Tips for Saving Money on Food

Check out my article in the BU School of Public Health student journal, "The Movement!" An excerpt is featured below.

Photo by Aayesha Siddiqui

Ah grad school! You are (hopefully) learning things you want to know; gaining tools that employers want; and making it on your own. Although, it also means the dining hall is not a place you can frequent. Food can quickly become a sizable part of your monthly budget. Here are some tips to reduce your spending on food.

Never Buy Green Onions Again!

Green onions, or scallions, don't grow big bulbs like it's siblings the red onion, or even garlic. Instead, the stalks add a spicy kick of flavor to plenty of dishes from burritos to stir-frys.

Chow.com had a great video on how to resprout your green onions. Use the top green stalk for cooking, and plant the white stalk into potting soil, or place it in a glass of water. After about 5 days you'll see a new, baby stalk growing up out of the pot/cup. You can trim the stalks and use them again for cooking!  Soon your $1.49 that you spent on a bunch of scallions can be re-used all summer long!

Candyland

Shopping the day after a holiday ends, can get you some big savings on seasonal items

I just went to Walmart, and realized that ALL THE EASTER CANDY IS 50%!! That means you can gorge yourself on candied eggs, peeps, and peanut butter filled Easter M&Ms.

And, depending where you're shopping, you can stock up on wicker baskets for household storage, bubbles for summer fun, and plenty of chocolate squares for baking into cakes and cookies, or melting as a chocolate dip!

Most hard candies, can be stored for up to 1 year when stored at room temperature in a cool, dry, pantry. On average, candy bars can stay good for another 6 months. You can squeeze 13 months out of M&Ms and 1 year out of Reeses Pieces. Dark chocolate, when wrapped in foil, and stored properly, can last anywhere from 1-2 years! If you find a good deal on candy, stock up because it's never to early to start planning for Halloween.

Clean out that Pantry

Ah the pantry: the spaghetti sauce stockpile, the canned bean bunker, the foodie fortress. If your pantry is anything like mine, it's overflowing with items you've (hopefully) accumulated from grocery store sales, wholesale clubs, and sometimes even inherited from friends with changing dietary habits (new vegetarian, gluten-free, diabetics for example).

But since your spring-cleaning is in full-swing, you might as well crack open that pantry door, open up a trash bag, and prepare to toss out some of your precious food reserves. Items that have been infested by bugs or worms, and cans that have bulging lids or dents that compromise the interior food product should be immediately thrown out. Check open bags of grain or flour, as these are favorites for little pantry bugs. Take everything off of the floor, and give the place a good sweep.

Then, there are certain items, that you can probably donate to your local food pantry (provided they were never opened) so check that the interior seal is still intact. The April 2010 Fitness article, "Pantry Raid: 11 Healthy Food Swaps" provides you with some ingredients to replace it with, while cutting calories, fat, and cost.I've summarized the article below, but read the full article for details on how these ingredients stack up nutritionally:

Which Organic Products are Worth the Money?

If you haven't tried organic foods yet, you certainly should! 

Organic can be defined as " produce and other ingredients are grown without the use of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, genetically modified organisms, or ionizing radiation. Animals that produce meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products do not take antibiotics or growth hormones." For more information on organic products check out organic.org and ewg.org.

Celery and Peaches are more likely to be contaminated by chemicals, so it is worth it to buy these organic.

But buying organic can really add up at the check-out line. If you have been weary about spending extra money on organic products, check out the "Organic Cheat Sheet" from Fitness.com. As a general rule of thumb, if you plan on eating the skins of the produce, you should probably go for organic.

5 Spoilers in your Fridge

The May 2011 Every day with Rachel Ray mag had a great article on common "Food Storage Flubs" that people make at home. I have listed them for you here.

5 Money Saving Tips from a “Coupon Queen”

GUEST POST: Ashley "Sloan" Leva is a full time college student, military wife, and young mother. While her husband serves as a Combat Engineer in the U.S. Army, she has embraced a frugal lifestyle as a “coupon queen.”

Budgets can be hard to stick to as they require a lot of self-control, but in the long run it is well worth it. Hopefully some of the money savings tips I utilize will be of help to you as well.

1. Use the Sunday Paper
On Sundays, plan out your weekly expenditures for groceries, etc. The Sunday paper contains hundreds of beneficial coupons that can help you trim your household expenses. If you don’t have access to the Sunday paper you can print coupons online from websites like smartsource.com or couponmom.com.* However, remember to never use coupons to buy items you simply don’t need. Coupons aren’t an excuse to go on a spending spree.

Saving the Spotted Banana

A harsh winter in New England means that our produce pickings are sadly sparse. However, the trusty banana remains a tasty ally in helping Americans achieve their 5 fruits and vegetable servings a day. (If you want to calculate exactly how to break down those 5 servings according to your age and gender try this tool from the CDC).

But all too often our favorite plantain languishes on the kitchen counter, ripening, and becoming the squishy, spotted banana. Usually we throw away these unfortunate fruits, and if we estimate that the average American family throws away 1lbs of bananas every 2 weeks (that's 3 medium bananas) then at $0.69 a pound that is costing you  $16.56 per year. That may not seem like a lot of money, but consider other costs that aren't necessarily financial.