As for the ‘Raw foods simply are cheaper’ tip: this is not always true. Another thing we eat quite a lot is tomatoes with and without herbs. The local noname brand offers quite a selection of chopped tomatoes plain and with a variety of herbs premixed. A tin is chepaer than the same ammount of fresh tomatoes, not to mention the quite pricey fresh herbs needed.

You’re right about the quantity changing. The frozen pizza’s my hubby likes has shrank in size but not in price.

I have been making my own recipe lists for the last year or so now and it really does cut down on your time in the grocery store (my other half lags through the grocery store with the same sort of interest some would invest in a museum!)and of course cuts waste while adhering to a budget.

I want to send out a bit of encouragement by including my favorite cheap recipe! :)

Veggie Lasagna

-9 uncooked lasagna noodles
-2 eggs
-1 carton (15oz)ricotta cheese
-1 tsp parsley flakes
-2 tsp dried oregano (i just use a store bought “Italian seasoning” blend for these spices)
-1 tsp pepper
-4 cups spaghetti sauce
-2 cups mozzarella cheese
-1 pkg (16oz) frozen veggies (or 8cups fresh)
-Parmesan Cheese

–Cook noodles as directed

–In small bowl mix eggs, ricotta cheese, & spices

–In 13-in X 9-in coated baking dish spread 1 cup sauce. Place three noodles over sauce

–Layer with quarter ricotta mixture, 1 cup sauce, 1 cup cheese, 3 noodles, & half veggies REPEAT & cover top layer with remaining noodles sprinkle Parmesan cheese

Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 45mins

ENJOY!!! :)

Another trick they do is repackaging. They can claim that the price of a loaf of bread hasn’t changed. Sure, but a loaf of bread is now 20 ounces instead of 24. Sounds like a 20% increase. Frozen veggies used to be a dollar for 16 ounces (Kroger brand). Now the price has “dropped” to 88 cents, but the bag is now 12 ounces. That’s a 17 percent increase.

Certain fresh vegetables used to be priced on a per-pound basis. Now it is per item. Kroger’s fresh veggies cost twice as much as (Korean grocer) H-Mart’s. I only buy meat at Kroger if it is on sale cheaper than Costco’s retail price. Our other choices in Houston? Randall’s (boutique groceries), Rice Epicurean (the name says it all), and HEB (high prices on all but a few select items, probably to pay rent on 200,000 square foot stores). All high priced.

This is why I go to three different stores to shop. It is worth the extra hour it takes me.

Another thing – some things are worth stocking up on. For example, if you get a great deal on pasta, rice, you’ll have them for a couple of months. If you buy and freeze some ground beef, that’s a bunch of meals. Other things, not so much. If you get a great deal on ice cream and buy 5 gallons, if you’re like most people, it’ll just mean that you’ll eat 5 gallons in the next 2 weeks instead of 1.

We spend $140 per week on groceries for a family of four. That’s all whole foods (most organic) from scratch with beans in our diet daily. We spent about half that before discovering food allergies in our family.
I highly recommend eating beans each day, we could have saved a ton on food the past 10 years with this one simple change. Beans are delicious and offer more variety than one can imagine. (Red Beans and Rice, Refried Beans, White Beans in pasta, hummus, white bean dip) Do beans taste gross and give you gas? No way, just like the above tip, it might take a few practice sessions to get it right in your kitchen. Beans in a crockpot cook overnight or while you are at work! Put a piece of kombu (a seaweed) in the pot to eliminate gas and provide minerals your body needs.
Plus, if you eat like a peasant, your budget will be like a peasants’. Turns out this is healthier, too, as peasants use whole foods.

By buying whole foods, I rarely use coupons as they don’t apply to whole foods.

Whole Foods + Beans= A healthier, tastier, less-costly diet.

Sometimes my hubby thinks he can eat more scrambled eggs than he can really hold. :) As a Judo student, he’s eating a lot of food & still staying fit. Occassionaly we do have a bit of leftover eggs & I roll it up into a breakfast burrito with a little cheese & stick it in the fridge for his next snack or for breakfast.

My latest project is going through the cupboards and freezer and actually using whatever I find there just to use it up and be able to buy fresher. You will be amazed at what you will find lurking there. Just be sure to check the dates on everything. You can save a significant amount of money by using what you already have.

I never use coupons as I believe they are a trick to make you buy things you don’t really need, as in this article I read http://www.ecopunk.org.uk/search/label/coupons

When you think about it, there probably is.

I consider myself to be an expert grocery shopper, and there are a lot of things I do to save money that I don’t even realize.

Gorceries, for the most part, are a household budget’s #2 expense.

Why not do everything you can to impact it?

Sounds like a worthwhile read.

On buying raw foods–this is my favorite, especially when I find an easy recipe for something expensive made with cheap ingredients (like pumpkin butter). Once you’ve got a recipe you like, you can always have that thing (so long as the raw ingredients are available) and don’t have to rely on certain companies not going out of business.

And you don’t have to buy them raw, either–you can save money by just buying them less processed. For example, lots of people have a good recipe for taco soup that involves mostly canned goods. And using pre-made pasta, bread, or pie crusts to make pasta dishes, sandwiches and pies/quiches still saves you money over buying those things pre-made.

Finally, when you make it yourself, you can make little changes to make it better. My favorites are using whole grain pastry flour, adding shredded veggies to things, and reducing the salt, fat, and sugar.

On “core ingredients,” in my day, we called those staples. I remember being delighted when I got a roommate who considered ice cream to be a staple. These really are different for everyone. Once you know what yours are, you know what’s safe to stock up on. Mine are tomatoes, beans, hamburger, pasta, cheese, milk, spelt pretzels, frozen concentrated juice, bread, flour, sugar, cocoa, and chocolate chips. Other things I can always find a way to use are bananas carrots, and zucchini.