As I see it, there are three good ways to lower your food bill:
1. Eat less.
2. Make more food from scratch.
3. Grow your own food.
4. Switch grocery stores.
If your family could stand to loose a few pounds, start with #1. #2 will also improve your heath, so I encourage you to eat fewer processed foods and try simple things like making your own daily bread or mixing up your own pancake mix. #3 also promotes exercise, natural sciences, and family togetherness; even if you only grow a few things in pots, it's well worth your time to invest in gardening.But it's #3 that produces the biggest change in my food bill. In my town, there is only one full service grocery store, but if I shop there it costs at least 50 percent more! So even though it's not as convenient, we take a half hour drive (one direction) and shop at Wal-Mart. Yes, there are some things I don't like about our Wal-Mart grocery store; often the meat and produce aren't top-notch and sometimes items we regularly use go out of stock for a month or more. However, despite this, and including our fuel bill to drive out of town, the savings are too significant for me to shop elsewhere. When was the last time you compared prices at grocery stores in your area? All you need is an afternoon (or several afternoons), a pen, and a notebook. Make a list of staple foods in your house, then write down the prices you discover. Whichever store is cheaper overall should be where you do your regular shopping. (In my experience, Win-Co and Wal-Mart stores are cheapest, so if you have either in your area, be sure to check them out.) I don't generally recommend driving around to different stores to take advantage of sales. Although I do sometimes pick up meat or produce on sale at our local grocery store, usually the fuel and time consumed don't make grocery store sales worthwhile. I'm also not big on coupons. For one thing, most coupons are for highly processed food. For another, you can spend hours and hours looking for just the right coupons - time that is, in my opinion, better spent making foods from scratch, spending time with your children, reading the Bible... Do you have good tips for lowering the cost of food?
I agree on the coupons and sales, but not on Walmart. I have a Walmart in town and often shop there for industrialized foods like butter, juice, tomato sauce, canned goods, frozen waffles, whole grain pasta, whole grains and other things, BUT their price on fresh produce is astronomic!!!! So I buy most of our fresh produce at a local vegetable market, for the vegetables I can't find there I use my local grocery store, where I also buy our meat for a better quality and price than Walmart's. I don't like that I have to make 3 stops to shop for my family but it's the only way to save money here and I am glad all 3 places are only 5 minutes from my house. Anyway...cooking from scratch is also a big money saving tip. :) I usually buy lots of meat and chicken when the price is only $1.99/ pound and cook and prepare them all and freeze. When cooking dinner I just add the side dishes to the meat entree. Fast, cheap and a healthy home cooked meal. :)
ReplyDeleteHow interesting, Tereza. Our Wal-Mart has the lowest prices on produce. It must have to do with location. But I only buy certain things there (carrots, celery, apples); the quality of certain items (meat, about half the time, for example) is so poor I must shop elsewhere. I have heard there is a butcher in a nearby town that offers high quality meat at very affordable prices; I think I'll have to check that out.
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