With food prices climbing higher each year, it’s becoming increasingly important to find ways to save money on food. While it may seem challenging, there are simple strategies you can start implementing today to cut costs while still enjoying delicious, nutritious meals. For more than a decade, I’ve been making meals from scratch to help my family save money, and I’ve learned a few tricks along the way that anyone can use. In this post, I’ll walk you through practical tips on meal planning, smart shopping, and using your freezer to stretch your food budget further. Let’s get started on saving money on food without sacrificing quality!

How to Save Money on Food Tip n°1: Make Your Meals From Scratch
For over ten years now, I have been making all meals for my family from scratch. Since my husband and I got married over twenty years ago, we have always enjoyed homemade food, but it became essential for us ten years ago when my third son was born. He has several allergies, and it is quite literally impossible to find ready made food he can eat.
At first, it was frustrating for me to have to make everything from scratch, but I found in the process that it had many health benefits for my whole family, while saving money at the same time!
It can be daunting to make your own meals, especially if you aren’t used to it. That’s why I created a free booklet of 5 recipes to get you started, which are well under 2 euros a serving ! Don’t worry, with practice, you will get better and better and save more and more money.

Making meals yourself also ensures that your meals have a higher nutritional value. This makes you fuller for longer at the end of a meal. What has that got to do with saving money, you might ask? Well, you will be eating less in between meals, saving money on snacks and potentially on medical bills further down the line.
However, there is no point in making meals from scratch if you don’t shop well. Sure, it will save a little money, but you could save significantly more with these tips and tricks. So how do you shop well ?
How to Save Money on Food Tip n°2: Meal Plan
Most of the work is actually done before you go shopping.
Make an Inventory of Food you Already Have
First of all, you should start by making an inventory of what you already have. There is no need to buy new things if you already have them. So make sure you go through your cupboards, your freezer and only add to the list what you absolutely need. Make a list of what you have, mental or physical if it helps.

Write a Meal Plan for the Week
Then comes the meal planning. This can be a very hard task at first but it will save you so much time and money, it is well worth the effort.
You will want to go through the list of what you already have at home and try to use most of this when you plan your meals for the week. This way, when you go shopping, you don’t have to buy as much. Doing it this way also ensures that the food you have is actually used and thereby reduces food waste significantly. This is good both for your pocket and for the environment!
Meal planning will help you to have a precise idea of what you’re going to eat and therefore make a relevant shopping list. You know what you need to make the meals for the week, while keeping in mind what you already have.
Keep it Simple
A popular misconception of meal planning is that it means you have to find a different meal everyday and try loads of new recipes. But it actually isn’t about finding the most impressive recipe. What you need is to have a list of recipes you know, that you can make easily, that your family enjoys and that you can reuse regularly. This will make you more efficient in meal planning.
Of course, you can always try a new recipe from time to time, but that shouldn’t be your main focus. The point here is to save time and money. I have got loads of budget friendly, easy, yet delicious recipes that you can add to your “repertoire” like this Sausage and Vegetable Tray Bake or this Easy Ground Beef Chili. The more you make these recipes, the easier it will get to determine what ingredients you need to make them. You will eventually get know the brands available that will help you save money while still keeping the food delicious. This will make shopping easier, quicker and less expensive.
How to Save Money on Food Tip n°3: Shop Well
So, now you have your meal plan and shopping list, it is time to go shopping! This is where things can get expensive, but I have a few tips and tricks for you that will help!

Shop Once a Week
This is huge! If you meal plan for your week and make a thorough shopping list you should only need to go to the supermarket once. This will significantly decrease the cost of your groceries, and here is why! Whenever I go round a shop I always add extra things that weren’t on my shopping list to my cart. These things aren’t even necessarily treats but simply things I forgot we needed or think might be useful. When working on a strict budget, these impulse buys are the worse… So shopping only once in the week will help to reduce that temptation!
Stick to Your Shopping List!
Along the same vein, when you are in the shop, make sure to stick to the list you made. As I said above, buying things on impulse, even if they are useful things and not necessarily a treat, can really be a problem when you’re on a strict budget.
Shop Online
Another way to reduce impulse buying is to shop online. This way your eye won’t get caught by all of the items (the clothing on sale or the post-Christmas clearance aisle etc). You can go straight to the point and just search for what you need. This tip really helps me to stick to my list and not wander away from it. I find that even though some products may be more expensive online, I spend less over all.

Keep an Eye Out for Special Offers
Something I also do is keep a sharp eye out for any special offers. Don’t be afraid to bulk buy dry products you often use if there is a special offer. Though you might be spending more in the moment, you will actually be saving money in the long run. Ideally, I like to have a budget for bulk buying food and a weekly grocery budget. This gives me the opportunity to stock up on really great offers without running out of money on my weekly grocery budget.
If you do this, you need to make sure that you are doing an inventory before meal planning and creating your shopping list (see above) because, let’s face it, it is easy to forget what you bought two weeks ago (at least it is for me)!
Compare Price Per Kg
A final way to save money while your shopping is to check the price per kg or per unit. This will help you to objectively choose the cheaper product. For example, a 500g packet of rice costs 1.69€ which is 3.38€/kg whereas a 1kg packet of the same rice (same brand, same quality) costs 2.25€, which is significantly cheaper per kg.
You may need to buy larger quantities in order to get the best price per kg/L/unit, but, if you are following the inventory, meal planning and shopping list steps mentioned above, you will use everything you buy over time and save a lot of money.
How to Save Money on Food Tip n°4: Use Your Freezer
The last tip I want to give you is to use your freezer. I have to say, I don’t know what I would do without mine. I use it lots of different ways.
Freeze Meat in Bulk
First of all, I like to buy a lot of meat that has been reduced because it is near its sell-ingby date. I freeze it as soon as I get home and make significant savings in the process.

We have also recently started bulk buying meat directly from the farm which provides us with the highest quality of meat we have ever eaten at the lowest price. Admittedly, you do need a lot of space to do this, and we had to buy an extra freezer which was quite expensive. However, I know that in a couple of years that expense will be made up for in the savings we have made and, in the mean time, we have enjoyed highly nutritional food.
Freeze Produce and Bread
I also like to freeze fruit when it’s about to be too ripe. This avoids waste and I can come back to it later to make ice cream, smoothies, cakes, jam…
Same goes with bread that is about to go stale, which I then use to make French Toast for a breakfast treat. Freezing ingredients means that I can bulk buy, which turns out to be cheaper per kilo, saving a lot of money !

Freeze Leftovers and Whole Meals
Another thing I like to freeze is leftovers so that I always have something on hand for a busy evening and nothing goes to waste.
A final way I like to use my freezer is by making meals in advance and freezing them. I especially like to do this when we are going to be having house guests or family to stay. I can enjoy their company rather than being stuck in the kitchen cooking all day!
Freezing whole meals is also a great idea if you are bulk buying food. Rather than freezing the separate ingredients, make them into meals to freeze, that way you will have ready made, homemade meals to hand that you can simply reheat on a busy evening!

Start Saving Money Today!
So, are you ready to start saving money on food? Let me know if you are going to follow these steps and see how much money you can save!
You can also check out a series of reels I did over on Instagram for more money saving ideas – check out my Budget highlight and don’t forget to follow me while you’re there @candleinthekitchen!
Don’t forget to sign up to get my Free Budget Mini Cookbook and you can also check out these other inexpensive meal ideas:
Budget Festive Dinner Menu (for Christmas or any special occasion!)
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