If you want to balance your budget, start by looking for ways to save money on groceries. You probably can’t negotiate your rent/mortgage or car payment downward, but you can find wiggle room in your food bill. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, nearly one-third (32.7 percent) of our food dollars go toward meals prepared somewhere else.
Saving money on groceries means different things to different households. Not everyone lives near a warehouse store, or can afford to belong to one. Nor can everyone grow a garden or visit you-pick farms.
Fortunately, plenty of other ways exist to keep food prices as low as possible. This article’s focus is on getting food at low prices.
Use some (or all!) of the following hacks to eat well without breaking the budget.
Look for “manager’s specials”
Not store-wide sales, mind you. No, these are items that are close-dated or otherwise no longer welcome at the store. You’ll generally save 50 percent and sometimes more.
Meat and dairy items need to be used or frozen quickly, of course. I grab half-price milk whenever I see it, for making yogurt, but milk can also be frozen. Ask the dairy and meat departments at what time(s) of day these marked-down products are put out.
With regard to shelf-stable specials, sometimes it’s because they’re holiday items (canned pumpkin, chocolate bunnies) that have to move along. It might also be a new product that didn’t do as well as the manager hoped, which is how we scored a dozen boxes of mango-flavored gelatin for practically nothing. (We prepared some of it with apple juice instead of cold water and called it “mangle” Jello.)
Sometimes the manager’s special rack includes scratch-and-dent stuff, such as canned goods that have been dropped by shoppers or boxed/packaged items with torn or crushed corners. We’ve gotten some extremely good prices this way; last year we found several giant cans of pickled jalapenos for less than a dollar apiece.
Note: According to the USDA you shouldn’t buy any can that has visible holes or punctures; is swollen, leaking or rusted; is crushed/dented badly enough to prevent normal stacking or opening with a manual can opener; or has a dent so deep you can lay your finger into it.
Find free produce
Gleaning is a thing! Nonprofits are networking like mad to come up with ways to avoid food waste, such as making lists of where you can pick (or pick up) produce for free.
Do a search for “gleaning programs [your city],” or visit sites like:
Fallen Fruit compiles maps of fruits and nuts in the Los Angeles area
Falling Fruit maps gleanable produce as well as links to organizations that distribute food.
Portland (Oregon) Fruit Tree Project
Urban Food Forestry links to harvest initiatives in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
Village Harvest lists gleaning programs in 12 U.S. states and one Canadian province.
Or consider asking. If you see fruit or berries going to waste in someone’s yard, leave a note asking if you might be allowed to have some. You could also keep an eye out for, say, raspberries that have jumped the fence and are spreading along the bike path.
Similar to gleaning is….
Foraging
Wild greens, nuts, berries, fruits and mushrooms might be growing in public spaces (or in your own back yard). Before I go any further, let me stress how essential it is that you know exactly what you’re picking and eating. The wrong stuff can make you sick, or even make you dead.
Start by looking for groups that focus on harvesting nature’s bounty, such as mycology fans who organize mushroom walks or a college- or parks-affiliated program about wild greens you can eat. A field guide to local wild foods, with color illustrations, is also a good idea; look for one in the library.
Make sure to forage legally. Get permission to visit someone else’s property, and find out whether food-gathering on public lands is forbidden.
Freecycle et al.
Got a chapter of The Freecycle Network in your area? Keep an eye out for food, which could be given away for reasons like “we’re moving and don’t want to bring the canned goods” or “My plum tree has gone mad – come get some fruit.” You could also put up a request (“Seeking surplus produce”) because some local gardeners would probably be glad to have someone use up all that zucchini.
Another option is your local Buy Nothing Facebook group. Last spring I put out a call for rhubarb, and someone who had too much of the stuff shared with me. I’ve also scored a lot of canned goods, baking supplies, beans and split peas, snack items and dried fruit. Use the link to see if there’s a group in your area.
You might also have luck with Craigslist. When I lived in Seattle I got a bunch of tree fruit this way.
Visit the farmers market
Not necessarily to buy produce, because that stuff can get pretty pricey. No, you’ll be looking for stalls that sell trimmed beets or turnips, and asking politely if you could have the greens. Sauté them with olive oil and garlic, or chop them and add to soups, stews or curry. (The produce manager at the supermarket might also be able to help you out.)
