Are you tired of being told, “buy generic brands and clip coupons” as smart ways to save money on groceries? There are many other strategies you can use when looking to save money on food that often overlooked. In this post, I’ll share my top tips for smart ways to save money without sacrificing your health or grocery budget.

What are Smart Ways to Save Money on Groceries?

Here are ways you can save money when shopping for food. I want to say that not all of these tips may be practical for you, and that is ok! When saving on food, there is ALWAYS going to be some give and take in terms of convenience or time. So think through how desperately you need to cut down on your food budget, and then realistically ask yourself what are you willing to do and what you have time for?

It is important to know that some money saving tips if not followed correctly might cost you more money.

Here is what I mean. Say you stop buying salad kits and vow to make your own salads for lunch. If your weekends are packed or you don’t have the time in the morning to make a fresh salad from scratch, all those salad ingredients will go rotten. To make matters worse, because you dont have time to make a salad for lunch, now you are buying Chik-Fil-A on your lunch break!

See how that goes downhill super fast?!

If convenience items save you the time and effort, so you don’t need to resort to fast food, you will already save a lot of money each month.

1. Shop Your Pantry + Freezer Before Going

How many of us have a freezer or pantry stocked full and yet we are wondering “what am I going to eat for dinner?”. If you have a lot of shelf stable items, see if you can “reverse meal plan.” Instead of creating a menu and then buying the ingredients, look at the ingredients you have and then create a menu around those items.

When my pantry feels crowded it’s usually because I bought something very specific for a recipe that I never ended up making. Then I’m stuck looking at canned diced chilis, a bag of sun dried tomatoes, and a package half full of barley.

Make it like a game for it to feel more fun. See if you can use up things in your freezer or pantry before filling it up again.

2. Consider Markdowns/Quick sales

Now before you say “OMG, she’s recommending I eat expired food!” Here me out, that is not what I mean!

Quick markdowns are foods that usually are a few days close to their “sell by” date or are an overstock of a product. Just pay attention to the expiration date before buying! Depending on where you shop, you can find quick sale items in meat, produce, eggs, bread, and even the dairy department.

Most of the time the “sell by” date is 1-2 days away, so the food is completely edible. As you can see in the image above, these mushrooms look perfect, and are half the price. Win win!

Kroger which is closest to me does this and I can often find items at 50-70% off the full price. Still use your best judgement when picking up these foods. If a salad bag looks slimy or the meat is gray, then pass!

When I purchase these quick sale items, I make, eat, or freeze them that day. This is where I might swap out an ingredient in a planned dinner with a quicksale item. For example if I was making spaghetti, I would add in those mushrooms for a vegetable boost.

3. Swap Half Your Meat with Other Proteins

If you haven’t already noticed, meat is more expensive than it used to be! While some people recommend to stop buying it all together to save money, I like to take a middle ground approach. : )

You cant start using half the amount of meat and substitute the other half for other proteins. This would be things like beans, lentils, tofu, egg, or dairy. I found this works best when cooking a mixed food dish.

Here are some examples of ways to cut back on meat intake in everyday recipes:

• Tacos- ground turkey + black beans
• Chili- ground meat + red lentils or beans
• Stir Fry- chicken + tofu
• Soup- stew beef + red lentils
• Spaghetti- ground turkey + cottage cheese
• Sloppy Joe- ground beef + red lentils

4. Join a Bulk Store or Split a Membership

If you are living by yourself or are a small family, you can still benefit from a bulk store membership. I’m a huge fan of Costco, but I realize not everyone lives within a driving distance of one. Even if you go just 1x a quarter and can afford a large bill, it can be worth the $60/year membership.

If you don’t want a membership and would rather do one jumbo in store shopping trip, there is a work around. You can have your friend with the membership go in with you to purchase a Costco giftcard with a set amount. Then when you go to shop you do not need to show an membership card at checkout like regular members do.

Your wallet can benefit too because Costco sells more than just food. They have clothing, toiletries (toothpaste, floss, mouthwash, shampoo), toilet paper, towels, homegoods, and garden supplies. Im not sure of the delivery radius, but you can also have items delivered.

Just don’t fall into the trap of going in to just pick up staples like oats, peanut butter, and flour and walk away with a $500 inflatable pool. The defeats the money saving purpose!

5. Check How Much Food You Throw Away

This isn’t necessarily a “save on spending” tip, but if you throw away spoiled food at the end of the week, that is throwing money away. I’m not here to make you feel bad, but to bring awareness to how common this can be for many people.

