This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
There was an interesting threadjack the other day about how much people spend on groceries, and I thought it might make an interesting discussion for its own post. How DO you save money on food when you work long hours and don't have a ton of time for meal prep and other things?
When you're cutting back do you cut back on restaurants, food deliveries, groceries and more? Do you do this for a period of time (no eating out for a month!) or do you try to do it for the long haul? (Side note: how do you track purchases so you can quantify what you're spending on food?) (For those of you who DO do a lot of weekend meal prep and bring your own lunches, share your best tips!)
How to Save Money on Food
For my $.02, I've never been great about tracking grocery spending — too much of our stuff comes from mixed-category stores like Amazon, CVS and more to be flagged easily by Mint.
I also tend to swing wildly from overstocking the cabinets (aka “buying whatever I want”) one month to “realizing I've bought too much and now we must eat it” the next month, so one month's spending may be $1000+ and another month may be $200. (But we DO save money when I buy grocery items because they're on sale rather than “we need it right now,” so… I'm not sure what the answer is.)
Psst: we've talked specifically about how to save money on lunch in the past.
In my very first job, I was on such a strict budget that I often realized I had $5 left at the end of the month — so I would end up bringing things like a raw potato and a slice of American cheese with me to microwave at lunch. I also perfected the art of making sandwiches with grocery store meat and cheese from home but with slightly-less-fresh bagels from the deli.
A lot of these habits stuck with me even when I was a lawyer — I kept a 6-can mini-fridge in my office so I could have yogurts, Diet Cokes, deli meat and cheese on hand… and I knew more than a few lawyers who kept a jumbo jar of peanut butter along with some crackers to “eat something quickly” if they really had no time to eat. (Also great if you need to avoid getting hangry at work!)
In terms of restaurants and other food spending, that is generally easier for me to track and curb — after all, it's easy to avoid the fanciest restaurants when you're making plans, and you can even make intelligent decisions when looking at the menu, like getting the $16 pasta dish (and taking some home for later if it's too many calories for you at that moment) versus getting the $34 fish dish and not having any leftovers.
How about you, readers — how do you save money on food? Do you feel like it's harder to save money on food if you're working long hours, or easier? After all, you may not be buying many groceries for your home fridge — but you may feel like you're spending a ton on lunches or convenience foods.
Stock photo via Stencil.
Anon
I meal prep a lot on weekends (with the caveat that I’ve left biglaw for more of a lifestyle firm and have more time on weekends and less money for lunches out), and eat out 1/2 days a week (usually a chicken salad or slice of pizza, so nothing wildly expensive). I also prep as much dinner as possible (chopping veggies, making sauces, etc.).
I try to make one new thing and one tried and true thing each week (so something new for dinner, something tried and true for lunch or vice versa). Soups are a good solution because they develop flavors from simmering on the stove while you do something else and reheat well (skinnytaste has a pumpkin, chicken, and black bean poblano soup that I like that isn’t a huge time investment). I also like making a large batch of a sauce that freezes well (Om Nom Nom Paleo has a stir fry sauce I’m a big fan of) so I can toss together chicken and steamed veggies with the sauce for a fairly tasty meal.
Anon
I don’t actively try to save money on food. Food is preventive medicine for me, if I am feeding myself well – I stay healthy in the short term (less colds) and in the long term (health disorders, heart attacks etc). We have enough money that I don’t need to think about our food budget which is incredibly privileged. However, in college I cooked for myself due to my allergies/weird medical diet and ate all my meals at home and lived off 30 dollars a week (was not eating meat during this time/was 2005-2009) so I know how to budget etc but I just have the luxury of not doing it. Cooking is a huge area of joy for me so its also something I am willing to splurge on because its a creative area of my life.
I do menu plan. I try to menu plan seasonally – eating citrus when its in season, berries when in season etc. Which not only tastes better is cheaper. I am careful to use up everything in the fridge and use our freezer wisely. We don’t eat processed foods so its not like we are buying a ton of snacks. We rarely buy alcohol for home unless we are having a party. The only liquid we drink besides water is almond milk for smoothies. We don’t buy cheese unless again for parties (I can’t eat it). I try not to buy a lot of prepackaged things to be as eco friendly as possible but thats also cheaper. But I rarely am like – oh I won’t make this recipe because its ingredients are too expensive. I also shop at Whole Foods because everything will be there and its close. I am pretty darn good about sticking to my list though when grocery shopping and not being tempted by delicious things. It helps if I am under a time crunch so I have less time to wander. I don’t make my grocery list while looking at what is on sale though. For example if the butcher near our house is having a deal – I am not good about stocking up on that type of meat.
