Design and methods: Cost-effectiveness analysis from a societal perspective was undertaken for the randomized controlled trial Supermarket Healthy Eating for Life SHELf. The intervention was implemented for three months followed by a six month follow-up.

Costs were measured in Australian dollars. Increases were not maintained six-month post intervention. No effect was noticed in the skill-building group.

The price discount program gave better value for money than the combined price reduction and skill-building intervention.

Apps like Fetch Rewards and Ibotta let you scan your receipts to earn cash back on certain purchases. Rather than using your debit card or generic credit card, shop for groceries with a cash-back card.

Some cards offer multiplied reward points specifically on grocery purchases. Opt for one of the best credit cards for grocery rewards to maximize your reward points while shopping. Or look for a card that gets you cash back on restaurants. I always aim to make enough food at dinner for our family to have enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

That lunch out with co-workers every day adds up, and quickly. And these are cheap fast-food options, which say nothing of sit-down restaurant lunch costs. Compare that to the pennies it would have cost to simply make a larger portion at dinner the night before or whip up a quick sandwich before you head out.

Paying someone else to make your food constitutes an entertainment expense, not a food cost. So pack your own lunch. Even if you have no intention of giving up meat, you can at least try eating less of it.

Try slimming down your meat portion sizes and scaling up your fruit and vegetable portions. For example, I set aside bacon and eggs as a treat for weekend mornings.

During the week, I start every day with a bowl of low-fat yogurt with nuts, fruits, and homemade granola. Most grocery stores have a special section for meats nearing their sell-by date. The next time you crave carnivorous luxuries like filet mignon, rib-eyes, or lamb tenderloin, check the sale section.

Fresh fruits and vegetables spoil relatively quickly. If you have specific plans to cook with a fruit or vegetable within the next day or two, you can buy fresh produce.

It certainly tastes better. But according to Healthline , frozen food packs just as many nutrients. You can open it at your leisure, use some, and put the rest back in the freezer to use another day. When you buy spices at the grocery store, do you buy them in the fancy little glass shakers?

Or do you buy them in plastic bags? If you have a yard, devoting a small section to growing vegetables or herbs can make for a fun hobby that also saves you money.

See their sample garden for details. Apartment dwellers can grow herbs or small vegetable plants in a container garden.

If your alcohol consumption is relatively consistent, you can buy all your wine and liquor strategically throughout the year. For example, in my last hometown, two of the largest liquor stores had a semiannual sale.

Then you can stock an inexpensive wine rack with all your bottles and always have the right liquor for cocktails or the perfect wine to pair with dinner. Another option for saving money on your liquor tab is Drizly. They maintain a database of local liquor stores all over the country along with their inventory and pricing.

You can find the lowest prices near you and have your order delivered to your home or office. The last thing you want is your case of upscale wine cooking in the hot sun or freezing solid on your porch.

Restaurants typically mark up their wines and alcoholic beverages by three or four times retail pricing. Instead, research local restaurants with a bring-your-own-bottle policy.

In fact, you may not notice any difference in taste at all. For example, the second-label wine might have slightly less complexity but be just as smooth or even smoother.

Find out more about second-label wines on The Wine Cellar Insider. Wine and liquor rankings are subjective. Some studies, including a Cambridge University study, have found even experts have trouble telling cheap wines from expensive bottles.

Grab some like-palated friends and host your own wine or whiskey tasting — but with a twist. It must be double-blind, like a proper scientific experiment. Have someone not participating in the tasting bag each bottle and number them. Then go through and taste each, keeping notes about how you liked each numbered bottle.

Blind tastings let you find value wines you can stock rather than falsely assuming a link between price and quality. Another way to ensure you like what you buy is to attend public tastings.

Their job gets easier the more they pour. So leave your credit card at home, and just bring however much cash you plan to spend on the bottles you liked. Also bring a notepad, and write down the names of your favorite wines. If you drink wine regularly, you can buy them in bulk at the next big semiannual sale.

I love a glass of wine with dinner — but not the full four or five glasses in a single bottle. That presents a problem because wine oxidizes within a day or two and loses its freshness and flavor.

It can lead you to avoid opening wines when you want a glass or open a bottle and feel obliged to finish it. But there are two wine preservation systems that can help. The first is a vacuum pump, which pulls all the air out of the bottle to minimize oxygen exposure. Try the combination wine aerator and wine vacuum pack from Barvivo.

