Topic: Methods to cut food costs (Read 1407 times)

This is what I've noticed too. In one supermarket you buy "3 bottles of oil for the price of 2", but in another one you see that those 3 bottles of oil can be bought for the same price without any discount. Indeed, it's often just a marketing scheme. It's often, but not always the case, fortunately. Especially in those high priced supermarkets that we normally avoid there could be real discounts, you just have to look for them. Don't buy Coca-Cola there, because it's the same Coca-Cola only costs more. But things like flour, some meat or fish when their expiration date nears, can be like 75% off, and if you cook them today, you can really cut your food costs with that.

Short Answer: FARM what you need.


Long Answer: Saving on food costs entirely depends on where you live. If you live in a developed country, you don't need to save that much money. It's not like your country has a lot of economic crises. Then you won't be called a developed country.

But for me, my country is still developing, and we have poverty, economic problems, etc. So saving up for costs is essential for our survival.

Now I will get to my point. Even if we are poor, we all have a piece of land, and we are still struggling. It's not like we get a lot for selling land. But if we were to use the land, we could save a lot. Like ourselves, we don't have to go to big supermarkets or markets to buy food items. We would simply farm what we needed, and sometimes we could sell the extras for a profit. You don't even need a lot of land to do so. Just a small piece of land is enough.

This must be different from country to country. In my country, vegetables and fruits on the market have the same or even higher price than in huge store chains. While meat or pastry quality is lower than in store chains. This is because store chains buy in bulk for a low price from farmers. But if farmer wants to trade his crops himself, he includes in price transportation and fee for a market place. But I agree that farmers markets are good way to economize on food price, sadly there arent much markets left in huge cities.

It is very difficult to find fresh produce every day because the same wholesaler supplies the supermarkets in my area. So if you cannot find fresh produce in one market, you cannot find it in another market. Since it is not easy to keep up with the logistics network of the big supermarkets, no other wholesaler can enter this market.

It is best to buy products from farmers' markets. You have the opportunity to talk directly to the producer and you can get the product you want without adding too much price to it like in the market. If you start shopping regularly at farmers' markets, you will have access to fresher and better quality products.

Farmers markets are great way to get fresh foods for a cheap price which a lot of people takes for granted. I also noticed how people find it embarrassing to use coupons to get discounts and promos for their stuff which is ridiculous to me cause they exist for a reason and can really help in cutting food costs.

Membership is good because when it is a holiday, you'll get a discount, but you still need to pay for a membership. I still prefer the coupons that the supermarket gives to customers. Also in the city, there are still farmers markets, where food is way cheaper and fresher than in supermarkets. Mostly on the country side, there are really farmers markets, or you'll plan your own food, which you can get, and you'll know that it's safe because there's no pesticide you'll put into it.

If you are in the big city joining membership to get a coupon and discount is the best way to reduce spending on food, but if you are life in a countryside, there is an option to cut the distribution, went straight to the farmers market instead of supermarket, the price should be less. It can got even cheaper if you buy in bulk.

Preparing our own food from fresh ingredients that we buy directly from the market does have a pretty good level of efficiency in saving on the spending budget. Because the price of raw materials is much cheaper than ready-to-eat food. So, preferring to cook raw ingredients and make delicious food according to our taste is a good initiative. But of course this only applies to those who have enough time to prepare for it. Because besides requiring more effort, of course, cooking your own food also requires more time. In saving our shopping budget, we can also have quite a lot of discounted prices when we buy instant food in large quantities at once. Of course, this must be durable food ingredients. between the wholesale price and the retail price there is actually a fairly large price difference. So buying in bulk (wholesale) can make us get a lower price if recalculated as a unit.

Civilized lifestyle is forcing everybody to work so much more efficiently that it is totally unhealthy, civilized disease such as depression, sleep deprivation, work life balance. I know boss love to shame about how youth are lazy, they just want to blame everything else for their own fault. They should look at the mirror and reflect themselve, how people used to work a 9-5 and one guy could afford a full family, which is totally unheard of to zoomers.

