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

[saveadollardiva]

Hi Everyone,

I have been saving alot on what I buy just from couponing. But I wanted to know if there are any other ways I can save money on food as well? I buy meat, chicken etc and freeze it, I buy bread and freeze it as well which has been working out great. I usually plan my meals by what is usually on sale and of course I have my coupons I use. But If there are any other great ideas you have I would appreicate your advice on how I can put my dollar to the max on the food I get.

Thanks in advance!

[jasperandchar]

Not really a savings per say but if you could large batches and freeze them for later use, your electrical consumption would be less (lol). Also try making your own jams/jellies if you eat them. I make preserves to serve over ice cream.

[dreamcatcher1962]

If you don't already do this, I would suggest that when Chicken is on sale, buy it bone in, skin on.
Take the skin off and debone it yourself. This is much cheaper than buying boneless skinless chicken breasts. We have even purchased the small whole chickens when they go on sale and cut them apart ourselves. Why pay someone else to cut them up for you, if you can do it yourself. It's not hard to do.
After doing that, put the bones and skin into a soup pot, cover it with water and make your own chicken stock. You can use the left over meat pieces off the bones in your soup.
To get the fat off the stock, after it cools down, put the pot in the fridge and the fat will congeal. Very easy to remove at this point.
We also save our peanut butter jars and freeze the soup stock in them.
Hope that helps.

[JadeDragon]

Garden or at least grow your own herbs in a window box or something. Food tastes better fresh picked.
Trade coupons here - that has saved me a bunch of money already.

[avoncallingu]

My dh has an Eagle Eye for "reduced prices" on meats and salads. We then use that meat first or freeze it or cook it and freeze it. We use the salads up in the next couple of days and/or use the greens on sandwiches.

[saveadollardiva]

Thanks for the advice guys!

[Abby5]

I buy in bulk the items we use lots of when they go on sale and have coupons for.
like: cans of tomatoes,ketchup,mustard,gluten free flours,pickles,beans,pasta,rice,
i freeze chicken etc when they are on sale. I make my own hamburgers and freeze them in between parchment. I always make more at dinner so we can eat it for lunches or use it for another dinner eg BBQ chicken then the next dinner have quesadillas. Oh I also shred my own cheese when large bricks go on sale. And freeze it. Sometimes this stocking up back fires on me...the kids get into!! Lol!!
I use to have a small book that I listed items that I use a lot. It had to columns 1st was a good price and 2nd was a stock up price. I have not started this again but it may help you.??

[saveadollardiva]

^ me and my husband do the same thing, I usually take the left overs for work lol. I think I am going to start making our own hamburgers as well. I to stock up on pastas, pickels, coffee etc when it goes on sale.

[Abby5]

I think you are doing great

[bmpsmommy]

sounds like everyone has already given some good advice.

*I do a 'big bake' once a month or so. It's an all day event and I usually make 4 batches of 4 different meals and then freeze it. It's nice to be able to pull something out of the freezer that doesn't require any effort
*I also pick fruit in the summer and make jam or just freeze the berries. They work great for smoothies

[saveadollardiva]

^ Thanks for the advice

[bgheuchert]

Jade Dragon is right, you need to garden!! It will save you THOUSANDS, it has for me and my family. I learned how to can, blanche and freeze, what fruit and veggies will keep through the winter and how to keep them. If you have the room, go crazy and experiment, if not GO CRAZY AND EXPERIMENT! There are sooo many things you can grow with like 0 space. And you would be surprised at how much just a few plants can produce. There are lots of sneeky tricks too, like green onion multipliers will totally grow in a rose bowl and multiply and multiple all winter long with just a bit of water....stuff like that...also I work as an RMT and before we had the garden I advertised for clients to pay me in organic produce, meat etc....it brought in many clients who were producers and they kept coming back for more!

[lizzie bargain]

You could also try serving more meatless meals which will likely save you money and be a healthy choice. For eg you can buy dried beans or lentils and soak and cook them for soups, salads ,casseroles, chilis. Or you can buy canned chick peas or beans when they go on sale( usually 1.00 in my area) and use this as the basis for a supper dish/side dish or use less meat and extend it wth beans, lentils, chickpeas etc. Another cheap protein source is eggs which are about 2$ per dozen on sale in my area-think omelettes or quiche or frittata for dinner.

[blueeyetea]

Best advice I got from the Tightwad Gazette: keep a price book and stockpile at sales. In a notebook (or computer file), keep a page for each item that you buy a lot of. For example, if your family eats a lot of peanut butter, record the price of peanut butter in your area. Every time you see peanut butter on sale (via flyers, or shopping), write the price, the brand, the size, price per oz or grams, and the store where it was on sale. Eventually, you'll notice a pattern where peanut butter comes on sale every 3 months. Then you have enough information to know when the PB is at it's cheapest and you stock up then to last for three months, until the next sale.

If you have a freezer, you can use this strategy to stockpile meat, although the best sales aren't always in season. T-Bones steaks are cheaper in winter and beef stew meat is cheaper in summer when there's less demand for them.

A price book is probably better explained at the link below:

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/20...food-spending/

Another thing, once you have a nice stockpile, you don't need to rely on weekly sales as much, as you're cooking from the pantry you already have instead. All you have to worry about are perishables like fruits, veggie and milk.

[blueeyetea]

Like Lizzie Bargain says, meat is usually the big ticket items in grocery bills, so if you can reduce your reliance on it, your costs will go down. Invest in a pressure cooker to cook tough cuts of meats or beans faster, or in a slow cooker to cook them all day without you paying attention.

Most of all, don't rely on prepared and/or packaged food. Cooking from scratch will always be cheaper than buying prepared.