Sustainable Ways to Spend Less on Groceries ANYONE Can Do

Tired of your reliance on the grocery store and its impact on your wallet and health? Learn sustainable ways to spend less on groceries that anyone can do, starting today!

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Let’s face it- the grocery store is a convenient option for many when it comes to purchasing food. But that convenience can come at a pretty hefty cost, and one that is leaving many families looking for ways to spend less on groceries. You don’t have to be a homesteader and grow everything yourself to save some money on your grocery bill, but there are some tips and tricks you can learn from homesteaders that will help you spend less on groceries this year.

How Much are Americans Spending on Groceries?
Eat Seasonally
- Forage Local Seasonal Food
- Find Local Seasonal Food
Learn to Preserve Your Own Vegetables and Fruit
Cook from Scratch
Other Tips to Spend Less on Groceries this Year
More Posts to Help Save Money
More from Our Homestead
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How Much are Americans Spending on Groceries?

This food cost study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (published in May 2022) gives us a glimpse into what the average U.S. family is spending weekly by age for groceries based on a low-cost plan, moderate-cost plan, or a liberal plan.

To sum up the food study, this is the average weekly cost per individual family member for groceries in 2022:

Age	Weekly Low Cost Plan	Weekly Moderate Cost Plan	Weekly Liberal Plan
Individual Child (1-11 years)	$43.48	$53.30	$63.64
Individual Adult Male (12-71+ years)	$64.10	$80.44	$96.18
Individual Adult Female (12-71+ years)	$55.96	$68.40	$84.26

Weekly Food Cost for Individual Family Members

This means for us, a family of five (soon to be six), our family is looking at spending a minimum of around $250.00 each week for groceries if we do the low-cost plan. That equals $1,083.25 monthly for our family of five if we were completely grocery store dependent- and that’s the low-cost plan.

Luckily for us, we’ve found some ways to spend less on groceries (we budget for around $75-$100 per week for our family of five in today’s world), and these tips and tricks can be used by anyone to eat more sustainably (and healthily!). Let’s dive in to what you can do to start spending less on groceries and depending less on the grocery store.

Eat Seasonally

Seasonal food is often going to more affordable, plus, you’ll probably have local vendors that are selling these products for very fair prices. One of the reasons for this is that food items that are in season have less distance to travel to get to your table- they naturally already are growing in your part of the world! And if you buy local seasonal vegetables, you’re most likely supporting a small business owner whose own blood, sweat, and tears have gone into growing a beautiful product on land near your own. You’ve helped to shorten the supply chain! That’s pretty amazing.

Forage Local Seasonal Food

In many parts of the world, there are lots of different things to forage. And the best part about this? It’s usually free! There is lots of government owned land that is full of fresh food that is free for the taking. Just be sure to check your local requirements and laws before you go.

In Wisconsin, some of the best foods to forage for are berries. Raspberries and blackberries are abundant in the wild and can easily be frozen for winter oatmeal, baking, pancakes, or even turned into jellies and jams for winter. Other foods to consider foraging for in Wisconsin include:

Mushrooms: Just make sure you know what you’re looking for- a mistake can be deadly with mushrooms!
Nuts: There are lots of wild nuts to forage for including Butternut, Black Walnut, Shagbark Hickory, and American Filbert. In this post, I talk details on how to find them and what to look for!
Wild Rice: This is a traditional Native American food that is prolific around lakes and wetlands and ready to harvest in falls.
Wild Fruit: We’ve already talked about berries (like blackberries and raspberries), but there are lots of other wild fruit here too, such as apples, plums, choke cherries, or black cherries. These fruits can be turned into sauces, jellies and jams, or simply cut up and froze.
Asparagus: In the early spring, you might be lucky enough to find some wild asparagus growing in ditches around the area. It’s a wonderful find!

For even more ideas on what foods can be foraged in Wisconsin, check out this book The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer. It’s a great read and packed full of helpful tips and information for anyone anywhere!

Find Local Seasonal Food

If you can grow your own, that means you’ll have an abundance of these seasonal vegetables already at your fingertips! If not, head to your local farmer’s market or find a friend who does have a garden and see if they have extras that they’d be willing to sell. Some farmers offer a crop share where you can go and pick your own vegetables and fruits and get them at a discounted rate. You might also be able to go and work at the farm for a few hours to help out the farmer in return for a box of fresh, seasonal vegetables and fruits. Obtaining your food this way is a sustainable, healthy option that helps to create affordable food prices for families. The best way to know if this is available is to ask!

Learn to Preserve Your Own Vegetables and Fruit

If you have found someone to purchase seasonal bulk fruit and vegetables from, or you have a garden of your own, now is the time to preserve that excess food. And yes- anyone can do this! All you need is a good book to teach you how, a supply of vegetables and/or fruits to preserve, and some time and you are well on your way to spend less on groceries this year.

This book is my go-to when canning because it has both pressure canning and water bath canning recipes, along with information on how to do both safely. I also have an entire post here where I talk about some knowledge that all beginners should know when they’re just getting started with their canning/preserving journeys.

