There’s one activity that we all have in common, in fact we do it every day. Most of us do it two, three or even four times a day! Often we’ll visit small stores just so we can participate in this activity, and usually we go to a larger store on a weekly basis to get supplies so we can do this activity at home! There’s no activity we enjoy more than eating. We all need to be able to eat well, but that can be an expensive proposition over time if you’re not careful. Here are five unique ways for you to cut back on your monthly food budget and still eat well.

Cook At Home – Instead of going out to eat work every day, or buying premade frozen foods, make your meals at home. Take a Sunday afternoon, make whatever dish you particularly enjoy, freeze it into smaller quantities, and bring them to work for consumption throughout the week. It’ll dramatically decrease the amount of money you spend on eating lunch when at work.

Think Generic – Generic foods have been a great addition to the grocery store in the last few decades. They allow frugal individuals to get pretty much the same product as the name brand, but without having to subsidize the parent company’s advertising bills. Mountain Dew is usually $3.50 for a 12 pack, but Mountain Lightning is only $2.00 for a 12 pack, and you can’t beat that! Buying generics on a regular basis will easily cut 20% off your grocery budget.

Kiss Eating Out Goodbye – Going out to eat or grabbing take-out on a regular basis can save you a lot of time, but it can also cost you a lot of money. Going out to eat will often cost you three or four times as much as it would for you to cook essentially the same meal at home. If time is of the essence, focus on easier recipes or prepare a lot of meals at once and freeze them for consumption later.

Garden – Creating your very own garden is an enjoyable activity for the entire family, and can make you a slight profit if you manage your garden well. Focus on easy to grow and abundantly producing vegetables, such as tomatoes. If you get too many of whatever you’ve harvested, go ahead and can them or bring them down to the local farmer’s market.

Bulk Buying – A lot of people never bother to look at some of the larger packages because they think that it’s just too much food. If you’re getting non-perishable goods though, it almost always makes sense to buy in bulk. Look at the cost on a per unit basis, this will show you the true price of the good that you desire. If you buy bulk once, you can easily save a lot of money by making an upfront purchase.

Doing some of these things might take a little effort, but it’s well worth it. Don’t relegate yourself to eating McDonalds and frozen meals on a regular basis.