How to save money on food & still eat well

When inflation stays high and weekly food budgets are being squeezed, you may worry about being able to put good food on the table. You’ll need to save at every opportunity, so we’ve gathered all the ways you can save big or shave dollars off your food basket.

In general, in N America so much food is thrown away from poor planning and shopping habits. Try these ways to save that will not only increase your awareness and help save the planet, but will also create good habits leading to cheaper, better meals.

In this long article, we’ve broken it down into sections. 

1. The easiest way to save is by meal planning. The more you plan, the less you throw away, the more you save.  
2. Saving money on meals. Find out how to make the best of each ingredient means no waste and enough for leftovers. 
3. Then it’s all about shopping smart, where and when to save. 
4. Lastly, organize your kitchen, pantry & freezer so you know what you have and it doesn’t go past its best-before date.

1) MEAL PLANNING

• The more meals you make from scratch the cheaper your bill is likely to be.
• Plan your meals for the week, make a shopping list of ingredients you need and stick to it. Account for leftovers in the meal plan, especially if you have school or office lunches to take care of.
• Start meal planning slowly. Two to three nights a week until you get in the hang of it; learn slowly, make mistakes. Build up.
• Find out what’s on sale the coming week and plan around it.
• Keep track of your grocery spend and food waste for at least six months. You’ll learn a lot about where and when to save on shopping and how many dollars you throw away in garbage.
• Freeze prepped meals to save time on busy days when you don’t feel like cooking. A ready-to-heat stash of foods you look forward to eating makes it less likely you’ll pick up take-out on your way home.
• Make ingredient substitutions if the planned product is overpriced or there’s a great deal on an equivalent. Seasonal local produce is usually cheaper than food flown-in from the other side of the world. 

• Gram for gram, beans are a fraction of the price in terms of protein than animals. They have a long shelf life and are easy to cook once you learn a few tips. Soak overnight, boil with baking soda and kombu seaweed to prevent gas, add spices, herbs and finishing oils for wonderful, endless combinations of flavors.
• Leftovers work great for lunches or freeze well for quick portions later and when you’re in a pinch.
• Have a good supply of quality leftover containers that allow you to portion meal sizes.
• A good supply of varied frozen vegetables can help you stretch out leftover protein into many lunches.
• Rework leftovers into sauces, casseroles, stir-fries  or soups.
• Favorite dishes. If you create  recipes yourself, get a scale so you can quantify ingredient weights when meal planning.
• Canning – Preserve the best of the harvest when you can find produce at peak freshness and best value. Buy in bulk at your local farmers market. 
• Canning demands an initial outlay for large saucepans and glass jars, but will pay for itself in the first year.

2) SAVING MONEY ON MEALS

• Use less expensive meat cuts like chicken thighs & legs instead of breast. Get pork chops slightly thinner or smaller. You’ll still savor the flavor without needing as much. Minced meat instead of ribeye.
  • Slow-cook tougher or very lean cuts of meat for hours on a low heat to tenderize them.
• Don’t dump the fat. Animal fats are full of calories, flavor and nutrition. A whole food. 
• Learn how to perfect cooking each food to maximize flavor so it doesn’t go to waste. 
  • Fish needs ten minutes max on the BBQ or when fried…after that, it goes rubbery. Consider searing filets a minute each side in a frying pan, then add water & soy sauce to poach with the lid on for a total ten min. max. 
  • Steam veggies for maximum flavor and nutritional value. Root veg takes ten minutes to steam and only three for greens like broccoli and asparagus. You can tell if the color changes from bright green when it’s ready to eat, to dull dark green when it’s overcooked. Longer than that, you’ve got mush.
  • Roasting root veg with herbs is a great way to fill tummies with healthy calories. 
• Use left-over meat to create a new dish tomorrow night. Add some rice, even an egg and oriental-style sauce for a quick and easy stir-fry. Left-overs are great thrown into casseroles, or soups. Even unusual toppings on pizza. 
• Sausages are a cheaper form of meat. Especially when bought in bulk.
• Substitute fresh vegetables for frozen veggies if they’re on sale.
• Substitute cheese for a cheaper version. Usually the longer the cheese is aged (stronger in taste) the pricier it is. 
• Substitute any vegetables in a recipe for what’s available locally and in season. Cheaper, less traveled and more nutritious. 
• Casseroles can be turned into a meal in a heart-beat. Keep on hand for emergencies or as an extra add-on.
• Keep a variety of soups and stews for emergency meals.
• Don’t waste anything. Keep the old veggies in the fridge until you’ve enough to boil them for hours and drain into a veggie stock for soup.
• Same goes for meat bones. Ham, chicken and turkey work well for natural flavouring if you add them to stews and casseroles. Or bring to the boil and simmer for hours, remove bones to make a good stock. Add herbs and spices for more flavour.  
• Grow your own food. Not only is it cheaper, it brings you back in touch with the cycle of nature. If that’s too much for you, barter with a neighbour to share some of their overflow harvest. 

