BYU Education Week
PROVO, Utah — Saving money at the grocery store isn't an impossible task, said Alice Osborne at BYU's Campus Education Week on Tuesday, August 17.
It does take a bit of planning, creativity and a little work.
Before shopping
Clean out and organize the refrigerator.
Throw away old food. Combine the two bottles of the same kind of barbecue sauce.
Then it's ready for the new food, Osborne said.
Build a menu and shopping list.
Use stores' weekly ads to circle what your family eats, farmers' market bargains, fresh food from your garden and whatever else you have available.
"Plan for inexpensive meals that don't require a lot of expensive ingredients," Osborne said.
Also, plan using leftovers. If a pot roast is on the menu Sunday, then plan enough to have stew on Monday and sandwiches on Tuesday.
Then, build your shopping list from your menus and be careful about planning to go to too many places that would require several stops just to save a dollar here or there.
"We don't want to go to the grocery store wandering and pondering," she said. Also, know the average prices of foods your family commonly eats so a good deal is easy to detect.
Use coupons and shop sales.
"Don't buy items just because it was on sale," Osborne said.
Many times coupons are for foods that her family doesn't normally eat, as they don't eat a lot of processed foods.
Shopping
With menus and a shopping list, a trip to the grocery store should be just weekly, Osborne said.
Watch for expiration dates. Shop early in the day without children and when you're not hungry. Some bring only cash so they don't overspend. Watch out for buy one, get one free deals and monitor the register when you are checking out.
After shopping
Put food away quickly, she said. Bake or prepare what you can ahead of time.
Use "gravels," which are foods that can be cooked, if needed, and flash frozen so it ready to use, like ground beef, sausage, celery, peppers, onions and zucchini. The vegetables won't be destined to top a salad, but for stews or casseroles, she said.
Other options
* Consider forming a co-op with neighbors or friends to get items at bulk prices. When she lived in the northwest, Osborne contacted a peanut butter company and asked if they could get the bulk rate price if they ordered 50 cases of peanut butter. The answer was yes. And that's what they did.
* Watch for homes with fruit trees who let the fruit fall to the ground, which usually means they aren't going to harvest it.
Then, kindly knock on their door and ask if your family can pick the fruit and clean up their yard.
"You can bank on the guilt they are feeling inside the house," Osborne said.
* Watch for other things, like farmers or orchardists who let people glean their fields after the harvest if some of it is donated to a food bank.
"Just get a little organized and creative," she said.
Food storage
Keep the weekly menus and after about six or seven weeks take a look if there are any patterns, like lots of one type of soup or meal.
Notice those patterns and use that to start building food storage, Osborne said. Even if the budget only allows for one extra can a grocery trip, follow the prophet's counsel.
"Heavenly Father doesn't bless us for the arrival, but for the trip," she said.
For longer term food storage, find things that will be easy to make in an emergency, like things that only require water.
A few tips
* Eggs are super cheap around Easter. Break them and freeze them in an ice cube tray. Then store them in a plastic bag or container.
* Buy real butter, Osborne said, even if it's more expensive. "Butter is real food. And your body knows what to do with real food."
To make a butter spread, soften a pound at room temperature and use a mixer to gradually mix in a cup to a cup and a half of water. Store in a container in the refrigerator. Don't use for cooking or baking as the water will separate out, she said.
* To make pudding or other "messy" foods, put the mixing bowl in a paper bag and then in the sink. That way, the clean up is just throwing the bag away.
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