Since the end of the pandemic, inflation has doubled the grocery bill. We need creative hacks to make the most of our purchasing power.

Purchase Food on Clearance

The first way to save money on the grocery bill is to purchase food on clearance. Several types of food are offered as clearance and can save you a lot of money. Meat, milk, and other dairy products that are close to their expiration date, dented cans (be sure that the cans aren’t leaking and thereby likely spoiled, day-old bread, cans in which the best-by date has passed, and other foods that the store is no longer willing to sell at full price.

Closely related to this are salvage grocery stores. These are stores that sell the foods that didn’t sell at other places and were warehoused until they could be sold. We have saved significantly purchasing at these stores.

A word of caution. Never purchase a lot of something that you don’t know if you’ll eat what you purchase or not. Purchase one, try it and if you love it, buy more, but only if you and your family love it.

Second, plan on using this food before it goes bad. Know what you’ll use them for and when you’ll use them before you bring them home. These are not foods fit for storage, but they will save money on food you buy to use now so you can stock up on other foods for later.

Purchase during Rotating Sales

If you follow certain store ads, you’ll discover that every so many weeks the same foods will be on sale routinely. Purchase whatever you think you’ll need to last until the next sale and it will be like money in the bank.

Holidays also offer special prices on foods you’ll not only use throughout the year, so stock up when possible.  Condiments and hot dogs will be discounted just before Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. Certain lunch-type foods will be a part of back-to-school sales, Thanksgiving offers sales on turkey and all of the trimmings, and Christmas offers specials on ham among other things.

In-season fruits are also a great deal. In May/June strawberries and rhubarb, in July blackberries, blueberries, cherries, and peaches, in August/September/October raspberries, apples, and pears are often lower priced. The same can be said for vegetables.

Buy in Bulk

One of my favorite ways of saving money in the long run is buying cooking staples in bulk. I like purchasing items like flour, rice, beans, oatmeal, sugar, salt, and other spices, which I use to create delicious foods. Here’s an article about these basic staples to buy in bulk for the pantry. Crafting Stable Bucket Pantry

We purchase other items in bulk like fruits and vegetables in season. We also purchased bulk quantities of meat when the prices were reasonable.

I purchase items in bulk that I can use in numerous ways. Just a few days ago, I purchased Pool Shock for bleaching laundry. If necessary, I can use this bleach to treat drinking water. Once the water is treated with bleach and allowed to sit for a couple of hours to kill bacteria, I would put it through my water filter to eliminate any chemical contaminants.

I also purchased more than ten pounds of baking soda. Baking soda has many uses. These uses include baking, making baking powder for baking, housecleaning, neutralizing acids, and deodorizing.  

Grow Your Own-Plants, Animals

We have a garden, herb garden, and orchard. We are growing strawberries. We have been increasing our berry production by adding blackberries this year.

We have an orchard with apple, pear, cherry, peach, and mulberry trees. In a couple of years, we hope to have enough of these fruits to eat fresh and to can.

We raise chickens for their eggs, and we prefer not to butcher our chickens.

We have been talking about purchasing milk goats so that we don’t have, but we first need to get enough fencing to keep them where we want them. Milking goats every day would prevent the need to go to the store for bread.

Preserving What You Grow

Preserving what I grow is a process I love to do. I love freezing some foods. For instance, I freeze meat that we will be eating within the next few months, but we preserve most of what we grow for longer-term storage.

Tomatoes are a big star in my canning endeavor. I try to can everything from salsa to whole tomatoes to tomato sauce. I use as many peppers, onions, and garlic as possible in the sauce.

Another vegetable that we can regularly is green beans. Other vegetables get preserved if there is a surplus.

Cook from Scratch

Not only do we save by purchasing and growing our food, but we also use simple ingredients to cook from scratch. Not only does it save money, but cooking from scratch offers us a way to avoid many of the preservatives found in processed food.  

The process of cooking from scratch provides a system by which family members can practice working together.

Learn to Forage

Finally, we are learning about foods we can forage from nature. In the spring there are greens of all kinds. In the summer berries, herbs, and flowers are on the menu. In the fall fruits, nuts, and roots are the primary items that I harvest. I always remember to take only one-third of what is growing. The other two-thirds go to the wild creatures who depend upon them and keep a patch of that plant growing in that location.  

Hunting can be considered a form of foraging. Some people consider hunting as cruelty to animals, but in fact, we are aiding in keeping them healthy. The conservation department controls the number of animals that can grow in the wild in a given area. Too many wild animals of a specific species in a given area and diseases will lower that animal’s population. Harvesting these animals allows us to get the meat rather than depending on diseases to control them.

How do you save money at the grocery store? Did I miss anything? Let us know in the comments what you do to save on your grocery bill?

My Gardening Related Books

If you’re interested in putting in a vegetable garden this year, I have written several books that can help you get started. All available on Amazon.

Gourmet Weeds

https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?Bdm3q5kcr0zYvywdeuStOBmX4q0IYJBlMCeUAPi5FNL

Simply Vegetable Gardening

The Survival Garden

The Four Seasons Vegetable Garden

Help From Kelp

Using Diatomaceous Earth Around the House and Yard