The cost of food is often prohibitive to healthy eating. Learning to shop frugally and wisely can save you money and put you on the road to healthful meals.

• Buy paper products in bulk. Tissues, toilet paper, paper napkins, paper towel have no 'best used by' date.
  
  
• Cut back on convenience foods. Except when it is prudent to buy them, i.e. deep sales, 2 for 1, etc.
  
  
• Want your family to eat more fruit? Cut it up for them. Buy fruits and make fruit salad the way the supermarkets do. Cut the fruit and place it in a large bowl keep cold in your refrigerator. Do not use any fruit that will turn brown.
  
  
• Clip coupons only for products that you really use; coffee, tea and cereal are good examples.
  
  
• Team up with a friend when store is having its annual canned goods sale. If peas are 5 for $ and corn is 5 for $, take 2 cans of one item and 3 cans of the other. Work it out with your friend. Agree to buy for salt-free products when possible. Canned goods keep for up to a year if kept in a cool spot.
  
  
• It is worth the extra 10 or 15 minute drive if you find a store where food prices are lower overall.
  
  
• If you buy those 6 chickens because they are sale, then allow them to get freezer-burn* because you forget they are in the freezer, you have not saved money. Take time to add the date you placed product in the freezer. Check freezer content at least every two weeks.
  
  
• Remember it is not always best to buy the giant size. Think before you buy, have some idea in advance what you will do with the remaining product after opening and using a portion.
  

IDEAS: Be careful to properly wrap food before freezing to prevent freezer-burn. Freezer-burn appears are the off color leathery spots on chicken and meats. It is caused when air reaches the surface of the food product.

See Food Shopping 101 Plus below.