Food Frugality

Food is a family's biggest variable expense. Getting back to basics with food takes careful planning and commitment, but there are many practical ways to cut back. Spending more money does not make food tastier or more nutritious. Try the saving tips that fit best into your lifestyle. You will find yourself, your family and your budget much healthier!

Save At Home

Cook With Care

• Do more cooking: eat out less.

• Do more cooking from scratch. Try to avoid "convenience" foods. This may not always be possible due to time constraints, but those extra minutes in the kitchen can save a lot of money.

• Instead of buying expensive cereals, add cinnamon and raisins to cooked rice or puffed wheat.

• Beat a ripe banana and egg white together for a whipped cream substitute.

• Stretch hamburger with bread crumbs, oatmeal or tomato sauce.

• Do not serve meat with every meal; plan at least one meatless day a week. Use small amounts of leftover meat in other recipes.

• Double or triple standard recipes when making spaghetti sauces, chili, pastries and stews. Label and freeze foods for later use. This not only saves time but you can also buy larger amounts of basic ingredients more economically.

Avoid Waste

• Plan use of leftovers. Have a "pick your leftover night" for the family or get creative with soups and casseroles.

• Wrap and store food carefully. Freeze to prevent spoilage. Use plastic containers instead of expensive throw-away wraps.

• Save butter or margarine wrappers and use them to grease cookie sheets and baking pans.

• Don't be a "dumper." Measure the ingredients of a recipe to avoid waste.

• Keep a container in the refrigerator for vegetable scraps. Boil them in water and seasonings for low-cost, nutritious soup.

Save Energy

• Plan the use of your oven: Cook your main dish, dessert, vegetable and bread all at the same time.

• Using the microwave reduces electrical use by 50-70% compared to the range.

• Avoid "peeking" into the oven. The temperature drops at least 25% every time you do.

• Line the burners of your stove with foil for maximum efficiency.

• Cut down the size of items you are cooking. For example, cutting potatoes into slices greatly reduces the cooking time.

• Turn off the burners before everything is done. Food continues to cook in the heat of the pan.

• To check energy loss of refrigerator or freezer, close a piece of paper in the door. If the paper slips out, then cold air is being lost. Check the gaskets and/or door mechanism and latch.

Save At the Store

Before You Shop

• Plan your meals one week at a time. Make your shopping list from the menu plan and stick to it.

• Go grocery shopping no more than once a week. This saves gas, time and money!

• Clip coupons.

Shopping Smart

• Never shop when you are hungry.

• Try to shop alone. It's hard to resist children that want something that is not on your list.

• Avoid habit buying. Continuously look for new bargains, and always make sure you can answer the question, "Why am I buying this?"

• Consider generic brands. It is estimated that families can save $300/year this way.

• Take advantage of seasonal specials, especially fresh produce.

• If storage permits, buy items in bulk that you use regularly.

• Buy soft drinks by the case. This is almost always a better value.

• Compare price per unit. Take a calculator.

• Choose meat wisely. Look at cost per serving versus cost per pound. Meat that has little fat and is boneless may be a better bargain than a bone-in roast, even if the cost is much higher.

• Buy chicken whole; it is cheaper to cut it up yourself.

• If the price difference between the large and small eggs is less than 7 cents, buy the large-sized eggs.

• Cut milk costs: you can use equally nutritious reconstituted dry or evaporated milk for cooking instead of whole milk. Mix dry milk with whole milk for drinking or buy skim milk. It is lower in cholesterol and cheaper. (Sometimes the price of dry milk will creep up. Be sure you are really getting a bargain.)

• Buy domestic cheeses. They cost less than imported cheeses and many people think they are just as tasty.

• Look for savings on day-old bread products.

• Don't buy pre-sweetened anything. It is much cheaper to add sugar yourself.

• Watch out for expensive packaging. Make sure your paying for the product and not the paper!

• Stop buying "junk" foods. Substitute fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit juices and milk drinks, popcorn, oatmeal and peanut butter cookies.
  (Keeping your family healthy will also reduce medical bills!)

• Remember that non-food items at the grocery store usually have the highest mark-ups.

More Saving Tips

• Pack your lunch as often as possible ($5 a day saves $100 a month!)

• Entertain with pot-lucks or inexpensive buffets serving meals such as lasagna and salad.

• Form or join a food co-op.

• Grow a garden and harvest your own fruits, vegetables and herbs.

• Watch your weight. It is costly to put pounds on, and costly to take them off.

Changing your cooking and shopping habits may take some effort. But the result will be well worth it. You will find that when common sense and creativity are combined, they become great weapons against today's high cost of living.

Back to Back to Basics