How to Drastically Lower Your Grocery Bills

Making Your Grocery Money Go Further

 

I think we can all agree that we are seeing price increases when it comes to food and paper goods. We have seen inflation and supply chain problems hit our budget many times this year. We sat down and put together some of our best ideas for making your money go further at the grocery store with the idea of drastically lowering your grocery bills each month without giving up healthy, quality food.

The ideas we share will work as well for a family of six as it will if you are a single person cooking for one. Some of these ideas you are probably already using, but our bet is that you will find some novel ideas to try that will lower your grocery bill each month!

 

Grocery Lists Save Money

Some of us still keep a paper list affixed to our refrigerator with a magnet that everyone adds to during the week before we go shopping. Did you know that people that shop once a week spend less money than people that shop daily? Less impulse buying! Also, there are some great apps out now that make grocery lists high-tech allow for repeat items each week; AnyList, Shopping Lite Ease, Our Grocery Shopping, Grocery List, and the list goes on. Each of these apps helps streamline the grocery shopping process so you aren’t buying impulse items.

 

Try Curbside Pickup

 

Many people have realized during the COVID-19 pandemic that curbside pickup has saved them a lot of money. Once again, no impulse buying. If you are an Amazon Prime member there is no cost to picking up your grocery’s curbside, it saves you money and time!

 

Buy in Bulk

Paper goods, non-perishables, and pet-related items bought in bulk can save you a lot of money. Watch out for those Costco runs, bring a list, and keep to your list. Watch your per-unit pricing to make sure that it’s a deal compared to picking up only what you need right now at the grocery store. As a family, we buy four 40-pound dog bags of dog food at a time. We have three large yellow labs and we have found that during COVID it was smart to have plenty of dog food on hand. We store our dog food in Brute garbage cans that are pest-proof and it saves us so many trips to the store, gas, and money.

 

Farmers Markets Buy at the End of the Day

Buying your produce locally helps support local farmers, plus you know what you are buying when you are buying directly from the grower. Most people get to the Farmers Market early in the day for the best selection, but if you arrive at the end of the day when the farmers are packing up to go home you can get some great deals. They would rather sell their produce at a discount rather than load it back into the truck and take it back to the farm. You can get some really great deals aiming your purchasing for the last hour of your local Farmers Market.

 

Try a Meal Panning App

If you don’t want to put a bunch of creative thinking into what your family will eat his week, a meal planning app can come in real handy. Meal planning apps can save you both money and time both in meal planning and grocery cost.

With a meal planning app, you will tend to stick to a grocery list better and have less food waste, which helps the Planet and your budget! There are some great meal planning apps out today; PlateJoy, Whisk, Prepear-which is both meal planning and grocery list combined, eMeals, MealBoard, Cooklist, Plan to Eat, Mealime Meal Plans, and more. There are even specific meal planning apps for different types of diets, such as Paleo, vegetarian, vegan, and more.

 

Repurpose Your Meals

Going back a few generations and repurposing meals was just what you did! Repurposing meals is a skill set that we have sort of lost over time, but it saves you so much money. In fact, the restaurants I have run and those I consult track food wastage as part of the costs they want to reduce. Less food waste helps the Planet and also saves you money.

This is a great time to invest in a good leftovers cookbook. I happen to have the whole series from my grandmother from the San Jose Mercury News from the 1940s and one of the leaflets is what to do with leftovers. Their leftover guide even gives hints of what to do with spoiled milk! There are also some good leftover apps; Toss-Less, Rescue food App, Too Good to Go, and more.

To give you an idea of how you can repurpose a simple meal, we will give you an example here, one with meat and one that is vegetarian. Take a simple meatloaf, make one that uses about 3 pounds of ground beef and make it with oven-roasted potatoes. Here are three meals from the leftovers; use a little of the ground beef and leftover potatoes and mix with scrambled eggs and spinach for a great New Joes Special-great for any meal, use some of the leftover meatloaf and mix with Spanish rice and stuff cooked peppers for a great casserole, and lastly use the leftover meatloaf cut into small cubes to make Italian Wedding Soup.

Now for a vegetarian meal that can be used in many ways as leftovers and meals during the week. One of my favorite ways to repurpose vegetarian meals is to roast a selection of vegetables that we use as a side dish to a vegetarian meal such as brown rice burgers. I then use the leftover vegetable to do a meal of stir-fry noodles and tofu, I use some of the vegetables for pizza toppers or use some of the leftover vegetables in a pasta salad or warm pasta dish. If you roast a selection of vegetables such as; zucchini, onions, spinach, kale, mushrooms, bell peppers, broccoli, and any other vegetables you love you can repurpose these vegetables to make many meals that are delicious, time-saving, and save you money.

 

Sign Up for Grocery Boxes

It’s amazing some of the companies that have grown since the COVID-19 pandemic, food boxes both local growers, and ugly groceries have been a hit! If like me you shop organic because it’s the healthiest for your family and you, you know how expensive it can be. The ugly grocery trend takes about 40% off the cost of buying organic. Many of these new companies have a very small minimum plus you don’t have to order every week. Some of the companies we have tried are Imperfect Food, Misfits Market and many more options are available!

 

Fresh Isn’t Always the Least Expensive

This tip blew my mind because I always buy fresh. But during COVID-19 and not frequenting stores as much I started buying frozen vegetables and fruit. I was amazed that most of the time it was a cost-saving. On top of that, less produce went to waste, saving us money and helping the Planet. Most of your stone fruit and berries are great frozen if you are going to use them in baking, smoothies, or as a topping. Frozen vegetables are great for smoothies and especially broccoli is great frozen and tastes like fresh. Experiment and see what frozen fruits and vegetables work for your family.

 

Some Other Money-Saving Tips

Many of these tips you probably know, but we thought we would add them in just as a reminder.

1. Don’t shop hungry
2. Leave over spenders at home
3. Skip packaging and bring your own containers-buy in bulk
4. Preserve, freeze, and store food
5. Buy generic
6. Eat leftovers for lunch instead of buying lunch out
7. Buy meat only when it’s on sale
8. Try going vegetarian for a few meals
9. Shop in season
10. Make a meal plan and then stick to it

Meal planning, grocery lists, and many of the tips that we have shared with you today can help you trim up to 40% off your food bill each month. Good planning saves you money and also helps our environment with the climate crisis we are in. We appreciate that you choose Crystal Clear Home for your house cleaning needs and we look forward to hearing from you to schedule your next cleaning by phone at 707-827-3316 or use our online form and one of our cleaning professionals will be in touch promptly with a free estimate.