We RARELY eat out/get take out/delivery for convenience. I never buy lunch out for example. We do eat out for fun and because we love food but that’s about once a week. Everything else is a homemade meal. Our grocery bill looks high to friends but then I realize they are buying lunch everyday and buying dinner 3 times a week and we aren’t.
I hate getting groceries delivered because they pick out the worst produce and always don’t have the key ingredient I need for a recipe and I will have to run out and just go myself again later so I really only do that if we are coming back from a vacation or something.
Anon
I think a lot of people who read this s!te have the luxury of not having to worry about food costs, or who treat cooking at home/food prep as something fun and trendy instead of necessary.
Equestrian Attorney
I do budget for food, but it’s along the lines of “not too many restaurant dinners this month”, not “if I eat this I won’t be able to pay my bills” which I realize is coming from a place of huge privilege.
I try to limit the mindless eating out – bring lunch most weeks, make coffee at home instead of getting it at Starbucks (I own an expensive expresso maker, but it’s definitely paid off long term) and save meals out for dates or special occasions with friends. But I tend to buy more expensive quality food when grocery shopping and don’t have any problems with that – paying for quality food is part of my values. And to be clear, I get the occasional Starbucks latte or lunch out without beating myself up – I just try not to make it a habit.
Cat
and? Just because we have plenty of money to buy food doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to budget…
For my two cents –
– When busy at work, definitely spend LESS on food. Not in the mood to go out to eat when I’m exhausted; way more likely to collapse on the couch with dinner of hummus, pita, and baby carrots.
– Batch-cook to make weeknight meals relatively painless, thereby avoiding take-out expenses. We freeze everything in portions for 2, so all we have to do is take one out of the freezer in the morning.
– Help keep costs down by tracking the sale cycle and buy non-perishables in bulk. Our grocery cart on a given week will be REALLY lopsided — one week maybe soup is $10-for-10 so we buy 20 of them, the next week it might be pastas/sauces, etc.
– We’ll go to restaurants more often for brunch/lunch on weekends than for dinner. Still creative yummy food, but not nearly as expensive.
Anon
Hubs and I realized our food budget was out of control and just made a vow to eat at home for meals eaten at home (Hubs packs his lunch, I pack lunch about once or twice a week and eat at the company’s subsidized cafeteria otherwise). We only eat out at a restaurant two to three times a month for a special occasion or because it’s Saturday and we don’t want to cook. What helped to control spending, and cut down on food waste which was a big thing for us, was to concentrate on buying healthy but frozen whole foods – most of our meat and veggies (all precut and bagged) come from organic freezer isle. Only long lasting fresh fruit, drinks, leftovers, and condiments are kept in the fridge – otherwise it will rot in the fridge. Breakfast during the week is grab and go (yogurt, protein bar) or 5 minute prep (mostly blended shakes).
For the convenience side of it, and contributing to not waiting food, we buy in single food group items rather than items that go with a specific recipe or flavor. At any given time we’ll have three types of meat, three to four types of veggies, two types of fruit, and some variety of root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, turnips, etc.). Most meals are thirty seconds in the morning to leave the meat to thaw, 10 minutes of spicing the meat, veggie, and carbs, and about five minutes prepping them to be cooked (ex. wrap a potato, spray down a pan to roast the veggies and broil the meat) and let it cook. We decided long ago we don’t have the patience to pre-season, make complicated sauces, or cut or mash anything. If it can’t be made with 20 minutes or less prep, it’s not going to get made.
Anonymous
I plan all of our weekly dinners and prep lunches in advance, usually in one batch on Sunday to get us through the first half of the week and another batch on Wednesday for the second half of the week. When planning meals, I try to avoid ending up with leftover ingredients. For example, if I need half a bag of brussels sprouts for one dinner, I’ll plan a lunch salad that uses up the remainder.
