Saving Money On Food #2

When it comes to saving on food costs this one may seem like a no-brainer but it does require some thought and planning. Don't buy food that you will throw out.

You're thinking why would I buy food that I would throw out? Well the estimates are that 30% of the food in this country is discarded. I've seen estimates for Britain of 20%, 30% and 40%. Yes, some of it is restaurant discards and others that we have no control over. But a large percentage of discarded food is food purchased for home use.

Really think about what you're buying. Will it get eaten? Is it a special you will never use? Is the quantity so large that it will spoil before it is used? Is it something no one really likes but you think people should be eating? Did you buy it because you went to the supermarket hungry and couldn't resist it? Are you throwing out stuff that gravitates to the back of the fridge and then gets thrown out?

Figure out what people in the family eat. Make a list. Plan a week of menus. Use up leftovers.

A lot of leftover vegtables can be used up in soup. Make soup on the stove or in a crockpot. Plenty of recipes call for already cooked beef or chicken. Use up what you have.

Saving Money on Food

I've seen food costs on some items jump 15% and on others jump as much as 80%. How can we eat well and cope with these ever rising costs? Believe it or not it can be done. And it doens't mean eating gruel and going hungry. It can be done by eating name brands and quality items and plenty of them. It doesn't mean starving yourself and only eating store brands and things you can't stand. I'll be doing a series of articles about cutting food costs in lots of different ways.

I have a friend who is a master of couponing and over the years I've learned from him how to use coupons to get the most out of them. He eats three meals a day (and he really eats), he stays away from processed foods (practically no white flour, white sugar or white rice) and he eats a very healthy diet. His big splurge in the not so healthy line is ice cream. I've known him to get premium ice cream (Haagen Dazs and Ben and Jerry's) for 28 cents a pint, frozen fish for 18 cents a pound and yogurts for 10 cents each.

1. Don't buy generic items (store brands). This may seem counterintuitive but there are no coupons for store brands.

2. Wait for sales for the coupon items. Combining the coupon with a sale can work wonders.

3. If you can, wait for the double or triple coupon weeks. If you can get a coupon tripled you get an amazing discount. If the item is also on sale you can get it for practically nothing. Hence premium ice cream for 28 cents a pint.

4. By an extra Sunday paper if it has coupons that are good for you. You can save a lot more than the cost of the paper by doing this.

5. See if you can find people who either don't clip coupons or don't clip the same ones that you do and get their coupon sheets.

6. Buy in bulk when there are sales.

7. Use your freezer for the fresh foods you buy in bulk.

8. Get the store discount cards.

9. If there is a special that says limit of four don't let that stop you. Go out and come back in for a second round of buying the item.