Found my old meal planner from six months ago

I dug out my meal planner from January and saw I was spending $120 a week on groceries for just me. Now I plan around two cheap staples like lentils and eggs, and I'm down to $65 a week. What cheap staple did you add that cut your grocery bill the most?

3 comments

3 Comments

fiona_kim9711d ago

Frozen veggies were a game changer for me. Using a bag of mixed frozen vegetables as a base for stir fries or adding them to soups made it way easier to skip fresh produce that goes bad fast. That plus buying a big bag of rice brought my weekly cost down close to yours. Also, switching to store brand canned tomatoes instead of the fancy stuff saved a few bucks without any real difference in taste.

eva_moore11d ago

Actually I gotta push back a little on the store brand canned tomatoes thing. I tried that for a while and some brands really do taste different, especially if you're making something simple like a pasta sauce where the tomato is the star. Like the store brand ones can be watery or have that metallic taste. But for soups or chili where you're adding lots of spices and other stuff? Yeah totally fine to go cheap there. Just check the ingredients list for added citric acid or calcium chloride, those are the ones that get weird.

olivia67010d ago

Is it just me or does the metallic taste come from storing them in the can too long? I've had better luck with the store brands that come in cartons or jars, they seem fresher somehow.