Methods to cut food costs

[slapper]

Most of the methods would depend on what country place etc, you are in but in my situation, most of this would not work in my opinion. There was no choice in this you can't really cut food costs I guess since it's food also you can't really sacrifice your health in the first place so you should either do something to earn a higher salary, or cut the cost of other things on the budget, food should be the last resort if you don't really earn enough.

I mean there are alternatives without sacrificing your health you could find healthy but cheaper food options instead of eating at a restaurant you could just prepare your own food or something like that.

Coupons and promo codes were really rare in my country I didn't even experience having one, student discount was great if you are a student I just realize that its really helpful because now I have work and this small discount is really useful, Amazon shipping will make the cost higher and probably not great for international, Food delivery here in my country cost a lot more compared when your going to buy it on the store, you cant hunt anything on urban places, working on food industry is not an option I cant sacrifice my not so good job just for a little bit of food.

Nice take, mate. Food is essential, so cutting back should be a last choice. I believe we can be creative and constructive with our consumption without jeopardizing our health. Meal planning and cooking at home can save money, teach, and inspire. Potluck dinners may make it a social event. It may promote community. No promo codes or coupons? Have you considered blockchain technology's role? Imagine a blockchain-based food cooperative that allowed Bitcoin purchases from local farmers. Eliminating middlemen might cut costs and guarantee fresh, wholesome produce. It would redefine "farm-to-table"

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[tjtonmoy]

What are other good methods of cutting costs on food items?

I think growing our own foods will cut the cost to the finest. If you have the ability and land to grow your own food, then that's the best way to save some money. Growing your own foods takes time, but once you start and get success, you will know how it's going to affect your life. Once the cycle starts, we can preserve foods for later use while growing new ones. Everything that we get from the market is filled with chemicals. Own food will ensure chemical-free items that are good for health too. 

Now many will say that they do not have enough space and land to grow their own. But do some research and you can find many ideas on how to grow food indoors. You can use many strategies to do it with success.

One more idea is to get it straight from the dealers and buy it in bulk. Those food items can be kept for a long time, you can buy them in bulk and store them for later use. This will cut the cost too. Not much but it will help for sure.

[dothebeats]

Ultimately if we're talking a real cut back in available cash for food, you will be making everything yourself   and/or eating super basic stuff.  Learn to cook is one of the biggest money saving methods there is, of course it takes time, skill and energy plus some tools.  Even after all that its still gigantically cheaper to cook for yourself and as a bonus almost everything tastes better freshly made.
  Any prepared food from a supermarket has been packaged and reinforced in its ingredients to survive a journey down a conveyor belt & over a week sitting on a shelf even if its refrigerated it cannot be as nice as a well cooked meal.   I say all that and Im not a good cook but if poor theres not that much choice imo; some find they do cook well and make it their job, making a cut back into an opportunity

I agree, you do make a great suggestion here. Aside from the tools and basic supplies needed for cooking, the basic ingredients can be personally supplied. Essentially, to be able to cut food costs you need to be resourceful, clever and hard working. You need to make effort to think and plan your meals and ensure you are not going over the planned cost for that meal.

[Broly46]

Don't do it, you would remorse to your action, you can cut food cost and goes for questionable food, artificial meats, labmade eggs, labmade vegetable, but your stomach would be very honest to your action, it would react accordingly and send you great (suffering) pleasure.

[bakasabo]

Ultimately if we're talking a real cut back in available cash for food, you will be making everything yourself   and/or eating super basic stuff.  Learn to cook is one of the biggest money saving methods there is, of course it takes time, skill and energy plus some tools.  Even after all that its still gigantically cheaper to cook for yourself and as a bonus almost everything tastes better freshly made.
  Any prepared food from a supermarket has been packaged and reinforced in its ingredients to survive a journey down a conveyor belt & over a week sitting on a shelf even if its refrigerated it cannot be as nice as a well cooked meal.   I say all that and Im not a good cook but if poor theres not that much choice imo; some find they do cook well and make it their job, making a cut back into an opportunity

I agree, you do make a great suggestion here. Aside from the tools and basic supplies needed for cooking, the basic ingredients can be personally supplied. Essentially, to be able to cut food costs you need to be resourceful, clever and hard working. You need to make effort to think and plan your meals and ensure you are not going over the planned cost for that meal.

