When the tomatoes get soft and arent salad worthy, I cut them very thinly, place on sheet pan with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake for 2 hours or more till they’re dried. I freezes them on the pan then transfer to Latin bag or container. I never run out of tomatoes! Sometimes I change the salt flavor ( smoked salt or kelp). I’ve also been saving leftover wine or bourbon as frozen cubes for cooking. These little saves make me feel better. And I’ve finality getting my husband to throw small inedible food scraps in a small grocery bag in in the garbage so we use many fewer large bags (we can’t put the food into soil >>>alligators)

Buy dried beans in bulk, rather than canned, cook up a bunch and freeze what you don't need right away for later use; way cheaper. Freeze vegetable peelings, stems, ends, etc. and use to make broth for soup. Finely chop stems of herbs, cores of cauliflower, other parts of veggies you'd normally toss (or, preferably, compost) and use in stews, soups, etc. Buy organic full-fat yogurt, let drip through cheesecloth till gets consistency of Greek yogurt, instead of buying organic Greek, which is much more expensive, ounce for ounce.

If I had only one tip to share it would be to use widemouth pint and one-cup mason jars for hot leftovers. Leftover chili, soups, even casseroles can be packed while hot into a jar and then sealed. These jars freeze well if you leave a half inch airspace. But the very best part of it is that a hot potted food will stay fresh in the fridge for weeks and is easy to reheat or take to work. It's kind of half-canning. You wouldn't store them on a pantry shelf but they do seal; you can hear the "pop" when you take them out of the fridge to use. They last so much longer than leftovers left to cool and put in containers that don't seal.

One more thought for the lovely resourceful humans here. I would nominate some ingredients as powerful flavour boosters but they are not costly. They include garlic, onion, fresh ginger, shallots, dried beans, lentils, rice, carrots, onions, potatoes, root veggies, cabbage, and flavoured oil you make yourself (rosemary in olive oil for example). Even if you are resourceful the challenge is how to create variety and one way to do that is to alter the seasoning (MB spice mixes made at home) and then you can travel to different places from your kitchen. Sometimes I will make a list of potential dinners and lunches from what I already have as way to increase variety and clean out the inventory. So part of this is learning how to see everything as potential material.

I always keep a container of "lunch beans" and cooked grains in the fridge for lunches. A pound of beans cooked in the instant pot with salt, garlic & onion powders, and sometimes a bay leaf are great on top of rice or quinoa and topped with a condiment of choice (hot sauce, salsa, kraut, mustard, whatever). They're easy to keep on hand and make lunch an easy choice that doesn't rely on more expensive prepared foods.

An open can of tomato paste gets covered with a side of a ziploc bag and a rubber band to hold it in place.

Chipotle in adobo get blended up and stored in a jar in the fridge.

Big bags of frozen veggies from CostCo. All-purpose seasonings/spice blends along with some vinegar can really season these up. And the veggies can be steamed or roasted just fine.

Wow, this is an incredible List. So much to learn. I'll have to revisit when I have more time to read all the great suggestions. Been said already, but my favorite is the roast chicken, substituting beans for meat, and using the freezer more.

Make a weekly menu, incorporate leftovers into meals and then shop your menu. Saves money, cuts down on waste.

I'm now 79 years old and still practice the money-saving techniques my maternal grandmother practiced. For instance, I recycle jars from commercial products like mayo and use them in the refrigerator to store leftovers like soup, veggies, etc. I use leftover meats, poultry, veggies - everything but beets because they overwhelm everything else - to make what I call "kitchen sink soup" because it figuratively has everything in it except the kitchen sink and is the result of cleaning out the refrigerator. That usually results in a heck of a lot of soup so I freeze at least half for later use. I use leftover biscuits (commercial or homemade) which I break up, dot with butter, and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon for cobblers, usually using canned peaches but sometimes other canned fruit (fruit cocktail, for instance, makes for a very interesting cobbler). I make quick jam from berries that are about to go bad because they've been pushed to the back of the fridge and I almost forgot about them. I save the liquid from commercial bread-and-butter pickles and add fresh cucumber slices, which makes more of the pickles, or cooked beet slices for pickled beets, or watermelon rinds with the green part removed. Whenever Gramma made banana bread she would put the banana peels through the hand-operated food grinder, grind them up finely, and add them to the bread batter; I use the food processor. Gramma didn't waste anything that could be recycled in some way and she usually found a way - and so do I.

