Ten Ways to Cut Food Expenses and Increase Your Savings

Is your goal for 2011 is to build up an emergency savings account? For most of us, finding cash for a savings account means cutting back on expenses elsewhere.

We already should know that the way to save money is to pare back on luxury spending such as eating out, cable TV, and pricey vacations. But for those of us who've already cut costs to the bone, the money for building up a savings account must be squeezed from something else.

In 2010, our family trimmed back our food expenses by a whopping 40% which went to both debt reduction and building up a savings account. Here's how we cut our food expenses and you can too:

1. Always shop with a list. Shopping with a grocery list means you buy what you need instead of what you THINK you need, which can save you dollars at checkout.

2. Grab the coupons on the way in. All store have coupons kiosks filled with sales and discount coupons. Grabbing this on the way in is a painless way to save $10 more on food expenses.

3. Buy only the meat cuts on sale. Instead of eating $6 a pound steaks for dinner, plan your meal around what's on sale instead.

4. Look at the cost per ounce. These days, the cost per ounce of grocery items is posted on the price tag. Always check the price per ounce and buy the size that saves your family the most money. (Psst...it's not always the family size, either).

5. Shop more at discount grocery stores. Dollar stores, bakery thrift, and discount groceries carry close-to-the-expiration-date groceries which are priced between 25-75% less retail.

6. Switch to store (or "house") brands. It was higher prices on my favorite brand name groceries that got me started on store brands. Store brands are priced between 20-30% less than name brand groceries and in most cases, you can't tell the difference in flavor or quantity.

7. Buy a couple of chickens. Most cities permit a couple of chickens which can provide a family with a steady supply or fresh eggs.

8 Shop bulk bins. Bulk bins are old fashioned country-store type barrels in which the customer measures out the amount of product he needs. Bulk bins are priced 25% - 40% less than packaged items which can also trim by food expenses.

9. Plant some vegetables. Even if you rent an apartment, it's possible to plant a few vegetables that can cut your food expenses. Great picks for home grown produce include spinach, tomatoes, radishes, green beans, and zucchini.

10. Cook more from scratch. Scratch cooking is the easiest way to trim food expenses since the raw ingredients are so much cheaper (and healthier!) than processed foods. If you don't have the time to cook, haul out of the old crockpot which will practically do the work for you.

By changing your shopping and cooking habits, it's easy to trim food expenses. But remember, the savings generated here should be parlayed into a savings account which is your hedge against another year of a recession.

More money saving tips from this contributor:
How to build up wealth through frugal living.
How to build up a savings account in a tough economy.
How to use a coin jar to budget and save money.