3) SHOPPING

Once you’ve planned your meals, it’s time to stretch your dollars as far as they’ll go at the supermarket, discount store, farmers market etc.

Pre-plan your shopping

• Don’t shop daily or every few days. You’re more likely to splurge on impulse buys and snacks & forget what’s at home.
• Don’t shop hungry or after a stressful day at work- that’s when we tend to binge-shop or buy more convenience items.
• Discount days. Plan your biggest shop on customer appreciation days that offer 10% off at the grocery store. This is the time to stock up on pantry staples.

Coupons and Discounting

Time spent researching deals can save you quite a bit of cash over the long haul.

INSTORE

• Research online flyers for the best in-store deals, sales or coupons. More and more grocery stores and manufacturers are offering print-at-home digital coupons for in-store redemption. Check the website of your favorite grocers. 
• Only cut paper in store coupons for products that you plan to use, or you’re just buying for the sake of it, increasing the likelihood of waste.
• It may pay to visit a few stores to get all the discounts, but factor in whether the extra drive-time and gas is worth it.
• Watch pricing deals. A 2-for-1 deal is only worth it if you’re going to use it. Don’t buy just for the sake of it. If you can gift a friend or someone in the family, that’s priceless. 

ONLINE

• Online Coupons Browser Extensions – Add one of these plug-ins to your browser and it will notify you of any coupons & promos attached to the web page you’re searching. Or you can search for the grocery store you plan on visiting. There are many extension options to suit your shopping style. All free. Some even reward you for using them. There are way too many to list them all but https://www.joinhoney.com/ is one of the most popular.
• Check online for non-perishable items you can buy in bulk at a discount.
• Sign up for email newsletters to companies you like, which offer promos, discounts and free products on their online stores. Like ours.
• Sign up for apps like https://toogoodtogo.com/ which lets you pick up a mystery bag of soon-to-be-out-of-date products at the end of the day at your local stores for a third of the normal retail price.

Store Loyalty Cards/programs

• Loyalty programs offer a variety of discounts & rewards. Many track your purchases and offer discounts on frequently-bought items.
• Signing up for as many as you can, allows more variety for deal-shopping while getting benefits at each.
• Ask for a price match on a deal you found at another local store. Most places will honor the difference.

Bulk Buying

• Buy non-perishable items in bulk. Go in with friends and family to make up the required quantity and save everyone cash. Case-lot sales can save you a little but can add up to a lot over time.
• Package bulk-bought products into smaller quantities for storing. This works just as well for big bags of rice as it does for snacks you break down into snack size portions.
• Buy in season at the lowest prices and freeze, de-hydrate or can for use when prices are highest.

Grocery Store Extras (cleaning/packaging/waste)

• Check out discount stores for cleaning supplies, plastic wrap, sandwich bags or foil. Prices can be much lower than in grocery stores.
• Keep these items on a separate bill, which makes it much easier to keep track of what you’re actually spending on food.

4) KITCHEN ORGANISATION

The easier it is to see and access food stored in the pantry and freezer, the less likely you’ll have out of date food rotting away. 

• FIFO (First in, first out) rule – Rotate through the pantry and freezer to make sure nothing goes out of date. It’s easy to miss things that get buried at the back of the fridge or bottom of the freezer.
• Organize into compartments by food type to make it easy to identify products & keep track of quantities so you don’t buy too much or run out.  
• Buy meat in bulk when possible and freeze. Portion and label with best before date.
• Pre-cook & portion meats for quick meals. Keep a small selection of cooked ground beef in meatballs, for tacos or patties. Pre-cooked chicken works great for soups, casseroles, wraps or stir fry.
• Freeze items in proper storage bags or containers. There’s nothing worse than losing a roast you got on sale to freezer burn.
• Clean the freezer every January. A fresh start every year that gets rid of Christmas leftovers and anything old.
• Most fruits and vegetables can be successfully frozen just before they turn/go off. Freeze them, don’t lose them.
• Stock-pile staples when they’re cheapest. Then you won’t have to pay full price for basics or top dollar at the convenience store when you run out in an emergency.
• Bake in bulk and freeze. Baking at home is often cheaper than store-bought and it takes the same amount of time to make one banana bread as it does four.