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If you want to eat well while keeping within a budget, the Simple Dollar offers a few tips for making sure you shop well and don’t let any of your food purchases go to waste.
Buying in bulk, getting fresh produce from farmer’s markets and cooking meals that work as leftovers are all good moves, but there are some traps to avoid too:

• Don’t buy ingredients that only work for one dish – especially if they’re perishable.
• Double check the value of sale items or coupons – home brand items may still be cheaper
• Make one big supermarket trip a month, supplemented by small shops at markets for fresh produce. This will force you to get creative and use what you have on hand.

The goal is to use up all the food you buy, rather than throwing out wasted food  – which translates to wasted money. Makes sense.
I’d add another tip – avoid shopping at supermarkets which like to prepackage foods into larger amounts than you really need. Coles is a big offender – it’s hard to buy smaller amounts of some meats and fruit and veg because they package them up in ‘family size’ containers.
Got any tips for stretching your food budget further? Share in comments please.

The Lazy Man’s Guide to Shopping on a Budget [The Simple Dollar]