Food Cost-Cutting Strategies for Every Lifestyle

No matter your lifestyle, you can reduce the amount of money you’re spending on food.

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If it seems as though you never have enough money to consistently save some of it for emergencies—consistent, regular deposits out of every paycheck that go straight into a savings account—perhaps it’s time to consider that you’re handing over your savings to restaurants, drive-thrus, diners and coffee shops. Think about it.

No matter your lifestyle, I am confident that with the right strategies, you really can reduce the amount of money you’re spending on food.

More Time Than Money

If yours is a single-income household struggling to survive in a two-income world, keeping food on the table and the bills paid can be quite a challenge. The good news is that time is on your side. The one not working outside the home has the time to plan, track sales and cook in order to keep household food costs at rock bottom without sacrificing quality.

• Multiple stores

All grocery stores and supermarkets have tremendous weekly sales. And they announce these details in their weekly flyers in print and online. Grab the sales from a number of stores.

• Eat the sales

Buy only loss leaders and items that are on sale. You won’t starve and you'll have a huge variety of food items to choose from and in every department.

Little Time, Tight Budget

For dual-income families with kids, time becomes an especially valuable commodity. Kids are in school plus all of their extracurricular activities. Then there’s church and weekends filled with sports and just playing catch-up to get ready for the next week. You don’t have time to visit every store, to take advantage of a variety of sales.

•  Pick a store

Your best bet is to identify the grocery store or supermarket in your area that is known for having the lowest everyday prices, then stick with it.

• Get creative

Plan menus around what’s on sale in that store each week.

Picky Eater, Dietary Restrictions

You have the time and the skills to cook at home. The problem is making meals that actually taste good given the long list of ingredients your picky eaters will not touch. Or you need to produce menus and dishes that match someone’s dietary restrictions otherwise known as “doctor’s orders.”

• eMeals.com

This meal-planning site offers variety and flexibility, allowing you to pick the recipes that best fit your needs that week. eMeals.com can’t go so far as to cook dinner for you but it gives you a plan and creates a shopping list so you can shop yourself or skip the grocery store by sending your shopping list directly to Amazon, Walmart, Kroger, Instacart, or Shipt. Then you choose pickup or delivery.