Taming the Grocery Beast

The price of food is going up and up, along with the price of gas. Not surprising, of course, but it's not as if we're making any more money. So, it's come down to us changing the way we grocery shop.

Before, we'd wander into the grocery store with a rudimentary list. We'd grab what was on it, along with a treat here, an extra meal or two, some of that fancy new gourmet whatnot we'd been wanting to try out. We'd buy some juice, some nuts, maybe some sorbet. No biggie. We did this weekly and stopped into the grocery once or twice in between for extras (or things we'd forgotten).

But things have changed.

Now, the list is law. Before making the list, we'll look through the pantry, the fridge and the produce baskets to see what's missing (and what we've still got on hand). Then, I come up with meals for the week, figure out what ingredients we still need, and create the list. Yes, there are a few treats left on the list, as well as a few fun foods, but those are fewer and farther between.

We also pull out a calculator and tally our total as we go. This makes everyone look at the price of food as they're pulling they're favorite X off the shelf, and it keeps me from spending more than I'd budgeted.

We're eating more simple meals, now - lots of dried beans, lentils, hummus, soups, etc. Our crock pot is seeing quite a bit of use. The little one is less enthralled with our new meals, but is happy to eat lots of peanut butter (as a dip for apples and bananas or on a sandwich with all-fruit jelly) and pinto beans. We're also snacking on fruit. This may not cost less initially, but it fills us up better than snacky-snacks, so we eat less of it.

We eat up all the leftovers. We were fairly good at his before, but we're superstars, now.

We drink only water and tea. No juice, sodas or other sweet drinks. This isn't too much of a change, but we would occasionally buy some O.J. or a Green Goddess - yum!

We try to stop at one of the local world food store once a week, or so. There's the Asian store, the Indian market, the Mediterranean place.... Their prices are amazing compared to those at the grocery ($3 for 12 oz. of curry powder!), and we eat a lot of foods from other countries, so this really helps cut the grocery bill.

When shopping for organic fruits and veggies, I refer to the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce print-out I keep in my wallet. Instead of buying everything organic, I buy the most contaminated produce organic.

We buy in bulk whenever possible - things like lentils and beans, TVP, spices, etc.

I try to keep up with the loss leader items at the more expensive grocery stores. I'm their worst customer. I walk in knowing what's on sale and buy only those items.

The only other things I buy at the more expensive grocery stores are clearance products. The busy, cheap grocery stores around here never really put their food on clearance, but the costly, mostly-empty groceries do. And great clearance stuff, at that.

Finally, I order lots of free samples online. I've gotten all sorts of things in the mail - Kashi cereal, flax oil, multi-vitamins, pens, dog/cat food and treats, nutritional yeast, vegetable seeds, you name it. Free samples are wonderful, but it's the coupons that come with the samples that are often the real treat - a free box of this, $4 off that, buy one get one free.... Good stuff. Since we don't receive the local paper, these coupons, along with any I might find online, are the only ones I use.

So, that's how we're taming the roaring, raging grocery bill. So far, it's working well. We're eating healthier and saving money in the process. What have you been doing to save money on groceries?