Feeding America reports that Americans waste 444 billion dollars of food every year (feedingamerica.org).
The most important thing you can do to cut your grocery bill is prevent food waste!!!
Here's one surefire way to prevent food waste: take a weekly inventory of what's in your fridge/pantry and plan meals using what you already have. I discussed this in my meal planning blog post a few weeks ago.
But there's an even easier way to prevent food waste: Freeze old food BEFORE it goes bad.
There are two foods that go bad very quickly: #1 bananas and #2 leafy greens
Luckily, these foods also freeze extremely well.
They also make the yummiest smoothie you've ever tasted when blended together with peanut butter and milk.
On February 27 from 5:30-6:00 pm, I will be teaching a live zoom cooking class about green smoothies and how to use your freezer to prevent food waste.
Here's my menu (it's typed up this week because I'm going to be away from home all week, and I needed everything to be very organized for the babysitter):
The fridge was empty again. I spent 200$ at the grocery store just days earlier.
Where did all the food go?
Did we get robbed by hungry bandits in the night?
Did someone have a party I didn't know about?
Or did our growing kids just eat us out of house and home again?
There were still things to eat in the pantry: noodles, canned beans, and that really good chocolate I keep hidden on the top shelf. But I was out of fresh produce to make a good meal with.
Luckily I still had good healthy food in my freezer: fruits, vegetables, and meats!
I strategically use my freezer as a “storage bin” for the foods we frequently eat. I buy in bulk when prices are good, and freeze the extra before it goes bad. My freezer helps me spend less money on healthy food.
Do you want to spend less on healthy food too? Here's a list of money-saving freezer friendly foods:
#1 Discounted Produce: Smiths has a discount bin with fruits/vegetables for $1.00 in red mesh bags (see lemons + peppers in photo below). The produce is sometimes old or bruised. It's fine to use right away, but if you can't use it right away, freeze it! Below is a list of my favorite clearance items to freeze for later (and a link for the recipes I use them in)
Lemons + limes:
how: Freeze whole and then microwave for 30 seconds when ready to use,
cost savings: 10/1$ on discount, normal price: $.75 each
recipe:
Peanut noodles, many recipes I find online often call for fresh lemon juice!
how: Place an entire bag or container in your freezer for about 3 months. If you have spinach going bad in your fridge, put it in the freezer for smoothies! I always have a bag of spinach in my freezer.
cost savings: Entire bags are sometimes on clearance for $1.00, normally a bag is $3.00. I often find the big bins for $2.50, they are about $6 regular price!
You can get big boxes of spinach for cheap! Just stick them in the freezer.
Squash and pumpkins:
how: Roast squash in the shell, then scoop out the flesh and put in ziploc bags. Freeze extra canned pumpkin if a recipe doesn’t use the entire can.
cost savings: pumpkins are often deeply discounted after Halloween. If you are willing to cook and freeze them, you can get a lot of pumpkin for about $1.00.
Cut out extra sugar by using frozen berries instead of pancake syrup. Start now while your kids are little.
Mangoes
how: Buy frozen bags of mangoes instead of fresh, defrost in microwave
cost savings: fresh = 1$/.5 cup, frozen = 1$/1 cup Prices vary, but usually frozen is more economical, and you don't have to bother with cutting them or worry about them going bad before you can eat them!
Discounted meat: I don't eat a lot of meat. However, I know most people do! Meats are good past the expiration date if you put them in the freezer before they expire. I will buy discounted sausage and bacon that is about to expire and put it in my freezer for later (see bacon in photo above). It's still good if I use it within 1-2 months. I do make sure it hasn't already spoiled before I buy it!
Bulk meat: I like to keep bacon on hand to give flavor to recipes. It is much less expensive per ounce to buy bacon in bulk. The same is often true of chicken. I rarely buy meat but if I do, I buy it in bulk.
Butter: A few months ago my local smiths was discounting butter for $1.50 a pound. It's usually $4.00 per pound!! I bought 20 pounds for the freezer. The checker thought I was crazy. But I know that butter stays good in the freezer for a year or two and saved myself at least $50 in butter costs!
Butter freezes well for about 1 year. Buy in bulk when it's inexpensive.
Milk: Gallons of milk will often get marked down at my local Smiths. I will buy a few extra gallons and freeze them. Previously frozen milk does have a different texture, so I only use pre-frozen milk for cooking (pancakes, waffles, oatmeal). Other dairy products, like cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt and cottage cheese do not freeze well in my experience.
