1. I try to use up leftovers as much as I can. I just bought the book "How to Cook Without A Book". It has basic recipes for all different sorts of dishes and then you can substitute whatever you have on hand for the specific ingredients. It is kind of a silly title since it is a book, so it would more aptly be called "How to Cook Without Recipes". There already is a book with a title like that, so perhaps the author didn't want to be a copy cat. Anyway, despite, the title it is a pretty good book. I checked it out from the library first to see if it was worth getting and decided is was. Lately we have been trying to eat at home more so I needed some more recipes to fallback on.

2. I make a lot of soup in the crockpot. This is a really good way to use up leftovers. The bad part is that the soup tastes a bit different each time, so if I really like the way it turned out it is hard to duplicate. If I don't have enough leftovers I just make soup with some stock and whatver fresh or frozen veggies I have on hand, some beans, maybe a potato and a chicken breast. On many days that is my breakfast and lunch. I make the soup in the morning on the stove and then leave it on warm all day in the crockpot.

3. I shop at Sam's Club for as many groceries as I can. The prices there are about 30 - 40% cheaper than the local Safeway or Lucky's.

4. I charge all of my groceries using a cash back credit card. It isn't much at each shopping trip but it adds up over the year.

5. When we eat out we usually go to some place pretty inexpensive. For Valentine's Day we just went to our local Chinsese restaurant. Since I work at home it is a treat for me just to get out of the house and eat someone else's cooking, but I don't like spending a lot of money on food since it just gets eaten up. It is not buying a blender or a cookbook - something that you can maybe use for years to come.

More tips on lowering your food costs