Saving Money On Food??? What do you do?

[mimi-]

if your yard is big enough, consider growing a fruit tree or two. there are some interesting trees with multiple varieties of a fruit grafted on.

[adolfo]

Today all people are searching for places to save their money. Online shopping is the best way to save money. Nowadays there are lots of online stores provide all types of items and even food with great discount on order. People can save lots of money on shopping food from online stores.

[saveadollardiva]

I just started a garden Very excitied! We are planting, cucumber, tomatoes, onions and other goodies. I hope they come out good

[cdngal75]

The biggest savings I have found is to price match and use coupons. Saves me driving around, I can get all the various stores sales in one place and save with coupons. Takes a little patience and planning, but so worth it.

[saveadollardiva]

I found a great way to reuse esspresso leftovers. I actually learned this from my MIL. OK so I come from a euro background and so does my husband. Anyways when people come over I of course in euro tradition ask if they would like an esspresso. So one night i made a pot of it and there were some left over. Was going to throw this down the drain when my MIL stopped me and gave me a tip. She said this: Get a water bottle or bottle that doesn't have anything in it. Pour in the left over esspresso. Put it in the fridge over night. Then in the morning take it out or whenever you want it. Put it in a cup, add some milk/fav coffee mix and sugar and some ice cubes, stir, and you got yourself a free iced coffee! LOL. Never thought of that! So I shall be doing this from now on.

[RSAS]

I found a great way to reuse esspresso leftovers. I actually learned this from my MIL. OK so I come from a euro background and so does my husband. Anyways when people come over I of course in euro tradition ask if they would like an esspresso. So one night i made a pot of it and there were some left over. Was going to throw this down the drain when my MIL stopped me and gave me a tip. She said this: Get a water bottle or bottle that doesn't have anything in it. Pour in the left over esspresso. Put it in the fridge over night. Then in the morning take it out or whenever you want it. Put it in a cup, add some milk/fav coffee mix and sugar and some ice cubes, stir, and you got yourself a free iced coffee! LOL. Never thought of that! So I shall be doing this from now on.

you can also freeze it into ice cube trays, so that when you make your iced coffee it doesn't get watered down by regular ice cubes.

[momof5boys]

Today all people are searching for places to save their money. Online shopping is the best way to save money. Nowadays there are lots of online stores provide all types of items and even food with great discount on order. People can save lots of money on shopping food from online stores.

link to the online store you are writing about?

[momof5boys]

I found a great way to reuse esspresso leftovers. I actually learned this from my MIL. OK so I come from a euro background and so does my husband. Anyways when people come over I of course in euro tradition ask if they would like an esspresso. So one night i made a pot of it and there were some left over. Was going to throw this down the drain when my MIL stopped me and gave me a tip. She said this: Get a water bottle or bottle that doesn't have anything in it. Pour in the left over esspresso. Put it in the fridge over night. Then in the morning take it out or whenever you want it. Put it in a cup, add some milk/fav coffee mix and sugar and some ice cubes, stir, and you got yourself a free iced coffee! LOL. Never thought of that! So I shall be doing this from now on.

Wow, this brings back memories of when I was a kid living on the farm. My mom would make iced coffee during haying season...the guys absolutely guzzled that down - they raved about Mom's iced coffee She said it was just so easy to make and cheaper than some other stuff other farmers were serving their hard working men.

[dreamcatcher1962]

I was reading on a Canadian "frugal" blog the other day that on average Canadian families spend $7200 a year on groceries and 25% of that ($1800) is thrown out (wasted) !
They suggested that one key way to save $1000 a year on groceries is just by meal planning and eliminating wasted food.

I am usually pretty good at using leftovers, but find it is the veggies/fruit that tend to get thrown out. So I am now on a mission to carefully monitor what's in the fridge and use up anything in the fridge before it goes bad. I think we have to start looking at those items as $$ being put in the garbage instead of seeing them as wilted lettuce or whatever it is.

[RSAS]

I was reading on a Canadian "frugal" blog the other day that on average Canadian families spend $7200 a year on groceries and 25% of that ($1800) is thrown out (wasted) !
They suggested that one key way to save $1000 a year on groceries is just by meal planning and eliminating wasted food.

I am usually pretty good at using leftovers, but find it is the veggies/fruit that tend to get thrown out. So I am now on a mission to carefully monitor what's in the fridge and use up anything in the fridge before it goes bad. I think we have to start looking at those items as $$ being put in the garbage instead of seeing them as wilted lettuce or whatever it is.

not in my house... I highly doubt we spend that much and very very little gets thrown out. we make good use of our freezer and try not to cook so much that we have leftovers. Fresh fruit and veggies are almost always eaten up.
I think, however, this quote was true of my parents house when I was growing up. Seemed like we were always throwing gross leftovers away and every time my Mom sees a head of lettuce, she buys it. No matter that she has 3 heads and 2 bags of lettuce in the fridge at home...She did this when all 4 of us kids were at home and still does it now that its just her and my dad.

[sweetmomma]

Alot of times I buy in large quantities. If I see a large beef/pork roast I may cut it into portions and freeze what I am not using. More efficient in the long run!

[French Lady]

One thing I haven't seen on this thread is the freeze the overripe bananas trick. I usually have at least one overripe one leftover from a bunch. Put them in the freezer and take them out for baking. I've also seen people freeze ripe bananas and then take them out and eat the frozen ones in hot weather.

[avoncallingu]

We have just planted 2 grape tomato plants in our back yard. Hoping we get lots of yummy little tomatoes to snack on in the summer and to add to salads and even make sauces.

[bgheuchert]

An unusual suggestion:

I approached a local organic farm at harvest time and did a straight barter of harvesting work for fresh organic produce.
At the end of each day, you are really tired and will have a pile of organic food to process ( ie freeze, par-boil, dehydrate, can, etc.)

I am a Registered Massage Therapist and after I had built up a solid clientelle I had fun one year and advertised on some local websites to farmers that I would trade organic produce, meats, etc...for massage we traded dollar value for dollar value, I got a LOAD of organic food for just a few hours work, made new clients who ended up coming back as regulars, and had potatoes that lasted the WHOLE winter in our storage room!! That was kinda fun.