10 Tips For Outsmarting Rising Food Costs
As I was grocery shopping this week, I couldn’t help but notice the rise in grocery prices. The cost of bread, cheese, flour, butter, and produce—all staples in most people’s diets—has increased dramatically. There is absolutely no question food prices are on the rise. So what can you do to survive—even thrive—in these difficult economic times?
1. Menu plan—A menu plan is never more important than when times are tough. You can plan your menu around sale items and coupons to increase your savings.
2. Make a price book—This will help you find out the true cost of many items and help you plan your shopping trips accordingly.
3. Create a designated shopping time and stick with it—Plan to shop either weekly, biweekly, or monthly. Do not make extra trips to the store; you will almost always buy things you don’t need.
4. Do an actual cost comparison of your shopping methods—I know people who shop many different stores each month to get the best deal. Factor in the price of gas to see if you are really saving money by shopping around. Is it worth driving ten extra miles to save two dollars? Do the math and figure out what is really the best deal.
5. Meatless Meals—The price of beans always beats the price of steak. Incorporate two to three meatless meals in your meal plan a week. Your heart might even thank you.
6. Cut out convenience foods—Chips, cookies, cheese sticks, and fruit snacks are not necessities. In fact, many convenience foods offer little nutritional value, but lots of empty calories. If you’re trying to save money, cross these items off your grocery list.
7. Drink more water—Purchase a good water filter pitcher and drink water instead of juices, teas, sodas, and energy drinks.
8. Make foods from scratch—Bread, pizza, pancakes, sauces and gravy, soups, and many other items can be much cheaper when you make them yourself. The internet abounds with recipes and tutorials for almost anything you want to make from scratch. If you make some recipes often, you could also make up bulk mixes for those recipes, further decreasing the time they take to prepare.
9. Set aside money in your budget for stockpiling sale items—The price of grain has gone up significantly in the past few months. Had I planned better, I would have purchased grain at the lower price months ago. Sometimes there are items that can be stored that are available at a great price, but only if you have extra money in your budget will you be able to take advantage of these deals. Consider creating and funding a grocery “slush fund” that is designated specifically for stocking up on items that are on sale, but which aren’t on your shopping list for that month.
10. Remember these basic shopping rules—Don’t shop when you are hungry, without a list, and with kids that put extras in the cart. Joy has written a post here about what not to do when you shop.
Even though prices at the grocery store seem to be going through the roof, it is still possible to feed your family without breaking the bank. It just takes some planning. Kate, Joy, and I hope this site can be an encouragement to all women who are struggling with their food budgets. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at 3moms@happytobeathome.net. We’d love to hear from you.
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And for more Frugal Friday tips, visit Crystal’s blog, Biblical Womanhood.
AUTHOR | Toni
Toni, one of the original 3 Moms, is a military wife and stay-at-home(schooling) mom of six, soon to be seven great kids. On her personal blog, The Happy Housewife, she writes about saving money, healthy eating, recycling, homeschooling, life as a mom, and crafting.
Really great tips!!! Sometimes we do better than others, and right now (this past fiscal month), we have done VERY badly when it comes to our food budget. We went over in our grocery budget and our food from out budget. Augh!
Yep. We do all of these! But it has taken years to learn them. Wish I’d read this 10 years ago!!!
Meatless or Meat-scanty meals are a huge help for our budget!
I stretch beef and sausage about 25% by cooking in oatmeal. Then, I only put a little bit in each recipe that calls for meat. Most of our meals are meatless, so the two of us together probably don’t eat more than 1-2 pounds of meat a week…. We learning to like all kinds of beans, instead.
This is great- I just started a two part series of very similar ideas (great minds think alike, right?). I really agree with the tips (obviously, since they’re so similar to mine), but also with considering when you shop (weekly, biweekly) and remembering the basic shopping rules. Good stuff!
Great tips! These grocery prices will not defeat us!!
Toni,
I don’t think networking will work for most people, but it does work out for some of us. My Mom and I are planning on picking fruit for each other as I can get strawberries semi-locally and she can get blueberries locally from u-pick places. We both picked more than we needed last year, but we’ll combine our efforts, freeze the fruit, and transport it in a cooler when we visit each other next.
With that being said, I can still get 50 pound bags of hard red wheat from the Mennonite farm for $17. I think David is headed your way in July for TAP. Let me know if you need some of that, I could pick some up for you and send it with him
Thanks for the tips!
Another one to consider is to eat what is in season. It’s always cheaper to get blueberries at the grocery store in the summer months than it is to get them in the dead of winter…and they taste better too
Thanks for sharing! I do alot of these! The ones that get me are meatless meals and convenience items. I can’t get my crew to not have a dinner meal that is meatless—breakfast and sometimes lunch we can achieve meatless but not the “big meal” of the day.
As for convenience items to me they are cheaper than eating out for my family of 7. I make my own cookies, muffins, and treats like that but chips, fruit snacks, cheese sticks, and even those frozen pizzas or chicken nuggets are just really hard not to get for those days that Mom wants a night off.
A little over a year ago I came upon http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com that site has helped me save so much money!! They have all kinds of coupon lists, shopping lists for each state, online deals…. One other thing that I have started doing since reading about it on PYP is making my own bread & rolls. It is so easy and tastes so much better. I also stop by the a reduced cost produce store that is on the way to my parents house about once a week. It might not be the freshest produce but it works!!! Check out the discount bins at the grocery store. Buy meat that is “reduced for quick sale” and take it home and freeze it or make freezer meals.
These are some great tips. The 4th point is a pretty tricking one.. I explore grocery delivery options online. Another thing that works for my mom & me is I do the grocery shopping for the house. So, this way I stick to the list she prepares. No more impulse buyin;)….