With planning and a little more time in the kitchen, you can stick to your budget without sacrificing taste or nutrition. I took the challenge with my family of four to see if I could cut grocery costs without eating junk—and it worked! Here are the 20 tips that helped me, and they can help you feed your family for $100 a week, too.

  1. Plan in advance. The most important step in sticking to a weekly budget is to come up with a plan for every meal, snack, and beverage you’ll need over the course of the week. Make sure you account for every item you put in your cart. This will keep you from adding expensive impulse buys that may go to waste. Be sure to leave a little money left over each week to account for unexpected events like a team pizza party after your daughter’s soccer team wins a big game.
  2. Bulk up. Stock up on a number of inexpensive, healthy snacks in bulk, such as raisins, carrots, in-season fruit, popcorn, and peanut butter and leave these items in a place where everyone in the family can see them, says Stephanie Nelson, a grocery expert and founder of CouponMom.com. If your grocery store has bulk bins, hit this aisle to score deals on healthy grains such as brown and wild rice, whole oats, whole grain pastas, and whole-wheat flour. Other great finds include big bags of frozen veggies, jars of tomato sauce, and cans of beans, says Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD. MORE: Best Things To Buy In Bulk
  3. Shop the sales. Check your grocery store’s weekly circular for discounts and coupons. These specials can be a starting point to plan your meals for the week. If you have more than one grocery chain in your area, look at all the ads to see which store has specials that better suit your palate and, if you have time, hit both to get an even greater number of bargains. Sales can sometimes cause senseless spending, so before you buy, make sure it’s an item you’ll really use. In addition to advertised sales, most grocery chains offer other unadvertised deals that manufacturers don’t want to pay to feature in ads. To discover these deals before you hit the aisles, check out CouponMom.com to see advertised and unadvertised deals by grocery chain and location.
  4. Steer clear of convenience. Foods packaged for convenience such as individually boxed raisins, juice, and yogurt are a no-no for those on a tight budget, says nutritionist Elizabeth Somer, RD, and author of 10 Habits That Mess Up a Woman’s Diet. Ditto for those 100-calorie packs of cookies. Marinate your own meat instead of buying the pre-marinated, packaged kind. Swap out those milk or juice boxes in your child’s lunch for a Thermos. These options are all less expensive, and the reduction in packaging is better for the environment.
  5. Be brand blind. If the peanut butter you usually buy is not on sale, but its competitor is, go for the cheaper one. Being flexible with your brand choices will let you score the best deals. Be open to store brands as well. They are typically the least expensive option for most canned, packaged, and frozen foods and usually taste just as good as their brand name counterparts.
  6. Use coupons…wisely. Manufacturers put out 285 billion coupons last year, according to coupon processor NCH, but only a fraction of them are worth using. Many may lead you to purchase unnecessary—and, often, unhealthy—items loaded with artificial colors, preservatives, and sugar. Your best bet is to use coupons for household staples like beans, yogurt, spaghetti sauce, or pasta, Nelson says. Some of the best coupons can be found for vitamins, cleaning products, laundry detergent, and toiletries such as toothpaste, she says.
  7. Consider your alternatives. Although that big grocery store is probably the most convenient place for most people to shop, it’s not necessarily the cheapest. Check out ethnic markets, bag-your-own-warehouses, and farmers markets, which can often yield better buys on produce, meat, eggs, milk, and fish. Don’t rule out deals at a drugstore, either. With reward cards and coupons, you can often score big deals on cereals, granola bars, and beverages, Nelson says. MORE: Unexpected Benefits Of Eating Local
  8. Doctor up cheap meat. Marinate tougher (and less expensive) cuts of meat to make them tender. Or use a slow cooker to make the meat fall off the bone. If you can’t afford lean ground beef, drain the fat off regular ground beef after cooking and then put it in a strainer and rinse it, Sass says. To stretch your meat supply and make a healthier meal, bulk up your burger patties with mashed-up kidney beans, shredded zucchini, or whole-grain rice, she adds. (Try these tasty Low Cost Slow-Cooker Recipes!)
  9. Consider canned. Canned meat can be a great alternative to the butcher counter, Sass says. When your grocery budget gets tight, try replacing one or two of your meals a week with this less expensive option. And it doesn’t have to be Spam. Canned clams are a good choice paired with linguine. Canned white meat chicken, tuna, and salmon are tasty in casseroles, wraps, and cold pasta dishes. Because this meat is already cooked, you save time in the kitchen. Canned fruit is also a good choice, as long as it is canned in its own juice, Sass says. Try subbing canned fruit such as pineapple for its more expensive fresh counterpart.