Another potential hack: Find a farmers market seller who looks really tired (easy enough – many farmers are perpetually exhausted during the growing season) and offer to help set up and tear down every market day if the farmer will give you slightly irregular items, like overly bulbous tomatoes or squash with a couple of divots in its rind. It’s not about outward appearances, but the way the food tastes.
Shop the office potluck
Any time there’s a workplace party, offer to help clean up. Announce that food waste makes you sad, so you plan to bring some of the leftovers home. Let the people who cooked or purchased the grub have first dibs, and then start packaging
The day of the potluck you should bring containers, foil or bags (or all three) in order to get the food home. If you know there’s going to be a turkey or ham, bring at least one giant container or kitchen-trashcan-sized garbage bag. If you take what’s left of the ham, let someone else bid on the turkey carcass (although in a perfect world you’d get both).
Use your finds wisely. Meat left on the turkey makes a good dinner, and odd bits are fine for turkey salad, turkey a la king, turkey tetrazzini or any other recipe that stretches small pieces of meat. Boil what’s left for soup stock. A ham bone with some meat on it makes a great pot of bean soup. If no one else wants the fruit and veggie trays, grab them all; you could always freeze the fruit for smoothies and turn the veggies into soup.
Look for a bakery outlet
What’s the difference between five-days-before-sell-by-date bread from the outlet store and the same bread with the same date in a supermarket? The price, that’s what: You can save 50 to 75 percent on all sorts of sandwich slices as well as on bagels, hot-dog and hamburger buns, tortillas, rolls, snack cakes and doughnuts.
The following sites will help you find outlets in your area:
Check the links for outlets near you, and also search for “bakery outlet [your city]” since regional bakeries sometimes have second-run locations. Ask about special programs, such as loyalty cards or senior discounts.
Check out “ethnic” markets
Even if you’re not interested in Asian or Latino cooking, you will likely find lower prices on things you do eat at stores that cater to these groups. When I wrote about this for MSN Money the prices were sometimes startling. For example, the chicken drumsticks were $1.40 less per pound than at a nearby supermarket; name-brand pasta was $1.20 cheaper, a 10-pound bag of potatoes was $2 less and canned beans were 60 cents less.
You can also get big bags (10 pounds or more) of dry beans and rice at prices noticeably cheaper than the per-pound price at supermarkets – and without needing to join a warehouse club.
Restaurant supply stores
Another great place to buy large quantities of canned, fresh and frozen items without having to pay a club fee. Although such places cater mostly to the restaurant trade, a lot of them allow members of the public to buy there as well. Ask!
Generic/private label/store brand products
They cost 25 to 30 percent less than name brand items. In my experience they don’t all work out – I still wake up screaming after a brush with ultra-cheap mayonnaise.
But things like Kroger lentils, Safeway canned tomatoes and Albertson’s pasta taste pretty much like the name brands, and the cumulative savings are considerable.
Estate sales
Sounds odd, but I’ve scored some great deals on canned goods and cake mixes. After all, they’re trying to sell everything, including the contents of the cupboards. You might also luck into foil and wraps, cleaning supplies and non-food items as well.
And if the idea of somebody’s “old” food creep you out? Consider two cans of soup, both with sell-by dates two years in the future. Does it matter whether you bought the can from a supermarket or an estate sale?
Scratch-and-dent markets
Genteelly known as “salvage groceries,” these products may not even be noticeably damaged. For example, if a pallet full of creamed corn falls off the forklift, it’s more cost-effective to sell the whole thing as dinged than to open up, sort and repackage the goods.
Other items end up here because they’re discontinued, have had a label or packaging change, didn’t sell as well as expected in a particular region or are post-season items (e.g., unsold Easter candy).
Some of these stores sell toiletries and cleaning supplies along with food. Look for the best deals in things you use the most often, such as pasta and canned goods, and shine on the stuff that’s not a good use of your food dollars. Be sure to factor in the time/gas it takes to get there, too; a 30-mile round trip to score dented gingerbread house kits isn’t worth it.
A site called Extreme Bargains maintains a state-by-state list of salvage grocers. (Scroll down the page a bit to find it.) Since it may not include every scratch-and-dent store out there, you should also do an online search for “salvage grocers (or “discount grocers”) [your city].”