I have found that we spend less on food when I shop more frequently. I usually make one giant weekly trip the grocery store. If I’m too tired or busy to cook one night and we end up eating scrambled eggs for dinner, then the whole menu plan gets thrown off and I may end up with leftover ingredients if I can’t cook all the planned meals before the produce starts to go bad. It’s also tempting to buy too much fresh fruit to ensure that there’s enough to get through the entire week’s lunches. On weeks when I plan to make a quick midweek grocery store trip, I don’t buy the entire week’s produce during the big weekly trip, which allows me to adjust quantities or pivot on the menu as needed midweek.
I tried grocery delivery, but the quality of the produce was poor and I didn’t get the exact items I’d requested (bone-in chicken instead of boneless, etc.).
Leah
I track sales cycles at the stores I prefer, so I can learn what to buy when. It’s a time investment up front, but once you’ve cracked the code, you’re golden. So, for example, I know now that Store A waits 10 to 12 weeks between sales on boneless skinless chicken breast at 1.99 per pound. There are some in-between sales at lower prices, but those are for the 15-20% saline-injected generic stuff. I now buy enough chicken at 1.99 per pound to last until the next sale cycle, so I never have to buy off-cycle and spend full price.
Also, I worked at a warehouse club during college (like Sam’s or Costco). They offer good deals, but it’s hit and miss, and they tend to have non-repeating revolving inventory. I don’t have time for that. My parents are retired and like to putter, so I pay their yearly membership fee at a warehouse club in exchange for them keeping track of my wish list and buying when those things are available for a good price (I reimburse them).
Vicky Austin
How did you do this? Just by making notes of what was on sale when until you had enough data to see patterns? Did you use excel or an app or anything? I would love to do this.
Senior Attorney
Years ago I had a price book where I kept track of all that stuff. If you google “price book” you can find a lot of advice including this template: https://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/grocery-price-book.html , which is similar to what I did. It’s really eye-opening!
Leah
Yup, exactly! I either check the prices in person at the store, or track the sales flyers online. Depends on my schedule. I input everything manually in Excel (technically, in Open Office Calc, but same idea). I’m sure there are pre-written files or apps you can use, though.
Miss
With the caveat that I don’t actually keep a strict food budget, I save money by not eating out unless it’s social (and only a few times a week), not buying coffee, not eating red meat (and eating mostly vegetarian), intermittent fasting (no lunch every other day and no snacking ever), and eating lots of leftovers.
On Sunday I usually make a bean dish with a pound of beans (Rancho Gordo, which isn’t a budget pick, but is still significantly less expensive than meat) and then I eat that for dinner for the rest of the week (I’m single so it lasts). I make salads from Costco greens (a bag or bin of organic greens is less expensive there and lasts a week) and veggie sides are usually frozen from Costco or Trader Joe’s.
It’s not too organized because I just don’t have the time or energy to do intensive meal planning. I could get more creative and do bean tacos, bean soup, bean salad, etc., but I think that’s too much work and I’m happy just choosing a good recipe (this week was yellow Indian woman beans with goat cheese and pickled shallots, last week was pinto bean soup) and eating it for the week. If I want a break from beans, I do the same thing with a different recipe (like slow roasting a large fillet of wild salmon). I do sometimes make small midweek meals when I’m tired of eating the same thing, and that’s usually a small salad, sandwich, soup, or pasta dish. Or I’ll reheat a frozen meal (when I make a recipe I know I won’t finish or will get sick of eating, I freeze half in individual portions).
Finally I make almost everything from scratch. I make chicken broth if I’ve roasted a chicken. I save bean broth if I’m not using it in my recipe (not as pretty as chicken or veggie broth, but just as tasty in recipes). I chop my own vegetables and buy seasonally. And I grow lots of vegetables in my garden and freeze extras (mostly zucchini since I keep up with the rest).
I feel like my description reads very sad, single life, but I’m a pretty good cook, I love food, and I think I eat better than most people. I have a stressful job and don’t have mental energy at the end of the day so leftovers work for me.
Finally, I highly recommend Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler if you are interested in fantastic cooking without wasting ingredients or if you want to learn how to cook without using recipes.
Anonymous
I am one of your tribe. And single. I could have written this (though I haven’t bought that book … yet.)
Housecounsel
I loved that book, although I am not good at following its suggestions.