There are so many good ideas here. When $ were scarcer, I carefully timed my shopping trip to when the closely dated items would be discounted. It does require being a little creative within a day or two. But we were blessed with organic beef, salmon, shrimp, cabbage, fennel, and chicken, of course! I use the meat as an accent so it can last quite a while.

Repurposing is more than chicken...ham became ham, barley vegetable soup, Hawaiian turnovers, sweet potato ham hash, ham pineapple quesadillas, and cabbage and ham pasta or smothered cabbage. The leg of lamb was grilled as is, lamb bowls, lamb-apricot-squash tagine, shakshuka, moussaka, and lamb potstickers. The leftover tri-tip was lo mein and fried rice...and leftover pot roast was ravioli. But the girls do like when the chicken gets turned into b'stilla or pot pies, too.

The trick is amping up the flavor over the week :)

If you have a stand-alone freezer, a freezer inventory is *vital*! I can see what I've got a lot of, or what's oldest. It's also good for making up a shopping list - rather than rummage (and maybe miss something), I can tell "ah, I need to get more green beans".

1% milk freezes quite well, 2% a little more problematically (the fat slightly de-homogenizes), so I buy several gallons and decant into quart Nalgene bottles.

I buy my spices from the bulk food isle at the local Food Co-Op,way cheaper than supermarket as well as beans,rice flours etc.

I am on food stamps. I usually make large quantities. have some and freeze the rest. i buy seasonal produce and recently started baking my own breads. I'm still at flat breads though, leery about yeast bread except for beer breads.

This is about food storage and prep. We do not use disposable products like paper towels, sponges, and food wraps. Instead we use microfiber cloths and rags, dishcloths and washable scrubbies, beeswax wraps, and various jars from grocery purchases. If you have a washing machine and a dishwasher, this helps a lot to use these things.

We get such wonderful heirloom tomatoes and once they drop to less than $3/lb, I buy them in bulk. Cut in half, place cut side up spaced out on a baking sheet, add some herbs/pepper/salt and drizzle olive oil on the top. Roast in a 250 oven for several hours (or more depending on the size), turning once. I freeze these and use in the coming months.

Looking for advice on how to modify the Mark Bittman "No Knead" Bread recipe from no fiber bread flour to whole wheat or teff flour and in what proportions? Any suggestions

love all the tips. Here's one. Brew coffee at home. I calculated mine costs 9.5 cents a cup vs. the exorbitant prices at coffee shops.

I have become an Umami Mommy. That is, I'll spend for Yondu, fish sauce, oyster sauce, XO sauce,Urfa Biber, Gojujang, fermented beans, tomato achaar and black garlic paste and use on a rotating basis on staples which ensures the meats/beans/rice that I use the second time around pass the eyeball-roll-AGAIN? test

I save and freeze the wrappers off sticks of butter then use them to butter pans before baking. A tiny thing, for sure, but...

I've been a vegetarian, gardening, bean-loving cheapskate for a very long time, but new insights keep popping up. Like that even though baby bella mushrooms cost a bit more, they save a whole lot better, so less waste. I'm also learning salad dressings, because why the heck was I ever buying bottled dressing when it's such an easy thing to make?

I do feel it's important to know what's important to you -- what it is that "sparks joy." I get spices from a local spice specialist, even though it costs more, because good and fresh spices go a really long way towards making plain things special. A couple bucks for dried rosemary seems like a lot, but the zing it gives to the pizza crust is just worth it.

Honestly, the best thing I could have done to save grocery money would have been to not get cats. I haven't done the math, but I suspect I spend a very large chunk of my grocery budget on the stuff going into one end of the cat and the stuff catching what comes out the other end. But the cats spark joy too, so there you go.

