Money

Top 5 Ways to Save Money on Groceries

Money is tight right now and groceries are so expensive. Here are my top 5 ways to save money on groceries....

Top 5 Ways to Save Money on Groceries

Buy whole chickens instead of chicken breasts. (Savings: 70%)

At my local grocery store, organic chicken breasts cost $10-11 per pound. But a whole organic chicken costs $3-4 per pound.

Almost 3 times less – or a savings of 70%.

How to do it: Buy a whole chicken and roast it for dinner. The next day, remove any leftover meat and set aside for another meal (chicken salad sandwiches, taco bowls, chicken enchiladas, etc.) Use the bones to make bone broth.

Note: I do recommend buying organic when you buy meat with bones in. I don't buy everything organic, especially with the sky-high prices these days, but when I buy meat with bones (whole chickens, beef or pork with the bone in) I do buy organic.

Why? Because I always use the bones to make bone broth – which is extremely nutritious and can be used to make soups, sauces, and gravies. I also use my bone broth to cook beans and rice, which makes them more nutritious.

And conventionally raised animals are fed grain that is heavily sprayed with fluoridated pesticides.

Fluoride is stored in the bones of the animals, and when you use the bones to make broth, you will end up with bone broth that is extremely concentrated with flouride – no bueno!

Thanksgiving Oven Roasted Turkey — Photo by Alison Marras / Unsplash

2. Make your own bone broth. (Savings – not sure exactly – but a lot!)

You can use bone broth to soups, stews, sauces, gravies, and to cook beans and rice and make them more nutritious and more flavorful.

All you have to do is buy meat with bones in, instead of boneless. (See tip #1, above.) Again, get organic (see above) due to the fluoride in the bones.

How to do it: Save your bones from roast chicken, beef, lamb or pork. You can store them in a Ziplock bag in the freezer if you are not ready to make broth right away. When ready, follow a recipe for bone broth – cooking it on the stove or in an Instant Pot or VitaClay cooker. Store in the fridge for up to a couple weeks, or in the freezer for months.

3. Buy dry beans instead of canned. (Savings: 70%)

Buy dry beans and soak them overnight in filtered water and cook according to package instructions. Dry beans will always be cheaper than canned beans. And the effort to make them is so minimal.

Canned black beans: $0.80 for 15 ounces ($0.06/ounce)
Dry black beans: $1.32 for 16 ounces ($0.09/ounce)

At first glance, it seems like the canned beans ($0.06/ounce) are actually cheaper than the dry beans ($0.09/ounce). But it's not true!

Why? Because when you soak the dry beans, they yield three times more beans! So when you buy one pound of dry black beans, you're really getting 3 pounds.

So the dry black beans actually cost $1.32 for 48 ounces, which is only $0.027 per ounce.

How to do it: For my family of 4, I use soak one cup of dry beans overnight, then rinse and simmer for about an hour with filtered water, or better yet, homemade chicken stock.

Cost: $0.66.

Serve the beans with rice and your meal for a family of 4 is just $1.00!

4. Shop by "unit price". (Savings: 50%)

Shopping by unit price means shopping by "price per ounce" or "price per pound".

Okay, this can be confusing because they sometimes mark it as price per ounce and other times price per pound. Sometimes I think they make it confusing on purpose!

But it's really quite simple. Instead of looking at the cost of the item you want to buy, look at the cost per ounce or cost per pound.

When I was looking at white rice on my local grocery store website, I found a 2-pound bag for $1.50. That's $0.75 per pound. Noted.

I was at Target the other day, and I saw a 10-pound bag of white rice for $4.99. $5 divided by 10 = $0.50 per pound.

Compare that to my local Costco, which is selling a 20-pound bag of Basmati rice for $22.50. That's $1.12 per pound. Not a good deal!

But then I looked online and saw that Sam's is selling a 50-pound bag of white rice for only $19.25. $19.25 divided by 50 is $0.39 per pound.

How to do it: Shop around at different stores and websites for the best price per pound or price per ounce. Look at the price per ounce and multiply it by 16 to get the price per pound.

5. Stop buying processed food. (Savings: 70% or more)

At my local grocery store, a package of 10 frozen waffles costs $2.04. The box is 12 ounces, so the cost is .17 per ounce.

Let's do the math: You can make your own waffles with flour, eggs and milk. Flour is around $0.04 per ounce, pastured eggs are around .27 per ounce, and organic milk is .05 per ounce.

I didn't do the exact math but it's about 50/50 flour and milk with 1/10th egg.

My estimate is it's going to cost you around .05 per ounce to make waffles. That is a 70% savings.

How to do it: Make a big batch of waffles on a weekend and freeze the leftovers.