How to Painlessly Save $1,000 on Food This Year

Just lower your average meal cost by $1

If you’re anything like most people, food is one of your biggest expenses and thus, represents one of your biggest opportunities to save.

The good news is that you eat so often that a small savings every meal can add up to a lot over time.

How small?

Most people can save $1,000 on food over the course of a year by lowering the average cost of a meal by just $1. That might not sound possible, but do the math: 3 meals/day x 365 days/year = 1095 meals a year. Even if you skip nearly a hundred meals a year, $1 per meal is $1,000 by the end of the year.

That’s per person. If you have a spouse and you each lower the average cost of a meal by $1, you’ll save $2,000 a year. If you have a family of five and you lower the per person cost of a meal by $1 you’ll save $5,000 a year.

So how do you think about lowering the average cost of a meal? Here are some easy levers to pull:

Eating Out

Strategy one: Find frugal favorites to frequent

There’s a wide range of costs when you are eating out. You can spend $5 for a smattering of options off a fast food value menu or you could go to a high end restaurant and pay upwards of $20 plus tip. And of course, there’s plenty of options in between.

If you can find a way to shift your pattern of eating towards cheaper establishments, you can save a bundle.

Look at your bank statements and get a feel for about how many times you east at establishments of various prices levels: fast food ($4-$6), fast casual ($6–$10) and restaurants ($10+). Try to replace a few of your visits to higher end establishments with visits to more moderately priced venues.

See also if you can identify a couple of places that really give you bang for your buck.

Strategy Two: Find a better value on the menu

I’m the kind of guy who can easily get into a rut when it comes to eating out. I have my favorite item on the menu and I get it again and again.

But life is short. Having a go-to favorite is okay, but sometimes you need to branch out a little. Look for an item on the menu that is cheaper than your current fare, but still looks appealing. Remember, the difference between an $8 entree and a $6 entree adds up over time.

Strategy Three: Soda on Saturdays

I’ll come right out and admit it: I love Coca-Cola. That said, those liquid calories aren’t good for your waistline or your wallet.

Restaurants love selling you soda because it costs them almost nothing and they sell it to you at a premium. Soda can be as little as $1 at McDonald’s to upwards of $2.50 at a restaurant.

One easy strategy would just be to get a soda every other time you eat out. Another would be my strategy: Soda on Saturdays only. This has the advantage of not cutting something you enjoy from your life. Delay, don’t deny.

Strategy four: Eat out less

No matter what tricks you pull, cooking will always be cheaper than eating out. Getting your average meal cost under $5 is outrageously difficult when it comes to eating out, but when it comes to cooking, getting under $5 is a breeze.

The most frugal people out there can achieve a per meal cost of just $1 by eating in. The elusive $1 mark is quite difficult even when cooking, but impossible when eating out.

Eating In

When it comes to cooking, there are front end costs and hidden back end costs. The front end costs are the costs of ingredients, the back end costs are the costs of spoilage which forces you to buy more food.

Saving on the Cost of Ingredients

Strategy five: Prioritize recipes with inexpensive ingredients

The best method I’ve ever seen for evaluating the cost of ingredients comes from the legendary frugality blogger Mr. Money Mustache.

He advises to compare the costs of foods on a per 667 calorie basis. The idea is that if you eat ~2,000 calories a day on three meals, that means that one meal is about 667 calories. To level the playing field and compare foods to each other, you see how much it would cost to make a full 667 calorie meal out of just that ingredient.

By his calculations, rice costs about $.25 per 667 calories while organic boneless, skinless chicken breast costs about $8 per 667 calories. This means that cooking a rice-based recipe with a small amount of chicken will be much cheaper than a chicken-based recipe that includes some rice.

There are lots of applications here, but this next one might be the most important.

Strategy six: Find substitutions for pricey proteins

In general, it’s the protein portion of your meal that will be the most expensive. I love meat, but I don’t mind eating the occasional meal that substitutes meat out for a cheaper protein source.

Mr. Money Mustache has cheddar cheese at $1.09 per 667 calories and organic, cage-free eggs at $2.85 per 667 calories. I’ve priced out milk at less than $1 per 667 calories. Have a grilled cheese instead of a ham sandwich. Use eggs instead of chicken in fried rice. Drink some milk if you think you aren’t getting enough protein.

And of course remember: in general the most profitable food to hunt for sales on is meat.

Strategy seven: Have recipes that use spare ingredients (preventing spoilage part one)

Fried rice, chili, beans and rice, etc.

What’s great about these dishes is that you can add extra ingredients if you have them. Have some scallions that are about to go bad? Here’s an opportunity to use them up. Of course, this also works for more expensive ingredients like mushrooms.

Strategy eight: Have a dedicated leftover meal (preventing spoilage part two)

My wife and I used to always eat out for lunch on Sundays. One day I suggested that we devote that meal to finishing off our leftovers. This has saved us money on eating out, helped us waste less food, and helped us be more on top of keeping our refrigerator clean.

If it’s time for your leftover meal and you don’t have enough leftovers to make a meal, scrounge something up. Grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, peanut butter and jelly. You’re an adult, you’ll figure it out.

My Frugal Favorite: Fried Rice

Home cooked fried rice might be the most perfect frugal meal ever.

It is uniquely suited promote frugality across all dimensions:

• The ingredients are dirt cheap. It’s a rice-based dish that can use eggs instead of meat as the protein
• It’s a dish that can readily accept a variety of ingredients, helping you prevent the spoilage of raw ingredients
• If you cook too much, it makes a delicious leftover meal (it’s one of the 1% of all dishes that tastes nearly as good reheated in the microwave as when it was cooked fresh)

Don’t Feel Bad If You Fail

If you follow these strategies and fail to save $1,000 over the course of the next year, don’t feel bad. Frugality is subject to diminishing returns. Once the low-hanging fruit is gone, it just gets harder and harder.

If you struggle with a target like saving $1,000, the most likely reason is that you are already pretty frugal and your time and energy should be devoted to income generation instead.

But most people should be able to mix and match the strategies outlined here to save a bunch of money on the food they use to fuel their bodies.

Here’s to your frugal feasting!

This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.