Irish Midori
My grocery bill dropped at least 30% when an Aldi opened near my house–no lie. Major grocery chains seem shockingly expensive to me now, and I do better without the temptation of all the random extras they offer. Occasionally I’ll need to run to a different store to get a special ingredient, but mostly I’ve just adjusted my regular menu to accommodate what Aldi stocks. Husband and I usually cook 4-5 nights/week, and we always cook for leftovers and box the leftovers up into single-serve meals in stacking rubbermaid containers before putting them away. Lunch is usually grabbing a container on the way out the door in the morning. We probably eat out for lunch 1-2 times/week just as a social connection with colleagues and for dinner 2-3 times/week when we have kids extra curricular activities or for a treat. Weeknight meals are usually pan-cooked meat + steamed, sauted, or microwaved vegetable + starch (pasta, toast, boxed couscous are popular). On weekends I’m more likely to try out a fancy recipe I saw in a ladies’ magazine or pull out the slow cooker and make something that takes more time.
Anon
I totally agree. There are some things I still go to a major grocery chain for because either (1) I care about brand or (2) Aldi doesn’t have that item that week. But this doesn’t bother me because there is a grocery store at my metro stop and it saves me so much money.
Anon
I recently moved near an Aldi, but Kroger is much more convenient location wise, so I haven’t really gone. 30% is huge, I’m going to try it.
Leah
Same here! Aldi is a bit inconvenient for me, but that amount of savings is worth giving it a shot. I’ll go next week.
anon a mouse
Aldi’s prices beat Costco for several things we buy (chief among them, organic dairy). And they are FAST. One time I was in and out in under 3 minutes. I love their model and don’t understand why it takes me 10 minutes to check out at other grocery stores.
Irish Midori
This x 100. I usually have kids in tow when shopping, so every extra minute in a store is sucking out my soul, double-time if it’s waiting in a line. Aldi has 4 aisles, limited choices (seriously, who needs 7 brands of ketchup to choose from?), and the most efficient checkouts imaginable. In and out. Done. (Also: their fancy cheeses are just the best.)
Vicky Austin
I save money on restaurants by living in a town with only four, lol.
Jokes aside, I buy generic, especially for things that are made so cheaply that the quality is about the same (canned tomatoes, pasta). I use the bulk bins, especially for spices and baking. I use my freezer A LOT (did you know you can freeze cheese?! it changed my life to learn that). I also (nerd alert) have a spreadsheet of all the recipes I like, with a column where I listed all the “weirdo” ingredients it calls for, which is anything I don’t consider a staple and can’t freeze or otherwise preserve until it can be used. Cheese, meat, heavy cream, fancy herbs, any produce not in our regular rotation, etc., etc. Then when I’m meal planning and decide we’ll have Recipe A, which uses half a block of feta, I search “feta” and see what other recipes could use up the other half. I try not to buy things without having a use or destination in mind for every last ounce of it, although sometimes this process spans more than one week of meal planning.
Miss
Mark Bittman wrote an article about using your freezer that changed my life. Basically if you can buy something frozen, you can freeze it yourself. And citrus freezes beautifully. I keep lemons and limes in the freezer and am never without fresh zest or juice for recipes. I also freeze pizza dough, ice cubes of buttermilk, and strips of bell pepper (buy when on sale, cut into strips and freeze—perfect for recipes with cooked bell peppers. The strips come apart easier than chopped peppers and are very easy to chop).
Vicky Austin
Yes, I just learned the citrus trick and am living my best life because of it! I’ll be stealing the bell pepper trick as well. I LOVE them and they’re so good for you, but they’re ridiculously expensive where I live.
Anon
Does this just mean you guys freeze whole lemon/limes, thaw them on the counter whenever you need to use? Or zest frozen? I waste so many, teach me!
Vicky Austin
https://www.budgetbytes.com/how-to-freeze-whole-citrus/
This is how I learned (usual disclaimer that I am not paid by BudgetBytes, lol, I just LOVE the site). You can freeze whole or halved and the zesting is actually easier when they are frozen!
Miss
Yes! I freeze them whole and defrost in the microwave if I’m juicing. The zest is easy to get from the frozen fruit.
Irish Midori
Oh, freezing citrus! Thanks for the tip! I have a lime tree I have managed to keep alive in a pot for 5 years, and it makes me so sad to throw out the limes when I can’t use them in time. Never again!
Housecounsel
Had no clue I could freeze lemons. Thank you!
Anon
Your excel spreadsheet sounds amazing, I’m gonna steal your idea!
