Ways I've used to save money on eating

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Plan out a weeks menu at a time, every meal.

Have breakfast for dinner once or twice a week. A bowl of cereal or some pancakes or oatmeal are just as good at night and a helluva lot cheaper than a steak or salmon or chicken dinner.

Buy seasonal fruit and vegetables. They’re cheapest when it’s the season for them.

Have two or three meatless dinners a week. Saves money instead of expensive meat.

Use inexpensive staples like pasta, dried beans and rice.

Shop sales. I don’t know about other parts of the country but grocery stores around here put out weekly ads with sales and coupons. They put the paper ads in the mail or they have the ads on their website. That’s one thing about Walmart, their meat can get expensive but local stores often have great sales on chicken, salmon, beef and pork.

When you go grocery shopping, make a list and stick to it, it helps you not buy extras.

Don’t go grocery shopping while you’re hungry, you’re more likely to buy extras if you’re hungry and you’ll end up making impulse buys, usually of stuff that’s not good for you.

Buy the generic or store brand; they’re usually cheaper than name brand goods. When you buy name brands you’re often paying more just for the label.

Check the unit labels on the shelves of items and compare. See how much it costs per ounce for example and buy the best size with the best deal. Right off hand, I think of olives. I buy blue cheese stuffed olives, kind of a luxury for me. The store brand is 7 cents cheaper by ounce than the popular brand and just as good quality. And you can look at prices per ounce on these items and save money:

to stretch your grocery budget, these are the 25 items I’d most consistently compare by unit price. Brand-name vs. store-brand differences can be surprisingly large.

# Grocery item What to compare
1 Olives Price per oz — especially stuffed olives
2 Coffee Price per oz
3 Cheese Price per oz
4 Nuts Price per oz
5 Chocolate Price per oz
6 Cereal Price per oz
7 Peanut butter Price per oz
8 Pasta sauce Price per oz
9 Salsa Price per oz
10 Pickles Price per oz
11 Tuna Price per oz of net weight
12 Refried beans Price per oz
13 Canned beans Price per oz
14 Canned tomatoes Price per oz
15 Soup Price per oz
16 Crackers Price per oz
17 Tortilla chips Price per oz
18 Cookies Price per oz
19 Popcorn Price per oz
20 Granola Price per oz
21 Mayonnaise Price per oz/
22 Ketchup Price per oz
23 Frozen vegetables Price per oz
24 Frozen fruit Price per oz
25 Ice cream Price per oz

And use the calculator on your phone to figure out the best deal on the best size

For example:

  • $3.99 for 10 oz = 39.9¢/oz
  • $5.49 for 20 oz = 27.5¢/oz
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Can nutrients in our foods mimic calorie restriction and increase our
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Shopping sales is key. I stocked up on canned meat recently. One store was 5.50$ a can the other 1.88… prices can vary so widely. It’s one way you can really save money without depriving yourself

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Thanks for the tips. Eating less of more efficient nutrient sources is a good idea too. You need 50-100g of protein per day, some fats, small amount carbs, vegetables, a bunch of vitamins and minerals. We only need a little high quality food. Hunger is a tough thing to deal with, but just eating for nutrition is cheaper than eating for fulfillment.

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thats a really good point. Alot of people say eating healthy is expensive, and while some products are, especially trendy ones, a lot of the healthiest foods like beans, frozen vegetables, some fruits like bananas, or oatmeal are dirt cheap. A $30 pizza foregone could feed someone for like a week if they ate solely for nutrition. Its only really good tasting food thats expensive.

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I also shop sales, use coupons, choose lower cost per unit, and plan all meals a week in advance. The one thing I do differently is my husband insists on meat every night for dinner. So I make meals that last a minimum of 2 nights. I typically eat about 2oz of meat and my husband eats about a pound each night. He’s a very tall and very muscular man who needs the protein and calories. It makes budgeting harder but I’m working on finding ways to cut costs.

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If you have room in the freezer, when there’s a sale on meat buy large packs and stock up and use some for the next couple of days and freeze the rest and pull it out at your leisure. If you put meat you want to freeze in ziplock quart freezer bags it will last three months in the freezer.

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Thanks for the tips, @77nick77! I’m going to be eating in a lot more because there aren’t places to eat out near me. That’s a good thing, I think. I just have to get used to meal planning and sticking to it!

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I’ve done this. Unfortunately we lose power a lot and when we lose it, it’s for 4-5+ days. We can’t afford a generator although we’re trying to figure out how to get one. Right now I have 3 lbs of chicken in the freezer but I won’t do more than ghst

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I used to watch cooking channels and write down things. Yes ads and coupons are best. On somedays.

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I’d like to balance cost, healthiness, and enjoyment. I have no desire to reach 90 or so on a diet that makes me miserable.

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sure! I mean yea people arent robots right… i think your approach is good. I dont think i could live without treats some times… just saying, if i had to survive the apocolypes or something, i could probably do it on a couple bags or rice and beans and dried fruit and dried herbs and such which are pretty damn cheap… you know what i mean, but noones going to live their actual life like that. i agree

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My diet is far from perfect, but it’s a lot better than it was before moving to be near my daughter.

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