@jnl
Meal planning and slow cooker usage as you mentioned. I’ve also been pressure cooking beans more often (I live at altitude so that’s a necessity for most bean prep).
An upright freezer in the garage is a huge help, so that I can buy more of certain things when they are on sale, as well as freeze snacks and dinner servings. I try to always have some dinner options frozen to prevent emergency takeout plans when I’m not up to cooking.
I keep most flour, all the rice, nuts and dried fruit in the freezer, which keeps it in quality shape longer.
For spices/herbs I use the most, I look at savings on buying in bulk; the price difference in a bag or other large container over small jar can be major in some cases. I don’t buy bulk for things I use slowly as the taste deteriorates. I’m also planning on getting a bigger tin of olive oil and dispensing it into a smaller (dark glass) bottle for use as my household uses a lot of it and I’ve done some math on it.
I keep an eye on prices for the things bought most often and, as needed, cut back on certain things or switch brand if it’s getting absurd.
I keep a list of partially used perishable ingredients so that I remember to include them in the week’s plan. I monitor food waste closely and it’s been reduced to almost (but not quite - yet!) none.
If you have a library card to a library with Libby use, look for good cookbooks to checkout. Having an ebook copy means it’s extra quick to search for ingredients you want to use amongst the recipes, but it’s also just a nice free way to find good recipes (I see ever more errors on some recipe sites and more things generated with LLMs.). Many libraries have a lot of the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook line and those are well tested and clearly written.
I bake a fair bit so most treats like cookies etc are homemade and it’s way cheaper than equivalent items bought in town. It’s a more rural area so bakery goods can be very expensive.
Last year I made and canned a lot of jam and swapped flavours with a friend who did the same. But a late freeze this year ruined the fruit harvest.
