Saving Money by Storing Food

With the recent economic turmoil, many of us have begun looking for ways to save money. One great way to save money at the grocery store is to store food at home in your cupboards. In addition to lowering your grocery bill, it also gives you peace of mind that, even if your income drops temporarily or food prices rise significantly, you will still be able to put food on the table.

This method works for my family, without requiring me to scour newspapers for coupons or go to multiple stores chasing deals. Certainly, if either of those methods work for your family, you can incorporate them and get even better results, but even without those, I'm certain you will find yourself saving money after the first few weeks of this method.

Starting out with Storing Food

First, the next time that you go to the grocery store, look at the prices for the items you are planning to purchase. Are any of the items on sale? Food prices change constantly, with some items going up and others going down all the time. So, for any items that you're already planning on buying for the week, if it's shelf-stable or freezable, grab an extra 1 or 2. The next time that you're shopping, do the same thing with whatever is on sale that day. Over time, make sure that you have spares of all the ingredients you need for some of the meals that your family eats regularly.

Next Steps

Once you have some of your storage built up, when you go to the grocery store, if you see one of the items you need is at a high price, don't buy it. You can use what's in your storage for this week. But, buy some extra of any other items that you store which are lower in price. Since you are not buying one of the items for your weekly meals, you will have the money to improve your storage buy buying something else.

Pretty soon, you can start buying some items at bulk stores like Costco or Sam's Club, which generally have much better prices. Make sure you check the dates and ensure that you will eat all of the food before it expires. Canned goods and items that can be frozen are the best to stock up on in bulk stores, but make sure you don't buy so much that you can't fit it in your freezer. This might be a good time to consider frozen vegetables as well. Frozen vegetables can last for a long time in the freezer, and are often very reasonably priced. Taste-wise, they are much better than canned, too.

Once you've gotten the beginnings of your storage, I recommend looking critically at the foods you eat. Are you opening up a lot of cans of black beans? If so, it may be worthwhile to switch to using dry beans. You can buy dry beans really cheap, and then cook up a batch of them one weekend and freeze them in small portions. Are there any substitutions you can do in your recipes to use shelf-stable / frozen ingredients in place of perishables?

Remember that base ingredients will cost less than the finished product. Instead of buying frozen meals, try buying the ingredients and freezing those. If your family eats a lot of bread, consider whether you have the time, energy and inclination to make bread at home. That will save you a lot of money in the long run, especially if you buy the ingredients in bulk at low prices!

Remember This

The most important thing to remember when trying to save money by storing food is the golden rule of food storage: Don't buy what your family won't eat. There's no point in storing tons of wheat if your family doesn't like whole wheat bread. It will just sit there, and won't save you any money. Along the same lines, if you buy canned tomatoes, but use fresh ones in all your dishes, the tomatoes you have stored will expire, and you will lose the money you spent on that food.