My husband and our three children (12, 14, 16) take lunches to work and school. The school lunch is a pricey $5/day and the selection is repetitive and lacking in nutrition. I cook every day and produce a steady stream of beans, grains, greens, and veg-heavy soups and stews with meat used sparingly. They all eat a much more healthful and tasty lunch than the alternatives and provided at a much lower price; and their food is constantly the envy of their colleagues/fellow students/teachers. There are microwaves available for them all but my children prefer to use thermoses because they complain the school microwaves "stink" from instant mac&cheese others bring daily.

It starts in the garden when I freeze/can whatever I can. Then use throughout the year. Like chives into butter as it adds a little something to a meal. Then purchase chickens on sale to roast and get fresh chicken broth. Use that to make healthy soups. Continue to use fresh herbs throughout the year by growing them in containers.

One of my favorite hobbies is canning, specifically making jams. I buy the cast off apples or other fruit at the Raleigh farmer’s market. Sometimes my fruit expense is only $5-10. North Carolina has wonderful local apples. I make jam and applesauce and either can or freeze. The largest expense right now is new jars, but I reuse and get returns. I use much less sugar than the recipe outlines. For a gift I pair the jar of jam with my homemade “Grannyola”. Another expense saver by making your own granola. Don’t buy that expensive granola at the stores! I took six jars of jam and six bags of granola to elderly church members last week. This is my therapy both before and after the pandemic. 😊

Love those Meyer lemons!... preserved, and blended in to "goop" (a la Dorie Greenspan) to add intense citrus flavor (especially hummus). Also, all tired fresh herbs become pestos when combined with mellow garlic confit any nut willing to be sacrificed.

Like many of you, I make stock with my veggie scraps and chicken bones (both raw and cooked go in the bag) When full, it’s ‘stock day’.

I just found a fantastic way to store caramelized onions! I decided to go big last week when I needed to caramelize a couple onions so I used a whole 10 lb bag. Using a few pots, and a few dollops of balsamic glaze at the very end, I had a good amount of gorgeous, sweet, browned onions (took almost an hour) I lined my mini muffin tins with Saran and placed a generous spoonful in each. Popped them in the freezer, then once frozen, twisted the Saran and put them into a large ziplock bag. I can pull out as much (or as little) that I need. They thaw in no time and I can have the ‘luxury’ of adding this goodness to my omelette, pizza, pirogies, soup, anything!

2 of my 3 kids turned vegetarian recently, so we have a vegetarian dinner every evening (thanks to some great cookbooks including the 'Everything Vegetarian' one!) and we always have enough leftover for lunch the next day. As to meat, I eat meat at restaurants on Saturdays and if I buy meat, it is from the local farmer's market. Healthy food, healthy planet!

I bought an inexpensive dehydrator several years ago and it has paid for itself several times over.

In summer it is especially useful.

I am a US American currently living in Berlin, but I think this tip goes for Americans too! I recently made a spreadsheet (I'm an unemployed nerd) to compare the price differences between my closest grocery store where I do most of my shopping (Edeka) and a discount grocery store just a few blocks away (Lidl). I found that I could buy the same products for a 40% discount on average at the discounter, including organic items! Needless to say, I only shop at Edeka for those specialty products I can't find at Lidl (like the inimitable maple syrup!). Ya'll, it's worth it to walk the extra blocks, or drive the extra mile to your discounter like Costco!

I prepare many things from scratch. This means that I soak and cook dried bans. This is cheaper than buying the cooked caned beans. This requires planning ahead, but it also means the resulting beans have a greater depth of flavor from ingredients I add to the cooking water. The number of varieties of dried beans is exponentially greater than number of canned types.

I have 2 supermarkets near me and I check their weekly flyers for sales. Some of the deals are great even on items for future use. They also have store made rotisserie chickens which are very good. I get 4 meals from 1 bird. I've learned how to freeze herbs and vegetables so I can buy in bulk with no waste. I also save the leafy green parts of vegetables to use in soup along with the rinds of parmesan cheese. Makes a great addition. I make my own "schmaltz" for use in my latkes and chopped liver - I don't make them often (health reasons) but for holidays, etc.

