To save, trim food costs
Strategies abound to still eat healthy on reduced budget
many shoppers, I’ve noticed my grocery bill getting bigger each week: February food prices were 7.9 percent higher than they were a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.
To compensate for my family’s busy spring schedule, I’d also been turning to shortcuts like prepackaged snacks and meal kits, which further added to our total bill.
To counteract these pressures, I applied all my go-to savings tricks: opting in to my grocery store’s loyalty program for extra discounts, using a credit card that gave me bonus cash back on grocery purchases, and planning our weekly menus around sales. Still, shopping for my family of five continued to give me sticker shock.
For extra guidance, I turned to budgeting and cooking experts with experience making food spending more manageable, as the USDA predicts food prices will continue to increase, growing 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent in 2022. Here are their best tips for saving money on food:
Control what you can
While so much about the economy can feel completely outside of our control, one area where we hold a lot of sway is with food, said Erin Lowell, a Bowdoin, Mainebased lead educator at You Need a Budget, a budgeting app. By spending more time cooking or substituting cheaper ingredients, you can feel an immediate savings impact.
Plan meals
“When people are overspending on food, it’s almost always because they’re eating out too often,” said Jake Cousineau, a personal finance teacher in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He says planLike ning combats the temptation to order takeout.
“If you meal prep on Sunday and make six to seven meals, you’re not faced with that decision of ‘Should I order out?’” Cousineau said.
Planning also helps avoid food waste, another budget killer, said Rob Bertman, a family budget expert in St. Louis. “Buy in bulk for things you know you will go through, but if food sits in the freezer or pantry and gets thrown in the trash, that gets expensive.”
Stock the pantry
Investing in staples can save you money because then you can quickly make meals instead of ordering in. “I try to keep five to 10 easy, budgetfriendly meals in the house at all times,” Lowell said. That list includes ingredients for pizza, frozen fish and a pasta dish. “It’s never expensive, and I’m always happy to eat it.”