Since food costs only seem to be getting higher and higher each year, reining that in a bit can really affect our budget. Even if we are able to save just a little bit of money each week, it can really add up over time. But, we don’t want to skimp on the quality of food we choose either. Forgive us, we’re picky! That being said, we’ve figured out a couple of really good tricks to help out. Here are the 2 best ways to get great deals on our food, in our opinion.

#1. GROCERY STORE Deals on Food

The first place I always look for good deals on food is the grocery store. Unless, it happens to be a Saturday and I can hit up our local farmer’s market. The smaller one near us has farmers that are close by and all of them use organic practices. Plus, we can get a heck of a lot of produce from them for much less than the grocery store. But, since we aren’t able to make it each week, the grocery stores are our second choice.

While they are more expensive than our local farmers, we have been pretty lucky to find some good, organic produce at most of them. Most grocery stores have weekly deals on different products, some of which are usually produce. Not everything these stores sell will be healthy food though. So just remember to keep an eye out for local organic produce whenever possible. By keeping your diet full of healthy foods, it can only benefit both in quality of life and your wallet (hopefully).

Look for grocery stores that specialize in more local products and/or products from other countries. A lot of other countries can have better quality standards with their food than we do (sadly!). Due to this, it would benefit you to look for those items. Also, these items tend to cost less than some of the products grown here.

Some of the best grocery store options we’ve found the best deals at include:

• Aldi
• H Mart – Asian
• Lidl
• Patel Brothers – Indian
• Trader Joe’s
• Weaver Street Market – a local coop that we are members of
• Wegmans

If you have access to any of these, they are who I would suggest starting with. However, don’t forget to look for your smaller, independent grocery stores that specialize in specific cuisine. I’m able to get a lot of local organic produce from our smaller coop at Weaver Street, and they give us a discount on produce specifically each week. When I’m looking for rice, I prefer the Asian or Indian markets because they have a much wider variety. And I can get huge bags for a fraction of what I would pay in a regular grocery store. Sometimes getting specific things at specialty stores are well worth the extra trip. This is especially true when I can buy things in larger quantities that will last longer to offset the extra drive.

#2. DEALs on food WEBSITES

Aside from the grocery stores, I like to peruse websites that offer deals on food. Some of these websites will offer deals on grocery stores and restaurants, and some are just one or the other. Either way, they are a good place to take a look in case they have something that may work for you to help reduce your overall food costs.

Out of all the coupon websites we’ve run across, the following are our favorite options for deals on food:

• Groupon – as one of the largest deal websites in the world, there’s always a ton of choices to choose from. Not only can you search online, but you can also get a deal while you are physically at the restaurant. All you have to do is then show the code to your server when it is time to pay and it discounts your meal. Pretty awesome!
• Living Social – this one is a direct rival site to Groupon. While they don’t typically have as many deals as Groupon does, they always have a lot. And, as a bonus, they are usually the competitors to the Groupon listings. So we like to check both just to see who is offering the better deal in similar genres.
• LocalFlavor.com – this site operates the same way as Groupon and Living Social, but it is more for local restaurants as opposed to chains. Plus, you get 25% off your first purchase when you sign up for their daily email with deals. This one we like a lot since we prefer to eat locally whenever possible. And deals at these types of restaurants are definitely much harder to come by.
• Restaurant.com – this site has deals that never expire, which is one of my favorite things. You can go on there and search by genre or specific restaurant to see what they have. A lot of the deals are similar to paying $10 for $25 worth of food. This is the type of savings can really add up and help our bottom line!

Deals on food summary

Overall, there are a lot of great places that you can find good deals on food. If you have access to a smaller, local farmers market, that’s always the best place to start. After that, the grocery stores is where it’s at. These will definitely cost you less than eating at a restaurant, but typically more than a local farmers market. After these two, looking for deals on food websites is the place to hit for restaurants. Ultimately, following these tips can help stretch your food money even further.

What are some of the best ways you’ve found to get the best deals on food?