Save money and eat well

Most of us are getting hit with sticker shock in the grocery store. My own personal barometer of food cost has been a box of cereal. When my favorite brands hit $3, then $4, then as much as $5 per box, I got serious about trying to save money.

There are many small ways to do it, and collectively, they can add up to substantial savings. It starts with being creative in the kitchen.

A good place to begin is in the recesses of your freezer and the back corners of your pantry. That's where we tend to accumulate the odds and ends that can languish for years if we're not diligent about using them up.

It's as good as found cash.

For example, my own pantry contains an impressive collection of various varieties of rice, including rice pilaf and other boxed rice mixes. I'm working now to use them up.

Rice makes a good side dish, and I can mix it with refried beans for burrito filling. Add leftover cooked rice to tomato soup, use it to make casseroles or serve it as red beans and rice or Cuban-style black beans and rice, one of the most delicious, healthiest and lowest-cost meals possible.

What else can you rotate into use? Start adding raisins and chopped dates to your oatmeal. That high-fiber, flax-and-pumpkin seed breakfast cereal nobody wants to eat? Use it to make a batch of cookies.

Other ways to save:

• Eat more meals at home. When you do cook, make large batches. Freeze part and reheat at times when you're too tired or short on time to cook from scratch.
• Use low-cost, foundation foods. Think of the "Hamburger Helper" model. The idea is to use nutritious and inexpensive staples to stretch a meal. In addition to rice, other good meal-extenders include beans, whole-wheat pasta and broth used as a soup base. Use the most expensive ingredients -- meat, cheese, tempeh -- as the minor components of a dish. Treat them more as a condiment than the main course.
• Shop at farmers markets, pick-your-own farms and roadside stands. Better yet, grow your own tomatoes, basil, lettuce, cucumbers and bell peppers.
• Shop for value. Buy private label and store brands. Buy some of your groceries at big box and discount stores, where you can save a high proportion of the costs of some of the higher-cost foods that families tend to eat in volume, including breakfast cereals, frozen entrees, fresh fruits and vegetables.

Americans spend about 40 percent of our food budgets on meals eaten away from home, so there's plenty of room for savings there, too. Here's how to do it:

• Drink water with meals. Skip the soft drinks and iced tea. If you're in the habit of buying a $4 latte on your way to work, invest in a coffee maker for your office and brew your own.
• Bring your lunch from home. It's a good way to use up the odds and ends in your refrigerator -- leftovers that aren't enough to serve for dinner and would otherwise get thrown away.
• Use a refillable water bottle. It's cheaper than buying individual bottles, and you'll leave a smaller footprint at the landfill.
• Stretch your order. Split an entree with a companion and add a tossed salad. Have a cup of hot tea or coffee in lieu of dessert and you'll save money and calories.

And look on the bright side. While saving money, your health will benefit, too.