Save Money, Lower Your Grocery Bills With Smarter Shopping and Recipes

The price of food is skyrocketing out of control. A lot of people are having trouble making ends meet, but you can lower your your monthly food costs by half or more by shopping smart.

I went to the store and splurged yesterday on porterhouse steak. That was $12 to $13 per steak. This was a special occation. Normally I would have spent half that much. In my eyes that's still too much but what are you going to do.

To do this first you're going to have to stop compulsive buying. You cannot go into the store and just start grabbing things off the shelf because they look good, if your grocery bill is really putting a dent in your gas budget. Yea, not funny huh?

Let's face it. For a lot of us there are only a few things that are important anymore. At the top of my list is and always was the first tier necessities like housing. You "gotta" have a place to live if you don't have anything else. Next comes food. Those are my must haves. Everything else is a second tier necessity. If you don't think so you either have a surplus of money or you don't have your priorities strait or possibly you decided this is a great time for the whole family to try fasting.

There's not a lot we can do about our rent or mortgage. or any of the second tier necessitieslike gas and utilities. We have to get to work if we work outside the home and nobody's putting gas on sale at 1/2 price. They are however putting food on sale. You can get food for 1/2 price or lower if you watch the ads.

It really is that simple. Empty your freezer of all the things you will never use. Most of us have things in the freezer we can no longer identify or are too old to use now. Since it's frozen we don't have a spoilage problem so there it is, taking up space. Get rid of it. While your at it if you have 7 kinds of ice cream use that up instead of having other deserts. Make space because you need a lot to put all that meat and bread and vegetables your going to be buying for later.

Before you go to the store make a list. Look at the grocery ads in the newspaper and in the ads you get in the mail. Check your magazines for manufacturers coupons. Clip all the coupons for the things you normally buy. Clip ONLY the coupons for the things you normally buy. Don't clip things because they look good unless it will replace something you normally buy or it's free.That's just like wandering through the store and taking things you don't need off the shelves.

Do check all the print media you can find and there are coupons online too. Try the web sites of the product manufactures you use. They may have coupons you won't find anywhere else. Remember some stores double manufacturers coupons. I've made money on items on sale with double coupons. I saw a couple buy 2 huge baskets full of food and get $27.00 cash to boot. They were paid $27 to take 2 big baskets of food home. I'm not that good. Coupons and sales are no joke. They work.

I know someone who only buys enough food for 1 or 2 days. You can spend a huge amount of extra money going to the store that often. You know if you go to the store for three things you will quite probably come out with 10 or more. Sometimes you don't even come out with what you went there for. You can lower your monthly grocery bill by simply making a list of the things you need, while at home. Take it with you and don't buy anything else and drastically reduce the number of times you hit the store in one month. No matter how careful you think you're being there are always extra things in our bags we didn't really need. The more times we go the more extras we buy.

Make a note of the items that you use that are on sale. I don't mean 10 cents off either not on meat anyway. Check for meat that has at least 1/3 off. Don't buy anything you can do without, if it's not on sale. When it's a REALLY good deal buy a lot.

Last month I found 4 kinds of meat that was only 99 cents a pound. I filled my freezer for about $45.00. It lasted all month and I still have some left. It doesn't have to get boring using the same 4 cuts of meat all month. There are a lot of recipes that make the same meat taste totally different. It's not the only thing you will eat either, but the most expensive thing at the grocery store is usually meat and a good supply of inexpensive meats can really help the food budget last.

I buy bread when it's really cheap too, 2 for 1 or 99 cents each. I use one loaf and freeze the other. Bread freezes just fine. Take the frozen loaf out the night before you want to use it. Paying 99 cents for bread is way better than $3.29. I don't buy specialty breads very often. They are really good but too costly to use all the time. I buy them occasionally when they're on sale. Buy as much as you have room for in the freezer when the price is right.

