It’s no surprise that you’re feeling sticker shock when you visit the grocery store. CNBC reports grocery costs have risen 25 percent over the last couple years, and other sources report that Massachusetts has experienced one of the highest rates of food cost inflation in the country.
But is there a way to save money on food in Massachusetts? Can you still feed a family on a tight budget?
Yes! There are several strategies you can put into place to keep bellies full without breaking the bank. As a dietitian and frugal living enthusiast, here are some of my best tips.
Scope out the deals in stores and on apps
While many of the grocery stores in Massachusetts can feel super expensive, there are some great ways to save money by looking for deals (both at the grocery store and elsewhere). Here are some of my favorite options:
Shop at ALDI or Market Basket.
Between shopping for my family and shopping for groceries for work (I do recipe development for a few websites and brands), I’ve spent my fair share of time in grocery stores. ALDI and Market Basket are typically the cheapest for a cart of food.
ALDI is my go-to regular grocery store. I absolutely love it for it’s small size, easy navigation, and low prices. You have to be OK with buying their brand of almost everything, but it can save so much money.
My husband is a Market Basket fan, but the one around here is always crowded and I get stressed out shopping there, haha. That said, it is cheap.
If you’re currently shopping at another grocery store, I’d highly recommend checking out these two which should help immediately chop some of your grocery bill.
Use the Flashfood app
The Flashfood app partners with local grocery stores – in Massachusetts, it’s almost exclusively with Stop and Shop. They post discounted items on the app, which typically are a mix of near-expiring options and overstock. You can purchase them right on the app, and then all you need to do is swing by the store to grab them (just tell self-checkout or customer service that you have a Flashfood order).
This is one of my all time favorite options, because it serves two purposes – helps me save money, and can keep food out of the landfill. Often when I’m planning meals for the week, I’ll see what I can get on Flashfood first, then build the rest of my list around that.
If you’ve never used FlashFood, please try it out and use my referral code: CHRI2VVQP. If you make an initial purchase of $10 or more, you’ll get a $5 reward bonus on the app (and so will I!).
Here’s an example of a recent order from the last year – a banana box (great for baking and freezing for smoothies), a mixed vegetable box, a mixed fruit box, burgers, sausage, and ravioli. Total price? $22!
Check the Shaw’s app for deals
Shaw’s is no doubt one of the pricier supermarkets, but each week they often have incredible loss leaders (aka food at a big discount to encourage people to get into the store). If you shop those, and then go elsewhere for the rest of your staples, you can save a ton of money.
You may need to clip coupons for these deals in their app. When you download the app, go to “deals” in the middle of the bottom navigation. From here, you can scroll through the deals or click on “weekly ad” to see the highlights of this week’s deals.
For example, at the time of publish, here were some of the weekly deals available (obviously these will no longer be available when reading this article, but it’s helpful to give you an idea of what types of sales you might see):
- Peaches, plums, and nectarines – $1.77/lb
- 80/20 ground beef – $2.77/lb
- Salmon fillets – $7.97/lb
- Sargento shredded cheese – $1.97/lb
- General mills cereal – $1.97/each
Sometimes the app will have extra bonus coupons too, like $5 off a $50 purchase.
Keep an eye on Buy Nothing groups or local Facebook groups
Buy Nothing groups are exactly what they sound like – a group where people give things away for free. You can see if your town has one (or start one if they don’t!). I’m surprised how often I see food in these groups.
Similarly, we’ve got a local Moms Facebook group and neighborhood Facebook group where I sometimes see food posted.
For example, someone might giveaway packaged snacks that their kids didn’t like, or giveaway extra veggies from overflow in their garden. (There are sometimes open items as well, and you can weigh how comfortable you are with those types of foods.)
Heck, even today my neighbor posted a frozen pizza she bought that she couldn’t eat because she didn’t realize it had one of her allergens. I grabbed it and paired it with a salad I had in the fridge – boom, inexpensive lunch for the family.
Check out Asian supermarkets.
If you’re lucky enough to live near an Asian supermarket, these can be great places to score deals on items like noodles, beans, lentils, produce, spices, and more. Pricing obviously varies from place to place, but pop in and see what you can find.
Try the Martie app for specialty snacks and pantry goods.
This is a more recent app I found out about, and isn’t necessarily local to Massachusetts – but they ship here, so it’s worth mentioning. You can purchase food products that are nearing expiration through the app, and have them shipped right to your house. (As an aside, “expiration” is a very misleading term – the expiration dates on foods – except baby formula – is a quality date, NOT a safety date.)
This isn’t going to be a huge money saver if you don’t want or need specialty snack items or pantry goods. But if you do enjoy purchasing those items, this can help you save on them. And if you want to use this referral link, you’ll get a $5 discount on your first order!
For example, I love Kodiak instant oatmeal packets for breakfast or their baked bars for snacks. Yes, I can make oatmeal from a canister or make homemade bars, and it’s cheaper. But sometimes, the convenience of these items and the added protein in them is a nice option. I don’t like to spend $6-7 on that at the grocery store, but I can sometimes catch it on Martie for $2-3, and that’s worth it for me.
Try Too Good to Go for cheap takeout.
If you love eating out but can’t always stomach the prices, Too Good to Go is an awesome app that posts “surprise bags” from local restaurants and bakeries. You can purchase them within 24 hours of the pickup time, and typically the pickup is towards the end of their open hours. In the surprise bags, they’ll give you whatever they’ve got left or extra on hand.