I posted yesterday about our first budget and how much we spend on food a month and the sad thing is that I try to be money savvy and it was eye opening to realize I was spending so much. But I cook a lot, we make fancy cocktails at home as my way to save money from eating out but still enjoying yummy treats. I make my own stock, meal prep, buy meat on sale, etc. Costco is a huge killer for me, because I’ll “spend to save”, but we have a deep freezer and need to use it to cut down on food waste. We also host a lot and I have a bad habit of worrying if we have enough food and drinks and overprep. Great for our friends, but I’m going to start being more conscious of it.
Vicky Austin
Please do steal it! It helps me so much. I would LOVE to live near a Costco, but I think I would need a bigger freezer…
Ellen
I try to be fruegal by bringing stuff I bought at Whole Foods or Fairway’s for lunch, b/c I do NOT like the greazy food trucks that sit outside and I do NOT have time for dining out, except when I entertain cleints, which is only about once a week or so. Dad tells people that I am doing a good job b/c he monitors my checking and AMEX account, and he sees that I do NOT make to many ATM withdrawls any more. YAY!!
blueberries
For me, shopping for convenient, healthy, and appealing groceries without a lot of regard for finding savings saves money because we waste less, go out to eat less, and get into healthier habits (lessening the risk of type 2 diabetes and other illnesses).
I grew up with more of a frugal mindset, of the stocking up on canned soup on sale and clipping coupons for food products variety. I don’t think this actually saved money because of food waste and increasing risk of various diet-related illnesses. My family of origin learning how to cook more simple, healthy meals would have been better financially and health-wise.
Blueberries
But also—I buy generic, buy spices in bulk (way cheaper!), don’t buy much meat, and stock up on certain items when I’m at a shop that’s less expensive. These habits are so ingrained that I don’t think about them much.
I am happy to pay more for better quality, better labor and environmental standards, and better treatment of animals. This takes up a lot of brain space and keeps me from buying certain products. To save brain space, I tend to shop at places that hold their suppliers to higher standards.
Housecounsel
I am spending way too much money on food right now, because I am buying for two versions of myself. There is the healthy virtuous me. She buys all the things she plans to eat, usually in one Instacart order. Bring on the kale and sweet potatoes and farro! She will serve them up with the salmon from Costco in her freezer! Then dinner time rolls around and the petulant, impulsive child version of me forgot to take the salmon out of the freezer and doesn’twant to deal with the eye rolls from the kids so runs to the store for enchiladas and chips and salsa and Ben & Jerry’s. Meanwhile the kale rots and the salmon gets frostbite and I feel guilty for wasting food, but not guilty enough to eat it. I am not proud of any of this.
anon8
I can so related to this comment. I just cleaned out the fridge and had to pitch some produce that I really wanted to use for healthy meals during the week.
Houda
This is me. I feel so bad about it but it could have been worse
anon8
Based on the other comments here, it seems like everyone has their act together with meal planning, prep and grocery shopping. I’m on the opposite end. I hate cooking. I try to meal plan dinners for Mon-Fri, but if I have a long day at work I’ll come home and get carry out or eat a frozen meal. Same thing on the weekends. I’ve tried meal prepping before, but it feels like it takes forever and I feel grumpy spending my weekend in the kitchen. I have a rotation of quick and easy meals, but I do the bare minimum in the kitchen.
Vicky Austin
And that is okay. :) Plus you probably save money by not getting snookered into buying unusual spices and fancy cuts of meat just because “it would be so fun to make this!” (Which is a weakness of mine.)
Anon
I think it takes some getting-used to, but I also like cooking so that helps. If it’s a goal of yours, try to cook 1 meal a week. Breakfast is a nice one, make a breakfast bake, most of the cooking happens in the oven so it’s not time consuming and all the ingredients are cheap. But if it’s not something you really care about, don’t worry! I think most people who meal prep like cooking to some extent, and it naturally progresses.
anon
Hive, advice needed on how to handle the colleague who has turned into a mansplainer after going through some rough patches in career? Seems mansplaining may be a coping mechanism….I am losing patience and compassion. What kind of feedback could be constructive?
don't enjoy mansplaining either
Concisely shut him down: “I know.” and immediately change the subject. Don’t engage unless absolutely necessary.
