Three Simple Ways to Save Money On Groceries

I’m always so impressed by women who can find sales, match them with coupons and end up with tons of free groceries. I think that’s impressive!

The sad truth is, even if I had the time to save money on groceries that way, I probably wouldn’t. I tend to spend all my free time writing or riding my horse. However, due to a series of unfortunate incidents, I have had to somehow slash our grocery bill by $50 per week, and this is how I did it.

My husband was a devoted “meat-etarian” until recently when he got diverticulitis and had to have 13 inches of his lower intestines removed. I’m rather fond of meat myself, and I’ve found that most of us plan our meals around a meat. But meat is expensive, and removing it from several dinners a week saves a lot of money on food. The remaining dinners can be made with whatever cheap meat is on sale.

Some of our favorite meat-free dinners are:

• Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
• Soup and dinner rolls (get the frozen ones and serve them fresh out of the oven)
• Spaghetti (no meatballs)
• Whole grain pasta combined with marinara sauce and mozzarella, baked in a casserole dish until warm
• Hamburger Helper without the hamburger
• Salad with cheese and hard-boiled eggs (like a chef salad but no meat)
• Veggie Noodle Stir Fry (Cook a package of ramen noodles, but don’t add the seasoning. Thaw a big bag of frozen stir fry vegetables, then stir fry them in hot oil. When ready, drain and add the noodles. Mix the ramen noodle seasoning with 2 teaspoons of corn starch and ½ cup of water. Add to veggies & noodles and stir until mixed well and warm.)
• Enchiladas with just cheese inside instead of meat (sometimes I sneak some cheese-colored beans in too)
• Mac & cheese (To make a casserole out of this, stir in some frozen peas, put in a buttered casserole dish and top with French fried onions. Bake until hot and bubbly.)
• Breakfast for Dinner: omelets, eggs, pancakes, waffles…whatever you like.

You’ll notice a heavy reliance on cheese and whole grains in these meals. My family won’t eat beans. I love them, but if I serve them my family will mutiny. If you can get your family to eat beans, go for it. They are a cheap, high-fiber source of protein and in my opinion, nature’s perfect food. That would be the best money saving tip I could give you: eat more beans!

We definitely eat too much…or at least we did before I had to cut our grocery spending. Portion sizes in this country (USA) are out of control…Super Size this and Biggie that… the only thing that is really getting Super Sized is my rear end and my grocery bill.

A realistic portion size of anything is the palm of your hand. I started buying and cooking only enough food for one palm-sized portion per person. My husband’s hands are bigger than mine, so he gets a bit more. To be honest, these portion sizes are about half the amount that I used to cook.

Initially, we all experienced a feeling of not being full, not satisfied. There were never any leftovers, as all of us went back for seconds and scraped the pots clean. But we solved that problem by making dinner time a major family event. We eat at the table and discuss things. We focus on eating slowly, putting our forks down after each bite, chewing thoroughly; savoring our food instead of bolting it down. We started feeling satisfied with less food and sometimes we even have leftovers.

If a recipe makes double the amount of food we need for one meal, I divide it and put half in the freezer, which is a bonus in my opinion – one dinner for today and one for another day when I’m too rushed to cook and might be tempted to spend money and calories on fast food.

Once you’ve mastered portion control, you can start cooking a bit more again, for the purpose of having leftovers for lunch. You can save a ton of money eating leftovers for lunch. If you eat out for lunch regularly, you can save two tons of money. It really costs less to cook a bit more dinner than to buy bread, lunchmeat, cheese, chips, cookies, fruit, etc.

Since I work from home, I can easily eat leftovers. For people who brown-bag it, there is usually a microwave in the office or in the school cafeteria. Sometimes if a dinner was really tasty, we fight over who gets to have the leftovers for lunch.

I hope these tips help you save money on groceries. If you have any other meat-free dinner ideas, please leave a comment about it! I’m ready for some new ones. And of course, any other money saving tips are always welcome!