Here in Central Massachusetts, I frequent a few places using Too Good to Go:
- Nan’s Kitchen and Market (Stow): The Two Good orders are often some type of grain bowls with veggies, but sometimes we’ve also gotten chicken and sides. It’s perfect on a summer night when I don’t feel like cooking.
- Nashoba Brook Bakery (Concord): They make some incredibly delicious breads, so I love to grab this if I’m going to be in the Concord area that day.
- Honey Dew Donuts (Hudson): If I want to grab a weekend treat, I like this option (and it’s only $4.99 on the app). It’s typically an assortment of donuts and muffins.
If there’s a place you love, I recommend setting an alarm to remind yourself to check it when the sales option opens for the following day. Many can sell out quickly.
Meal Plan
You’ve probably heard it a thousand times, but it bears repeating – meal planning is a great way to save money on your groceries. By taking a few hours each week to plan out meals ahead of time, you are able to shop for only what you need for meals, ensure you have everything on hand for the week, and avoid the dinnertime scramble of “what should I make?!”. Planning ahead allows you to stretch your grocery budget by avoiding impulse buys and reducing waste.
Plus, meal planning offers several health benefits. It gives you more control over what goes into your body, and you’re able to customize meals based on your dietary needs (if that’s a concern for you!).
To make your meal plan, scope out some of the weekly ads for the grocery store, as well as items on Flashfood that you might purchase. Figure out several dinner ideas that make use of the best sale priced items (or naturally inexpensive items like beans). Make your list based on these ideas and add any additional staples (i.e. fruit, bread, milk) that you might need.
You can also consider building your meal plan (or part of it) around one main protein that’s on sale. For example, you could make purchase chicken that’s on sale and make a big batch of plain shredded chicken in the crockpot. One night, you create buffalo chicken wraps with it. Another night, it gets made into a BBQ chicken pizza. On the third night, you make burrito bowls.
Make Frugal Recipes
When you’re meal planning, remember that every meal doesn’t have to be a fancy recipe. Sometimes, simple dinners that you can throw together quickly are best for your family.
Here are some of our favorite easy dinners which can easily be adapted to what’s on sale.
- Tacos – Anytime I’m not sure what to make, this is my go-to, because you can get creative with with ingredients. Think corn tortillas (with a little char, please!) topped with seasoned roasted sweet potatoes, beans, sautéed greens, and a homemade spicy Greek yogurt sauce (just mix yogurt and hot sauce or chipotle peppers).
- Stir fry – The basic formula I use is grain + veggies + protein + sauce. Your grain could be brown rice, noodles, or quinoa. Your veggies can be pretty much anything you have on hand. Protein might be chicken, canned fish, of even leftover deli meat. Your sauce could be soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, peanut sauce…you name it.
- Egg Casserole – Another classic “use up the fridge” meal. Mix together a bunch of eggs with some cooked veggies and cheese, and bake. You could go with broccoli, greens, onions, peppers, butternut squash, or really any veggie you’ve got on hand.
- Loaded potatoes – Bake potatoes, then top with veggies, beans, salsa, and cheese. Easy peasy.
- Chili – Whether beef, chicken, or vegetarian chili, you can typically make a big pot for a relatively reasonable cost thanks to the reliance on many inexpensive canned or dry goods.
- Tuna bowls – Combine cooked rice with canned tuna, avocado, quick-pickled cucumbers, and sriracha.
- Protein + veggie + starch – Meals don’t always have to follow a recipe or be fancy. What protein is on sale this week? Great, grab that and pair it with any veggie and starch (like potatoes, pasta, rice, etc) of your choosing.
- Breakfast for dinner – When all else fails, breakfast for dinner is easy and quick. Eggs, toast, bacon, and fruit salad are our go-to.
Reduce the amount of food you throw out
Approximately 30 to 40 percent of the food supply in the United States is wasted. Some of this occurs at the production and retail level, but a lot occurs in consumer homes too. If you find yourself tossing food that’s gone bad, it’s like throwing cash into the trash.
Take steps to maximize every bit of food that you purchase, and you’ll find yourself reducing your grocery bill.
For example, if you have leftovers, you can start with the obvious step of eating them later that week, or freezing them to eat in future weeks/months.
But maybe you just have a little bit of this or a little bit of that, and aren’t sure what to do with it. Try getting creative and think about ways you can transform them into something new.
For example…
- Take leftover mashed potatoes and make crispy potato flatulas. It’s such a unique way of turning them into another meal and feels nothing like the first use.
- Extra marinara sauce from pasta can get used another night in shakshuka
- Stale bread can be transformed into French toast, croutons, or panzanella salad (this watermelon panzanella is one of my very favorites in the summer)
- Leftover roasted turkey or chicken can get tossed into a homemade curry recipe
- Leftover ham can get made into homemade hot pockets
- Extra roasted veggies from last night’s dinner can get thrown into today’s quiche for brunch
The Bottom Line
While it’s challenging – especially with rising food costs – it is possible to save money on groceries in Massachusetts and still enjoy delicious, balanced meals. By meal planning, shopping at the right spots, and getting creative with cooking, you can ease the financial burden that comes along with feeding yourself (and your family). Of course, if you are truly struggling and don’t have enough money to spend on food, please do take advantage of resources available like SNAP, WIC, and other helpful programs.
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