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One of the most important purchases we make is the food that we buy for ourselves and our families.  As food prices has risen over the last decade, families are finding that food purchases are consuming more and more of their monthly budget.  By changing some ingrained habits and making smarter choices, you can reduce the amount of money that is spent on food each month by 30% or more.

Cook Your Meals At Home
One of the most significant money wasters for most people is the money that they spend in restaurants each month.  Even though ordering food from a restaurant may be exceedingly convenient for people on the go, the price of the meal can be more than 300% higher than it would have cost the person to create the same meal in their own kitchen.  Even fast food can cost more than twice as much as purchasing the raw materials at the grocery store and creating the items yourself.  If you do not have a great deal of experience cooking, look for beginner cookbooks at your local bookstore or find simple recipes online.

Fight Impulse Purchases At The Grocery Store
Grocery stores spend massive amounts of money each year hiring consultants to show them the best way to get you to put items that you see in the store into your shopping cart, whether you need the items or not.  $10 in impulse purchases per week will add up to an additional $520 spent at the grocery store each year.  To avoid making impulse purchases at the grocery store, make a list of the items that you need before you head to the store and stick to this list once you have entered the store.

Take Your Lunch To Work
Packing your lunch each morning to take with you to work can cut the amount of money that you spend on weekday lunches by a significant amount.  The typical fast food meal with sandwich, side, and drink will cost around $6 per day while bringing a sandwich, side, and drink from home will cost about $2 per day, resulting in a savings of $20 per week or nearly $1000 per year.

Choose Generics Or Store Brands Over Name Brands
When you purchase name brand items at the grocery store, often you are paying more for the name than for the quality.  In fact, in many cases there is no difference in quality between the name brand and the store brand items in the grocery store because they are manufactured according to the same federal guidelines and regulations.  The generic and store brand items are often 25% to 40% less than their name brand counterparts, resulting in substantial savings over the course of the year.