Save Money on Grocery Shopping

Save money on grocery shopping, and you can get out of debt, giving you the freedom to pursue your dream of self reliance. 

Those of us who have a passion for the simple, homesteading life, dream of the time when we won't need to go to the grocery store and grow most of our own food instead. 

But let's face it; grocery shopping is still a reality for most of us.  With inflation, prices keep shooting up (actually the dollar is simply losing value, but why quibble), making it harder to buy food for our families.

The good news is you can save money on grocery shopping and improve your health by following a few simple steps.

Save Money on Grocery Shopping
Step One: Buy Only Real Food

Those ready-made dinners you simply pop in the microwave when you get home from work are not only expensive, they can also wreak havoc with your health.  Processed foods are loaded with chemicals and preservatives, as well as salt and high fructose corn syrup.  Most of these foods are also loaded with genetically modified organisms or GMOs. 

GMOs can be found in all kinds of processed foods that contain any of the following ingredients:

Corn oil, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, corn starch, corn meal, soy protein, soy lecithin, soy oil, soy sauce, soy isolates, canola oil and cottonseed oil.  

These GMOs can cause obesity and damage your internal organs. 

Not only that, but heating your food in the microwave will kill what few nutrients these processed meals have and expose you to radiation.

Instead, plan on cooking a few inexpensive, healthy meals from scratch on Saturday, freezing them, and then pulling them out and heating them in the oven instead.  You'll save money and eat well.

Step Two: Go for the Basics

You can save money on grocery shopping by making your own healthy dips, ketchup, bread, cheese and even cheese spread.  They really don't take that long to make and can help cut down on the cost while also cutting out the unhealthy chemicals and preservatives. 

Step Three:  Build a Food Pantry

I got this idea from three of the best books I have ever read on frugal living, all by Amy Dacyczyn called The Tightwad Gazette.

This book helped me save tons of money.

Dacyczyn suggests stocking up on items you like every time there is a sale. Buy enough when it's on sale, and it could tide you over until there is another sale.

Over time, you'll have a food pantry full of items you enjoy.

By the way I don't mean building an actual pantry (although my husband did, by placing flooring over our garden tub and building walls around it), but instead start investing in stored food that you will eat. 

Before you know it, you'll have your own "store" chock full of good food.

You might not be able to do much at first, but keep making your own healthy foods from scratch, and over time you will be able to save a little money to spend on bulk items, saving money over the long run.

I remember the first time we did this many years ago.  We had a little money in savings, and I convinced my husband that we would save money if we bought dehydrated vegetables in bulk. 

We ended up buying huge bags of dehydrated potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas and rolled oats.  For years we cooked and ate those vegetables instead of buying them frozen at the store and saved a ton of money.  Of course this only works if you like and are willing to eat dehydrated vegetables.    Before making a serious investment, order one of their sample packs.

But you don't have to go to that extreme, if you don't want to.  Instead take advantage of sales items and buy them in larger quantities.    When canned tomatoes go on sale, I will often buy a few cases, because I am always using them in casseroles and soup recipes. 

Store them anywhere you have extra space, including under your bed or in spare closets.   In time, you'll have a large enough cache of food on hand to be able buy foods when they're on sale instead of because you need them right now.

It's in these incremental steps that we begin to realize the freedom we have in pursuing joyful homesteading.

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