The second option involves spraying an inert gas into the wine bottle before recorking it. The gas is heavier than oxygen, so it blankets the surface of the wine and prevents exposure to oxygen. Check out Private Preserve as an affordable wine preservation gas.

As for how long they preserve your wine, it depends on the wine, as some wines deteriorate faster than others. If you want to get fancy, you can dress it up by spending slightly more on extras like flavored syrups.

All you need to make roastery-quality coffee drinks at home are the right gourmet home coffee recipes and coffee makers. Start making your coffee at home, and put yourself on a strict coffee budget. And for the days you allow yourself to buy coffee out with friends, leverage creative tips for free or cheap drinks at Starbucks.

The solution: wine ice cubes. You can do the same with coffee. Coffee ice cubes serve a different purpose, helping you create the perfect iced coffee. Watered-down iced coffee is the worst, but by using coffee ice cubes, you keep it cool without diluting it.

Much of that entertainment spending was on food and beverages. That means you have plenty of room for savings. Some ways to save include tricks and hacks, while others require discipline. Get serious about your financial goals , envision your life once you reach them, and commit to stop spending so much on food and beverages.

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Brian Davis. Table of contents.

Keep your family from drowning your food budget with these eight ways to cut beverage costs without sacrificing taste. At least, that is what my children say as they look in our fridge for something to drink. I always have lots of bottles of cold, sparkling water on hand, but they prefer soft drinks, juice boxes, Gatorade, Hawaiian Punch, flavored milk like chocolate and strawberry, and sports drinks.

There are several ways that I found to reduce it, without sacrificing taste. Milk prices are enough to make even the cows bellow. I discovered that buying the chocolate and strawberry powders that you add to the white milk saved us in the long run. Plus, I was able to use coupons on the cans, saving even more.

My twelve-year-old says it tastes better than the pre-mixed flavored milk. All I do is get a can out the night before, put it in the fridge to thaw and then add water the next morning.

I use a fancy pitcher that the kids like to grab when they want a fruity drink. Subscribe to get money-saving content by email that can help you stretch your dollars further. Twice each week, you'll receive articles and tips that can help you free up and keep more of your hard-earned money, even on the tightest of budgets.

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time. Gatorade is another favorite but spendy drink. Gatorade is another instance where buying the powdered version can often save you considerably. Canned soda pop can deflate your budget.

And the larger cans often get wasted. My children only drink about half and then leave the rest sitting around. I countered by buying small pop bottles on sale and then refilling them from the larger bottles bought on sale.

Even so, soda is an occasional treat in our house. As the weather turns chilly, hot chocolate is a favorite. Yet the pouches disappear faster than I can buy them. I discovered a giant, family-size canister in the oversized aisle for less than half per serving than the individual packets.

There is a convenient scoop included, so it is still easy to measure the right amount. The last time I counted, there were seventeen varieties at my local store. It is actually cheaper to buy the pre-sweetened kind since it is all too easy to add too much sugar. It seems the coffee section in our grocery store keeps getting longer.

There are so many choices, and some of us are very particular about our coffee consumption. She ordered a braised short rib served with gorgonzola polenta, and we shared a bottle of Chilean cabernet. Whenever you come across a meal you love, learn how to make it.

Learn to make your top 20 favorite meals and what wines pair well with them. From there, you can branch out. People spend a surprising amount of money measured in billions, per the USDA report on salty snack foods. But you can often make them yourself for a fraction of the cost and have complete control over the ingredients that go into them.

For example, I recently bought a food processor to help me make my three favorite dips: salsa , guacamole , and hummus. You can make everything from kale chips to pita bread , so get creative to save money and eat healthier with delicious homemade snacks.

Grocery stores are crowded on weekends, which is reason enough to shop on weekdays. A Today report found that various foods and beverages cost measurably less during the week.

Because many grocery stores run weekly offers on a Wednesday-to-Wednesday schedule, Wednesdays often make the best day to go grocery shopping to capitalize on new deals before they sell out. To maximize profits, restaurants cook with cheaper, less healthy ingredients. One of the best ways to save money on food and beverages is to go to restaurants and bars less often.

