Practical shopping tips to be food frugal

WASHINGTON – Shoppers on a budget who want to save even more money can do so by making a few food-related adjustments.

The first step, according to Forbes.com is reduce your number of trips to the grocery store. Fewer trips offer fewer opportunities to buy extra items.

Cook the meat in the fridge over the weekend so it’s ready to throw into a weekday dish, suggests financial coach Mindy Crary. She says planning another meal for the leftover meat will save consumers money. For example, try roast chicken for chicken fajitas Monday, then use the extra chicken in a salad Tuesday.

These are the easy steps to being frugal with your food buying, according Crary.

  • Plan out your meals.
  • Reuse leftover meat for other dishes.
  • Inventory your cupboards to avoid buying what you have.
  • Shop less, get creative with what you have.
  • Consider having necessities delivered to avoid impulse buys.
  • Buy what you eat to avoid paying for pricey sodas or cookies when you’re out.

WTOP’s Kristi King contributed to this report. Follow Kristi and WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)

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