Budget Cooking
You don't need to spend a lot of money to eat well. Here's how I keep my grocery bill low without sacrificing quality.
One of the biggest myths about cooking at home is that it's expensive. It's not — especially compared to eating out or ordering in. You just have to be smart about where you shop, what you buy, and how you store it. I eat well on a pretty reasonable budget, and most of that comes down to a few habits I've built over time.
Buy Store Brand Everything
This is the single biggest thing you can do for your grocery bill. I shop at Wegmans, and I buy the Wegmans brand of almost everything. The savings are massive and the quality difference is negligible. Here's a real example: a jar of Rao's tomato sauce runs about $6. The Wegmans brand? Around $1.30. If you did a blind taste test, sure, one might be slightly better. But is it five dollars better? Absolutely not. Whatever grocery store you shop at, they almost certainly have their own store brand — use it. This applies to canned goods, sauces, spices, dairy, pasta, rice, stock, you name it.
The Freezer Is Your Best Friend
Buy in bulk and freeze what you don't use immediately. All you need is some plastic wrap and Ziploc bags. Wrap your proteins tightly in plastic wrap, then put them in a Ziploc, and they'll keep for a long time in the freezer. If you're rotating through your freezer relatively frequently — which you will be if you're meal prepping — you don't even really need to worry about dating things. I buy 5-pound bags of chicken breast for around $12. Same deal for chicken thighs — and I always buy them bone-in, skin-on because it's significantly cheaper. You can always remove the bone and skin yourself later if a recipe calls for it. Buying one or two main proteins for the week in bulk and cooking it all at once is the most cost-effective way to eat.
Know Your Price Tiers
Not all proteins are created equal from a cost perspective, and understanding the tiers helps you plan smarter. Chicken and eggs are at the bottom — incredibly cheap and incredibly versatile. Pork is honestly underrated on a budget; it's quite affordable and doesn't get enough credit. Ground beef is reasonable too. Once you start getting into salmon, other fish, and the nicer steak cuts, the price goes up fast. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy those — just know they're more of a weekend treat than an everyday staple if you're watching your spending. For carbs, pasta, rice, and potatoes are all dirt cheap and go with everything. For produce, vegetables tend to be cheaper than fruits, and when cooked they go with more meals. Roasted broccoli, sautéed peppers and onions, roasted potatoes — these sides cost almost nothing and round out any plate.
Quick Tips
- ●Store brand over name brand — the savings add up fast and the quality difference is minimal.
- ●Buy proteins in bulk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and a Ziploc bag, and freeze what you won't use this week.
- ●Bone-in, skin-on chicken is cheaper than boneless skinless — you can always remove it yourself.
- ●Chicken, eggs, and pork are your best budget proteins. Save steak and fish for when you want to treat yourself.
- ●Pasta, rice, and potatoes are the cheapest carbs you can buy and they pair with everything on this site.