Tips For Reducing Food Costs

With current food inflation over 10% – a 43 year high – learning to make some minor tweaks to your food budget is worth the effort. Here are some ways you can save a bit at the checkout counter.

A good first step is to plan ahead and stick to a list. Browse the flyers for your local stores and write down items that interest you after comparing prices. Take that list and create a weekly meal plan adding any items you might need to complete your menu. With this there will be no more questions about what to eat, no last-minute shopping trips, no mindless addition of items to your cart and significantly less food wastage. 

Keep track of the top 10 most expensive items you buy each week and develop a sense of what you should be paying.
Eating foods that are in season/local or buying frozen fruits and vegetables are other ways to save. It costs a lot more to buy foods that need to be transported from afar and frozen foods are picked at peak harvest and go through a quick freeze process – making it a smart choice nutritionally and budget wise since they last longer.

Try to shop on Wednesday. Sounds strange, but most grocery stores restock on Wednesday which means items get marked down to sell before the weekend and fresh produce is put on the shelves. If you can’t make Wednesday work, avoid weekends if you can.
 
A great way to reduce food waste is to understand the difference between “best before”, “sell by” and “expires on” labels. Many people get rid of foods when they are still good. A “best before” label is not a safety date. Instead, it indicates when the food will be at its peak flavor. “Sell by” labels are related with inventory management for the store and, again, not related to safety. On the other hand, “expires by” is a safety label and should be strictly followed.
 
If shopping with your family ends up with lots of extras in the cart, maybe curbside pickup could be the option for you. It will help you focus on the cost for each item and give you a better chance of staying on budget when stocking your online cart.

Since meats are often the most expensive food item added to the cart, it can be helpful to eat meat-free once per week or extend meats by serving them with protein rich beans and legumes. This might seem difficult but searching for a few recipes online or contacting us at the clinic for help can get you started. 

Set some time aside when you bring groceries home to meal prep by cutting or processing all the ingredients on your plan ahead of time. Or you can do a little bit every day. In some cases, you can even cook a couple meals ahead and store them in the fridge to reheat or freeze for future meals. This will reduce the time you spend running your stove and can have savings beyond the food budget.

At the end of your week, have one day set aside to go through the fridge and make an “odds and ends” meal. This could be a stir fry, casserole, pasta, chili or soup that will use up all the bits in the fridge that might go bad otherwise. It serves as a great source for lunches the following week and avoids the cost of eating out.

Hopefully these tips will help you hone your budget, make you more efficient with your time and get you focused on reducing your food waste. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.