Host a game night or potluck. So when you want to get out of the house, visit establishments with specials. When I was young and single, living in a vibrant downtown neighborhood, I kept a spreadsheet of nightly specials and happy hour specials for all the restaurants and bars within walking distance.

It became a running joke among my friends — but they texted me every time they needed a recommendation. Ask about any nightly specials, happy hour deals, or recurring bargains.

Then plan accordingly to save money eating out at restaurants. Before going grocery shopping, plan exactly what meals you plan to make for every meal the following week. Then spend a short time inventorying which ingredients you already have and which ingredients you need. Add the latter to your grocery list, and buy only those things.

No extras. No impulse buys. The best way to save money on groceries is the simplest. Plan your meals , and stick to your list. Never shop for groceries — or anything else — on an empty stomach. Alternatively, do your food shopping online.

Most people buy the same two dozen groceries repeatedly. They let you save favorite products, view previous orders, and submit new orders online for delivery or curbside pickup.

Generic brand foods can be a mixed bag. Some are identical to name-brand foods and may even be manufactured in the same food processing plant.

The only difference is the packaging. Others are legitimately different products. Some taste just as good or better than the original, while others taste inferior. Before you shop for groceries, research where your store-brand foods come from.

You might find your favorite name brand makes them. But finding the ones you like lets you shave money off your grocery bill without having to use coupons. Rather than clipping coupons, try grocery coupon apps like Coupons. com and Coupon Sherpa. Other apps help you score cash back after you check out.

Apps like Fetch Rewards and Ibotta let you scan your receipts to earn cash back on certain purchases. Rather than using your debit card or generic credit card, shop for groceries with a cash-back card. Some cards offer multiplied reward points specifically on grocery purchases.

Opt for one of the best credit cards for grocery rewards to maximize your reward points while shopping. Or look for a card that gets you cash back on restaurants. I always aim to make enough food at dinner for our family to have enough leftovers for lunch the next day.

That lunch out with co-workers every day adds up, and quickly. And these are cheap fast-food options, which say nothing of sit-down restaurant lunch costs. Compare that to the pennies it would have cost to simply make a larger portion at dinner the night before or whip up a quick sandwich before you head out.

Paying someone else to make your food constitutes an entertainment expense, not a food cost. So pack your own lunch. Even if you have no intention of giving up meat, you can at least try eating less of it. Try slimming down your meat portion sizes and scaling up your fruit and vegetable portions.

For example, I set aside bacon and eggs as a treat for weekend mornings. During the week, I start every day with a bowl of low-fat yogurt with nuts, fruits, and homemade granola.

Most grocery stores have a special section for meats nearing their sell-by date. The next time you crave carnivorous luxuries like filet mignon, rib-eyes, or lamb tenderloin, check the sale section. Fresh fruits and vegetables spoil relatively quickly.

If you have specific plans to cook with a fruit or vegetable within the next day or two, you can buy fresh produce. It certainly tastes better. But according to Healthline , frozen food packs just as many nutrients.

You can open it at your leisure, use some, and put the rest back in the freezer to use another day. When you buy spices at the grocery store, do you buy them in the fancy little glass shakers? Or do you buy them in plastic bags? If you have a yard, devoting a small section to growing vegetables or herbs can make for a fun hobby that also saves you money.

See their sample garden for details. Apartment dwellers can grow herbs or small vegetable plants in a container garden. If your alcohol consumption is relatively consistent, you can buy all your wine and liquor strategically throughout the year. For example, in my last hometown, two of the largest liquor stores had a semiannual sale.

Then you can stock an inexpensive wine rack with all your bottles and always have the right liquor for cocktails or the perfect wine to pair with dinner. Another option for saving money on your liquor tab is Drizly.

They maintain a database of local liquor stores all over the country along with their inventory and pricing. You can find the lowest prices near you and have your order delivered to your home or office. The last thing you want is your case of upscale wine cooking in the hot sun or freezing solid on your porch.

Restaurants typically mark up their wines and alcoholic beverages by three or four times retail pricing. Instead, research local restaurants with a bring-your-own-bottle policy.

In fact, you may not notice any difference in taste at all. For example, the second-label wine might have slightly less complexity but be just as smooth or even smoother. Find out more about second-label wines on The Wine Cellar Insider. Wine and liquor rankings are subjective.