How to Grocery Shop and Cook Frugally

Basic tips for shopping and cooking frugally.

Steps

1. 1
   Track needed items by keeping a list in the kitchen. Write down needed ingredients as they are used during cooking. You may want to keep a separate list of items your family commonly uses - now all you have to do is make a check mark next to it instead of trying to read your someone else's handwriting. "Milk, check. Cheerios, check."
2. 2
   Check grocery ads for specials. Base your week's meals on what is on sale. Make a double batch and freeze half - that's a "free" meal next week.
3. 3
   Research cookbooks or the Internet for menu ideas. Write up a weekly menu. Try to shop once a week, except perhaps for produce.
4. 4
   Compile grocery list including the needed items from the kitchen grocery list plus the items needed from the weekly menu.
5. 5
   When shopping at the grocery store purchase only items on the grocery list. This helps keep the food budget on track. Don't shop when you are hungry; have some protein before you go.
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   Buy “store brand” groceries. Most “store brand” groceries are equal to their “name brand” counterparts and are typically cheaper. They are often produced by the same manufacturer. The only differences are the label and the price.
7. 7
   Purchase non-perishable items in bulk, if the price is better per unit. Purchase dried herbs and spices in the "ethnic" section (in little cellophane bags) of the grocery story - much cheaper.
   • Sugar, flour and rice are often cheaper in bulk. Watch out though. Some institutional sized canned foods are more expensive than their smaller counterparts. Check the prices per unit.
8. 8
   Cooking frugally is much easier if you purchase items seasonally, especially produce. Buy off-season meats; typically, roasts are sale items during summer months as steaks tend to be popular while roasts are not. Buy the sale meats and freeze. If you buy a large piece of meat, you may want to cut it into portions for quick thawing later.
9. 9
   Cook using less processed foods. For example, buy a whole chicken on sale, cut it up, and use it to make fried chicken or stir-fries. Just about every grocery store has a "sell-it-today" section in the meat department. Use it. And cook it when you get home. You can save a lot of money doing this. And it's safe if you use it right away.
10. 10
    Learn which stores have perennial specials. One of my grocery stores always sells ripe bananas - you know the good ones with brown markings just starting - for 10 cents per pound. Even if you don't like to eat these, in a few days they will be perfect for banana bread. Another store always has avocados 2 for $3.00 - and they are always ripe. This may be expensive for California but it is cheap for the Pacific Northwest!
11. 11
    Herbs - if you like to use fresh herbs, use what you need and freeze the rest. Remove rosemary from its stems. Chop up soft herbs such as cilantro or basil. Slip them into a zipper baggy, write on the bag what it is (because you will never remember) with a waterproof pen. (Note: cilantro stems have just as much flavor as the leaves - chop them very fine and you will not know the difference!) Of course, these frozen herbs will only be good for cooking, but so what! You can find many good recipes online to use up these tasty, frozen morsels of flavor.
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    This works for vegetables too. Chop up any carrots, celery, bell peppers, etc., that are starting to get a little old. Most vegetables must be partially cooked before freezing. Check a current freezer cookbook on how to prepare vegetables and fruits for freezing. Bell peppers and onions do not not a pre-treatment before freezing. Dice them up and flash freeze them on baking sheets. Then put them in a zipper baggy, label it and freeze. Make sure to freeze them not in a big clump. Use these in soups, sauces, omelets. It's amazing what healthful tidbits you can put in spaghetti sauce and no one knows but you.
13. 13
    Learn to make homemade snacks. Popcorn is easy to make and is usually inexpensive. Buy whole tortillas, slice them into pie-shaped triangles and bake for delicious, low-cost, low-fat (spray baking pan with Pam) chips.
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    Make homemade mixes. Check out cookbooks from the library showing how to make homemade food mixes.
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    Avoid boxed cereals. Compare the per-weight price of any packaged, processed cereal to that of plain, rolled oatmeal, and you'll see how much the boxes mark things up. There are lots of ways to eat that plain oatmeal, and you may just find that you like them. You can also make your own granola or muesli at home.
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    Read the ingredient labels on items. You may be able to make the same item for much less without any difficulty. Examples:
    • Tomato soup is made from tomato sauce and water. (That is what the can says from a leading brand). Tomato sauce often sells for 8 cans/dollar (though usually 4 or 5 cans/ dollar). 25 cents is much cheaper than $1.50 for soup. The microwavable cans run $1.99!
    • A well known brand of hot sauce says it is "aged". It is made of vinegar, red pepper and salt. All vinegar is "aged". Make your own sauce with the ingredients probably already in your cabinet.
    • Another advantage of making your own is that you know what goes in. There are plenty of recipes on wikiHow and elsewhere online for all kinds of foods.
17. 17
    Buy rice in 20 or 25 pound bags. Rice is durable and a staple food. A small bag of rice often runs $2 or $3. A 25 pound bag is only about twice as much for 10 times the quantity.
    • Make sure when buying foods in bulk that you will use that quantity. Even grains do eventually go bad.
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    Avoid buying prepackaged meals or helpers like Macaroni and Cheese, and "Rice-a-XXXX",etc. These shortcuts do not really save you time, but, pound for pound, cost far more.
    • If you have a kitchen scale, weigh the cheese that's included with macaroni and cheese. A popular brand currently sells for $1.09 a box. A large bag of macaroni sells for less. Simply add the equivalent amount of processed cheese, or make a cheese sauce from real cheese instead.

Tips

• Quality does count! It is for you to judge how much.
• If you have a laptop computer, take it in the store with you. Before leaving, put your grocery list on you favorite spreadsheet program. Label the fist column "Items", the second column "price", the third column "quantity". Set the forth column to show the total per item (price times quantity). Keep a running total somewhere you can see it on the screen. Enter the price and quantity as you go through the store. If you go over budget, you will easily be able to see where to cut costs.