Ten tips to make your food budget stretch till the end of the month.

Like everything in life, good food takes planning. Nutrition can be had on a budget with what you have at home.

1. Buy Whole Foods in Bulk:

Usually, buying in bulk costs less than buying in small amounts. But, be sure to compare unit prices before buying the item. Only bulk-buy whole foods, and whole foods that you will use often and will use up before the expiry date. Do not bulk buy snacks and convenience foods!

If you want a small quantity of something, but want to pay bulk prices, you can consider splitting it with a friend. Some people go so far as starting a co-op with friends and family.

2. Compare Prices:

If you have the luxury of time and transport, compare prices at different stores. Or make the time to go to large warehouse supermarket and discount stores! International grocery stores (Asian, Middle-Eastern, Latin-American) are often way cheaper than regular supermarkets.

3. Plan Your Meals:

Grocery stores are cleverly designed to make us spend more than we need. They are filled with products that promise us delicious, time-saving convenience meals. And they encourage a lot of bad habits. We eat unhealthy, we go over our budget, and place a high value on 'easy'. One sure way to outsmart the grocery stores, is to plan your meals in advance. This will also help you avoid wastage and accidentally doubling up on what you already have. Don't buy convenience foods, unless it is whole-grain breads and pastas, and you don't have the time or skill to make them (I don't!). Don't buy frozen or canned foods. Buy whole produce and cut, freeze or can them on your own. Make your own meals by cooking from scratch! Freeze as many meals as you can. Freezer meals will save you time and ensure that your food lasts a very long time.

4. Reuse Leftovers:

When you prep your meals, think about ways in which those dishes can be remixed! For instance, you can turn your roasted veggies into soups and stews, or you can add them to your fried rice, pastas and casseroles! The possibilities are limitless. So start with simple dishes, and keep adding complexity to them overtime. This will not only give you variety, but also save you time.

5. Approach Sales with Caution:

You don't have to shop for all items in one trip. Keep track of the cheapest price of each food item, and buy them at that lowest price. Usually produce is cheapest when they are in season! Meat is cheapest during the holidays. Check the grocery stores' websites often to find the best deals. Couponing and cash-back websites can help save money. I will caution you here not to buy something just because it is on sale. If it is not already part of a your shopping list, you don't need it. Grocery Stores uses tactics like

'end cap enticement' (putting attractive items at the end of each aisle or by the checkout counter), placing popular 'trigger foods' at eye-level, playing holiday music to lure you towards 'seasonal treats on sale'. Don't fall in that impulse trap. When you need to get from one end of the store to another, cut through your least favorite aisles so that you are not tempted to buy anything!

6. Learn the Tricks:

Shop from the 'reduced-price bins' in your grocery store. In the last hour before the farmers market closes, vendors are eager to get rid of their stock and offer huge discounts. Buy generic brand and store brand foods (they are often manufactured in the same facility as branded foods). Use the weighing scale to weigh your produce. Produce prices are usually listed by pound, and you won't know how much a fruit or vegetable costs unless you weigh it (Eg: a whole watermelon can weigh about 20 lbs, so when the price is $0.50/lb, you could be paying as much as $10 for your watermelon). Don't eye-ball the weight of fruits and veggies, they may be lighter or heavier than you think.

7. Buy Versatile foods:

Buy foods that can be used in multiple ways. That way you can maximize your options of foods to make and will never get bored of eating the same thing.

8. Skip Pseudo foods:

Don't buy 'nutrient-poor' ingredients that are high in sugar, salt and fats, and low in proteins, vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. Anything that is highly-process or refined (like all-purpose flour, cane sugar, vegetable oil) will cost you both your money and your health. Pseudo foods are designed to be quick, cheap and addictive. They contribute to over 50% of our food budget. The best way to avoid pseudo foods is to shop around the perimeter of a grocery store.

9. Use every bit, and in every way.

Don't get rid of produce skins, overripe produce, crowns of root vegetables, the heads of leafy greens, seeds and pits, spoiled milk, stalks of herbs. You can make all sorts of dishes with them. You can regrow them. Or even use them to make cleaning products. Buy produce when they are still unripe. An unripe fruit has a different composition than a ripe fruit, and offers different nutrients. So take advantage of the full-cycle. Buying unripe produce also ensures that it lasts longer. Having said that, some fruits don't ripen after they've been plucked. Those that ripen are called climacteric and those that don't are called non-climacteric. It's important to recognize them to help you decide which to consume first, and which can be stored long.

10. Buy whole.

In general, don't buy things you can make. You can make dry herbs from fresh herbs. You can make spice powders from whole spices. You can also make your own spice seasonings. If an ingredient is made out of another ingredient, by that ingredient (this is also true for pickles and other fermented foods, mayonnaise, and yogurt and other milk products or plant-based milk products). Don't buy pre-cut produce. You can expect a 100-400% markup over whole produce, and they won't also last as long! The respiration rate (the rate at which the sugars in the produce break down and release carbon dioxide) goes up as soon as you cut it open. This leads to a quick loss of nutrient content and rotting. In fact, the best way to store produce is to leave them unwashed with the skin or rinds intact until the day you plan to eat them. Cutting your own produce does not take as much time as you think.