Jul 12 2010
How To Save Money On Food
Although we are no longer in a bad financial situation, like we were not so long ago, I still can’t help but be very frugal. Making a living from online endeavours, which I won’t bore you with, has allowed us to actually spend money on a few needed things for the first time in a long while.
Today I thought I would look back over recent times and give you some tips on how to save money on food costs without actually going down the road of actually starving!
Back when we were really pushed for money and the garden was the main focus of our attentions for growing food we really came across one of the easiest ways to save money when it comes to food.
Saving On The Shopping Bills
Of course, growing your own fruit and veg is always going to be preferable to buying it and this should be started by anyone who has the space. Even a few pots can provide a surprising amount of food.
Apart from growing food there is one very easy way we discovered to save on the grocery bills.
Take a very limited amount of money for shopping purposes.
We never really did this as an option, it was a necessity. We had little money so we had to shop very frugally. I was always surprised at just what you can buy, and how much food you can buy if you really put some thought in to your shopping.
I definitely found that for less than half of what we would normally spend on food we could still feed ourselves just as well and were probably a lot healthier for it.
A chicken for example makes so many more meals that you could think possible. It comes down to boiling it rather than roasting. The stock that is left is the basis for a great stew or soup so you have a few extra meals straight away with the addition of some vegetables. And I would certainly look in to having a chicken at home for eggs, it saves money and tastes oh so much better too.
The liquid can also be used to boil rice which makes it the best tasting rice you will have ever had.
Pulses of all manner can be purchased very cheaply and are a great basis for stews, Indian cooking and so many other recipes that I hardly know where to begin.
There are many other ways to make food that you buy stretch a lot further and if you simply decide to go to the supermarket with half the normal budget then you can get very creative indeed.
What I really found though was that by shopping frugally you really do not need to sacrifice flavor or even the quality of the products that you buy. Go to the best priced stores rather than the one you like the best.
Buy in bulk to save on fuel costs.
But mainly it is stop buying the extras that are not needed. All the junk food simply is not needed by anyone and cutting it out altogether makes a vast difference to any food bill, no that we ever really eat junk food anyway.
The potato is your friend and can be the base of so many tasty meals.
Never, ever buy a ready made meal, it is simply a waste of money. Buy loose vegetables rather than wrapped, they are cheaper. Visit the supermarket at certain times of the day, they often sell off daily produce very cheaply. Things like rotisserie chickens need to be sold that day so if you get there at the right time they will be amazingly cheap.
If you really limit what you take with you to spend then you can get very creative in how you feed the household. It is very easy to fall in to bad habits as far as wasting food is concerned. And if you find that you throw away food from the fridge then there is something seriously wrong with how you do your shopping.
But I do love a bag of crisps 
(chips) British don’t you know.
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Great tips! Here at backtobasics-homestead.com we do the very same thing, except grow our own, we also have resturants that buy from us. If people only new, keep spreading the word. Thanks
Hello
The first: THANKS. Im spanish, from Canary Islands, ¿do u have any email contact adress or phone where i can ask you one question? Sorry for my bad english.
Hola
Lo primero: GRACIAS. Soy español, de las islas canarias, ¿tienen alguna dirección de correo o telefono para hacerles una consulta? Perdón por mi mal inglés.
Thanks / Gracias
Francisco.
Francisco you can use the contact link to email if you have a question.
I looked for the contact link myself and couldn’t find it.
What I wanted to tell you guys is to get back on twitter! All you gotta do is tweet when you have a new post. I love your blog, but since you quit twitter, I’ve hardly checked. (I’m on here now because I’m cleaning out my “following.”
This is definitely one of our downfalls – doing several small shopping trips a week (at Waitrose, so we’re not talking cheap as chips Asda or Tesco here) and just buying those little extras that we could really do without. Planning is KEY. Make a list, take the cash and stick with it. I made a resolution last year to try and keep food shopping trips to a minimum, make a list and stick with it, but it’s one of the things I really find difficult to stick to.
Lucy it is tough, the best thing is simply to have a budget for the week and stick to it no matter what. Then the trips will have to be cut down.
Get you, Waitrose. Ooh
“Buy in bulk to save on fuel costs.”
I don’t think that this method will survive forever.
people buy because thier emotions and because thier logic desition.