My motto is not to throw anything away. I taught my granddaughter how to cut a green pepper so you don't waste a drop. I live in a small apartment and have a standard refrigerator with a top freezer - which is packed and dated. On Sundays, we have a green market here. Sometimes they reduce prices when they're packing up to leave. I'm always conscious of prices because food has gotten very expensive.

Hi, I have a timely and (I think) related question to this post. Many of us have been without power for 5+ days. I cleaned out my fridge as best I could. How would you go about re-stocking your fridge in a budget friendly way? I will need to restock butter, milk, soy sauce, ketchup, liquid aminos, etc. I’m guessing to start with most important first (eggs, butter, milk) and slowly adding in the condiments on a weekly/menu-based need. Thoughts? Thank you! If this is too off-topic, I apologize and hope it’s a future post!❤️

I have some indoor grow lights such that I can grow my own herbs year round (they're expensive to buy fresh in the grocery store, and don't last). I've got some onions, dill, and basil and some small romaine lettuce growing right now - it's also helping my morale to see green things growing when outside is covered in snow. In the summer, I grow my own tomatoes (which I've frozen using your suggested method and only used half of so far in making pizza and pasta sauces), kale and swiss chard (which I freeze to use in the soups we eat for lunch all winter). I make my own stock every few weeks using saved bones and vegetable ends. I saved my spicy pepper plants indoors with the hopes that some will grow again in the spring - so far about a third have survived in large pots without much care. My husband ferments the spicy peppers into his own varieties of hot sauce, which is also money-saving since hot sauces are expensive here. I also buy things in bulk, including meat, and freeze portions in ziploc bags in the freezer. And finally, we have been influenced by you to eat more lentils, beans, and chickpeas, and I buy those dried instead of canned to save money. Saving money at the grocery store took time, and slowly ramped up for us. My advice for someone starting out is to start slow and pick one way to start saving money, and then go from there. There's a lot of psychology to changing your shopping patterns, and I can see why people give up when they take on too much all at once!

Never toss out a roast chicken or turkey carcass. Add veg trimmings, celery leaves and the root bottom, carrot trimmings, onion outside skin, green onion tops, parsley and cilantro stems. There's always a bit of meat on the bones. Add cold water, salt, pepper and even some Better than Boullion if you wish. After a couple of hours of simmering cool and strain using a colander and cheesecloth for a great broth.

I also bake beer bread regularly with self rising flour, just stir well, no kneading and bake. Slices easily, makes great toast. A good tasting, quick easy bread.

The Canadian winter pretty well demands a hearty breakfast. I often make enfrijoladas, a standard Mexican breakfast -make a sauce of pureed black beans and transfer to a skillet; bathe folded corn tortillas in the sauce and heat for about one minute. (Have water handy to thin the sauce); plate, add the sauce and sprinkle with crumbled farmers or feta cheese and finish with thin rounds of white onion. Slices of avocado are a great addition.Then pretend you're in Oaxaca!

I buy local produce in bulk, in season, to process and freeze for winter. Over the years I’ve cultivated a list of produce that’s easy to grow, expensive to buy, and that the deer won’t eat. I plan my garden around that list. So lots of herbs, raspberries, strawberries, garlic, and rhubarb!

I also do trades with a few local hunters—they give me venison or duck, I make a dish with it, then give them half the dish back. A good deal for everyone.

I've been making my own bread and granola for 35 years or so and for the last few years, making yogurt as well. Not only cheaper, but ohsomuchmore delicious and healthy!

I make yogurt and hummus almost weekly. We have a large garden and preserve lots from it. Food dehydrator makes kick-ass fruit leather!

When available at the supermarket, I buy large cuts of lamb or goat and break them down myself. My butchering skills are not pretty, but the end results are tasty! (I only do this with lamb and goat - I buy beef or pork from local people who raise them conscientiously.) I use a Foodsaver to portion bulk ingredients too. Great thing to have!