A thought: You seem to know when the mansplaining started in this person’s life, so I’d ask you, have you been a shoulder for this person to cry/lean on? AKA are you this person’s emotional laborer? Do they only mansplain to you or is it everyone? If their behavior is a problem for you, then it’s time to stop being their shoulder (assuming you were/are doing that). Identify and keep the boundary of what you will and won’t tolerate from this person, so that you aren’t annoyed while this person blathers on.
This is all totally easier said than done. And none of this should be done in anger (my weakness).
Anon
OP here, thank you – I don’t think I’ve been the emotional laborer but I have been a listener about events in past year – this is a colleague that hired me several years ago and has since gone through a restructuring that eliminated his management position and moved him down to staff level…almost feels like he talks down to me since he hired me to a team a few years back….yuck I don’t like it..he mansplains to others but I seem to get more of it. I think he’s more comfortable with me..I’m going to set boundaries like you suggest. Unfortunately we can’t have a chat like we used to about work without the lecture starting…I’m just done. Thank you so much
Little Lawyer
I’m an avid believer in meal prepping/menu planning. Not only because I’ve gotten my budget down to a consistent, reasonable price (I’m just feeding myself ATM but was the same when I was living with an ex) but I just truly – truly – feel like crap if I eat out to much. So I know I’d rather save that “this might have too much salt in it but it’s so good” feeling for Friday or Saturday night (with maybe a bit too much wine…).
Some helpful tips that work well for myself: mix it up with sauces and dips! That’s a good way to keep variety because let’s face it, the same thing every week is boring. Also, I love love love to buy the prepacked slaw mixes, the kind that includes things like kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, ect. These are a great way to bulk up pastas and rice dishes without having to buy a lot of different veg! Even sauteed in the morning with some eggs, it’s great. I’ll add it to cold salads too, but who says I can’t cook it?!
I’m also an (annoying) proponent of making everything yourself. If you’re already buying onions and garlic, throw in a can of crushed tomatoes rather than a more expensive jarred sauce and there you go! Once you get used to it, all that stuff can come together so easily. I could make a very simple, homemade granola with my eyes closed. And bulk oats and nuts for a clean granola run me waaay less than the brands I feel comfortable buying.
Anonymous
I try and keep our food budget down but I also like to cook and like to try new recipes. I meal plan every week and sometimes do some prep on the weekend. I try and plan our meals to have very little wasted food. For example, we will have pork chops with sauteed mushrooms and onions (with roasted veggies or salad) one night and then I will use the leftover pork chops, mushrooms and onions and add some bell pepper and seasonings to make fajitas. I will often make a pot of brown rice and use it in fried rice and stuffed bell peppers, for example. We also eat breakfast at home during the week and make coffee to take to work. We all (me, husband, 3 kids) pack a lunch to take everyday. (I let the kids buy at school but they rarely want to. Just pizza day which is only once a month.) We try and limit eating out to once a week, but are admittedly bad at this. When I meal plan I always leave two days unplanned because we will either eat out or eat something simple at home like omlettes or quesadillas or cereal for dinner. I used to plan all 7 days and always ended up throwing food away because we would end up going out to eat or not feeling like cooking and just finding something simple so now I account for that.
Anon
This is my Achilles heel. Some of it is health – I can get terrible problems with low blood sugar. I also had an insanely inconsistent schedule for years (some days 8 am until 11 pm, other days, 8 am to 6 pm), and that made planning really hard. I either threw out a lot of food that I never had time to cook, or came home to an empty fridge.
What helps me is to find less expensive options. Take-out pizza is $30 for my husband and me; I now buy freezable pizza crusts and sauces, and now we just make ourselves pizza if it’s been a really long week.
I shop at places like Target and Trader Joe’s to get almost anything that can be bought there.
I make my own cold brew and have a Keurig for hot coffee (which dramatically reduced my visits to coffee shops).
I keep good-quality snacks at work. If I buy lunch out, it’s at the $5 to $6 places, not the $10 that Panera is now.
Outside the Box
Probably not feasible for everyone, but the only way I’ve figured out to save on my food cost is by dating a chef. He cooks for me a lot and tends to bring over ingredients. And we often get discounts or free stuff when we go out because he knows everyone.
Before this (admittedly amazing) situation, I was with anon8. I don’t really like cooking that much and would mostly eat out or have cheese, salami, and crackers. I do bring my own coffee to work, but this is mostly because it’s so much quicker for me to grind beans and make coffee than it is to stop somewhere in the morning.