One more thing: If you find a product that thrills you, buy as many as you can afford because what you see could be all that the store has. These deals generally don’t repeat.
Readers: How do you hack the grocery budget?
Great comprehensive post. I live in Europe so there are different options. Over here we have ‘yellow sticker’ sections, where close dated food is sold for 30-70% off. I always make a bee-line for that section when i get to the supermarket! I cook most of our meals at home & this is helped considerably by my trusty instant pot, which is a slow cooker&electric pressure cooker in one. We both work full time&have a toddler so it’s a life saver for getting healthy, tasty grub on the table when you don’t get to start cooking til 6.30 in the evening. There are also food sharing apps like olio (UK & Ireland) which I haven’t used yet but keep an eye on.
Here in the United States the stickers tend to be orange, not yellow. And yes, the markdown rack is the first place I visit at the supermarket. After that, it’s to the “manager’s special” bin in the meat department. And if I need milk, I look for those orange stickers there, too; most of it gets turned into homemade yogurt anyway, and I’ve also found that if you keep the close-dated milk in the coldest part of the refrigerator it will last longer than the sell-by date. (Pro tip: Don’t let the milk sit on the table or counter even for a few minutes. Pour/measure what you need and put the milk right back in the fridge.)
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
We do a lot of these – marked downed meat is a favorite, we take it home and either cook it immediately or freeze it. I really like those bagged chopped salads. When they are marked down, I grab one or two and add some stuff from home – lunch for two days at less than $2 per day!
Don’t forget Dollar Tree. Ours has an extensive food section: canned, boxed, frozen, bread, staples like dried beans and spaghetti and sauce.
Good point! Thanks for the reminder.
My food bill is somewhat crazy since both my husband and Mark have gastro issues and can not eat everything. Matthew has 60 dollars a month for food so I have to help him. Megan is pretty much a fruit/veggie eater and always has been. She never eats meat. I shop at Aldi every week and another grocer Fair Share Foods.
I love shopping at the Office Potluck!!! 🙂
And I always head to the kitchen first at any estate sale and check for foil, ziplocs, etc, and then the pantry for spices, etc — I have scored at these as well!!
I drive to the next town 15 minutes away because it’s a lower-cost of living area and has a discount grocery (FoodMaxx) instead of the Whole Foods and Safeway near me. Totally worthwhile!
Your example of bringing home leftovers from office potlucks – reminded me of a story from my workplace. I was onsite at a customer location for a month, and while I was there, I learned about a guy who had been taking advantage of the company policy that if a meeting was scheduled between 11am-1pm, you were authorized to order lunch for the meeting participants from one of the local restaurants.
You can imagine that a LOT of meetings are scheduled during that time – and the food that is ordered is always too much. The etiquette is apparently that you can take leftovers home if you were at the meeting – but most of the time, anything left over is left for the next people to use the room.
Well, this guy would apparently monitor the meeting room bookings, and would slide in after the end of the meeting, gather up ALL of the leftovers – and take home tons of food every day. From multiple meeting rooms. For months.
It was kind of genius, if a tad greedy, but he took it too far. There was some other “gleaning” that crept too far over the line and turned into “theft of company property” and he was let go.
A cautionary tale, indeed. And I agree that it was a bit greedy; other people might want a shot at some of that stuff, too.
Just be real careful with the meat markdowns. I bought a package of pork chops that were on “manager’s special,” and when I opened the package — whew! Cleared my sinuses right up! The store gave me double my money back. I recommend that you give meat packages a good sniff before buying.
I’ve also scored eggs in the dairy markdown section, but I’m not sure if buying eggs in a damp carton (probably from a broken egg) is sanitary. Frequently buy day-old, especially if we want a treat to go with breakfast.
Our stores up here (Massachusetts) tend to donate their out-of-code produce to the local food pantry, which is fine by me.
I’ve had that happen only once, with a package of chicken legs. Definitely worth keeping an eye (a nose?) out for such issues.
JUST A QUICK WARNING: I live in the flooded areas of Nebraska. With so much of the cattle drowning and farmers unable to plant fields with beans and corn, food prices are going to skyrocket.
