Saving $ with groceries

Menu planning is key.

Can you shop/cook once and freeze?

Are there discounted produce that is fine, but doesn't look perfect?

Can you grow some of your own plants?
We get lettuce from our aerogarden. It is always fresh and never goes bad (we use it for sandwiches and topping for tacos. There would been enough for a salad every once in a while

I don't understand one thing, you can't eat meat, but you only cook meatless 2x per week?

Agree with menu planning, and if you check the week’s sales at your grocery store online and then plan your menu based on sales, you’ll save even more.

I hear you regarding allergies. Have you looked into any CSAs or farm shares near you? It can be hit or miss if they’re less expensive or not.

It sounds like you’re doing what you can for the most part. With costs generally going up, you might just have to arrange your budget.

Has anyone saved money with Imperfect Produce? I like the premise behind the business regardless, but don’t know if it actually saves money. DH is picky about what veggies he’ll eat (though tons better than he was) and we eat relatively little of the starchy veggies so I don’t think it would save us any money. But I wonder if you could take advantage of it @sunnycamom .

Oh, wow, it’s not just produce any more...and it’s delivered. Has obviously been a while since I’ve looked into it. My SIL used to get it, and it worked well for her because she has a large family and would just Google new recipes for the produce she wasn’t familiar with. But I seem to recall she could end up with tons of one type of produce for the week. What would you say was in a typical box, and do you think it might work for a household of 2?

How does fresh produce replace meat since you say you spend more on it because you do not eat meat? When I generally replace meat with protein substitutes such as beans and cheese. Dried beans used to be the cheapest protein substitute you could find, not sure if that is true anymore. You need to find some that you and yours are not allergic to.

Can you eat rice? that is one of my staples here and pads out a lot of meals. It just takes a little bit of expensive items to make a bowl of rice a great meal.

We utilize our freezers a lot. We save a ton of money by buying our beef half a cow at a time. Even with the processing costs it’s about $3.25 a pound for very lean, nicely trimmed beef. Plus we can choose how we want it split up, how big we want the roasts to be, how much is ground into hamburger, etc. It’s a lot up front at once but the average price is so much less than what we’d pay for the same cuts of meat buying at the grocery store a little at a time. Sometimes we’ll buy a whole pig for the same reason.

Other than that, we buy most of our groceries at Costco where we can get the stuff we use most in bulk. Anything fresh that we can’t use right away I try to freeze, or I just buy it frozen to begin with such as berries or vegetables, chicken breasts or fish.

Thanks Eddie-n-Harley ! Our grocery bill has gone up tons as well, and I don’t think the cost savings of not eating out and next to no takeout offsets the increase anymore.

I would look at any food waste generated. e.g. Are you leaving food on your plates? If so, is it because you plated too much, or you don't like it, or you're bored of it, etc. Is food spoiling before get to use it? Do you need to change the way you store it. Or find ways of using it up quicker. Can you stretch your offcuts, or wilted stuff by making stock, soups, purees, smoothies, chopping it up and hiding it in pasta sauce, or cakes and muffins, etc.

Do you have an Aldi? Prices there are better than regular stores.

We also save at the local butcher shop. Their meat prices are better than the grocery stores.

Local farm stands can be a good place to get vegetables and fruit in the summer. I put up a lot of strawberries, peaches and blueberries for use over the winter in smoothies. Sometimes a gardening friend will have extra tomatoes, zucchini and such as the summer goes on. Everyone is flush with tomatoes and cucumbers by the end of summer so having a recipe or two to use them up saves money and takes advantage of something fresh.

I used a similar one Misfits - I don't think it saved me money msotly because I wasn't buying organic in the first place and was mostly shopping at Aldi but it introduced us to new vegetables. I stopped our sub when they switched mystery boxes to being more like an online shop.


@sunnycamom - do you have an Aldi?  My understanding is that produe quality varies by store but I've never had a problem at mine. We're eating salad at every dinner right now and twice a week, it's a main dish salad vs side salad.  We also eating lots of summer squash because it's in season. In the winter, I make a lot of soups.  

Is fish an option for either of you?  Canned salmon is very versatile as an ingredient as is canned tuna.

How about eggs? not just breakfast for dinner but crustless quiche, frittata, omelets...

With the meat - I find it's less expensive if I buy what's on sale and use it more as an ingredient than the star of the plate. So I might cook up one or two chicken breasts for the 4 of us but slice them up to top salad or use for fajitas or on pizza or in a casserole rather than a whole breast each. I aim for the actual serving size of 3 oz rather than the more typical bigger portion many of us expect