Outside the Box
In case it doesn’t come across, this was meant to be tongue-in-cheek because I know I’m very lucky with the boyfriend part. My real point was supposed to be that I have never been good at sticking to a food budget that involves a lot of cooking at home (unless it’s just assembling charcuterie boards, basically).
Housecounsel
I like my husband and will keep him around, but wow, dating a chef would be AMAZING.
Outside the Box
The downside is that I’m having to buy bigger clothes. But maybe that’s also an upside because I’m getting new clothes!
Anon
I am a super bugeter when it comes to food, as it really is our biggest expense. Moving from the midwest to east coast, the food prices are shocking. In the midwest you can get a can of anything for $69 cents, and it is at the very least store brand, if not a normal brand. Soup is regularly $1. Bah, in the city is regularly $3.29. UGH.
Anyway, I buy soup when its on sale and eat those for lunch. Pasta sides, bulk chicken/beef/pork tenderloins and plan my meals around those. My old job I had to buy my own KCups so I would purchase them in bulk. I buy a lot of weird stuff on amazon in bulk, like sugar packets, breakfast bars, and cat food. It is much cheaper than the store, somehow.
We’ve found that walmart is always the cheapest for the in house staples and frozen foods. We shop sales, and really stick to some boring stuff. I love to cook. Chinatown actually has very reasonable prices so i have become a master of chinese cooking, and my salt intake has never been higher.
That being said I avoid getting coffee outside the office, I settle for a hoagie at wawa if I absolutely need a sandwhich. I don’t really eat breakfast. I rarely buy myself treats such as chocolate, ice cream or candy.
Keilexandra
I work in Silicon Valley and get free lunches during the week… actually I get free breakfast and dinner too, but I prefer to eat breakfast at home and dinner with my partner. When I was a student I would cook very basic versions of what my (Chinese) mother made — so pasta with sesame oil, lots of vegetable stir fries with tofu and pre-cooked sausage because I don’t love handling raw meat. Nowadays I live in a metro area with 3 Trader Joe’s in a 20-minute radius, so we rely heavily on frozen food. I still stop by the Asian grocery store regularly for breakfast ingredients and frozen dumplings/buns/etc. I also stock up on fruit at the Asian grocery and the “Euro-style” open-air grocery store in the next town over, which is like a farmer’s market with seconds-quality produce at half the price. I LOVE fruit so it never goes bad in my fridge, which sadly can’t be said for vegetables.
Bethany
Because I use Excel instead of Mint, I do actually split out my food costs based on receipts, and use different categories for food: Groceries, Eating Out (when we’re together), and then we each have a Food category for eating out on our own. This is mostly because my husband spends more eating out vs I buy more random stuff or trips, so we wanted to be able to budget accordingly.
Michele
I try to make what I call “clean out the fridge” egg muffins every weekend to eat for breakfasts during the week. My husband and I both work really busy jobs, and the reality is that if I’m home for dinner (and if I’m not I’m ordering seamless on the firm, thanks biglaw), we just order in. However, I’ll save any leftover meat + veggies, and over the weekend I’ll mix 6 eggs + the leftovers, maybe some cheese, and a bit of salt and toss them in the oven for 22 minutes. I’ve learned some leftovers make better egg muffins than others, but it’s a great (and cheap!) way to use up leftover food and to have easy, healthy breakfasts on the go during the week.
On a good week, I’ll cook maybe one night over the weekend, hopefully making enough to bring a lunch or two to work. When I have time, I do try to prep some simple meal ingredients over the weekend. Trader Joe’s roasted garlic chicken sausage are great, and I’ll chop them up and saute them to use on a variety of meals. I’ll also chop and saute an onion, chop some veggies for snacking through the week, etc. Yesterday I was able to make a quick salad using those things on top of arugula for dinner, while my husband ate a leftover veggie pasta dish I accidentally made about 8 servings of (for the two of us).
Back when I worked considerably fewer hours, I used to meal prep for a few hours on Sundays. I preferred to bring my own meals to work because the options near the office were neither great nor healthy, and overly expensive for sub-par food. During that period of my life, I shopped almost exclusively at Trader Joes and became a HUGE fan of some of their brands and their prices–so much so that now, living in Manhattan (without a car!) I will trek to a TJs across town to go grocery shopping.