I'm vegan, and vegan meat and dairy substitutes are crazy expensive, so I've gotten into making my own. Cheaper, and I love exploring the possibilities. Miyoko Schinner's The Homemade Vegan Pantry is a great resource.

I meal plan religiously and shop what’s in season/on sale. I find that if I plan things that are delicious, though they might not be the cheapest, I waste very little...and take out is much less tempting. I avoid recipes that ask for ingredients I rarely use that as perishable (looking at ricotta cheese, personally) or just sub the ingredient. Really, avoiding processed and delicious but not nutritious foods saves a bunch!

I make my own oat milk! Sounds fussy but if you do it once every 5 days or so it's not so bad. You just need a nut milk bag and then 1/4 cups of oats + water + pinch of salt makes you oat milk that would otherwise cost a bunch in the store (and saves packaging!). Tally up any oat milk coffees you might buy out and you're saving even more! :)

I've been volunteering at a once-a-month pack 400 grocery bags for needy households event and have brought home loose onions or sweet potatoes that escaped their net bags, or a leftover 4-pound rutabaga. I'm also volunteering at my local food pantry one or two afternoons a week and most recently brought home very ripe bananas (that had been set outside in the free-for-the-taking area) for banana bread. My one-person family food budget goes a little further.

Eating well is all about planning. You can achieve variety, savings, and nutrition with planning. Including your family/household members in this planning builds relationships, engagement, learning and perhaps even adventure! Take time to understand your food values, then plan, plan, plan.

I save money by writing a weekly menu and only buying what's needed to make what I planned, thus no waste. I shop at Aldi, which is much less expensive than other grocery stores, and I serve smaller portions. For example, a packet of 3 chicken breasts will make 6 servings, each breast sliced in half horizontally. We also use lots of beans, chickpeas and lentils, cooked from scratch. I use up "leftovers" and often turn them into something else.

I love Hummus! So many ways to use it. I use it to make pizza sauce, salad dressings, soups etc. It is easy and inexpensive to make.

Even though I'm now retired, I still do my "weekend cooking" for the rest of the week. Some things, like spaghetti sauce or soup, really taste better if you make a big pot. It takes no more time to make two casseroles than one.

Two things alternating for the rest of the week, and some of it for the freezer.

One thing I do is bake your incredible no-knead bread and the other is that we learned to make kraut and other easy ferments, home-made pickles etc. They are so wonderfully live!! We're lucky to have an extra fridge in the garage...

I have been planning menus for 40 years- it is a life saver for me. I write them on the back side of my grocery list. If something on the list is not available or does not look good I can flip the paper over and see where I was going to use it and make a substitution.

Sorry if this has been posted many times- having trouble at this end. I think it would be great to create an ethic/theme/ingredient/resource/whatever post every now and then. This is a super smart experienced group- I'm not so bad- but love learning more.

We buy a lot in bulk (e.g., wheat kernels, rolled and steel-cut oats, and beans), which is often cheaper and creates a lot less packaging waste. We also buy produce that is in season, which is tastier and cheaper too. In general we do not buy processed food. For example we make our granola, oat milk, cashew cream, apple sauce, and jams.

When we buy a 50 lb bag of onions I will cook at least 40 lbs almost immediately. I let some caramelize slowly on the stove and once ready I put them in jars in freeze them. I do also cook some soffritto (carrots, celery, and onions), jar it and put it in the freezer. Caramelizing onions and cooking soffritto properly is a long process but doing it in large batches ultimately saves me a tremendous amount of time when I am in hurry. When I need to prepare a sauce, a dip, or a soup, I can reach to the freezer, place the jar for a minute or two in the microwave and can prepare a meal in no time.

HEY EVERYONE. Here's a really good question from this thread. I responded a bit below, but if any of you have any advice, I'd love the help. Just reply here. Thanks!

This is a great opportunity to provide a much needed service to those who rely on food banks for their daily sustenance. My neighbor depends on food banks and said that he often gets things that you do not see in grocery stores. For example, how do you incorporate dried cherries into a dish ? It would also be helpful to know how to preserve fresh vegetables or meats as visits to a food bank are monthly.