Actually, making everything yourself isnt the best strategy to cut food costs either. Here is why. First of all, you need to buy lots of intermediate ingredients like spices. You dont usually buy them in bulk or in huge volumes. Restaurants or food producers buy them in huge volumes and with discounts. For example you buy 1kg of sugar for 2 EUR, while they buy 50kg sack for 30 EUR. The key to cut food cost is to make meals for whole week and only heat a part that you gonna eat. Making everything yourself, each day a new meal will make you bankrupt faster compared if you would eat at small restaurants daily.

[dothebeats]

Hence why I said that a proper meal plan should be made. That includes knowing how far the food will last and how much you should be spending in a specific time span. Moreover, the meal plan will also tell you which ingredients should be replaced for a cheaper alternative and which can be completely drop. It is true that cooking everyday will be more expensive, hence I stated that one should be a responsible meal planner if they want to make their food by themselves.

[Peanutswar]

Hence why I said that a proper meal plan should be made. That includes knowing how far the food will last and how much you should be spending in a specific time span. Moreover, the meal plan will also tell you which ingredients should be replaced for a cheaper alternative and which can be completely drop. It is true that cooking everyday will be more expensive, hence I stated that one should be a responsible meal planner if they want to make their food by themselves.

We know that if there's a possible coming we people are accumulating a food as they can so we have a lot of resources and they don't need to go outside just to be part of the newcomers who are late to stock up with food in terms of conditioning of the family sources we can't deny this always happen there's some family consumes a lot of foods for their daily basis and its too hard to them to make stop immediately because of sudden lack of supplies so might bring them sick, at the early times better to make sure you are aware to the food consumption not always oversupply or over with the food is great there are tons of people now getting sick of due to obesity. If you have still consciousness with your self I guess its never been too late to manage food properly.

[DeathAngel]

There are lots of things you can do to cut food costs, it’s important too with the massive increase in cost of living. A good way to start is start by meal planning and creating a shopping list based on what you already have. Buy in bulk as it's often cheaper per unit. Shop for groceries during sales and use coupons whenever possible. Avoid buying pre packaged or convenience foods as they tend to be more expensive. Cook at home if you can instead of eating out and try to incorporate more plant based meals which are cheaper. You can reduce food waste by properly storing leftovers and using them in future meals.

[safar1980]

Proper nutrition is the foundation of good health. Good medicine is very expensive everywhere and the wrong diet can make you spend a lot of money on medicine later. It is better to rent cheaper accommodation or give up a car or entertainment. You can also save on other things, treat clothes more carefully.

[Texac]

Proper nutrition is the foundation of good health. Good medicine is very expensive everywhere and the wrong diet can make you spend a lot of money on medicine later. It is better to rent cheaper accommodation or give up a car or entertainment. You can also save on other things, treat clothes more carefully.

But I think people will do the opposite of what you say because people always value appearance, always want to be luxurious in the eyes of others.  therefore, they are willing to eat poor quality meals and even starve themselves to get beautiful clothes, high-end phones… or any jewelry others see. That's what's happening today, looks take precedence over health, which is especially true in Gen Z.

[BRINIRHA]

Don't do it, you would remorse to your action, you can cut food cost and goes for questionable food, artificial meats, labmade eggs, labmade vegetable, but your stomach would be very honest to your action, it would react accordingly and send you great (suffering) pleasure.

