14 ways to trim the fat from your food bills

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Seven shopping tricks

1. Shop alone — and after eating

One simple recipe for avoiding impulse buying: Do your shopping after a light snack or meal and leave the kids at home.

If you aren't hungry, yummy-looking foods will be easier to pass up. And if your children aren't with you, they won't be clamoring for all the goodies at eye level.

With your stomach full and your hands free, you'll find yourself with both the time and energy to do real comparison shopping. So have your partner or another adult stay with the kids while you head to the store, list in hand, ready to scan the aisles for what you need as well as special deals.

2. Understand how stores work

A basic understanding of merchandising can help you avoid overspending. These simple habits will go a long way toward keeping your budget in check:

Walk briskly toward what you came to buy and avoid distractions along the way. For example, have you ever noticed that the diapers and milk are often at the back of the store? You're forced to walk past a lot of temptation to get to the items you need most often.

Products are displayed at the ends of the aisles to catch your eye. Think carefully about whether what you see there is really necessary – or a bargain – before you toss it in the cart. Many "featured" items are not bargains at all.

As you peruse the aisles, bend over to check the prices on the bottom shelves and compare them with the cost of the items at eye level.

Avoid buying the items displayed by the register. The magazines at the checkout stand cost much more per issue than they would if you had a subscription, and cookies in little packages cost more than a from a box. Almost everything near the register is there to inspire you to buy on impulse, not to save you money.

Tip: Make fewer trips to the store and you'll find yourself with fewer chances to pick up a few extras you don't really need.

3. Buy house brands or generics

The less costly house brands are often so similar to national brands that you wouldn't be able to tell them apart without the packaging. Read labels to compare nutritional value and you'll quickly see how little difference (if any) there is – other than price.

Store brands cost an average of 27 percent less than name brands, according to Consumer Reports, which looked at 29 different food categories. Testers said store brands tasted the same or better in all but six categories.

Meat and dairy products all have to meet government standards, so store brands should be just as wholesome and nutritious as national brands.

Tip: You can donate to your child's school as you shop. This costs you nothing – just sign up for the school's scrip or electronic scrip fundraising program. Participating stores then donate part of the value of your purchase to the school every time you shop. To find out more, ask at your child's school.

4. Check the unit price

Don't be fooled by packaging. As you cruise down the aisles comparing products, take note of the unit price that appears on the store shelf just below or above the product. The unit price tells you what the product costs per ounce or some other consistent unit of measurement.

Whether the package is tall, short, or squat, you'll know in an instant whether it costs more or less than other sizes of the same food. Compare per-unit prices and buy the item that offers more for less instead of the one that looks like more for less.

5. Use savings cards and coupons

Check your supermarket's weekly flyer or ads for coupons on items you buy regularly, but also take advantage of your store's savings card.

Many supermarkets offer savings-card programs that entitle you to special bargains or cash-back dividends on your purchases. Just present the savings card (or your ID number) at checkout, and depending on how your store's program is structured, you'll get savings on the spot or a dividend at the end of the year.

Keep your clipped coupons organized, perhaps separated according to grocery aisle or section. Whether you choose to hold them in envelopes, in a zip-top bag, with paper clips, or in a specially designed accordion file, store them in your purse or car so they're with you whenever you shop. It's annoying to come home from food shopping and find the coupon you wanted on the counter – on your store's triple coupon day.

Tip: If a sale item doesn't appear on the shelves, ask for a rain check so you can get it for the reduced price when it's back in stock.

6. Buy in bulk

Buying in bulk is a no-brainer if you're feeding a big family or the whole preschool. But you can still benefit from these discounts if yours is a smaller family or you have limited storage space. Here are some ideas for making the most of oversize buys:

As always, arrive at your bulk-shopping store with a list. This will help you avoid buying a TV, watch, barbecue, or package of 200 gel pens just because it's such a good deal.

Buy mostly nonperishable items that you know for sure you'll use eventually – for example, paper products, cleaning supplies, baby wipes, juice boxes, and canned goods.

If you do purchase perishables, separate large packages into smaller ones as soon as you get home. Divide chicken and steaks, for example, into daily portions and freeze for later use.

Split the purchases and the bill with another family. Again, a list is a must – agree ahead of time on what you'll buy. If you trade off trips to the store, both families also save time.

7. Buy from the source

Get produce from a local farmer's market and you may be able to avoid the store markup on fresh vegetables and fruit, especially if you buy organic. Keep an eye out at the farmer's market for growers selling blemished produce at bargain prices – it tastes wonderful but doesn't meet grocery store standards for beauty.

Some farmer's markets carry locally produced meat and dairy products, locally caught fish, and a variety of prepared sauces, preserves, and condiments made by local food artisans that would cost much more in stores. Of course, these are expensive no matter where you buy them. But if they're must-haves for your family, a farmer's market may be your best bet.

Four planning tricks

1. Buy in season

Blueberries can cost $2 a pint or $6 a pint, depending on whether you buy them in June or January. The price of lettuce, tomatoes, avocadoes, and other fruits and vegetables also varies by season (and sometimes by the weather, as droughts and other extremes shrink crops and raise prices).