This being said, I have taken some money earmarked for other things and gone on a grocery store rampage, literally buying as much as I could of sale merchandise (canned), meat, supplies such as flour, and anything else that I could fit into the pantry. We have stopped eating out altogether; we have pot lucks instead.
Also, does this sound cheap? There are volunteer organizations that will supply a meal for us now and then. I never skip one of those.
I also invested in some older cookbooks that show me how to cook from scratch. Many of you do, but I used convenience whenever I could. I no longer buy prepackaged stuff.
I’ve been wondering about food prices given the widespread flooding in the midwest. Today DF and I are going shopping with his Costco rebate check; among the items on the list are 50 pounds of flour, 40 pounds of sugar, 25 pounds of rice and 40 pounds of beans (20 pounds pinto, 20 pounds black). We like to keep a lot of comestibles stored, both to save money and also as a nod to the potential for food insecurity:
http://donnafreedman.com/the-low-maintenance-preppers/
From-scratch cooking recipes abound online as well, but those old cookbooks are great fun. That’s where I found the recipe for Lightning Cake and for the infamous Buttery Peanut Brittle that has enslaved so many of our friends and acquaintances. Bonus frugal points: I got the two cookbooks as part of “fill a bag for $5” deals at library book sales.
Potlucks sound like a good way to entertain. And if volunteers want to fix supper for you, I say let ’em.
Thanks for reading, and for leaving a comment.
Thanks for the suggestions. I do shop some at an ethnic grocery, but that’s the only one in town and it’s small. I have to track down the manager’s specials section. I’m going to ask next time I’m at the store.
Sometimes the manager’s special tags show up elsewhere. Once in a Seattle supermarket I found a package of Tillamook cheese (the good stuff) marked at half-price even though the sell-by date was several months down the road. Bought it for my sister, who takes a cheese sandwich for lunch every day.
That’s also how we found the remaindered mango Jello: The hang tag on the shelf read “clearance” and it was discounted by 50 percent.
Even in the ethnic market near my Seattle apartment there was a dented-can/manager’s special section (which was actually two grocery carts piled with stuff that they wanted to get rid of) and its dairy department had half-price milk fairly often. Once I paid 99 cents for a gallon of whole milk and made some of the best yogurt I’ve ever tasted.
In other words, keep your eyes open in every aisle. Good hunting to you!
Thanks for these tips!
I live in New England and our big chain grocery store is Stop & Shop. If you register on their website with your store rewards card every Thursday you get a ton of digital coupons that you can opt in or out of. There are unadvertised sales in everything from fruit to milk and on top of that, each dollar spent adds up to gas rewards. This weekend I used my gas rewards and in doing so took $1.30 off per gallon. We filled up my car’s tank and filled up 2 gas cans so I was very happy. I like dual purpose savings!
At this moment one of the supermarkets in my town is closing and everything is discounted, so on top of the usual sales and coupons my Mom and I have been stocking up on normal things we will eventually use.
Good idea — I would absolutely do this if any of our supermarkets closed. Since we have only two chains here that probably won’t happen, though.
I have to add, don’t waste food. Keep an eye on the perishables and rearrange the meal plan. And a lot of people turn up their nose at leftovers. Luckily I love them.
As anyone who reads me regularly knows, I’m death on waste. From the tag ends of condiments to the vegetable scraps that become soup stock, all food is wanted and needed. We make each food dollar work, and work hard.
Up here we have a chain called No Frills. No guarantees on what you’ll find but the bargains are terrific; last summer I scored 40 lbs of freestone peaches for under $1 per pound, and my daughter found 12 1-litre bottles of her favourite conditioner in the 88 cent bin.
Nice. I wish we had something like that in Anchorage, or even just an Aldi. Nope.
Good post.
Since the pandemic arrived, I have preferred buying groceries online rather than going to stores. Last week, I placed an order for organic groceries from this website https://www.farmboxdirect.com/ and they gave me a $20 discount on my first purchase!
I live in a very rural area with one supermarket in town and a small Mom and Pop grocery. At the supermarket they have a section in the meat department where everything is 5/$20. You never know what will be there, but usually I can get hamburger, sirloin steak, bacon, boneless chicken pieces, corndogs, egg rolls, chicken patties, etc. Every package would be over $5 individually (sold by weight) so the savings is always at least 20%! Using my Food Saver I can rack up some good savings and a full freezer!