Help me save! PLEASE!

Don't you know my sister is THE Mamacheaps!?  Her grocery bills are lower and lower and her pantry is more and more full, and then there's me. High bills each week.  Trips to produce stores & grocery stores. I try, I really do, but I still really need help.

I found this great article over at Money Talk News.

There are 28 tips so make sure you check them out, but here are my favorites:

• Cook from scratch: Making meals from scratch is probably the single best way to save on food. Because the more prepared the food, the more it costs. Ironically, less expensive home-made is also normally better for you as well.
• Generics: sometimes generics aren’t as good as name brands. In those situations one might choose name brands. But for things like flour, sugar, salt, bleach or virtually dozens of other items you find in the grocery store, the only discernible difference is price. Paying more for an identical product is more than extravagant; it’s stupid.
• Lists: Writing down what you came for…and ignoring everything not on it… will save money. It will also save time and fuel expense by preventing repeat trips to the store for things you forgot.
• Always overcook: then freeze. That saves the time you need to be able to cook from scratch.
• Substitute cheaper ingredients: for more expensive ones.
• Grate savings: You pay more to have someone else grate your cheese for you. You’ll also save by cutting up whole chickens, slicing your own pickles, slicing meat for cold cuts, and using a blender or rolling pin to make your own bread crumbs.
• Save on starch: Fancy boil-in-bag or flavored rices routinely cost 10 times the amount of the old-fashioned kind. All it takes to make rice is the ability to boil water! Bags of smaller potatoes are often half the cost per pound of big baking potatoes. Bake two little ones instead of one big one. Your stomach won’t notice.
• Save on protein: The simple proteins found in beans are better for you and obviously much cheaper than the complex ones in meat, fish and poultry. In other words, eat less meat!

Which ones do you have trouble with? Which are you good with? I strive to use coupons (but never do), to buy in bulk, to cook from scratch, and to over cook......



pic from here