How To Eat Cheap

Need to know how to eat cheap? Eating cheap is a problem that often comes up when money is tight. You don't need to make a great sacrifice to eat cheap, and you can eat cheap without giving up on taste or nutrition. Follow the tips below to save a lot of money while still managing to eat well.

1. Enroll yourself at a local food pantry. If you truly can't afford to buy food because of hard times, look for a local food pantry. Most of them allow you to go once or twice a month and will give you bags of groceries at no cost. Don't use food pantries just to save money; use them only if you really need to.
2. Drink water with meals or in between meals. Water will help you eat cheap by making you feel full. When you feel full, you won't be searching for seconds.
3. Put away a few extra dollars and look at several grocery stores for sales items. When you find, for instance, chicken legs and thighs at 39 cents per pound sold in ten pound packages, that's $3.90 for about ten to twelve pieces. At that price stock up and buy an extra bag or two and freeze it.
4. Don't shop at the large chain grocery stores unless they have a good sales item, and then only buy the sales item there. Most chain stores charge twice as much as a smaller, local grocer. Higher prices make it difficult to eat cheap.
5. Don't eat out, make your own food at home. The only time to go out for food is when using the dollar menu at a fast food place, and even then you don't have to eat unhealthy just to eat cheap. You can get a great grilled chicken sandwich and a yogurt granola fruit parfait for just two dollars.
6. Use cheaper foods as a staple with meals. The best example is ramen noodles. They sell for about ten to fifteen cents a pack and can be eaten as a soup, a non-cooked snack or part of a main dish or side dish.
7. Fill up on cheaper foods, such as eggs and potatoes. Eggs are the cheapest, best source of protein you'll ever find. A two- or even three-egg omelet is huge and nutritious. Potatoes are very cheap and filling, so include those in your menu when you want to eat cheap.

When you want to eat cheap, don't be timid shopping. Many deli departments will sell you the ends of their cold cuts and cheese loaves at a fraction of the original cost. Also, many stores are starting to have small sections where they sell produce and other foods at a greatly reduced rate because of proximity to expiration dates.