The road to wealth means being able to save money by making do on less than you earn. One of the biggest “necessary” expenses beyond rent is usually food. So here are a few tips to save money on grocery shopping. You’ll be surprised at how incredibly obvious the tips in this article are, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded.

(1) If you have a tendency to snack, become a coupon clipper, especially if you still buy print newspapers. You may only save a few dollars a month, but it adds up if you’re investing the savings into a money market mutual fund or online savings account.

If you don’t get newspapers, try Valpak, a website that offers coupons. If you know what RSS (Really Simple Syndication) web feeds are, then you can also “subscribe” to various coupon categories. (Valpak serves Canadians and Americans, but some regions have more grocery coupon offers than others.)

(2) Better yet, spend Sundays or Saturdays making your own snacks. Bottle them up in old spaghetti sauce jars. You can even freeze some snacks. To save electricity, my mother makes very large batches of various snacks in the oven - as well as pies, quiches and carrot cakes at the same time - then freezes most of them, after they’ve cooled. (Quiches usually do not freeze well; they’re too delicate because of the milk/ cream. For that reason, they also should be consumed within 3-4 days maximum. Sometimes, my mother also makes a lasgna at the same time, and they freeze quite nicely.)

Homemade snacks (and dishes in general) taste far better, and you have complete control over what you make and combine. Sample the delicious results, but apply control, or you may find yourself eating the entire batch. I’ve done this before, which defeats the purpose of making batches.

If you don’t know how to cook, learn for crying out loud. If you don’t like to cook, well, what can I say? There are also those who say that they just don’t have time to cook large batches. Well, if you plan properly, you can cook using the oven, or even the stove on a simmer, to make batches while at the same time read a book or work on your computer in another nearby room. (Just don’t forget the food, especially on a stove. Use timers if you’re forgetful.)

(3) Open your eyes to savings. I was about to buy one brand of spaghetti sauce the other day, at the low price of $0.93 for a large can. But around the corner from that aisle was a display of another brand at $0.77, for the same size. Had I walked the other way, I would likely have missed out on the savings. Now, $0.16 isn’t a lot, but do I have to tell you that it all adds up?

Similarly, I almost bought a package of “regular” ground beef for $3.53 for just over 700 grams, in the common styrofoam tray and cellophane wrapping. In a nearby display, there were tubes of “lean” ground beef for only $2.47 for a 907 gram tube (about 2 lbs). No contest. I bought two tubes, and put one in the freezer when I got home. And when I go shopping again next, if there’s still some left, I’ll be getting a couple more tubes.

So do not visually focus on only those aisles or displays where you’re used to getting items, because sale items are often close by. You just have to watch for them. I save $3 on my grocery bill by keeping my eyes open. It’s not a lot, but for a single person, one year’s worth of saving $3 weekly gives me more than a free month of groceries.

(4) Consider larger quantities of vegetables in your dishes. We’re used to eating large quanties of meat in North America, but vegetables are generally less expensive for the same quanties. I’m not telling you to give up meat, just consider increasing the ratio of vegetables to meat. You can also try substituting some of the meat with egg.

Aside: Chinese and Italian restaurants, and probably others, in North America tend to add more meat to dishes than what you’d actually see in those two countries. It’s done merely to satisfy the craving for meat that we have, not because of cultural tradition.

(5) Chew your food slowly. We North Americans eat entirely too much. Be angry with me if you will, but there’s medical evidence. One side effect is that because food is not chewed properly, it’s not digested properly, and is added to your waistline. Because of this - and lack of exercise - diabetes is at an all-time high. If you chew slowly, your food is digested more efficiently and you reduce the chances of becoming ill, etc. You also eat less and save money on both groceries and health bills. Proper eating does not leave you hungry.

If you’re looking for budget recipes, check out my Curry Elvis website. For meals designed for singles or couples at my archived site Cooking For One Or Two. (The latter site is no longer updated.)

Here’s a bonus for WorldWealthView readers: if you have your own website, you are welcome to republish up to five of my recipe articles at no cost, at any time. That’s provided you give me a link (to the website(s) where the articles came from) and a copyright notice. I’m also giving you the right to correct any spelling errors and add an introduction and conclusion to your version, if you would like. (If you modify my article, just use a compound copyright notice. For example, you might say “(c) Original article Raj Kumar Dash; additional content copyright you.”

How’s that for frugality? Free article content.