20 strategies that could help you radically cut your food expenses

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The average American family spends $151 a week on food, according to this Gallup poll.

That's actually quite a lot of money when you consider that the average week contains just 21 meals and that it’s relatively easy to eat a meal that costs less than $1.

The truth of the matter is that people often spend far more on their food than they realize, and that those food expenses really add up over time.

Even if you're spending just the average amount on food, a typical family ends up spending almost $8,000 a year on food.

Within that $8,000 in annual spending comes a lot of little choices. You make food spending choices every time you visit the grocery store. You make food spending choices every time you eat out, every time you order takeout, every time you think about eating something in your home, every time you visit a coffee shop.

All of those choices are made as the result of a set of "rules" that you have in your head. You have a certain internal logic as to why you make the choices that you do. Thus, it shouldn't be surprising that if you change a few of those internal "rules," you can end up saving a ton on food expenses over the course of a year.

Here are 20 such strategies you can apply to change your food spending habits. Some of these strategies will be familiar to long-time readers of The Simple Dollar, while others will be new ones that Sarah and I have learned over the years.

1. Make simple meals that you like

The single biggest money saver when it comes to a family's food budget is eating at home, and the simplest strategy for eating at home is to get over one's fear of the kitchen and simply make your own meals.

Many, many people have the perspective that making one's own meals at home is difficult and messy and, for the sake of convenience, they just order food, whether takeout or delivery or going to a restaurant.

It's simply not true.

There are many, many meals that are incredibly easy to make. Pasta meals take ten minutes and require little more than boiling water and pouring some sauce on top of noodles. You can make wraps and burritos by wrapping a few things in a tortilla, and sandwiches by putting some things between slices of bread.

Soups involve putting things in a big pot with water and boiling it for a while. Stir-fry means tossing some veggies and some protein in a skillet over really high heat and then serving it over rice. Most of those things require maybe 10 minutes worth of effort at home. They're also far cheaper than eating out.

The thing with simple dishes, though, is that the more you do them, the more confident you become in branching out and the easier it all seems.

Burritos seem easy? Make grilled burritos on a grill or in a skillet with a bit of oil. Basic soup seem easy? Try caramelizing onions before you put them into the soup. Pasta meals seem easy? Try making your own sauce out of just things you like (I like sauteed mushrooms and onions and green peppers and garlic and black peppers in just a bit of olive oil, for instance, and putting that right on top).

Make really, really simple meals at home, things that you're sure to like. Make them until it seems comically easy, to the point that you could do it with your eyes closed. Then slowly branch out into more complex stuff.

Before you know it, you'll be able to make tons of tasty things at home really quickly, really cheaply, and with such ease you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it for yourself from the start.

2. Base meals around on-sale meats and produce

Once you’re comfortable with cooking at home, the most valuable strategy that you can take on is to cook with the things that are inexpensive at the store – namely, the items that happen to be on sale that week.

Just grab the flyer from your local grocery store (online, preferably, before you even head out to the store) and look at what’s on discount this week. Chicken breasts? Avocados? Tomatoes? Steak? Potatoes? Whatever happens to be on sale, use that as your starting point for meals.

What I typically do is go look for recipes and ideas for how to use those on-sale items as centerpieces for meals, then sketch out a meal plan where I slot in those items for meals for my family throughout the week. I’ll try to use the cheap ingredients as often as possible, so I might plan three or four meals that use tomatoes if they’re on sale, for example.

Centering everything around things that are really cheap this week lets you vary your meals significantly from week to week. You don’t have to eat the same things over and over again in order to eat cheap!

3. Use a grocery list

The best time to make a decision about what foods and household products you need to buy is before you set foot in the grocery store. You should do this at home, where you can figure out which household items you actually need and which food items you need to fulfill your meal plan for the week.

So, before you even head to the grocery store, make a grocery list. Include everything on it that you would need to make meals for the next week, as well as any household supplies you anticipate needing in the next week. Ideally, if you looked at the grocery flyer first and planned some meals using those items, a significant chunk of the items on your list are already on sale.

Then, head to the store and trust your list. Stick to it. Keep your head down and focus on grabbing just the things on the list. Scratch those items out as you go.

What you'll end up with is a cart full of stuff you actually need, much of which is already on sale, and very few things that you don't actually need. Your grocery bill is going to be cheap!

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