How to Save Money on Groceries and Waste Less

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produce spread on counter, abundant fruits and vegetables

American families throw away 30 to 40% of the food they buy. Grocery stores are not fully stocked. Supply chain issues and inflation are common conversations now. With increasing food prices, the easiest way to save money on our grocery budget is to use everything we buy. Saving money on groceries is important!

Let’s talk about that for a minute (or really the whole blog entry).

The easiest way to save money is to use everything we buy.

Seriously, it is that simple. Eat what you buy. Eat it all. I am going to show you how.

Next time you go grocery shopping, lay out all your groceries and imagine 30 to 40% of the food you just bought going into the trash. Into the trash.

Maybe you made a meal and didn’t eat the left-overs. Did your salad go to the crisper drawer for a slow, moldy death? Do bananas go bad on the counter? Did your avocado go overripe while waiting to get to Taco Tuesday?

With a few tweaks, you can be eating that salad, enjoying avocados on your tacos, and eating all the bananas. We are getting a little ahead of ourselves and will come back around to this.

Let's Talk Shopping - Grocery Budget

groceries in paper bags on counter, fruits, vegetables and bread

It all starts with how and when you shop. I personally shop every three weeks. Knowing myself well, I will save money if I stay out of the store. I don’t know about you but at times staying strictly to my list can be challenging, and an item or five will end up in my cart. Keeping that to a minimum is always helpful, just remember to get the ingredients you need.

First, pick out the best produce you can find. Find the freshest and best looking produce. Take a few extra minutes and flip the strawberries over to make sure the moldy one isn’t hiding on the bottom.

Let's Talk Washing and Storing

fresh strawberries placed in rows on grey towel

Now you have the best produce at the house. STOP. It is time to wash your produce, dry and then store your produce. I wrote a book, I Bought It, Now What? that covers the 25 most requested produce items. This is a great resource. Previous blog posts are also a great resource.

Strawberries in a jar is what started this movement.

While writing the book, I experimented with bananas and figured out how you can eat half a banana today and half tomorrow or the day after that or even the day after that.

I keep seeing posts about storing avocados in water. I try not to cringe too much. Some people are making it harder than it needs to be. Check out how I store avocados here.

What I am getting at, is take a minute and take care of what you buy. Take care by washing it and storing it properly. Add another touch, by keeping track of what you buy and eating it when you need to or freezing it for later. (Tip - avocados, bananas and strawberries can all be frozen for later use)

Buying One for Now and Two for Later

Did you read the earlier blog post on the grocery reality check? I talked about buying one for now and two for later. This allows me to shop every three weeks. I am not running to the store for one item as I usually have an extra or two at the house.

If you really need something and don’t want to run to the store you can head over to Amazon and have that item delivered in a day or two. There are items I prefer to pick up and just have delivered, like my spices. In case you missed the spice post, take a look here.

To Meal Plan, or Not to Meal Plan

chopped onions, peppers, and mushrooms for pizza toppings

Do you meal plan? Great. You don’t? Don’t worry. It really boils down to a couple of things. First, keep in your house ingredients for the meals you like to cook and eat. Take a good hard look at what is in your house. Take inventory. Did you find something close to expiration? Well that is what you eat next.

Don’t feel like eating it? That’s fine too. Can you freeze it for later? If so, do that. Label it so it doesn’t go to a freezer death. Make a plan to pull it out for lunch another day or another dinner. Batch cooking dinners can be a life saver. Take a look at my post on batch cooking gluten-free meatballs.

Curious on how I organize my freezers? Or do you just need some ideas or help in the freezer department? Watch this video on how I organize my freezers.

Storing food as single ingredients will help you later on. Spinach can be used in soups, stews or smoothies. Frozen bananas make great bread but are also amazing in a smoothie or a frozen snack (you can always dip them in chocolate too). Next time you are cooking meat, cook a double batch and freeze half for later. Now you have meat for a busy night.