But, if you’re just here looking for some quick tips for food preservation to get you started (and to prove to you that anyone can do this), let’s start with these:

Safely Preserve Your Food by Freezing

If you’re just getting started with food preservation, then start with freezing your food. Buy bulk meats and freeze them, blanche and freeze vegetables, or make purees and sauces. One of our favorite foods to preserve is sweet corn! We have a recipe that I will be posting here on the blog once our sweet corn harvest is ready to go. Why freeze? Freezing your food is a pretty safe way to save your food for a long period of time. You won’t have to worry about things like botulism because freezing literally stops the food from changing and freezes it in time. If you leave it for a really long time, you may have to worry about freezer burn, but even that doesn’t make it dangerous to eat. The only thing you will have to worry about is freezer space- because that runs out quickly!

Move into Water Bath Canning Before Pressure Canning

Water bath canning, or boiling water canners, are the best way to start canning for beginners. This type of food preservation method involves submerging sterilized, filled jars of food in water and boiling those jars for a certain amount of time to create a seal.

Water bath canning should be used for preserving high acidity foods. These foods include things like jellies and jams, pickles, sauerkraut, and many fruits. Tomatoes also can often fit into the water bath canning category; however, they often need to adjust their pH value just slightly by adding lemon juice. Your recipes will let you know exactly how much to add to make sure water bathing your tomatoes is safe.

Pressure Can Low Acidic Foods Safely

Tools for Home Preservation to Consider

If you’re just getting started with home food preservation, consider purchasing some of these tools to help you along.

Freezing: We trust a Food Saver Vacuum Sealer to preserve the food that we freeze. It keeps food fresh longer, removing all the air, and ensuring that our efforts aren’t wasted a few months down the road.

Water Bath Canning: You’ll need a water bath canner for this method of food preservation. We use this one here on our homestead.

Pressure Canner: Finding a good pressure canner is important! If you purchase used, make sure that all of the parts are working well and effectively, or you are risking safety. If you choose to purchase new, the All American is about the best you can get!

Other Canning Essentials:

Jar Lifter: This helps you to lift out the hot jars from a water bath canner without burning your fingers.
Canning Lid Wand: This nifty tool allows you to grab the lids from the warm water just before you place them on the jars.
Funnel: A good funnel helps to make sure you get all of the food into the jars easily without making any mess.

Cook from Scratch

Cooking from scratch is an excellent way to spend less on groceries. You’d be surprised at the actual costs of baking bread at home compared to the prices you pay for already baked bread in the store. Since you’ve already bought foods that are in season, you’re well on your way to cooking from scratch already!

Cooking from scratch means using basic food ingredients to create a product. This means completely avoiding boxed or packaged foods, and creating everything for a meal or dessert with basic ingredients that have not been premade in any way.

Learning to cook from scratch is a artful skill that is going to take a little bit of time to really master. But don’t worry! It IS 100% attainable for anyone! I started back at the beginning, too, and now can’t imagine cooking any way differently!

For a whole post dedicated to learning how to cook from scratch without a meal plan, check out this one. Soon enough, you’ll be well on your way to spending less on groceries this year!

Looking for some from scratch recipes so you can ditch the grocery store? Check out these!

Other Tips to Spend Less on Groceries this Year

Anyone can spend less on groceries this year by following some of these homestead tips we’ve talked about. Eating seasonally, preserving food, and cooking from scratch are excellent ways to save big amounts on your monthly grocery bill. If you’re looking for even more ideas on ways to save without learning anything new, check out these:

Go without. I have a soda that I love (called Zevia– sweetened with Stevia instead of sugar and seriously satisfying…). But when I know we have to save money, or we’re close to our budget for the month, I go without. After all, it’s not very cheap! If I really miss it, then I consider adding it the next month. But that’s just it- most of the time I’m ok going without! Many foods people often eat are consumed out of habit more than need. If you have an expensive food that you enjoy, go without it for 14 days and see if you miss it. If you don’t, eliminate it from the grocery list. If you do, add it back! This will help you decide what foods you really enjoy (and therefore need), or foods that you are just buying out of habit.
Don’t shop when you’re hungry. You’ll spend less on groceries when you shop with a full tummy. Otherwise, it’s easy to impulse buy!
Shop online. Lots of grocery stores offer online shopping these days, which is great if you’re someone who tends to add extras to the cart when you see them. Shopping online forces you to type in exactly what you need, helping you to spend less on groceries by avoiding extra add-ons. Plus, often online stores will tell you exactly how much you are spending per ounce so you don’t have to do the math! That way you can also find the best deal easily.
Purchase in bulk. Most of the time if you purchase in bulk, you’ll be able to spend less on your groceries overall. Retailers will often offer a discount if you purchase a larger amount at a time. If you’re cooking from scratch, this is something you’ll want to do already anyway! It will be a larger upfront investment, but a cheaper annual investment, which in the end saves you money!

I hope some of these tips will help you to spend less on groceries this year! Do you have tips and tricks for spending less on groceries? Drop them down in the comments below!

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Sustainable Ways to Spend Less on Groceries that ANYONE Can Do

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How Much are Americans Spending on Groceries?