101 ways to stretch your food dollars

The following was seen on: PrepareTodayNewsletter.com
Written By Valerie Phillips from: PennyPinching-Grandma.com
Food prices are going up. But here are lots of ways — 101 of them — to shave off pennies, dimes and dollars from your food costs. Not every tip fits every situation. A vat-size container of salad dressing is cheaper per ounce, but not if it sits in a single person’s fridge for months on end. Remember, the most expensive food you can buy is the food that goes to waste.

TIPS TO SAVE SOME CASH!

1. For a week, track what your family actually spends on food. Don’t forget to include work lunches, restaurant meals, vending-machine snacks and convenience store stops. These add up quickly. (Make sure you always have a little notebook on hand to note your expenses.)
2. Have a plan. Jot down simple dinner menus for the week, using the weekly grocery store ads so you can take advantage of what’s on sale that week. Having a plan ends the 5 p.m. “what’s for dinner?” plight.
3. Make a shopping list from your menu. Having the ingredients you need for the week eliminates extra trips to the supermarket, where more incidental items can end up in your grocery cart. (In this day and age, these little trips also cost a lot of expensive gas.)
4. To save time, compile a basic shopping list of things you usually buy on a weekly basis, such as milk, lettuce, etc. Organize the list by the store layout and make lots of copies. Then each week it’s just a matter of penciling in the extra ingredients from your menu.
5. Get out of the dinner rut. Check out cookbooks or magazines from the library or attend local cooking classes for new ideas. (The cooking classes are a great idea, if they are free. Start watching the Food Channel for great ideas.)
7. Consider making from scratch many of the things you usually buy in prepared form, such as brownies or salad dressing.
8. Time is a valuable resource. It’s usually not worth the time, or gasoline to hopscotch from store to store to save a few dollars.
9. Consider the advantages when you choose where to shop. Some stores offer credit cards with rebates, discounts on gasoline, special coupons and so on.
10. Club warehouses can save money, but be judicious. Can you use 18 cartons of yogurt at a time? Often you can find similar good buys and a better selection at a regular grocery store
11. Sometimes you’re lured into buying things that lose their appeal and end up sitting on the shelf. To cure yourself of impulse shopping, every so often force yourself to make a meal out of those items in the cupboard.
12. Consider group strategies. A neighborhood group or extended family might save by buying in bulk directly from wholesalers and farmers.
14. Statistics indicate that people buy more when they are hungry or accompanied by others, especially children. However, grocery shopping can be a good learning experience for kids; let them find all the coupon foods and comparison shop with you.
21. To maximize coupon savings, use resources such as Pinchingyourpennies.com, the Grocery Guru at www.gurusdeals.com, or Couponsense.com, which help you to coordinate coupons with sales at local grocery stores. By using the coupon with the sale price, you can get items for a fraction of the cost. (There is also a coupon site on Grandma.)
24. Be wise about coupons. Sometimes a brand name with a coupon is still more expensive than a generic brand. And resist buying things you may not use just because you have a coupon.
28. One reason people avoid buying cheaper bagged cereal is because they’re hard to store and pour. Store them in a plastic pitcher with a pour spout. (Be careful with this tip, sometimes the cereal will go rancid if left too long.)
29. Consider how much you can save by cooking whole grains for breakfast instead of cold breakfast cereal. Homer Cook of Layton said as a welfare volunteer, he helped a single mother of three cut her breakfast costs from $1,000 per year to $58 peryear by cooking cracked wheat based on Honeyville Grain prices.
34. Bake a batch of muffins from scratch for on-the-go breakfasts. Even if you use a mix, you’ll still save over bakery prices.
38. A pound bag of chopped iceberg lettuce salad costs more; about $2, than a head of iceberg lettuce. Approximately $1 per pound, that you clean and chop yourself. But if bagged salad greens keep you from buying restaurant salads, there’s still a savings.
40. Grow your favorite herbs year-round in your kitchen window. It’s convenient to be able to cut a few sprigs as needed, and packets of fresh herbs can cost $1.50-$2 in grocery stores.
59. Take a cue from restaurant chefs who can make a small portion of meat or chicken look plentiful. They slice it thinly and fan out the slices on top of a mound of rice or potatoes.
60. Tough cuts of meat are usually cheaper. Place a beef brisket in you slow cooker in the morning and by dinner time you’ll have tender beef, and a tantalizing aroma in your kitchen.
67. What to do with the last of the jam or jelly jar: Pour in some milk, refrigerate for a little while to loosen the jam stuck to the jar sides, and shake into a flavored drink.
68. Generic brands can save money. But try one can first before you invest in a whole case to make sure it appeals to your family.
70. Invest in a popcorn popper. You can make 10 times as much popcorn for the same price as microwave popcorn. A three-pack box of microwave popcorn yields about 10 1/2 cups of popcorn for $2 to $3, depending on the brand. A $1.99 bag of regular popcorn yields 113 cups. You’ll have to add you own butter and salt, but you have more control over the amounts.
72. Break the soda pop habit. If you normally drink a can per day, at 50 cents per can, you could pocket more than $180 a year.
74. If you like the look of designer bottled water, buy it once and keep refilling with tap water, which is free. Many bottled waters cost more per gallon than gasoline. (This tip is excellent!!)
77. Keep an eye on your pantry inventory so you use up all the pancake mix or corn syrup before buying more.
79. Post a “must use” list on the fridge to remind yourself of the half-empty can of pineapple, three hot dogs, etc. that will go bad quickly.
81. Use and rotate your food storage. If you aren’t using it, it is basically a waste of space and money. Rule of thumb: Store what you use and use what you store.
82. Use smaller plates. Studies show that when people are served on larger plates, they take larger servings, whether they’re really hungry or not.
84. Pack a lunch for the next day from dinner leftovers instead of eating out.
87. Have meatless Monday meals.
92. Use the dishwasher only when completely full. Washing dishes by hand can cost more than one load in the dishwasher. Let the dishes air-dry rather than using the “dry” cycle.
94. Use gift certificates soon after getting them. Many have expiration dates.
bottles of water
99. At fast-food restaurants, order a kids’ meal for yourself; if there’s no age limit. Most of the time, you’re getting a more appropriate portion of food, and a toy to boot!
101. If you feel you can’t afford to tip, choose a fast-food or fast-casual eatery where tipping isn’t expected. In sit-down restaurants, servers’ salaries are less than minimum wage. Tips make up the difference.
These were the tips we found most helpful. Click here to read the entire 101 list.