Food prices are all over the news right now, and for good reason. Milk alone has doubled in price since 2004, and wheat, corn, eggs, produce, cheese, rice, and just about everything else is right behind it. The rapid increase in food prices is probably more alarming than gas prices in a lot of ways. With a little effort, anyone can figure out how to drive around less, but most of us do have to eat on a regular basis no matter what it costs.

Here then are some ideas for keeping down costs while keeping nutrition high. Please add your own ideas, recipes and comments.

1. Buy in Bulk. Not only will you make fewer trips to the store, you can usually save money and eliminate lots of packaging that normally would end up in a landfill. Staples like rice, dry beans, flour, sugar, baking powder & soda, spices, powdered milk, powdered eggs, vegetable oil, vinegar, cereals, teas, coffee, and canned goods are almost always cheaper in bulk. Set up a pantry in your basement or mudroom with some inexpensive heavy-duty shelving and stock up in one trip.
2. Cook Meals. Even if you live alone, cooking is almost always cheaper and better for you than buying prepared or prepackaged convenience foods. You can cook in bulk and freeze microwavable portions, or if you have a family, freeze family sized entrees. Easy-to-freeze homemade meals that can be prepared in large quantities include chili, spaghetti sauce, meatballs, meatloaf, homemade soups and stews, cookies, rolls, pizza dough, and lasagna.
3. Buy a Quarter or a Side of Beef. If you find a local grower and buy your beef in bulk you will not only get a better price, you will know exactly what you are getting and who you are getting it from; no small thing in a era in which prepackaged meat is chemically altered to make it look eternally fresh.
4. Plant Some Veggies. Even if you live in the city you can plant some patio tomatoes, a few peppers, and a window herb garden. If you have only a few feet of sunny good soil, plant runner beans. They will grow all summer and produce more beans than you can eat. Blanche and freeze what you can’t.
5. Have a Special Recipe Party. Find a killer recipe for salsa, rhubarb jam, flavored oils and vinegar, anything that is useful, unique, and cheaper for you to make than to buy. Make a ton of it and host a party where members all share their specialty. In other words, give away twelve jars of salsa, get 12 jars of something else you can eat.
6. Learn to Can. It’s not that hard, and it’s the kind of thing you can do with other family members or a few friends cooperatively for an afternoon and then split the rewards and use them all year. My mother and grandmother put up applesauce, peaches, pears, cherries, blueberries, tomatoes, and prunes every year. (You can skip the prunes, but actually, they’re delicious.)
7. Make Your Own Jam. I live in Michigan, one of the biggest orchard states in the country. You can buy bushels of almost anything in season here and in an afternoon put up enough jam for an entire year. It tastes great and it leave you with a ready gift on hand should you need one in a pinch.
8. Add a Meatless Meal. You don’t have to become a vegetarian to cut back on your consumption of expensive cuts of meat. Macaroni and cheese, bean burritos, cheese pizza, marinara sauce with spaghetti, and beans and rice are all cheap, filling meals that even kids like. Try to include at least one no-meat meat each week, more if you can.
9. Eat Breakfast. Most people skip breakfast and then eat expensive crap out of the vending machines at work around 10:00 am because by that time they’re starving. Don’t do this. Breakfast is cheap, filling, and good for you. It will actually keep your weight down and cause you to eat less the rest of the day. Oatmeal will keep your cholesterol down and costs pennies per bowl.
10. Make a List and Stick to It. Don’t go to the store hungry and don’t impulse shop once you get there. It’s scary how fast your bill goes up when you grab what looks good. If you see a good in-season buy, that’s one thing, but if the $6.99 custard pie is calling, plug your ears.

Saving money on groceries takes discipline, but mostly it’s just a matter of changing old habits. For years now we’ve had lots of cheap food, so much cheap food that two thirds of us are clinically overweight and one third are obese. While change is always hard, today’s high food prices can lead to better nutrition and a more careful diet if we take the time and make the effort. In other words, this dark cloud could have quite a silver lining. I’ll take homemade cobbler over Cheetos anyday!