My Mission and Passion - Helping You with Your Grocery Budget

Amy holding jar of strawberry timers at MOPS event

My mission and passion is to help you and your family save money, to help you eat what you buy. By showing you how to get two to three weeks out of your strawberries gives you the time to snack on them. Strawberries are just the beginning. I am now hearing stories from you. How you are saving money by changing how you buy, wash and store your produce. The movement is gaining momentum. You and your friends and family are seeing a difference in your households. I know this because I am hearing from you.

Read this! Holy cow, 61% of the food waste in the world comes from households.

Just not our households!

The goal here is to help you eat everything you buy! If you are taking the time to pick it out and buy it, then you should be eating it.

Gallon-Size Mason Jar etched with The Cross Legacy filled with fresh strawberries.

Testimonial on Saving Money on the Grocery Budget

Shelly's-fridge-filled-with-fresh-ready-to-eat-produce

"You asked for people to submit emails about how The Cross Legacy has changed things for them. Wow-in so many ways!!! When I found your IG page it was because of the strawberries and I knew I wanted to look into how you did them. I saved your page to go back and figure out how you were getting strawberries to stay so long because ours were going bad by the end of a week and we were throwing them out. So, I went to your page and found the strawberries and so much more.

I literally spent a month researching your page and your blog, watching videos, writing things down, deciding what I needed to have on hand, what extra glass containers I needed to buy…all the things. I created a document to explain to myself how to do everything and a grocery list to check off each time I went to the store based on what I needed to buy. I decided I was going to start after Christmas was over and my house was cleaned up.

So, in January of this year I embarked on the journey and went all in.

Before I started doing things your way I was shopping weekly and spending approx. $350.00 per week for a family of 5-6 (depending since our oldest daughter is away at college). I switched to do all of our shopping at Costco once every 3 weeks and only shop on the off weeks for things like milk, almond milk creamer and some essentials that I need in between the 3 week mark. I spend anywhere from $350.00-$450.00 on my 3 week Costco trip.

We stock up on all of the fruits and vegetables and we buy a lot since I am vegan (my family is not), bread, buns, meat, canned goods, pasta, rice, cereal, snacks, non-food products (i.e. TP, paper towels, freezer bags, dish soap, etc). I literally buy our entire 3 week groceries that trip. I have created an overflow area in our basement so I always have enough stock and then just restock as needed. Having an extra refrigerator in our garage so it is stocked with meat, bread, buns and cheese and use all of your tips for all of that. Who knew I could keep cheese in the freezer? I do now.

I come home and spend about an hour and a half prepping everything I got from the store and then it takes most of the day to dry and get it all put it away. It is time consuming that day, but it is one day and then we have fresh fruits and vegetables for 3 weeks for all meals. Kids lunches are so easy to pack. The last week I make meals based on whatever is left so I am using up what is in our refrigerator. Any fruit or spinach that is left I put in the freezer for smoothies right before I make the next 3 week Costco trip.

Our pantry is even completely organized now. My husband took on this task when I started the refrigerator and everything was taken out of bags and boxes and put into containers. Canned goods are in their place and only a few kept in the main pantry. It looks incredibly neat and organized. And we can see it all.

I have shared your story on both Facebook and IG and many of my friends are now following your pages. Countless friends of mine are texting me all the time for all of the tips. I am keeping track of what we spend each week at every store we go to and I anticipate saving between $5,000.00-$7,500.00 this year by using your system. What?!?! Thank you so much for all of the information you share. The most recent one was the bananas. I’m now adding a banana to a jar if I only use half of one. Absolutely amazing. You are a wealth of information. I would love to learn to can, but time is my concern there. I work full time and our kids schedules are very busy and I know canning is a time commitment. Maybe one day.

I could go on and on about this. I tell everyone that asks me about our refrigerator all about it. God has provided you such a gift to share with all of us. Thank you so much."

A picture of Shelly, who reached out to Amy to share her story

Shelly from Kent, OH

Thank you, Shelly, for sharing. If you have a story you would like to submit to us, please email us at support@thecrosslegacy.com. I would love to hear from you!