I’m guilty of it myself! We might not be able to be 100% waste free, but if we only buy what we need, there shouldn’t be so much waste.

According to RTS, American households throw out about 40% of food. This would be as if everyone threw over 900+ apples in a landfill a year. Not only does food waste mean hard earned money wasted, it also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

How to Reduce Food Waste to Save Money

1. Plan Meals

I know, I know. This is not a hot or new tip! But honestly, when you don’t have a real meal plan, you end up overspending.

You will have more stress if you don’t know what you are making. Even when you google something at 5pm, chances are you will be missing half of the ingredients! Planning will also allow you to stop throwing out food every week that you didn’t get around to cooking.

Keep a dry erase board or notebook in your kitchen so you can write down ideas as they come to you, and so you can keep a running grocery list for when you run out.

2. Consider Fresh, Frozen, and Canned

One way I’ve cut back on food waste is to stop buying every single piece of produce as fresh. Yes, I really do love fresh fruit, but if im using it in a smoothie, then I might as well buy it frozen. If I’m making a sauce or baked pasta dish, then canned tomatoes work wonders!

Not only are you saving money, but then you are not paranoid that you have to hurry up and eat a pound of strawberries a bag of spinach and an entire zucchini all for dinner because they are starting to go bad.

If there are foods you don’t want to buy frozen or canned, then buy a handful of fruits and vegetables and rotate them out. For example, one week you could buy broccoli, carrots, green beans and cauliflower. Then the next week buy spinach, asparagus, brussell sprouts and bell peppers. Just don’t try to buy every single type of fruit and vegetable and expect to be able to finish it all.

3. Swap Meals

If your cilantro is starting to go slightly brown, go ahead and make those tacos for tonight instead of waiting another 3 days for when you planned to eat them.

4. Keep Your Pantry + Fridge Organized

Does your pantry look like a tornado just ran through it? Is your fridge so packed you can’t find anything? Then it’s time to organize your space!

You don’t need a designer grade pantry to keep it organized. Use sturdy clear plastic bins like these from Amazon, IKEA, Target or Walmart and group together like items such as:

-Pastas and grains (rice, quinoa, noodles, barley, couscous)
-Boxed snack foods (crackers, cookies, nuts, seeds)
-Single packaged items (granola bars, protein bars, applesauce cups etc)
-Baking ingredients
-Seasonings, olive oil, and vinegars
-Canned foods (tomato, beans, coconut milk etc)

I recommend clear only, so you can see everything in there! Just put the box itself and group it together so it doesn’t get put on the wrong shelf.

6. Freeze What You Can’t Eat Fast Enough

I do this with sandwich bread or bagels. Its great for packing lunches because when you pull out the bread frozen in the morning, it will be thawed out by lunchtime. Ive created my favorite low sodium bread brands in Best Low Sodium Bread | Heart Healthy + Delicious Brands.

Ive also done this with foods I know I won’t be able to finish. If I bought fresh berries and they look like they won’t make it much longer, I will wash and fresh them so I can put them in a smoothie later.

Surprisingly this also works well with coffee creamer! I bought a Chobani creamer from Costco (ugh- it was only $5 on sale) and quickly realized there was no way I could finish it. I had silicon cube containers that I poured it in, and it was totally fine when I used it!

For any meals that made too many servings like casserols, baked pastas, chilis, soups or rice dishes, I’ve used silicon storage cubes like these to be a lifesaver! I love how they are single serving portions! This way I can just pop one out for lunch and not have to defrost an entire 9×13 lasagne.

7. Switch out Boujee Foods

Look at your last grocery shopping receipt- and scan over what is costing you the most and see if there are any alternatives. At the end of the day, some of these higher priced foods provide convenience. I loooooove having things pre-cut and done-for-you! However, if you are serious about trimming your grocery bill, and you have a little extra wiggle room, it could be worth eating oats and peanut butter instead of a frozen breakfast sandwich.

If you have any food allergies or dietary restrictions, then sometimes you have to be boujee! Your life depends on it. As someone whose son has several food allergies, I get it. So do what will work for you!

Below are swaps for higher costing groceries for their healtheir/low costing counterpart.

Lunch meat is not only recommended to switch out because of it’s higher unit cost, but also as it can increase your risk for colon cancer. You can learn more about why in Alternatives to Deli Meat | Easy Heart Healthy Sandwich Ideas.

