Saving on groceries and food

[mermaidmama]

What are your tips for saving on food and groceries?

[wife&mommy]

I stock up on things when they are on sale if it is something we already use. Especially buy one get one frees or something with a really good coupon.

Try writing all of the companies of the products you use and ask if they have any coupons. A lot of them will send you things!

Meal planning for us is key as well. Oh actually I just remembered, I wrote this, it might help you? 10 Tips for Using Meal Planning to Stretch Your Budget
http://cookingformyfamily.blogspot.c...anning-to.html

[GuildJenn]

Number one is meal planning around the sales as well as stocking up on basics during sale periods. It takes a while to get a rhythm going, but once you do it's pretty easy. I find I plan less expensive meals than if I'm making last-minute decisions.

Number two is shopping at stores that don't charge an arm and a leg, and only venturing into those when they have great loss leaders (and only buying those).

Number three is reconsidering what I can make myself. Stock, for example, is pretty much free with vegetable ends and bones. No reason to buy the boxed kind once there's a ziploc bag of stock in the freezer.

Also: Don't shop for fun/recreation. Do your grocery shopping when you have something to go to soon afterwards so you don't meander around.

[Alyantavid]

Shop sales, buy store brands, use coupons, buy whole foods, meal plan.

[RunningMomTegan]

I absolutely refuse to buy certain items unless they reach a certain price, then I buy more than my husband can believe, haha.

Like, this week, there is ketchup at the commissary (I'm active duty Army), for $1.37 for the BIG bottle. I'm buying three. Should last us a year and a half.

Another example, we only eat the Cape Cod kettle potato chips (chips are so bad for you, I've decided to be picky and indulge infrequently), and I'll only buy them when they're $2 or $2.50 a bag.

I don't buy a TON of packaged food, so we cook seasonally, and only eat meat that I've gotten on great sale. I'm not above frozen vegetables. Unless you can buy locally, they're actually much lower-impact and higher in nutritional value than shipped-in fresh stuff. Yeah, my husband gets sick of the "veggie of the month", but he's not the one cooking.

I budget $80 a week to feed a family of three, and that includes cleaning products/TP/etc. I use flannel wipes for #1 at home for me, which helps a tremendous amount on the TP usage!!!

[Ruthiegirl]

We eat less.
We eat lower on the food chain.
We grow a lot of our own food.
Nothing gets wasted.