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In the eternal quest to save money, it’s important to take a look at your monthly grocery bill. Since we need to feed ourselves, people often tend to justify spending more than necessary on food. I track my spending, and over the past few months and even though my monthly grocery budget is $150, I often spend less.
Here are my tips to save money on your groceries, focusing on which items to buy and which items to leave:
- Use lots of protein alternatives: not only are beans and lentils healthier than meats, they are significantly cheaper. The dried beans and lentils are even lower in price than the canned variety.
- Buy milk in larger quantities (4-litre bags in Toronto are the same price as 2-litre cartons).
- Eggs are a great source of protein and are much cheaper than meat. One egg can cost as little $0.25, and a tasty quiche only uses four.
- If you eat meat, choose cheaper cuts such as shank, skirt steak, flank steak, oxtail and shoulder or Boston butt. These have less fat and are less tender than the premium cuts, so you will need to cook them differently. Try stewing, using a pressure cooker, or slow cooker to make these meats melt-in-your-mouth tender.
- Cereal is expensive; if you eat storebought cereal, measure out half of what you would normally eat and make up the rest with plain rolled oats.
- Stay away from processed and junk foods. In appointments, I often hear that fruits and veggies are very expensive, but when I ask the person what foods they eat, I’m often regaled with tales of potato chips, pop, ice cream and frozen meals. Potato chips are surprisingly expensive, considering the ingredients involved, lack of nutrients, and inability to actually satisfy your hunger!
- Grow your own herbs! Bunches of fresh herbs are often over $1.00 each, and they don’t last long. Instead, buy a seedling or seeds and grow your own herbs. Try to keep your herbs from going to seed by clipping flowers before they bloom.
- Make your own dips. Storebought hummus and salsas are quite pricey, but it literally cost pennies to make them yourself.
- Juice is also expensive, and is basically sugar water. Do yourself a favour and have a piece of real fruit instead.
- Make use of leftover vegetable scraps, like onion skins, celery tops, carrot peels and mushroom stalks, to make a flavourful vegetable broth.
How do you save money on your groceries?
Great advice. Never thought of using veggie scraps for broth. Will do next time. What do you suggest (recipes or links) for dips, I’ve never made any?
We have a delicious hot spinach dip that tastes 100% better than what’s in the store (or at restaurants): hot spinach dip.
Here is a garlicky moutabal recipe (eggplant dip, similar to baba ganoush). Unfortunately we haven’t put out a hummus recipe yet!
These are all really great tips! I’ve been a vegetarian for years and while the protein here is relatively cheap, I still eat mostly eggs for my protein. One way I like to save money is by signing up for a CSA with a local farm. It adds up to about $12 a week for the whole growing season to go home with a bag of local organic produce. Love it!
We also belong to a CSA – and they just had their open house this week: Cooper’s CSA
Great tips! Yes, skip the sugary juice.
Also I have been meaning to try replacing ground beef with lentils. I am curious if my family will notice, but I have heard it works well. Thanks for the reminder!
thanks for these ideas! this helps a lot . I also like doing soups and stuff- that saves me a lot of $$ down the line!
Thanks for the great tips. I am going to go thru it all again. Your veggies look so beautiful
[…] this week, I made a list of ten tips on how to save money on your groceries, and here are a couple […]
#6 is helpful for sure. We add fruit and nuts or granola to cereal to stretch it out. I always buy on sale too.
Wow. $150 is extraordinary! I love your tips and practice them regularly. I also think eating what is in season and therefore plentiful is a good idea. No need to buy expensive imported mangos if local peaches are on sale!
Fantastic advice. Looking at what you eat and where you can make replacements is key to saving money. I tend to eat little meat, so I love the idea of using beans or lentils for adjustments.
Great tips! Thank you for sharing at the Sunday Fitness & Food Link-Up 🙂
Some great advice! thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner link up!
What great tips and those peaches look divine! Thanks for sharing on My 2 Favorite Things on Thursday!! See you later this week!! Pinned!
You make a lot of really good points here. I never thought about cereal that way before but you are absolutely right. As for the chips yes they are very expensive when we consider what they consist of. Great post. Pinning and sharing your sweet inspiration.