Scratch red meats off your list. Learn to make your own soups, it’s cheaper than buying them by the can. I wish I could say the same about breads, but I haven’t found a way to make it cost-effective (I have one mouth to feed, my own).
I “sale” shop....Buy 10 packages at a time....BUT KEEP TO THE THINGS YOU USE.
Ditto. Get rid of the majority of meat in the diet. Make soups with small quantities of meat, or go to vegetarian dishes like black beans and rice, lentils, or any other number of dried foods. You can take a little chicken or beef add some veggies and dried barley and make a delicious soup. And the truth is, it's better for us to eat this way.
We still eat fish, but that's because hubby and son catch it and I don't have to buy it.
This week I made a pot of black beans (minimal cost, maybe a buck for the bag of beans, some olive oil and spices), served it over rice with a salad on the side. Then mixed the leftover rice and beans together, and served up bean burritos the next night. If you have kids, make hot cereal instead of cold. Oatmeal or cream of wheat are a heck of a lot cheaper than boxed cereals.
1 5 lb bag of bread flour costs about the same as a loaf of sliced whole grain bread.
A simple recipe, using about 3 cups of flour, 1 pkg of yeast, water, a little honey, oil, and salt, per loaf, is definitely cheaper, and tastes and smells ALOT better.
A store where I live sells turkey backs for 29 cents a pound. Bake 'em in the oven for an hour, then boil 'em for broth. Makes a really good soup base.
Agree about red meat. I eat it maybe once every other week. Giant this week has chicken legs for 49 cents a pound. The freezer is now full of them.
But “free trade” has made everything so cheap for ‘consumers’! Why should anyone have to give up red meat? We ‘consumers’ have never had it so good, with our globalized, socialized economy!
If you need to pack a lunch, my daughter tells me that putting your own soup in a pint-sized canning jar works well. It seals and doesn’t spill en route, and can be microwaved without melting.
Find a day old bread store outlet. Cheap.