Just about everyone is looking for ways to save money on many of the daily necessities. A big target: The food budget. From coupons to home-grown gardens, consumers are doing what they can to reduce their grocery bills.

Experts say consumers are moving more toward grains to save money, and are consuming less meat. Sadly, consumers are buying more pre-packaged foods, which are generally less nutritious. Even worse... people are eating out just as much as before, but now eating cheaper foods like fast food.

Check out this video for more money-saving grocery ideas.


Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

As budgets grow tighter and grocery prices rise, people from all walks of life are looking for ways to make their grocery money go further. And I've got one really simple solution to help cut your grocery bill and save your family a good bit of money: Quit wasting food.

An eight-year study revealed in late 2004 that Americans throw away at least $75 billion in food each year. With a current population of about 304 million people in the United States, that means we're wasting at least $220 per person each year on food that is thrown away. The study said the average family throws away 14% of the food it buys.

These statistics, frankly, are shocking to me. I know that we waste food, and there are certainly times that I throw out produce I didn't eat before it went bad, or some mystery meat that's been in my freezer for a couple of years. But I never imagined that our waste rose to this level.

So my fellow Americans, if you want to save 14% or more on your grocery bill, stop throwing away food. Instant savings are achieved when you make a conscious effort to plan your meals and use all the food you've purchased.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

Sales of Spam are up as the inexpensive "meat product" is looking good to shoppers on a budget. It's easy to make fun of Spam. After all, it's meat that comes in a can. A can! And it's always had a reputation for being a low-end meal item. But I have fond memories of eating Spam as a kid, and we never turned our noses up at it.

With food costs on the rise, shoppers are buying more Spam in the recent months. Industry experts say the reason is simple: Spam and low-cost lunch meats are being eaten a couple of times a week instead of more expensive meat products in an effort to save money on the grocery bill.

U.S. food prices rose 4% last year and are on pace to rise 6% this year. And while the price of Spam is up 7% in the last year, it's still a cheaper alternative than many other meats. And because the canned meat keeps well in the cupboard, it's also convenient.

Spam's been around since 1937, and it looks to be going strong. Maybe now is the time for you to invest in a Spam cookbook? After all... if more households are going to be buying Spam for at least the near future, it might be worthwhile to get creative with this "other" meat.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

There is plenty of talk here and elsewhere about Americans changing their buying habits. It's no secret that plenty of items at the grocery store cost a lot more than they used to. But apparently, strategic shopping, clipping coupons, and buying items that are on sale are now hardships!

The Washington Post that has reported on a family that has been "forced" to give up organic meat and buy store brand items. They've even had to clip some coupons to help with the grocery bill! (Gasp!) And... they've stopped shopping at multiple grocery stores. They now go to one to save gas.

Is this all really a hardship? I think not. I've said before that Americans have been spoiled by low prices and cheap gas. No one wants to pay more for items we need, but there are plenty of opportunities for Americans to adjust their buying habits to compensate for the rising prices. I just don't think that clipping coupons and buying less expensive foods really make a news story.

Dare I say it? The smart people have been clipping coupons all along! Last year, there was a 6% increase in the number of grocery coupons increased. I bet this year's figures will go up as well. And shopping at the grocery store with the best prices on items you need is just common sense. So while we may not be able to grocery shop exactly as we would like to right now, having to be a little more frugal is neither newsworthy, nor a hardship.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

E-tickets, e-cards, e-gift certificates, and plastic currency. We're used to spending paperless; now how about paperless savings?

Last month I wrote about the Grocery Game, an online subscription service that can enhance coupon savings by matching grocery store specials with coupons. Grocery Game, and a similar (free) coupon tracker, Coupon Mom, both feature printable coupons on their sites. But our own AOL takes couponing to the next stage of digital evolution with Shortcuts, paperless coupons that you store to your grocery store membership/discount card.

Now we're talking.

Just the other day, I came home from a grocery run (where I realized nearly 50% savings, thanks to coupon/sales matching), and realized I'd left about $5 worth of additional savings on the table. Literally. My kitchen table. Grocery Game or not, it's hard to keep track of all those flimsy bits of paper, let alone clipping and sorting them. I love the idea of having them stored on my Kroger card. No coupon left behind!

Unfortunately, the Shortcuts selection at this time is woefully limited. A measly eight coupons. And while my regional chain, Kroger, is a partner store, the full list is quite limited. But I have high hopes that my cutting and sorting days will soon go the way of the 8-track, so I'll be checking back.

Shortcuts is free to anyone with an AOL or AIM account.

Kyran Pittman blogs about life at Notes To Self, where her musings on culture, soul and laundry have been picked up and published three times by Good Housekeeping magazine.

Over the Easter weekend, after taking my four-year-old to see Horton Hears a Who, we dropped by our neighborhood grocery store to buy soda pop and dog food. By the time we were finished with our trip, I had spent $76.

Naturally, I bought a few other items, but what struck me as the number on the cash register kept getting larger and larger was how little food there actually was for having spent $76. Not that I want to blame all of this on my daughter, but I did listen to most of her grocery suggestions. Aside from the soda and pet food, our cart was full of doughnuts, Lucky Charms cereal, cookies, Goldfish crackers, a bright bouncy ball that retailed for $1.49, and then a few smarter items like some yogurt, toilet paper, paper towels and, yes, some actual food, enough for -- two dinners.

Granted, I broke a lot of rules. I didn't go in with a prepared grocery list, or coupons, and I brought in a precocious four-year-old who I have a tough time saying "no" to, unless it involves her playing with sharp knives or matches. But I'm beginning to think, with food prices rising the way they have been, that it's time to consider the idea of dropping by a discount grocery store.

I'm always on the lookout for cool ways to save money -- and buying coupons on the internet might seem pretty strange. But it's also pretty cool. TheCouponClippers.com is a family-run website that sells coupons: you can get hundreds of coupons for hundreds of products. They often have more than 1,000 copies of each coupon available, and the expiration date/terms of the offer are clearly listed.

The minimum order is only $3, but with shipping and a 50 cent processing fee, the site is probably only worthwhile for ordering lots of coupons. But if you find yourself buying the same products regularly (and who doesn't?) you can probably save yourself a ton of money here. The prices per coupon are pretty reasonable -- 50 cents off Dawn Direct Foam costs 5 cents -- if you live in an area where coupons are doubled, that will give you a return on investment of 2,000%. Warren Buffett, eat your heart out!

For my coupon-saving opportunities, check out MyCoupons.com, which has a pretty cool list of special promotional codes for various retailers: Shoes.com, Kohls and Victoria's Secret, to name a few. They also have a pretty cool coupon blog.