Everyone's style and needs are different. And although I can cook, I usually tend toward time-saving meals more than money-saving meals. I'm sure someone can come up with better ideas but here's some things I do.
1. Establish days of the week for certain meals. Knowing what you're going to cook on certain days helps you to plan ahead and be better prepare to spot bargains. Wednesday is spaghetti night at our house. Spaghetti is cheap but good! If you don't like to cook - it's Barilla or Ragu for sauce. A salad, and garlic bread for sides. To break up the monotony, I will sometimes use bowties, or elbows etc. If you like to make you sauce from scratch, this would be a great thing to make in volume and freeze for future meals.
2. Pasta, rice, and instant potatos are great low-cost bases for many meals.
My six kids favorite cheap dish is Pasta Tuna. It's what it sounds like. Boiled pasta spread out in a cassarole dish, butter, 3 cans of tuna and sometimes peas or broccoli added. Whips up in no time. And of course there's always Mac&cheese. It's great mixed with chopped hotdogs or brocolli.
3. Eat more chicken. Chicken is still pretty cheap per pound. I like to buy a large roaster for Sunday. I like to make Sunday dinner the big meal of the week. If you buy a large enough roaster chicken (say 7lbs or more), you can make other meals, soups sandwiches that will last through the week. Freeze the leftovers.
4. If you have kids, invest in a freezer and buy bulk!
Even with the Costco, BJ's and Sams, I find that you can still get some pretty good deals buying bulk from your regular super when theres a sale.
5. If tuna is on sale, I buy it by the case.
6. Here's one that really helped me save $. Budget your food bill. Save receipts and keep track of everything you buy for 1 month. From that, you can see where the leaks are and where you can cut costs. Then have a food allowance for the month. If you have kids in school, making their lunches - even a day or two a week can save more than buying from the school.
7. Grow your own produce. A little victory garden patch in your yard can produce more than you can use in veggies. Give the rest away to your neighbors or freeze and save the rest. And you can have lettuce in winter if you have a nice sunny window.
8. If you want to make a little extra $ with your home grown veggies, the easiest way is just set up a small table near the road with a secure change box and have the veggies in bags or small boxes with the price. They'll sell themselves.
9. Think bulk when buying often-used items. And think generic. I find that even with coupons, generics more often than not beat out name brand products. And it's a HUGE time saver too. I hate clipping coupons - only to have to spend twice as much time in the supermarket searching for the coupon items - which sometimes the store doen't even carry.
Ug!
Sorry for going on so long! Too much coffee this morning!
Maybe you're doing much of this stuff already. I'd love to hear other people's ideas too!