Saving Money on Groceries #4: Eat less meat!

This is common advice when it comes to lowering grocery bills. After all, no matter how much chicken is marked down, it's never going to be as cheap as dried lentils! Despite this, eating less meat is a hard shift for many people to make. Perhaps we just don't have many good vegetarian recipes. Maybe people in our families complain when we serve meatless meals. However, these obstacles can be overcome! Eric used to really be a carnivore, and after a meatless meal, he would feel as if he'd hardly eaten at all. However, now he's the one who frequently tells me we should keep cutting down on our meat consumption! As I've blogged about before, vegetarianism has many personal and societal benefits.

We don't plan to become vegetarians, however, we keep expanding our repertoire of meatless meals. Many of them also expand our cultural horizons! I love The Japanese Kitchen, and it has some interesting ideas on using tofu and miso and vegetables to put together great meals. I haven't read the book I've pictured above, but it looks right up my alley! Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook, is also a great resource. In many cultures, meat is reserved for feasts and holidays--people rely on simpler and cheaper ingredients for their daily fare.

Beans and lentils are so versatile--you might want to try Moroccan Stew with Chickpeas over Couscous. Or make Black Bean Tostadas for a taste of Mexico. A simpler version is simply to top tortillas with salsa, black beans, refried beans, and other accompaniments. Vegetarian Chili Pie features both kidney beans and lentils--I like to make two of them and freeze one for later. This Lentil-Rice Casserole is straight from The Tightwad Gazette--incredibly easy and delicous. Another easy way to use lentils and beans is to use them in soups, such as this White Bean Soup with Rosemary and Parmesan.

Eggs are a great ingredient to build a meal around. You could make a Swiss cheese and mushroom quiche, or an omelet with cheese and tomatoes. Meatless pasta dishes are another option--how about spinach lasagna, or spaghetti with marinara sauce? Indian samosas can be made with a potato and pea filling, maybe served alongside a chickpea curry. Something as simple as tomato soup and grilled cheese is a good vegetarian meal. Rather than a deprivation, eating vegetarian can be a delicious adventure!

Even when we do eat meat, we can save money by using smaller amounts of it in casseroles, stews, and stirfries. We can cook up a whole chicken and make sure to use it all up in various ways. What about you? Do you make an effort to eat less meat? Any ideas to share?

Saving money on groceries #3: Use up what you have!

Once you've stocked up, use up what you have! There have been months when we've pretty much "eaten from the pantry" and only spent money on dairy and fresh produce at the store. Again, my memory isn't the best, so I keep two important lists in a prominent place in my kitchen. One is my food inventory--it's broken into categories such as meat, beans, vegetables, grains, and sauces. This way, I don't forget about the salmon in the deep freeze, the basmati rice at the back of the pantry, or the curry paste in the fridge. A second list contains meal ideas based on the ingredients we have around, broken down into categories such as entrees, sides, breakfast, snacks, and desserts. Whereas in the past, I would have looked around the kitchen and felt like there was nothing I could make, now I consult my list, and see how easy it would be to throw together Brown Rice and Lentils, or Homemade Pizza, or Black Bean Soup with homemade biscuits.

I'm also throwing away a lot less food than I used to. If we're not going to finish the fresh strawberries before they go bad, I will freeze some for use in smoothies. If I use half a can of tomato sauce, the rest can be frozen for later use.

What about you? How do you make sure you use up what you have? Have you ever "eaten from the pantry" for a week or two or three?

Learn value of stuff by moving overseas

As I've been decluttering our house, it's been so helpful to take the advice in this article. If you were moving across an ocean, what would you take with you? If you wouldn't take a specific item with you, is it worth owning now? Sometimes, as I've applied this mental filter, I find things around the house that I wouldn't take overseas, but that still have value. Things like gardening tools, furniture, and our car. But as I've filled bag after bag destined for the trash can or the Salvation Army, it's become clear how easy it is to accumulate all kinds of stuff with little value. It obscures that within the house that we truly consider to be treasure. We're not planning to move overseas, but living like we are makes for a simpler, more streamlined, more peaceful life right here.

The author of the article, Tsh Oxenreider, has a blog at Simple Mom.

Saving money on groceries #2: Buy low!

I used to shop in a very different way than I do now. I would decide what meals I wanted to make that week, head to the store, cross off the items on my list, and buy a few other things that caught my eye (or that my kids nagged me to buy!). Probably a few of the things I needed were on sale, but I didn't really pay much attention to that. I would repeat this process the next week.

But once I had a better grasp of the prices in our area, it really changed the way I do meal planning and shopping. I'm still not nearly as frugal or efficient as I could be with grocery shopping, however, I do find our grocery bills have lowered significantly.

Now, I definitely pay attention to what's on sale when I go grocery shopping. Sometimes I sit down with my Price Book, calculator, and a sales flyer or two (paper or online). I will circle the great deals, and make plans to stock up! This works especially well for canned items, and anything I can put in our freezer. I try to make a meal plan that revolves around what's on sale that week, particularly when it comes to perishables like fresh produce.

Sometimes I don't take that time, and just notice what's on sale once I'm at the store. The other day I went to the store for milk and eggs, but ended up also buying 8 cans of diced tomatoes and 4 jars of peanut butter. The prices were too low to pass up, given that these are staples in our house. The goal is to end up with a kitchen full of food purchased at the lowest possible price. In addition to saving money, it makes life easier because I always have the ingredients in the house needed to make simple meals.

Saving money on groceries #1: Know your prices!

I've found it quite challenging to keep our grocery bills reasonable here in Canada. In other places I've lived, I could get a lot of bang for my buck by doing most of my shopping at bare bones stores like Aldi or Lidl. However, there's nothing like that around here, and food prices are quite high. So in order to become a more savvy shopper, I have once again turned to The Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Dacyzyn, my favorite reference for saving money. Amy is a genius at keeping her grocery bills down, and she says that making a Price Book has been the key.

This year, I finally compiled a Price Book, where I can record what various items cost at different stores. I took a three ring binder, and divided it into categories (Meat, Vegetables, Grains, etc.). Each section will have one page per item, and I keep the pages in alphabetical order for easy reference. So, if you flip through my fruit section, you'll start with Apples, turn the page to Bananas, and on to Cantaloupe, etc. As in the example below for peanut butter, I have one column each for the store name, brand name, price, and unit price. To calculate the unit price, divide the price by the amount. Once you have a basic list of some recent prices, you might decide to only add a new one if it's lower than the ones you already have.



I'll also write notes to myself on certain pages. For example, I have a page for canned beans, but a note at the top says: "Alternative: cook dried beans and freeze in portions." Same with things like yogurt and pasta sauce and tortillas--it's generally so much cheaper just to make them at home.

I compiled my prices from actual receipts, sales flyers, and writing some prices down as I browsed in the store. It's worth it to check out stores you haven't visited as well, or local sources like nearby farmers. It's a bit laborious at first, but once the Price Book is set up, it's easy to use. I've learned when a sale is a great deal, and when it's not really a sale at all. I've been surprised to learn that buying from the bulk bins is not always cheapest. There are grocery stores on the expensive side, but their sales are fantastic.

Some people can probably just remember prices in their head, but it's good for me to write it down! If it sounds like too much work, I'd recommend starting a little Price Book with the 10-20 items you buy most frequently. Or perhaps you have found other good ways to track prices?

The Suburban Jesus

Convicting rant by the late Internet Monk (Michael Spencer).

HT: David Miller