Thrifty Food and Grocery Shopping Tips

Modern frugal shoppers can choose tips and techniques that best fit their lifestyle and family’s needs.

No matter where you may be on the spectrum of thrift, if you want to go further, there’s something new you can add to your existing methods.

Finding and storing the right ingredients is just as important to managing the food budget as knowing how to make simple recipes and one pot meals.

But to start with shopping, I’ve grouped the recent tips I found about grocery shopping around two central themes: planning and sweat equity.

Image credit: ckforjc/sxc.hu

Even simple plans can save you money when it comes to the grocery budget.

• Make your list. Check your cupboards and the recipes you’re making, before heading off to the store. Shopping from a list makes a huge difference.

• Study your stores and food sources. Sales are great when you can make use of the markdowns. Farmers markets are great places to find seasonal produce. If you have a CSA in your area – Community Supported Agriculture – a subscription might be just the thing to get the freshest vegetables all season long.

• Shop when you’re full, not hungry. This is a common tip. Ignore it at your peril, especially if the kids are going along! It’s so easy to add unplanned extras to the grocery cart when your stomach is rumbling or the kids are fussing – and those goodies are calling from the store shelf.

• Buy in bulk. If you will use it, or have a way to store it, a bulk purchase can make sense. But check the quality and the per-pound or unit price, to make sure it’s the deal you think it is.

Tasks you can do yourself will reap benefits in your food budget.

• Process your food at home. This can be as simple as cutting larger pieces into smaller cuts, such as separating chicken leg quarters into legs and thighs.

• Go for the fresh food. Processed food generally costs more than the components, found around the outside in most grocery stores.

• Garden at home. Even a few pots on your balcony can give you fresh and dried herbs for cooking all season long. Your pots can come in when the weather turns cold.

• Take up home preserving. A freezer of any size can help you take advantage of bulk purchases and sales on foods you use. Canning is coming back as an artisan hobby for people in rural and urban areas. Or, you may be intrigued by other methods. Pickling and drying are other time-honored preservation techniques that you can apply to managing your pantry staples. 

Purchase well, cook, store and dispose well, to get the greatest value for money out of your food supply.

Those apples are looking good!

I found a sturdy, big basket for when you're shopping. Or carry in from the garden with it.

The peels (if they're coming off) and cores can go into compost. Check out:

• Fair trade market basket. Heavy and hand woven, for trips to the market or the garden.
• Stainless steel kitchen compost crock. Generous size and dishwasher safe.
• Bokashi all-food recycling and compost bucket. From Japan. Uses fermentation, so bones, dairy, etc., can go in, too, without the aroma of other methods.

If taking more control of your money is important to you, then taking advantage of some thrifty living tips may suit you very well.

Grocery shopping is a good place to start, or expand your knowledge, whether you follow the Gazette, or more recent versions of these time-tested ways for penny-wise living.

The simple methods that mom and grandma used to stretch the family budget are alive and well in modern times -- with plenty of room to adjust them, based on your own family's favorite foods and lifestyle, and the resources you have in your area..