Well cutting the cost of eating in a way that is not true will certainly be detrimental to our health. And the best investment is to keep our bodies fit and live healthy until old age. So of course maintaining a diet and intake of nutritious food is very necessary. So limiting certain foods is really not recommended. But cutting food costs can still be done as long as we are willing to work harder in this regard. Namely by growing their own plants that we usually consume. such as vegetables and fruits that we usually buy from the market. We can plant it ourselves in the yard or on the empty land that we have. And I have been doing this for a long time. I have plants in my yard. so I don't have to shop for vegetables at the market. And it can save my finances so I can save more But planting plants is not something everyone can do. Because the type of work and place of residence of each person is different. People who work late at night will certainly not have time to plant crops. and people who do not have a yard also have no place to plant. Well, the point is that for some people, the way I do can't be applied.

[uneng]

I cut the cost of food by exploring the city where I live for cheap alternatives of ready meals. I reached to the conclusion it doesn't worth very much to prepare the meals myself, because besides the costs being almost the same I still spend a lot of time on it (preparing and cleaning everything later). I can have lunch for about 2,40$, and as it comes with a lot of food sometimes I still have a meal for the dinner (I just add 2 eggs and a portion of bacon, if possible, to reinforce the proteins).

There is also cheap pizza with 8 slices for 6$, which is enough for two meals, so each meal of pizza costs 3$. That is good, because when you get tired of a kind of food you have another cheap options to try.

[Mame89]

when it comes to the need for food every day, it is indeed one of the biggest expenses in each month, I feel that I lack the monthly money that I get from work to meet my daily food needs. But even so, I apply several ways to save food money every day properly so that I have enough shopping money.

1. I always make a menu plan before shopping for the ingredients I need in a week or every day. That way I will buy groceries according to the menu that I have set to set the meal menu. That way I can prevent overspending on groceries I don't need.

2. Reducing meal times, for example from three times a day to two times a day. Because with this method, we can save a lot of money on food costs every day. This is not being stingy with yourself, it's just to be wise in financial matters.

3. Lowering the quality of food ingredients has also been my choice so far and I have started to change my lifestyle in consuming food. If in the past I always ate meat dishes, now I can replace tempeh and tofu side dishes or other cheap side dishes, or I also change the brand of ingredients such as oil or rice so they are cheaper, but the benefits and efficacy are still the same.

4. Cook yourself at home, because if you buy food outside you can add more expenses. So that you can save on cooking every day is a wise choice. So if I often shop for groceries at the market, I only spend $ 10, I can buy vegetables and side dishes. I can also cook two or three times a day.

5. The most important thing of all is that there must be commitment and discipline within us. For this reason, be committed and disciplined in using food costs according to plan, and not buying goods beyond the stated needs, even though they are in a promotional period.

This helps me a lot in saving on food costs, with these savings we have more funds to use for other useful things like investing in bitcoins.

[cabron]

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.

[BenCodie]

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!

[serveria.com]

Coupons and promo codes



Image link:  https://i.ibb.co/NpcLm8f/promo-code.jpg

There are many websites on the internet offering promo codes and coupons for items in stores.


Student Discount



Image link:  https://i.ibb.co/CMNcQZn/student-id-discount.jpg

Students can receive many discounts by showing their student ID.


Amazon

Amazon has good deals on food items with free shipping.


Food Delivery

Walmart, target and other large retailers offering food delivery services were offering big sales for delivery only. Not certain whether the trend will continue into the future but it was nice while it lasted.

edit:


Learning to hunt and fish

Give a man a fish, and you might feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you could feed him for a lifetime.

While it seems that hobbies like hunting and fishing are on a decline. Perhaps current era food prices are exactly what they need to make a return?


Foraging in the wild

There are places in the wild where fruits and vegetables grow naturally. Some are located close to official hiking trails and natural landmarks like waterfalls.


Working part time in the food industry

The food industry is known for sometimes giving away free food and cost benefits. Bakeries and restaurants and known for throwing food away. Which employees sometimes are allowed to have.

....


What are other good methods of cutting costs on food items?

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.

[Smartvirus]

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.

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.

[romero121]

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.

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.

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.

[STT]

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.

[KiaKia]

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.