How Real Chefs Shop To Save Money & Reduce Waste

Grocery bills are no joke these days. I have a family of three, and we spend more money on food each month than on any other category in our budget. Recently, when a friend of mine mentioned that her husband does all their grocery shopping — he’s a chef and learned early how to save money and reduce waste when buying ingredients — my ears naturally perked up. So, I asked five chefs their best tips and tricks for saving money on groceries, and they laid out all their best advice for home cooks with families to feed.

Meal plan for three days at a time, not the whole week.

“You’ll buy less upfront, and if life happens, you can slide meals a day or two without food going bad. Then, when you finish those three days, you’re left with a small, manageable set of leftovers (half an onion, some cooked rice, a few carrots, leftover lettuce) that’s easy to turn into one ‘use-it-up’ meal with pantry or freezer staples,” says Christine Pittman, the cook and recipe developer behind cookthestory.com, thecookful.com, cookfortwo.us, and the Recipe of the Day podcast.

Don’t buy a sale item if it’s not on your list.

“Eight peaches for the price of four is only a deal if you’ll actually eat all eight,” Pittman says. “If you don’t, you didn't save money; you bought waste. And if you weren’t planning to buy peaches at all, you just spent extra. Only make an exception if the sale item replaces something you already planned to buy and you’re confident you’ll use the full amount.”

Designate a cut-up container.

Take that jumbo food storage container and fill it with the half an onion you didn’t use for last night’s recipe, the three-quarters of a cucumber you didn’t need for today’s salad, and the herb bits left lingering in the bag, Pittman says. Grab your cut-up container before you start cooking and use what’s inside before cutting into a fresh piece of produce.

Similarly, save your scraps in a “broth bag.”

“My favorite money move is treating scraps like ingredients,” says Kyle Taylor, chef and founder of He Cooks. “I keep a freezer bag for onion ends, carrot peels, celery leaves, herb stems, and mushroom trimmings, then turn it into a deeply flavored zero-waste vegetable broth when the bag is full. It’s basically free flavor, and it’s the easiest way to make a home kitchen feel like a restaurant kitchen.”

Build your grocery list around ingredients you can use in multiple ways.

“I shop like I’m writing a prep list, not a grocery list. I start with what I can use more than once: A roast chicken becomes dinner, leftovers, and then stock. Herbs get chopped into sauces and the stems go into broth. The biggest waste reducer is buying ingredients that play multiple roles, not random one-off items,” Taylor says.

“I like to shop around anchor ingredients like chicken and rice, then build my menu and specific meals around these anchor ingredients,” adds Emmy Clinton, founder and recipe creator for Entirely Emmy. “For example, I’ll have one week of dinners be chicken poke bowls, Mediterranean bowls, taco bowls, and chicken fried rice, all built off of those two ingredients. This approach really helps me prevent waste and save money because I buy those two items in bulk and the smaller, more specific ingredients in smaller quantities. This prevents me from having to buy all new ingredients for every meal.”

Focus on cost per serving rather than the price on the tag.

“A high-priced item that lasts months can often be way cheaper than buying that item at a lower price every week. Before making a purchase, determine the cost per serving, how long the item will stay fresh, and go from there,” Clinton says.

Shop more than one store.

“I think the easiest professional strategy home cooks can implement to save money and make the most of what they buy is to use a two-store strategy. I use this strategy all the time,” says Jessica Randhawa, founder and head chef at The Forked Spoon.

Randhawa shops at a store like Costco, Aldi, or Trader Joe’s for things like rice, milk, eggs, and bread. She calls these “low-impact staples.” They’re food items you need, but that don’t have much effect on the flavor of your meals. Saving on them allows her to spend more on higher quality ingredients that do “move the needle” on how her food tastes — think ripe tomatoes, quality meats and seafood, and fresh herbs.

“I procure these higher-quality items at local farmers' markets, local butchers, or markets with fresh, locally sourced ingredients,” Randhawa says.

Have a grocery store comparison night.

Here’s how it works: Sit down with your spouse and make a list of the things you buy every time you visit the grocery store. Milk, eggs, bananas — what are your staples? Visit three or four grocery stores nearest to you and write down the prices for both the store brand and name brand versions of your staples. This is what Meredith Kruse, recipe developer and food blogger at Our Love Language is Food, did with her husband, and she says it has probably saved them thousands of dollars.

“The whole thing took maybe an hour or two, and honestly, it was kind of fun. We turned it into a date night. Now we know exactly which store gives us the best bang for our buck on our weekly essentials, plus we discovered that certain items, like nut butters from Costco, are worth making a special trip for,” she says.

Buy items in bulk when they’re on sale and freeze the excess.

Maybe you don’t need two pounds of shredded cheese this week, but you’ll need it again soon, so take advantage of the BOGO while you can and freeze it ‘til you need it, Kruse says. “This works great for meat, bread, and even cheese.”

Don’t buy pre-cut produce.

If getting more food for less money is your priority, then the pre-diced fruits and veggies are not your friends, Clinton says. “Buy whole ingredients, not pre-cut. You’re paying for the convenience.”