How to Save Money on Your Groceries by Shopping Your Pantry First

Sometimes, families find it difficult to make their food budget stretch and they need ways to save money on groceries. With food costs on the rise, learning money saving techniques is even more important. Shopping your pantry is something you need to get in the habit of every week, but it also can be an extra help if you find yourself in a pinch and your budget just is not going to stretch far.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• your pantry and freezer
• pen
• paper

1. First, go through your pantry and freezer and figure out what you have. Weed out the out of date things so they do not get in the way. Make a list of what you have on hands.

2. Now that you know what you have already, go through your cookbooks and try to match up ingredients and see what meals you can make with what you already have on hands.

3. Make a menu for the week (or month) with the meals that you can make up with the ingredients you already have and fill in the menu as far as you can.

4. Next, figure out what recipes you have that you have most of the ingredients. If you can cheaply buy the rest of the ingredients, put those meals on the menu also. Make up a shopping list of the ingredients you need to finish off the recipes.

5. Now, you have a menu made up and hopefully not much to buy.

6. See the Resources below for more money saving ideas. You may also want to check out the related articles that are listed on the sides of this article.

Tips & Warnings

• This method works best if you get in the habit of stocking up when you see an awesome deal where you can combine a sale and coupons to get products at rock bottom prices.

Resources

• The Tight Budget Cookbook
• The Use It Up Cookbook
• Living On a Dime
• How to Find Grocery Store Coupons
• How to Save Money While Grocery Shopping

[joni04]

on 3/19/2009 Great idea! Thanks for the tip on buying items when on sale and with a coupon!

[clintinvestment]

on 2/17/2009 Good tips.

[newmama]

on 2/8/2009 I go through my pantry and then pick a few ingredients and put them into the ingredient search on allrecipes.com. It'll give you recipes with those ingredients. I always find great things to make without having to run to the store.

[wordstock]

on 2/8/2009 We lived for a month from our pantry until there was literally nothing left and then we went shopping. It was expensive but we bought enough to last another month. It gets better with each trip and we get smarter. Thanks, great info. 5*

[Susanh]

on 2/2/2009 The pantry is the perfect place to begin when it comes to saving money. Great article!