  10. Don’t dismiss the deep freeze. When certain fruits or vegetables move out of season or go up in price, consider buying bags of inexpensive frozen produce instead. Growers flash freeze their harvest at its peak, which locks in most of the nutrients. “It’s just like eating a fresh vegetable,” Sass says. Plus, there’s the added bonus of not having to wash, peel, or chop them yourself. Frozen veggies make quick, convenient additions to soups and stews, pasta, or rice dishes.
  11. Put on your apron. One of the easiest ways to eat well on a tight budget is to make some ingredients yourself. If you have a bread maker buried at the bottom of a cabinet, haul it out and you can cut at least $3 from your budget for each store-bought loaf, Sass says. Likewise, making your own juice popsicles, salad dressing, hummus, granola, and desserts can shave money off the bottom line without making you feel deprived. MORE: How to Make Your Own Energy Bars
  12. Soup up your diet. When meat becomes costly, it’s the perfect time to start making soups and stews, which use less of it and get you to eat more cabbage, beans, and other vegetables. Stews, made with lean meat and lots of veggies, will be much lower in fat than a meat main dish and loaded with more of the foods you should be eating anyway," Somer says. 
  13. Become a Flexitarian. One of the healthiest ways to save money is to swap meat for beans as your protein source a few meals a week. Packed with high amounts of protein, fiber, and antioxidants, “beans are one of the healthiest foods on the planet,” Sass says. They are also one of the cheapest things you can find in your grocery store, especially if you buy them dry and soak and cook them yourself. Try them in burritos, soups, chili, and salads. Cutting back on meat is not just good for your wallet, it’s good for your health as well. Most Americans far exceed the recommended meat and protein allowances for our diet, and with that meat can come unwanted saturated fat.
  14. Stock up when prices hit rock bottom. If you see a great deal on meat or produce, buy enough for half a dozen meals. Divide it up in portions, label it with the date, and freeze it for up to 6 months. You might not see that price again for a couple months. (Check out these Freezer-Friendly Dinners.)
  15. Leftovers again! One of the easiest ways to cut your grocery bill is simply by reducing the amount of food you throw out. Leftover meat can become a base for soup or stew for the next night’s dinner. Or, serve it on whole grain bread for your lunch the next day. Leftover vegetables can be paired with eggs to make a frittata or added to tofu for a stir-fry dinner. Store your leftovers in clear containers where you can see them to keep them top of mind—and out of the trash. If the fresh fruit or vegetables in your crisper are in danger of going bad, chop them up and freeze for later.
  16. Avoid eat-ertainment. Plan family outings around activities, not food. With a weekly budget of $100, there’s no room to dine out healthfully and still have quality meals and snacks at home. Putting the emphasis on fun family activities rather than where you’re going to chow down helps everyone consume less calories and establishes healthy habits for life. Likewise, keep plenty of healthy snacks and water with you in the car at all times to bypass drive-thrus and convenience stores when hunger hits, Somer says. Bring your own healthy snacks to movies and sporting events.
  17. Expect the unexpected. There’s always going to be some reason you’ll need to spend money on food out of the house. While dinners out are unreasonable on a $100-a-week food budget, if you save a few bucks each week, you can still partake in the occasional cup of coffee with a pal or take your kids out for frozen yogurt.
  18. Grow your own. Gardening can be a fun way to cut food costs and get your kids interested in fresh fruit and vegetables. And it’s not as hard as you might think, says gardening expert Rosalind Creasy, author of Recipes from the Garden. For first-timers, she recommends starting out with a small summer plot of tomatoes, peppers, beans, zucchini, and herbs. Broccoli, lettuce, and chard can be planted in the fall. If you need help deciding what and when to plant, check out the National Gardening Association’s food gardening guide.
  19. Go less and buy more. The fewer times you go to the market, the fewer opportunities there are for you to fill your cart with impulse buys. Stick to your list and buy a little bit more than you think you need of the basics like milk, bread, or fruit. Most people underestimate how much they will use over the course of a week, Sass says. MORE: 6 Ways to Pump Up Your Willpower
  20. Your mom was right…

Don’t shop when you’re hungry. You’ll load up your cart with high-calorie, high-dollar comfort food and won’t pay enough attention to price tags.Brown bag it to save bucks. This is critical if you’re going to meet your budget. And why spend $7 or $8 for one of your cafeteria’s wilting sandwiches, when you can have a fresh, home-cooked meal for a buck or two?

Love finding cheap eats? See 12 recipes for less than $2 per serving.