when it makes sense.
Don’t buy items you may not use just because they are on sale—they probably will be thrown out. Also, consider using coupons or coupon apps to add to your savings.
5. Make larger meals and eat leftovers
This practice can assist with your meal planning. Make larger batches of food and then freeze them in portions for easy and convenient use later. If you have a decent stockpile of pre-made frozen dinners on hand, making meals on those nights when you’re short for time gets much easier and provides a simple alternative to eating out or ordering in.
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“Making meals on those nights when you’re short for time gets much easier and provides a simple alternative to eating out or ordering in”
Depending on your family’s size, roast chicken can often be stretched into 3 or 4 meals. You have the chicken on the day of the roast and have the leftovers for a second meal.
Use a stockpot or slow cooker to turn the carcass and a few vegetables into a delicious broth that can be used for soups or as a base for sauces. You’ll eliminate buying stock from the store and gain the health benefit of controlling the ingredients that are going into the stock.
Chilis, stews, chowders and soups are great candidates for making large batches of food. Label and date what you’re making—sometimes the boxes in the freezer start to look alike, and you won’t be sure what you have there or how old it is.
6. Reduce the amount of food thrown out in your household
Studies in the US indicate that Americans waste 30%-40% of their food. Maybe we do better in Canada but, even at 25% waste, that could be $2,400 per year! Even the most frugal households throw out nearly 10% of their food purchases.
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“Even the most frugal households throw out nearly 10% of their food purchases.”
Make a list of the items that you most often end up throwing out. Usually, it’s fresh produce going to waste. When you realize that’s happening, make a point of moving the oldest produce to the front of your fridge so that it’s ‘top of mind’ when you look in the refrigerator.
Take the same approach to items in your freezer. Periodically move the oldest items to the front of the freezer, so you pay attention to using them up before they become freezer burned.
7. Buy items in bulk
You are almost always paying for pre-packaging of foods, and sometimes it’s costly. One of the best examples of this is spices. They are usually much cheaper when purchased in bulk.
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“dry goods can be good candidates to buy in bulk, which is usually much cheaper”
Other dry goods can be good candidates to buy in bulk: rice, pasta, some baking supplies, dry beans, canned goods and beverages that are safe to store at room temperature, toiletries and household cleaning supplies. Be careful that you’re making purchases of items that you are sure to use. When possible, compare the cost per unit or unit weight, so you know you are getting a good deal on the item.
8. Buy produce in season or frozen
Buy berries and tree fruits such as peaches and nectarines in the summer when they are readily available, and buy root vegetables in the fall and winter. Especially for the fruits and vegetables that are typically only fresh in the summer, consider buying them in bulk when they are cheapest and canning or freezing them later.
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“Sometimes frozen produce can even be more nutritious as it’s picked and frozen at the peak of its nutritional value”
For some fruits and vegetables, it may make sense to buy them frozen. If you use avocados in a smoothie, for example, you usually need only a few chunks for the smoothie and storing the rest of it fresh often doesn’t work out so well. Consider freezing the balance of the avocado, or just buying a frozen package you can dip into for your smoothies.
Berries can be another example of this—they can be costly when purchased fresh but reasonably priced when frozen. Sometimes frozen produce can even be more nutritious as it’s picked and frozen at the peak of its nutritional value and not picked days or weeks before showing up on a grocery store shelf.
9. Make your coffee at home
Rather than buying it at the drive-thru, or worse, buying it at an expensive coffee shop. If your coffee at the drive-thru costs the better part of $2.00, and you buy one coffee a day while you’re working, and work 20 days a month, that’s $40 a month and nearly $500 a year. You can make the same cup of coffee at home for pennies each day by comparison.
It just takes a little organizing and buying a travel mug that you’ll save the cost of by the end of the one or two weeks of making coffee at home!