I am pretty much doing what everyone else is doing. Planning menus, sticking to lists, shopping sales, stockpiling deals, using up what's on hand, and eliminating extras. Although it's been hard, I have really reduced my impulse buys.
For bread, I have been buying fresh french and sourdough bread in the bakery section (costs about $1.25 a loaf, frequently less).
Milk is a bit of an issue, since I like to buy organic. I buy shelf-stable vanilla soy milk for myself, which is a little bit cheaper, and I am going to switch to powdered for baking.
We also still buy bottled water and I am considering one of those faucet filter devices if I can talk my husband into it. He likes a particularly brand of water, so it won't be easy.
Since we have good weather, we have already started a garden with tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and herbs. We had mixed results with last year's garden (pest problems), but are hopeful we'll do better this year. We have an apple, an orange, an almond, and an avocado tree, as well as blueberry bushes, but none of them will begin producing for another year or two. We'd like to eventually grow most of our own produce, but we're a long way from that goal. In the meantime, we try to stick to buying what's in season.
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