Cheese: Cheese prices change a lot! One week 2 pounds will be $5, the next week it will be $8. When the prices are low, I buy several bags and freeze it for later. I find that shredded cheese freezes nicely, bricks of cheese do not freeze as well.
Stonefire naan bread tastes best with hummus or curry. I buy it on sale and freeze it. Pre-shredded cheese also freezes well.
fancy bread: Stores often discount baguettes and "fancy" sourdough loaves for less than 1$. They stay good in the freezer for about a month. I toast frozen bread before eating it.
naan bread: I often serve stone fire naan bread with curry and hummus. If it's on clearance, I'll buy it and stick it in the freezer for future meals.
bread loaves: When sandwich bread is priced well, I will buy a few loaves and freeze them. Then I always have bread for pbj's.
I hope a few of these ideas will help you save money and eat healthier too!
Remember that the key to saving money is to avoid throwing food away, so make sure you rotate through your freezer stash frequently. I always check what needs to be used in my freezer BEFORE I make my shopping list and go to the grocery store.
Speaking of shopping lists, here's mine for the week (we cleaned out our parents freezer and are using up all the old meat we found - hence the corn beef and pork - I rarely cook meat).
Here's how to save money on groceries at the store:
Make a grocery list
Only buy things on your list
Grocery stores are set up to make you want to buy things you don't need. They only make a little bit of money on each item sold, so stores try to trick you into buying more than you need so they can make a profit.
Here's some tips to protect yourself from getting tricked at the grocery store:
If you go into the grocery store without a plan, you'll end up wandering around the isles picking up things that look good. Stores try to make the most expensive items look really good. Avoid getting tricked into buying the most expensive foods by going in with a plan.
Making a menu and shopping for that menu also helps you make healthier choices!! If you have a plan for eating healthy, you are less likely to stock up on frozen pizza and chicken nuggets.
Always compare unit costs, especially on foods like cold cereal.
I always buy the items at the store that cost the least amount of money per ounce. Usually that means buying the store brand.
Let's start by looking at cereal. The small number next to the bolded price is the unit cost, or cost per ounce. Great Value brand costs 13.9 cents per ounce, which is half the cost of regular cheerios which are 26.2 cents per ounce!!:
If you look at canned beans at Smith's:
S&W Brand: $1.00
Simple Truth Organic: $1.25
Goya: $1.99
Kroger Brand: $0.89
Every can has 15oz of beans, so Kroger brand beans are the least expensive, but it can be hard to find the best price when foods some in different sized packaging.
For example: Look at the cheddar cheese choices from walmart.com
The little number next to the price shows you the cost per oz.
The least expensive option per ounce is the 2 pound bag of Great Value shredded cheese (23.4 cents per ounce).
The bag of Tillamook cheese costs less for the entire bag, but is actually double the price of the Walmart cheese at 49.8 cents per ounce!
I always buy food that is the least cost per ounce. It might only save you a few cents per item, but over the long run, those cents make a big difference.
For example, if you buy 2 pounds of the expensive cheese every week for 1 year (52 weeks), you'll spend $828 on cheese. If you bought 2 pounds of Great Vaule cheese every week for a year, you would only spend $389. Buying the cheese with the lowest cost per ounce could save you $439 per year just in cheese!
Always buy the items that cost least per ounce.
3. Only buy in bulk if you eat in bulk.
Only buy in bulk if you know you'll eat it all before it goes bad, otherwise you'll end up throwing food away.
Sometimes stores have deals where you buy a certain amount to get a better price. They want you to buy in bulk so that they make more money.
For example, if you buy 5 boxes of crackers, you can get them for $1.00 less per box.
If you eat a lot of crackers this is a great idea!
If you don't eat a lot of crackers, you won't end up saving any money because the crackers will go bad before you eat them.
Also, you might end up eating more than you want if you buy too many. This especially applies to foods like chips and cookies. Avoid buying those foods in bulk!
If it's an item like cheese, you can freeze the extra for future use. If it's a large box of oranges, there's a good chance you won't be able to eat them before they go moldy, and oranges do not freeze well.
Only buy items in bulk if you have a plan to use them or freeze before they go bad. If you don't think you'll use it before it goes bad, you'll just end up throwing food away.
Throwing food away = throwing money away.
Don't get tricked into buying more than you want or need.
Only buy in bulk if you eat in bulk.
(and prevent yourself from eating junk food in bulk by never buying it in bulk!)
Those are my top 3 tips for saving money at the grocery store: shop with a list, buy the least expensive item per unit cost and only buy in bulk if you know you will eat it before it goes bad.
Next week I'll talk more about how to make the most of grocery store deals by using your freezer. See you next week!
