5 ways to stretch your grocery dollars

5. Choose carefully
“I like to think of needs and wants on a continuum,” says Burwell. “A need could be eating a hamburger, and a want is eating lobster and steak. We’re all pushed toward the wants.” But sometimes we need to make a choice in order to save money and that means finding alternatives, such as using pulses (dried lentils and beans) and eggs as a source of protein instead of meat, which is more expensive.

“Eggs are wonderful,” adds Frank. “They’re cheap and nutritious and perfect for any meal.” 

“When you buy locally grown food in season, you don’t pay fuel and transportation costs,” says Drabyk-Zirk. You’ll know what’s in season because it arrives at the store fresh and the sign with the price for that item will reveal its origin.

An alternative is to buy frozen vegetables, which are frozen at the peak of production.

TIP: Always compare the price of fresh, frozen, canned and dried. On a recent trip to the grocery store, fresh green beans were $4.39 per kilogram, the fresh but precut and
washed (convenience) green beans were about $8.80 per kilogram and the frozen were $3.39 per kilogram.

When the price is right
Finding a sale on food is easy if you know where to look.
• Be sure to mark any flyer specials on your grocery list to compare with in-store unadvertised specials, and always compare brand names with private store labels.

• Buying in bulk will save you money in the long run. The unit price for a small 900-gram box of rice is 51 cents. Move up to a 1.4-kilogram bag and the unit price drops to about 43 cents. The unit price of a two-kilogram bag is just 32 cents. Take home an eight-kilogram bag of rice and the unit price plummets to just eight cents. If you don’t have the storage space, share the bounty with a neighbour or friend.

• Some stores promote special shopping days, such as double-your-coupon days.

• What’s promoted in the flyers is definitely fresh, and there’s usually an extra quantity ordered for that period of time, says Tracey Drabyk-Zirk, a professional home economist.

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