Slashing Your Grocery Bill - Part I

This was a title of a Tightwad Gazette article in the January 1991 issue.  I'm aware that our food bill has crept up to around £132 per month (the average for 2011) and after re-reading this article I can see some reasons why, in addition of course to the fact that food prices have actually increased a bit.  Amy recommended no fewer than 17 strategies, some of which we are quite good at, but not all.  I think we're pretty good at:

Buying Store/Generic Brands - Our main supermarket source has recently changed its generic packaging scheme (for who knows what reason), but until they did I would have said I had about the 'yellowest' shopping trolley in the store.  I've read and heard from too many sources that the packaging plants change the label, not necessarily the contents.  I always buy generic unless my experience tells me otherwise.  Recently Morrisons have started to stock only a limited amount of their generic brands, some of which are nearly half the price of the next best offer.  I will have to start shopping earlier in the day if I want the best crack at these bargains.

Free Food - We graciously gratefully accept all offers of free food and routinely pick blackberries when they are in season.   We did go pick some sloes, but I confess that they remain in the freezer until I get around to buying gin and figuring out which recipe to use.  (Suggestions welcomed!)  This gives us a crack at green beans, rhubarb, apples and, once, even gooseberries.

Preparing Foods from Scratch - On the rare occasion when we have custard, we make it from power not scratch and our Christmas puddings (sort of a fruit cake - Brits use the word 'pudding' like Yanks say 'dessert') come in a box.  I know it's also possible to make hot chocolate from cocoa, but I find the mix is cheaper than the ingredients.  Other than these exceptions I can't think of anything we don't make from scratch, e.g. if the recipe calls for a tin of cream of something soup, I make white sauce and add the something (or a substitute I have on hand).

Eat Fewer Meat and Potato Meals - We eat meat perhaps a couple of times a month at home, but usually order a meat entre on the odd occasion we're eating out.  When we have meat it is usually as part of a stir fry or casserole or used to flavour beans.  We both love our roast beef or ham, but meat does no favours for one's pocketbook or one's health.

Vegetarianism - Looking at our evening menu for about a two month period, we ate vegetarian 47% of the time.  This is quite inexpensive.  However, 45% of the time we eat fish or poultry, and these don't tend to be as cheap.  The other 5-7%  probably involve meat.  Lunches - particularly in cold weather - tend to be soup made from whatever leftovers are on hand.

Elimination of Convenience Foods - Of course this relates closely to Preparing Foods from Scratch, but one of Amy's pet peeves had to do with individually packaged single servings.  I must admit that we routinely buy four packs of a generic fruit yoghurts because by weight they are cheaper than a larger container of fruit yoghurt.  However, I can't claim to have done the math recently for whether they are cheaper than plain yoghurt with fruit, jam or honey added.

Next week, I shall be making my confessions about what we don't do so well...

Do you use any of these strategies to reduce your food costs?