In fact, taking too much food is not healthy too, there is no study would support eating a lot of food or suggest you to how much food intake is great for a person, in fact we should consume as little foods as possible, too much foods is bad to your body, because your body would need to work hard to digest the food, when your food is bad and you eat plenty of them, you are just double down on killing your body digestive system by forcing it to work hard and digest a lot of junk food, what do you think would you got? You would get kidney failure, colons cancers and all sort of digestive system disease.

My wisdom is too eat as little as possible, but also take a lot of sleep, you won't need a lot of food when you sleep a lot more, it is very scientifically proven fact. you can sleep 12 hours a day, when you are sleeping, you are helping your body greatly, it is important to note your bowel only start to move shit around when you are sleeping, and by the time you wake up you immediately feel like going to shit because that is exactly how detoxication work during the sleep, if you don't get plenty of sleep, the reverse would be true, the shit keep building up in your bowel and not moving, disease slowly build up, and all sort of sickness would come to haunt you quickly. Also when you sleep a lot, you won't feel as hungry as fat guy craving for xxl size burger, since you save a lot of energy on sleeping, your body do not need so much energy from food, thus doesn't get hungry and craving food like mindless zombies.

It may help if you have the required know how and are passionate about growing the best crops. But honestly you won't be able to find a lot more improvement from the crop. People like to boost about how their food are better and healthier than the existing food, you are looking at may be 0.1% of gain or less, a typical beef and wagyu beef are very much the same beef and meat, but a wagyu beef could fetch 100x more price than normal beef, do you really believe wagyu beef has 100x better than a typical beef? Unlimited growth potential on a piece of beef meat? Nope, wagyu beef might be just 0.5% better than typical beef when it come to chemical composition, there is exactly the same except a lot of hype and mark up price.

What if we flipped the 'obligation' of going grocery shopping and preparing meals into a "opportunity"? Consider the time commitment of going grocery shopping and preparing a meal: three hours! Now, what if you look at these jobs as a chance to get away from the daily grind, listen to your favorite podcast, or even catch up on audiobooks? Don't give up on it just yet, even if some people do think it's insane. The game may be altered if these drudgeries were transformed into play. The food will also be healthier and less expensive. It seems like a win-win to me. Even if you're not a fan, having a ready-made meal on hand for those hectic days is a godsend. What if, though, you enjoy the process of chopping onions and smashing garlic?

If you are into your time, then you don't have other choices but to just buy ready-meal foods and just heat them or those foods that can be easily cooked, but unlike us, we need to cook in our own kitchens just to save money and also to save time for later parts of the day. Just like if you cook food for lunch and there are still left-overs for dinner that are still eatable and just need to be reheated, it still saves you time as well as money.

If you combine both discount shopping and cooking for yourself, cutting food costs will be more effective. But in return, it will take you quite a bit of time to do the above two things and for many people it is an unnecessary waste of time. To be able to go to the market to buy food and process it into dishes also takes a few hours. That will be quite a precious time for many people, so they will choose to eat processed foods to save time. It can be said that each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the choice of each person.

I'm more interested in preparing my own food to save on food costs than looking for discounts, as you said a meal we prepared ourselves would be tastier and we could choose fresh ingredients for us to prepare.

If there are such offers in my country I will run for my life, because it's either the foods are stolen or they use something else to prepare the food, in my country even human parts are used to prepare food, if I have to advice anyone coming to my country I will tell them not to eat food outside, they should buy food items and prepare the food themselves.

Only those in foreign countries will enjoy discounts off food items they purchase, it's not going to happen in so many countries, food is very costly here and that's why many people just prepare food anyhow and sell to people who have no idea what's happening around them.

The best method to cut of food prices is to start planting them yourself, most homes have spaces or backyard, it's a good way to cut down the expenses on food.

