How do you lower your grocery bill eating healthy..

ashleycde

You mentioned you buy a lot of frozen vegetables in bulk, and it could be different where you live, but here in Ontario (Canada) it is substantially less expensive to buy fresh produce. As an example, a small thing of dried parsley can range from $4 to over $10, whereas a large bundle of fresh parsley is only $0.69. Also, buy loose, unpackaged, uncut produce. A small bin of mushrooms, whole or sliced, is $2-3 or more, while loose white or brown mushrooms add up to less than a dollar for quite a few because they weigh so little. Again, a package of romaine lettuce hearts is $4 or more (and doesn't last as long as they've been separated) whereas a bundle of Romaine is $0.99. For fruit, a small container of sliced pineapple is $5+; a cored, peeled whole (but uncut) pineapple is $3.99; one pineapple is $2.49. Frozen fruit as well is also more expensive than cutting and freezing fruit yourself, plus you can get much more of a variety for smoothies buying fresh. The same thing goes for frozen meat, which, here, is also much more expensive than buying fresh meat. We individually wrap our meats and freeze what we won't use right away as soon as we get home. Buy meats that have % or $ off stickers and use immediately or freeze when you get home, and when meat, fruits, bread (or anything you can freeze for that matter) goes on sale, stock up and freeze them yourself. My boyfriend and I do that so often we're thinking of investing in a chest freezer. It's a good idea to portion everything you freeze so that you don't have to thaw more than you need, and you also avoid freezer burn that way. Also buying bone-in meat is less expensive, especially for chicken, and you can use the discards for making dirt cheap soup (my boyfriend always does this after he frees my chicken breasts for salads and stir fries) and a big batch of soup will feed him for weeks.

Like Daryllynn515 I also calculate my costs as I shop. I don't use a calculator, I actually overestimate so that my actual cost is always lower than I anticipated, and I don't end up buy anything I don't need. I also look at grocery flyers every week at 4 different grocery stores around me, and build my meals around items that are on sale, or stock up items I use often once they go on sale (ie: almond milk) so that I almost never have to buy them at full price. It's not as inconvenient as it sounds, considering that I don't drive and walk to and from all the grocery stores I shop to. Shopping lists with built in meal plans are key for saving money.

Fitiny

We stopped buying juice, coke, or beer, unless we have people over. So that money goes to fruits and veggies. And one meatless meal a week.helps. Usually on Sundays we have breakfast for dinner! Like French toasts, waffle, crepes all made from scratch, or eggs ...
I shop also at stores that do price match.
Yes it takes a bit of planning.
We are a family of 3 boys, the hubby and I.
After a while the kids got over the no juice rule.

suremeansyes

Family of three, myself, husband and 13yo daughter (in sports, she can EAT).

I second the "ethnic" food stores. I live in Southern CA and there are many Asian and Hispanic food stores where the produce is very, very cheap.

I buy all my produce, grains and spices at this local produce store. I generally only spend about $20 per week and we eat A LOT of produce in our house.

I never buy meat full price, unless it's at Costco where the price per pound is around sale price anyway.

I have a vacuum sealer, I adore it. I buy in bulk, pack up, freeze and store. It was super cheap, I don't think I paid over $30 for it on Amazon. I also got the bags for like $15 and I re-use any bags that weren't storing meat.

ETA: We also go meatless once or twice a week.

sshintaku

If you have farmers markets in your area, they are a great place to stock up on fruits and veggies for cheap.

Also, honestly when fund are really tight, we become vegetarian. Tofu and beans are a lot cheaper than chicken or fish. I've gotten pretty creative at working on recipes that have protein but no meat. Or, I wait until whole chickens are on sale or something, cook one up and use bits here and there throughout the week.

If you have Safeway, I've found the downloadable coupons are easily and usually end up saving me as much or more as I would going to one of the super discount canned food warehouse type stores.

susie3g

following... Thanks for posting this question.

NikiandZak

Bump - these are good ideas thanks guys.

Kristinemomof3

If you eat a lot of beans, see if there's an Azure drop near you and buy dried beans in bulk at www.azurestandard.com
I clip coupons, pricematch, watch sales, shop Sam's, cook from scratch, garden & preserve (big time). We have 3 teens, 2 cats and food, cat food & paper products run us an average of. $400/mo.

cacklingcat

I'm not being snarky. I don't understand these posts. eating fresh is so much cheaper than eating premade crap food. A whole chicken is less than $5. After you eat it, you cook it and make soup and add left over, and almost spoiled veggies and stuff. You have a few more meals.

It's so cheap to eat better, but I think there's a learning curve because everyone does it wrong for a while. It takes a while to figure out what healthy really means. And, then, it takes even longer to figure how that translates into savings.

Edited to add that frozen veggies are extremely expensive. I go to buy them and cringe, and then go buy fresh. I'm not paying in excess of $8 a bag. It's crazy expensive where I live, or where I shop, I don't know.

Where do you get a whole chicken for less than $5?

Safeway on Friday lol . It probably depends where you love, there are 4 normal stores and 3 whole food tipe stores where I live, you could find at least 1 of these store having them on sale at any given time(but I like free range chicken so we eat more like flexitarian's lol.:drinker:

Jsphine

i was just wondering the same...

kaaaaylee

Try big box stores like BJs or Costco. Buy a ton of meat and freeze it. Buy in season produce, as it's cheaper. Also, plant some veggies this summer!