How do you lower your grocery bill eating healthy..

A big part of this is where you live! My family is me, my partner and our toddler, and we spend $500-$600/month on groceries. Things are just expensive here.

I buy a lot of frozen produce, particularly in the winter when fresh is either hard to find or prohibitively expensive. Usually I stock up when things are on sale, I think I got 2 bags of a stir fry mix (President's Choice brand) for $5 last week? Fresh would be ideal, but I really don't mind frozen as an alternative.

The same goes for meat - I buy what is on sale, and then at home pack everything into meal sized bags and freeze it. That means the value packs of ground beef, or a tray of pork chops, etc.

Thirdly, I dedicate usually Sunday afternoons to baking for the upcoming week. We always have a big roast meat meal on Sunday nights (beef, chicken, turkey, etc) and that turns into lunches for a few days, and then the carcass (if there is one) gets roasted and turned into a soup for a supper or lunch. As well, I will bake a week's worth of muffins (last week's used frozen blueberries, yoghurt and stuff), maybe some cookies for DH/DD, possibly a dozen buns and/or a loaf of bread. That sort of thing. Then it gets stored in the fridge for a week.

It is definitely more time intensive to eat healthy for a lower cost, but to me it's worth it. Plus I love baking/cooking, so I enjoy it all.

I strongly recommend looking into meal planning. You don't have to become a crazy couponer, but planning meals around your typical store's flyers can also really reduce your food budget. It takes a bit of getting used to and definitely requires prep work, but in the end it saves money.

SInce having my son and turning our family of 3 to 4 we definitely had to tighten the purse strings. I do the grocery shopping and I've turned into a sale fiend. I frequent 3 different grocery stores and watch their sales. I'll buy meat only when it's on sale...and I mean like $1.99 a pound for ground beef compared to $3.88 a pound or whatever regular price. Whatever is on sale I try to stock up as much as I have room for. Veggies and fruit I will only buy what is on sale and more "in season". Spaghetti squash was as low as $.38 a pound back in November...now I saw it as high as $1.18 so I don't buy it at all.

So I guess my suggestion is buy in bulk when it's on sale and watch the flyers. Buy what is "in season" and tailor your eating to it. There's also nothing wrong with buying processed foods if they're cheaper. You may have to find a balance so the budget is stuck to. I couldn't imagining doubling my food budget right now... and I think most people would feel the same way. I've been really paying attention the past year or so and kind of know in my head what is a decent price, where something is the cheapest at regular price, and what sale price is worth to buy in bulk or to hold out a few weeks for an even lower sale price.

In the summer there are multiple farmer markets a week at different places and those can be even cheaper. This year I plan to grow a couple vegetables....I have never done that before so it'll only be like 2 different things just to see if it's worth my time to save a bit.

When planning a meal...I've found we can use about 1 lb of chicken, 1 lb of pork chops or so, and atleast 1.25 lbs of beef. That's for my family of 4 which is me, my husband, a 12 year old and an almost 2 year old. (The 12 year old can sometimes eat more than my husband so he evens out the 2 year old). So when I buy a 10 lb package of meat I divide it up right away into approx 1.25 sections. If I'm making chili or something that requires more meat, I might put aside some browned meat to save for a lunch to throw on a salad or what not.

A few things that worked for us:

If you live in a decent-sized city, hit the smaller ethnic markets for produce. The big chains here have super-expensive for produce UNLESS they're running a good sale.

If you can, grow some of your own stuff. Even if you only have a balcony, you can get a couple of pots going--a cherry tomato plant will give and give and give for a while. Do as much as you can, and even if you're not a gardener it's really not that hard.

We buy whatever meat is on sale and buy double of the best deals so we have some freezer stock.

We also eat meatless 2-3 nights a week. (I realize this is a hard one for some; trust me, it took us time to get to this point :-)

Per a friend's recommendation, I started shopping at Aldi... they don't have everything a regular grocery store carries, but I am able to buy most/all of my weekly items there. I was spending about $110 or so per week at a local grocery store and cut that to about $70 or so at Aldi. It may be worth checking out if you have one nearby!

ETA: I generally buy fresh food and not a lot of frozen items. At Aldi I have been buying produce, dairy, as well as meat. I really like their produce and dairy and have been mostly happy with their meat. I've heard of others not loving their meat though.

Try being strict about portion control. Sometimes I know my hubby wants to go back for more but I remind him that if he gets more there won't be enough for us to each have leftovers for lunch the next day. Stretching the food further does help!

I second the Aldi's comment! I buy all of my produce, eggs, yogurt, almond milk, and tons of other stuff. Check it out. It is not the same as when I was growing up. Much nicer now.

The best investment I made was a vacuum sealer for the freezer. Stock up on meats when they are on sale and portion them out into individual servings. Make large pots of soups and stews and freeze the leftovers in single servings for quick meals or lunches. As somebody else recommended, buy a whole chicken, use the meat then make stock with the bones. Also canned tuna, rice and dried beans are very inexpensive per serving. I make things like chili, curries, beef stew, etc. Healthy doesn't have to mean fresh, organic vegetables or overpriced " all natural health foods".

Go into the store with a list!

I hate going to the store without a list and typically spend 50 dollars more on impulse buys.

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.

$8 a bag???? Where in the world do you live? Most frozen veggies are $1 for a 12-16 oz bag at my grocery store. Some veggies such as carrots and sweet potatoes are cheaper fresh though.

THE DOLLAR STORE! I swear by that place.

Believe it or not, you can get things like whole grain pasta, dried beans, tomato sauce, wheat bread, soymilk, nuts, juice, even frozen veggies (avoid the broccoli though since it's mostly stems). I reduce my monthly grocery bill by half by going there.