5 ways to save money on food

Food inflation hit 8.6% in 2022. Food inflation is falling from the peak, but it’s always good to find new ways to save money on food.

We asked our LifePoints community members to share their best money saving pointers on Facebook and Twitter. Within a couple of days they had shared hundreds of unique and creative ways to save, a lot of them involving how to budget food:

• Growing your own food
• Plan ahead
• Buying in bulk
• Cooking at home
• Cut down

This is the number 2 in a cost-of-living series, so read on about other you can save well as on your food budget.

Different ways to help you budget food better

Grow your own food

Growing your own food can be one of the best ways to save money on food and one of the most rewarding. Cecile has found that she can get rid of a huge part of her food budget by gardening: “I planted vegetables in my garden. Get something free instead of buying.” You’ll save by not spending money on fresh produce and you’ll get some time to enjoy some time outside.

RN, a LifePoints member on Facebook, has found they can save money and make money by gardening: “Do gardening so you can eat or sell for your benefit.”

If you have excess fruits or vegetables and don’t want to sell or waste it, you can give it to family. It’s always nice to give something to the people you care about, and it’s even better if it’s food.

Plan your food ahead and save

If you plan your food ahead of time you’ll save by only buying the correct ingredients and reusing as much as possible. To get started on meal planning you could make an excel sheet, write out a plan on a notes app or even remember everything in your head. There’s no right way to meal plan so whatever way you like the most is the best.

There are a few reasons why people make meal plans:

• Planning for travel
• Planning for sports training
• Planning for work hours
• Planning for students
• Planning for health reasons
• Planning for fun

There are a variety of ways that meal planning can help you save money on food. One way is to plan and time your week around sales. Christine has found that planning around sales and coupons can be a really effective way to save money: “Plan ahead a week’s worth of meals a use as many coupons and find the best price for items”

If you plan your meals you can cook your food in batches. As well as saving money when buying the ingredients, you get some time back because you’ll be cooking less often and won’t need to do as many dishes.

Buy bulk items to save

Bulk buying is a lot easier than it seems. Companies will sell each item to you at a lower price per item if you’re willing to buy more of it. If you find yourself buying something over and over again why not buy it in bulk to save. If you want to buy from a big-name shop eBay and Amazon have some fantastic bulk offers on food, and Costco is starting to open shops across India. There might also be some local bulk stores near you, so check to see if you have any in your area.

Mini, a LifePoints community member from Facebook, buys in bulk to save: “I bulk buy on items which we use more often”.

Buying ingredients in bulk to cook in batches can help you save too. Once done a couple of batch cooks it will feel natural and easy. Sheryl has found cooking enough meals to last a few days is a good way to have low priced food: “cook meals that would last for a day or 2.”

You will save money buying food in bulk, but there are even more savings to have. Places like eBay and Amazon have great deals on non-food items. This works especially well for stuff that doesn’t go bad and you can store. Start by thinking about the things you buy a lot like hand soap, cooking oil, or laundry detergent, then see what options are out there for buying them in bulk.

If you buy your food in bulk, you won’t need to go shopping as much so you get to save time and save money by not buying fuel for your car.

Save money by cooking more at home

Of all the food saving hacks the LifePoints community shared cooking was one of the most common ways to save. Every year the average Indian household spends Rs 2,500 per year on dining eating out. Cooking at home can be cheaper a lot of the time and cooking is a skill that can be fun to learn if you are a beginner.

Priya, a Lifepoints member, saves a lot of money by cooking at home: “Cut down on online food delivery and enjoy home cooked healthy food”

Saving money and being a little healthier makes cooking at home really appealing and can help a lot.

Fernando shares a lot of the same thoughts as Priya: “Eat at home by cooking own food will cost a lot cheaper”

Cut down on food waste

If you’re throwing away less food, you won’t be spending as much. Each year the average Indian house will waste 40% of all the food it buys. Some food waste will always happen, but even if you cut down a small percentage of food waste you could still save a lot of money.

Jai has found that one of the best ways to cut down food waste is to check for when the food goes bad: “Always check the expiry date.”

It’s common to buy something only to find out it expires soon when you get home. When buying something pick stuff that takes longer to expire. This way you have more time to eat it, which will lead to less food waste.

As well as checking the expiration dates preserving food is a way to cut down on food waste. Sandy saves by preserving: “Can and freeze fruits and veggies when in season.”

If you’re looking to preserve your unused food there are some great options to choose form like canning, fermenting, or curing. When you preserve your food you cut down waste and you get to have some extra food on hand to enjoy in the future.

Some other ways to preserve food and cut down waste include:

• Meal planning
• Use extra ingredients in recipes
• Don’t buy more than what you need
• Buy frozen or canned foods, which take much longer to go off

Earn some extra money as well as saving money on food

These are all great ways to eat for cheap. As well as saving on food why not increase your bank balance? There are lots of ways to make money online without investing, and one of the best and most straight forward will always be taking surveys and earning gift cards with LifePoints.

You can take our surveys from anywhere in the world on any device, and you have the option to use the LifePoints app . Sign up, share your opinion on some important topics and get rewarded with PayPal cash or a gift card of your choice.

Get ready to earn and save money

Using the tricks from LifePoints members your food bill will come down in no time. Whether you do some gardening, cut down on waste or start cooking more, you’ll find something that works. A big thank you goes out to the LifePoints community for their ideas, this article wouldn’t be possible without them.

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