Eat for Only Pennies a Day

Times are tough, even when it comes to food shopping. Prices have gone up while our wallets shrink. Don’t worry. Use the same bargain hunting instincts you use for clothes shopping for food and you’ll walk away literally richer. Just use the same tips you would for tracking down those half price ballet flats and tunic.

1. Coupon crazy. Get out the scissors and start clipping away. Scour your Sunday newspapers where there’s a small booklet of valuable savings. Also some newspapers have a Wednesday food section where local grocery stores have an entire page of coupons to clip out. Use these for a few pennies off. Another place to look is the internet. Go to the manufacturer’s site and click on the specials and deals to download and print out coupons.
2. Ripe for the picking. We’re heading into apple and raspberry season. Some farms will let you pick both these crops and charge by the basket. This is a great way to buy fresh in season fruits like raspberries, apples and pears and fall veggies like kale and cabbage. In the summer look for strawberry farms or corn fields where you can do your own picking.
3. Grow it yourself. It’s kind of late in the season to do so but you can start planning for next year for the Spring of 2010.First of all get your soil tested and analyzed to see what you can grow. Some fruit trees and veggie plants will not grown in highly acidic dirt or will yield a bitter, undersized harvest. What you can grown now and indoors are herbs. You can try your hand at hothouse basil or rosemary along with oregano and sage (this last is good for Thanksgiving stuffing).
4. Don’t discount discount. This is the time to sign up for B.J.’.s or Costco. Here you can save big , especially when it comes to planning holiday meals. You can also pinch pennies by buying everyday items as well, especially toilet paper and paper towels. B.J.‘s has two membership, one the Inner Circle is only $45 while the more extensive B.J,‘s Rewards is $80 per year. Costco give you an annual membership of $50. It’s worth to pay the membership price now and experience a year’s worth of savings. Another plus is you can shop on line if there are no store sin your immediate area.
5. Trade ya! If you have services use them to barter food for yourself and your family. For example freelance writers could easily score free meals or baked goods if they write PR or create a press kit for neighborhood restaurants and bakeries. CPAs are another group that can benefit from this. Even other shop owners can provide some kind of trade service that will result in free dinners or groceries. Remember to hand out business cards and a list of your services every time you visit your Main Street.
6. Neighborhood market. This is a great way of showing off your canning, baking and cooking skills. Use yours or your neighbor‘s driveway to have a foodie yard sale. Neighbors can barter garden produce for homemade sauce or cakes. Also if you have tins of food that you bought and never used, then use these as bartering as well. You can swap the stuff you don’t want anymore for free new stuff.
7. Change is good. If you cut back on some of the indulgences like soda or snacks you’ll save money. Instead of buying two or three kinds of cookies or chips, stick to on.e Make ice cream and cake special buys for birthdays or weekend parties.. Rethink eating the more expensive cuts of meats and opt for the cheaper. Try less expensive healthier dishes like pasta or vegan dishes where the ingredients won’t cost you a bundle.

You can be a thrifty hunter gatherer shopper . Just use those same killer bargain hunter instincts you use at the mall and you’ll wind up with the lowest grocery bill ever! You may even have enough left over to splurge on a pair of shoes!