I love all these foods below! This doesn’t mean you can’t buy them, but rather buy them when they are on sale or only buy them at a bulk warehouse like Costco, BJs or Sams club if it offers better cost per serving.

8. Focus More on Ingredients, Less on Single Serving Foods.

Instead of buying a single premade overnight oats from MUSH for $2.69 (single food), go ahead and buy an entire container of plain rolled oats. It will only cost you $1 more, but you will be getting 30+ servings from it instead of only 1 from MUSH.

Similarly, if you eat yogurt, the single serving option will cost $1.50-$1.99. If you buy a large 32oz container, you are going to get double the portions for the same price. Upfront it will be more expensive, but you are getting more servings and it will last you longer.

I created a FREE downloadable low sodium grocery list that focuses on whole foods in Low Sodium Grocery List PDF | Includes 29 Healthy Snack Ideas.

Even if you aren’t following a low sodium diet, it is packed with heart healthy foods that everyone should be focusing on eating.

8. Avoid Impulse Buying at the Store

Switching to 1 or 2 grocery trips a week can help you cut back on impulse purchases and help you save money overall. If you are in a habit of walking into the grocery store after work to “just pick up items for dinner” you will most likely spend more per month.

It’s not like an extra trip costs that much money, but its dozens of extra purchases that all add up.

To save money at the store, you need a few tips to follow to save money. Similarly, overspending at the store is a result of buying extras here and there that all add up at the end of the month.

Do not underestimate the power of what is on promotion from week to week! I will regularly pass on cherries when they are 7.99/lb. However, there are a few weeks in the summer when they are in season and will be as low as 1.99/lb.

Produce costs will have the largest changes in price based on season. You will be surprised to even see savings between two different fruit brands. Below is an image of two bags of mandarins. They are listed at the same price, but 1 bag is for 3 lbs and the other is for 5 lbs.

I first picked up the “sale” Halos bag with red numbers as it stood out to me at first. But then when I looked at the Adorbs brand, I realized I would get 2lbs more (almost double!) for the same price.

Does Eating Healthy Cost More?

It does NOT have to cost more as long as you focus on buying the right items. You can eat healthfully with the same budget as if you ate the “cheap stuff”. The benefit to eating low cost nutrient dense foods are that you will have more energy, have better digestion, and less food cravings than if you just relied on junk food. You might also feel fuller which means you won’t need to be eating as much.

By cutting out the less healthy single serving packaged foods (GoGurt yogurt tubes, Snack bag chips, Little Debbie pastries, cookies) and sugar sweetened drinks (soda, tea, kool-aid boxes) and you spend it instead on shelf stable nutrient dense foods, you might end up spending the exact same amount.

Many people assume eating healthy means they have to buy everything organic and the fancy prepackaged convenience foods. If you are on a budget, you need to focus on nutrient dense foods that last longer. I provide a list of what I would add to your grocery cart below.

Buy Healthy Options that Last

The biggest problem I hear people say is “healthy food doesn’t last long” and they don’t want to put money to something that will get thrown out. I get it! This is where you can rely on frozen or canned nutrient dense options.

Here are nutrient dense foods that won’t go bad after 3 days in the fridge.

• Canned fruits in 100% Juice (pineapple, peaches, pears, applesauce cups)
• Canned Vegetables (diced tomatoes, carrots, corn
• Frozen Fruits or Vegetables (peas, corn, cauliflower, carrots, spinach, beans, edamame)
• Beans, lentils- dried or canned and rinsed before eating
• Whole grain pasta
• Brown Rice
• Plain Instant Oats
• Peanut Butter
• Canned Tuna
• Eggs
• Plain Yogurt
• Cheese
• Tofu
• Fresh vegetables that have a longer life- Potatoes, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, turnips, kohlrabi

Favorite Recipes Using Low Cost Ingredients

1. No Bake Oat Pops– there are so many recipes on the internet. These are simple and great for beginners!
2. Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins
3. High Protein Egg Bake
4. Healthy Beet Muffins
5. Cowboy Caviar – perfect if you’ve ever thought “what recipes even use beans?!”

Conclusion

While we can’t control inflation, we can be flexible with what we buy and more intentional about meal planning. Many heart healthy foods such as beans, lentils, oats, nuts, whole grains, and dairy can be more cost effective than their hyper processed counterpart.

Laurie Thenedy, RD

Laurie is a Registered Dietitian passionate about helping healthcare professionals lower their weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol so that they can regain confidence and energy to live a more full life.