Plan your menus around what's in season in your area, and you'll avoid paying extra for produce that's imported from faraway places with different growing seasons. If you're a once-a-week shopper, plan to use these freshest ingredients in the first few days, choosing recipes with less perishable ingredients for later in the week.

If you regularly throw out produce that's well past its prime, consider buying canned or frozen fruits and vegetables instead. If packaged at their peak of freshness, without added salt or sugar, they're as nutritious as fresh – and their staying power makes them more economical.

Tip: Frugal shoppers know they can get a price break by buying day-old bread or bagels. And you can make a game of cooking fine foods with produce you picked up at a bargain price just before it became over-ripe. But try reversing the strategy by buying only the freshest items, and they'll last longer in your refrigerator.

Find out when the market gets its fish deliveries, for example, and buy fish on that day. You'll find yourself tossing less spoiled food into the trash, often saving dollars at a time.

2. Plan for the week

Take some time before you head for the store to plan the week's meals. Make a list and stick to it.

Knowing what's in season, plan your meals around what you'll find at the best price this week. Then take things a step further and do as our grandmothers did: Get a roast or a ham, serve it on Sunday, slice it for sandwiches on Monday, and toss in a few veggies to turn the leftovers into a stew or soup on Tuesday.

Tip: Avoid throwing away leftover food. Dry bread can morph into croutons, bread pudding, stuffing, or pappa al pomodoro (Italian bread and tomato soup). A peeled banana stored in the freezer can be transformed into next week's banana bread or whirled in the blender with milk and frozen strawberries to make a smoothie – a healthy, inexpensive snack for kids and adults. Leftover vegetables can become hearty soups or stews, and even one serving of last night's pasta can be packed up as today's lunch for your hungry preschooler.

3. Grow your own

Fresh herbs can cost a pretty penny at the grocery store, and many recipes call for such a small amount that most of the bundle gets tossed into the refrigerator for later. Unfortunately, "later" seldom seems to come, and the herbs are often rediscovered when it's too late for them to be used.

Why not grow your own in sweet little pots on your kitchen window ledge? When a recipe calls for it, you can pinch off a bit of basil, dill, thyme, or chives. And in the meantime, the herb plants will decorate your kitchen nicely.

Similarly, tomatoes and many other fruits and vegetables are easy to grow in containers. Some, like certain lettuces and cabbages, are so pretty, they're ornamental too. Strawberries have charming flowers and foliage. So if you have a yard, deck, or even just a small, sunny balcony, you can turn a little sunshine and water into both a garden oasis and grocery savings. Check your local library for books on container gardening.

4. Enjoy romantic dinners at home

Longing for a dreamy evening with your partner but loath to spring for a pricey restaurant? With a little forethought, you can feed the baby, put her down for the night, and cook yourselves a gourmet meal at home. What you save on a babysitter you can spend on special ingredients.

Three cooking tricks

1. Cook and freeze

Double the recipe of that casserole, stew, or lasagna – or make twice as much cookie dough – and pop half into the freezer for the future. It's cheaper to buy ingredients in bulk, so you'll save time and money.

Tip: Don't have much freezer space? Form a dinner co-op with another family. Each family chooses one day a week to make a double batch of whatever's for dinner, and the other family picks up their share that night. Both families save time and have a night off cooking without the extra expense of takeout food.

2. Make it from scratch

The price of a homemade cake is minimal, compared with a bakery cake, and your own pot roast and special lasagna are almost certainly tastier and less expensive than store-bought versions. Delicious one-dish dinners can be created using your own noodles, tomato products and spices rather than the contents of a single box. But that doesn't mean that you should make everything from scratch.

Bottled salad dressing definitely costs more than tossing your salad with oil and vinegar, but some products, like mayonnaise, are tricky and time consuming to make. Others, like spaghetti sauce, cost less if you purchase a jarred version on sale than if you buy all the ingredients and cook them up. (On the other hand, if you grow your own tomatoes, homemade spaghetti sauce becomes a cheap staple.)

Tip: Buy a small food processor or baby-food mill and puree leftovers or freshly cooked food into healthy, tasty baby food. Not only does this cost less than jarred baby food, but you can gradually introduce your baby to the flavors that are favorites with your family.

3. Eat meat sparingly (or not at all)

The priciest portion of most Americans' diets is meat. And nutritionists continue to urge us all to eat more vegetables. You can reduce expenses and build nutritious habits at the same time simply by introducing some vegetarian entrees into your cooking repertoire.

Start slowly, maybe by introducing one meatless meal per week. Many families – and even some schools – favor "meatless Mondays." Try a vegetable-loaded lasagna, serve bean-filled tacos, or make a stir-fry with marinated tofu (peanut sauce makes a great marinade for young palates) and your family's favorite vegetables.

As your family becomes more comfortable with less meat, experiment with other delicious vegetarian entrees. It might take some extra thought to prepare dishes that pack plenty of iron and protein, but your grocery bill will soon look a lot less beefy.