Buy cheaper products when it won't matter. If we are eating sandwiches I buy bread that is better than the bread I buy for french toast. The same with anything that is going to absorb a lot of other flavors. Like soup and casseroles. Buy store brands unless the name brand is on sale or cheaper because you have a coupon.

Bigger isn't always cheaper. , Sometime when you compare the per ounce price the smaller size is actually cheaper. Take a calculator read the labels and compare.

If you buy a lot of fast food or boxed or frozen premade food, stop it! I know your tired and you don't want to cook. So if your just complaining about food prices because you you noticed they are higher and might cut into your entertainment bugdet this hub might not be of interest to you. It is more work.

If however you don't know how you will be able to feed the family now that prices are so high, decide what's more important, saving yourself the extra effort or giving your family nutritious food you can afford? If it's the latter, here are some tips.

There is no such thing as leftovers. These are ingredients for future meals. You need to start treating them that way, especially if you have a family member who won't eat leftovers. Just plan your meals, serve the meals and let them eat what they will. They won't starve, honesty. Plan to make more than one meal out of whatever your cooking if you can.

If your roasting a chicken etc do not put the whole thing on the table. The more people have on their plates, the more they eat. It's a proven fact. Everyone is trying to clean their plates just like mommy and daddy taught us. So if your family will accept your making up their plates and placing them on the table you will save on food and they will save on calories. If you have small children don't give them more than they can eat. You can't afford to waste food and they can always have seconds.

Keep part of your meat dish aside for chicken soup or chicken and dumplings or maybe chicken chow mein. Pot raost can easily be beef stew or some other tasty dish. If your not making gravy Keep the drippings. With a small portion of the meat you're cooking and the juices from it you can make a different dish. . Don't throw away left over gravy either. You can use it as a base for another dish or to add flavor. I freeze these flavor enhancers for whenever I need them.

There are many recipes out there that use smaller amounts of meat. Even if the recipe calls for a pound you can reduce that to whatever is available because you have the flavor from the juices to flavor the dish. We eat way too much meat anyway so don't be afraid your family isn't getting enough protein.

If your hard pressed for something to cook for any number of people, here's a cheap recipe. You can use a can of soup as a base. If there are a lot of people you might need 2 cans depending on what else you have around. Start with 1 or 2 cans of soup in a big pot. .I use vegetable beef , chicken vegetable or ministroni. I also really like Liptons Chicken Noodle soup in the box. You can have a lot of soup base for a couple of dollers. Use what ever you like but the strongest flavored soups are the best. Cut up the following ingredients into small pieces and add them to the pot.

• Add in any left over gravy or other sauces.
• Add 1/2 to 1 potato per person
• 1 or 2 carrots per person
• 1 or 2 of stalks of celery each
• any meat you have left over
• a hand full of peas
• and any other vegetables you might have left over
• and an onion.

Use what you have. If your out of celery just leave it out. If your out of potatos substitute noodles or rice. Once you get your ingredients in the pot add water or milk until there is enough to cover them.. You don't need to put all milk if your making cream soup. Just make about 1/3 to 1/2 of the liquid milk and thicken with flour and water mixture. No one will ever know the difference. If you have spices add some to taste. You need salt and pepper for sure but I throw in others barbeque rub or steak seasoning, garlique, anything you can put on meat. Do stay away from cinnamon and nutmeg, peppermint and vanilla any desert type spices. Go easy.Taste frequently. Use your imagine and your common sense in equal measure.

Don't forget that noodle dishes are very filling and inexpensive You don't need a lot of other dishes with it to make a meal that will please the family and fill them up at the same time. Noodles and tuna fish (substitute any other meat) is filling and most people like it.

You should always have these six items on hand, potatos, carrots, onion, celery, noodles and rice as well as the the normal staples for any kitchen.They are the most common ingredients in soups and stews and other one dish meals. If you have more to add to the list feel free to add them in the comments. I have a limited repertoire of recipes..

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