Cut Your Food Bills in Half

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Use coupons for brands you like. It is definitely worthwhile to keep track of coupons for products you buy repeatedly, and to seek out coupons for expensive items such as olive oil or dairy products. The easiest way is to use the Internet, because printable coupons are offered on Web sites for manufacturers and specific stores. Organic Valley and Stonyfield, for example, offer a nice selection of $1 coupons on their sites, or you can shop for local specials via Web sites hosted by big supermarket chains such as Safeway, Kroger or Food Lion. Coupons not found using either of these methods are also not likely to turn up using various coupon-finding sites, many of which require a cumbersome registration anyway.

Buy cooperatively in bulk. If you feel alone in your quest for the most basic organic foods at a fair price — such as whole grains, flours and peanut butter — you can check with a local food co-op, which may be able to get you a better price than is offered in the store’s bulk bins (home of great buys on whole grains, dry legumes, and herbs and spices). They also can often order hard-to-find items at your request. Another option is to participate in — or even organize — a buying club, which is a group of about seven or more households that combine their orders to get wholesale pricing on just about anything you might buy at a health food store. In addition to saving you money on staples such as flour and rice, a buying club connects you with fellow members on distribution day, when everyone gets together to divvy things up. The biggest national distributor, United Buying Clubs, can help you connect with your closest club.

Glean in season. Historically, when farmers finished harvesting all they wanted of their crops, they invited the local peasants to come and get what was left behind. These days, gleaning is being redefined as “food recovery,” which might involve rescuing overripe fruits from a produce manager’s discard bin, or channeling a caterer’s leftovers to a homeless shelter.

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