9 Tips for Reducing Food Costs

If the financial contributions you made from caregiving have left you struggling, learn how reducing food costs can help you gain better control over your budget.

It may come as no surprise to you that 68% of family caregivers are “financial contributors,” spending an estimated $190 billion a year on their loved ones for out-of-pocket, care-related expenses.

That is a huge amount of money and if you’re like many caregivers you were unprepared for the financial toll it would take on you personally.

Maybe you found yourself thrust into caregiving unexpectedly resulting in your career being interrupted pretty significantly. These statistics undoubtedly come as no surprise:

41% of caregivers have reduced their work hours or changed their schedule/shift to provide care
13% have resigned their jobs to provide care
9% have changed jobs or careers to provide care

As your caregiving duties have come to an end, you’re now left with the financial devastation. How do you go about fixing your finances now that caregiving is over? Where do you begin?

Although you could almost start anywhere, I’ve learned that food is the easiest budget item to control and can bring you the most significant savings if planned and executed properly.

So I’m going to walk through how I go about meal planning and food shopping so you can reduce food costs and save money in your budget.

Table of Contents

Reducing Food Costs

I used to be a financial blogger and so I’ve seen and read almost every idea out there for cutting costs and saving money on food. Some of the ideas are smart and some are just plain ridiculous primarily because they’re unrealistic. Although it sounds impressive to be able to cut $100 from your weekly budget, it’s more than likely not possible for many of us unless we want to eat dirt all week long. What I like to teach people is how to make meaningful cuts to your food budget and to create a plan that is sustainable over time.

1. Gather your tools

Before you dive in, you’ll need to gather a few items. Grab or pull up on the computer the weekly circular for the stores you regularly shop. If you shop online at places like Amazon.com or Costco.com open tabs for them as well. You’ll be price comparing here so you’ll want these sites open and at your fingertips for quick reference. I also pull up my favorite money-saving blog How To Shop For Free. Kathy is a long time friend who taught me her secrets many years ago. They are still useful and relevant today as they were 10 years ago.

From there you’ll need paper, pen, a marker, and a calculator. If you like you can download my food shopping and meal planning worksheet here.

2. Start with the circular

The weekly circular is one of the most essential tools you need for reducing food costs, developing your meal plan, and shopping strategy. And that’s what this is – a strategy to help you reduce your food costs over time. Although you’ll start to see savings right away, it will take some time to realize the most significant impacts. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?

I shop at different stores for different things because I’ve learned over time who has the best sales. And, I’ve learned when to expect these scheduled deals, and when to shop so my stock doesn’t run out before the next sale launches. I primarily shop at Market Basket, Hannafords, and Costco for food. I shop at Target and Walmart for household items.

Take the time to identify by either staring or circling the items in the circular represent a good deal based on what you enjoy eating as a family. Don’t make the mistake of buying items you will never use simply because they are on sale; only identify the things your family likes.

3. Simple meal planning

We food shop on Saturdays. The Market Basket and Hannaford circulars come out on Thursday. Beginning on Friday evening and into the days ahead I develop my meal plan for the upcoming week. This allows for plenty of time to tweak the plan.

I identify sale items that interest me and will become available during the sale period. I also have my stockpile list available so I know what we currently have in the freezer and pantry that could be used for an upcoming meal.

For example, boneless pork chops are on sale this week. I decide to have Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops as one of our dinners. I know I’ll make veggie and potatoes to go with it. We have some food in the freezer that needs to be used, so I add two meals from my stockpile. I continue the process of coming up with meals until I have a total of 5 meals. To round out the seven days I include a leftover meal and one night of takeout because no matter how we try I ALWAYS have takeout one night a week.

My family enjoys leftovers for lunch, so I don’t buy too much in the way of sandwich meats. I pre-make breakfast burritos twice a month and pancakes too. I round out breakfast and lunches with things like bagels, cereal, eggs, homemade soups, and such. Once the entire meal plan is set, I begin to make my food shopping list.

4. The food shopping list

The whole time I am meal planning and creating my list I am thinking about what I want to add to my current inventory, what needs to be used so it doesn’t spoil, and what is available in the current circular. All these factors go into trying to come up with a food shopping list and a balanced food budget.

Because I shop according to the sales flyer I know I will need to set aside a certain amount of money in my weekly budget for stockpile items. Of course, not everything I buy is on sale, but for the most part, the bulk of what I purchase each week is on sale so I can maximize my savings.

As an example, New England Coffee is on sale this week. I can save $2.00 per bag. This is a pretty good deal, not the best deal I’ve seen, but a good deal so I will buy an extra 12 bags to add to my stock. The same goes for Stonyfield yogurt. The kids eat these regularly, so I’ll buy enough to last until they go on sale again which will be around six weeks. I’ll freeze them and thaw as needed.

5. Coupons

From there I go to HowToShopForFree.net and check out the matchups. Here is where I find any coupons that match up with the sale item to maximize my savings. This includes printable coupons, coupons that come in the Sunday paper, and any deals I can garner from money-saving apps like Ibotta.

What I love about How To Shop For Free is how they tell you step by step how to maximize your savings and how to get items for free. If you’re not currently using a site like this, you’re missing out on a variety of ways to save money.

At this point, I have a good idea of what I’ll be spending and if I can stick to my budget or not.

Before I set out to shop, I look over my list and make sure I’ve identified sale items, corresponding coupons, and that I have them with me when I head to the store. No sense in going through all that trouble just to leave them at home.

I put an “s” next to everything that is on sale, and a “c” for everything I have a corresponding coupon.

Once I return home, I hit Ibotta and other apps I have on my phone and upload the receipt so I can get the cashback for the items I’ve purchased.

Then I tally it all up and see if I did, in fact, stay within the parameters I’d established for my food budget. If I did, great if not, I know I need to make adjustments to future meal plans for the remainder of the month.

7. Meat

Market Basket’s meat is not great. It’s pretty low quality and after being burned with meat that was close to unedible I stopped buying meat from them. Occasionally they do have a meat deal I can’t pass up like Shady Brook turkeys at Thanksgiving, Carando Spiral ham at Easter, and prime rib roast at Christmas. For the rest of my meat, I purchase bulk and on sale at either Hannafords or Costco. We have an upright freezer to accommodate bulk buying. If you can get your hands on a second-hand freezer I highly suggest it as it makes buying in bulk possible.

8. How to handle unadvertised deals

Inevitably Market Basket has unadvertised deals that are too good to pass up. Because I know this about them I come prepared to take advantage of these sales by allocating a portion of my food budget. If I don’t use it, it goes back into the pot.

9. Costco

I typically hit up Costco twice a year. It takes me over an hour to get there so it’s not a store I want to drive to on a regular basis.

Costco has certain items that when available in their warehouse is cheaper than anywhere else. I buy those items there because I’ve done the research and know my prices. (I should have been a contestant on the Price Is Right because I probably would have won a car!) I don’t recommend warehouse shopping unless you know the items you are buying are worth the cost. It’s too tempting to be sucked into vats of olive oil or 50 bags of microwave popcorn as you peruse the aisles. This is one store you will want to have a list and stick to it.

What would it be like to be able to save money on your food budget?

Let’s recap the nine steps I’ve outlined to reducing food costs:

Gather your tools
Start with the circular
Simple meal planning
The food shopping list
Coupons
My food shopping code cracked
Meat
How to handle unadvertised specials
Costco

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