They are throwing away a ton of food more often in a 1st world country the actual source of food is not uncommon like that despite inflation some of it is attributable to waste.  The reason being massive amounts of red tape in modern economies force the companies to throw away usable food, its less costly for them not to take the risk of hosting anything they could face prosecution for.   Alot of bread just goes off, it used to be loaded with preservatives but these are removed and the bread goes off early for example.  Stale bread can goto into soup for example, any chef will know ideas like this all good.
   So if people are genuinely poor it should be possible to spend time tracking down the wastage of food and obtaining a small amount to eat.  Its a strange dynamic but its not totally new.  I worked in food production some decades ago and one of my colleagues would take the spoiled food which often was only cake with marked icing not any other perfection and he would repackage then sell it at market.   He was a basic worker driving a BMW because of that, just basic initiative.

These days we've got more and more ways to grow plants and necessary food crops within the available space. Not many show interest and this is for the people who are at the urban. In the rural region it is really tough to make people get adopted to such things. As they'll be following the traditional way of cultivation and never move into such advancements considering many factors. As mentioned agriculture in the limited space will make people self reliant in meeting their daily food needs.

One of the greatest discomfort one encounters from the agro based side to living is the time it takes for the crops to grow to maturity and the loads of work that is required to run the farm. These, a lot of people don’t want to be involved with but, it’s the sad truth.
You can’t hope to cut cost on food when you go about buying all that you eat. That’s not being cost intensive.

The good news about farming these days is that, you don’t always need land. You could work something out with any space you’ve got, give it some lighting, plant between deep and shallow rooted crops, proper irrigation while, you redirect some of those funds some place else.

Good tips! Coupons can really help you save. I can add: learn to cook and eat at home instead of eating out. If you live in a country where food costs more than in the neighboring countries and you live not far away from border, you could travel to a neighboring country now and then to buy groceries there. Also try to shop weekly instead of daily, and always make a shopping list as it helps to avoid spontaneous purchases. Just my 2c.

The tips are fine, though there is only so much that you can save on food. More significant costs of wants are probably a better thing to target than food, your nutrition is important.

Energy
Use candles, keep your lights off, use your phone torch. It's getting expensive to power the world, and your home, so find alternatives. Charge your phone out of home or at work, use blankets instead of heating, keep lights off, less TV (brain benefits tremendously from this one), optimize your computer monitor's energy settings...these small things add up.

Gas
Be more cost efficient. Is your store less than a mile away? Walk. Can you take public transport services to your destination and is the fee less than gas consumption? Take it. These small inconveniences have health and cost benefits.

Social cutbacks
This doesn't mean withdrawing from friends and family, but pursuing cheaper or costless alternatives instead of eating out, going to the movies, shopping, etc. Go to the park, do a nice dinner at home, visit a public event, etc.

Phone data bill
These days, if you're not a drone who consumes mass video content from Facebook, Instagram, tiktok, twitter, etc. You can get by with less than 10gb of mobile data. If you're repaying a phone, next time buy one second hand upfront to alleviate that monthly cost, and change to a mobile data company that gives you unlimited local calling and texting + <10GB data. You will be surprised at the cost difference and you will probably not miss the additional data. Unfortunately, this is very difficult if you use social media or watch streaming services from your phone, though this is a habit that can also be cut out.

Gym membership
You can do just as good of a session with park equipment, body weight, natural weights, etc. If you create a routine that is free, you might be able to cut this cost.

Fast food & delivery services
If you're still eating fast food or using delivery services, you can't possibly argue that you're trying to cut back.

Ride sharing
Unless you're stuck with no way home, then there is always public transport, your legs, a bicycle, etc. Ridesharing is expensive and unless you absolutely need it, don't use it.

Subscriptions
Subscriptions for music, movies, TV shows, etc. No one needs it. If you're cutting back, find another healthier habit than consuming content and save money by doing so.

Add up the results from all of this advice and report back your saving in 6 months!

Grow your veggies in your backyard, this is the best solution just as some preppers are saying. It's not difficult to do since there are already tutorials on how to grow bitter gourd, beans, and some tomatoes or cabbage. I have potatoes planted in a container and after 5 months, I already got sacks of potatoes. I chose potatoes because I wanna have chips of my own.

Cutting food costs doesn't need to compromise health by eating only canned goods.