Are you off your trolley? You could be if your supermarket bill is creeping over $50 per person for a family.

There are so many sneaky tricks to save money on food. You might even find that you’re healthier and happier when you buy more basic food. Don’t say it can’t be done. If your bill is out of control, try some of these tips.

Budget. Start with a figure that you want to spend on food each week and work back to figure out what you can afford to buy. Price and plan your meals to fit and stick to a list in the supermarket.

Plan, plan, plan. Use a meal planning app to ensure you only buy what you need. Some items are better bought in bulk. If you plan, however, you can use up all those half-opened packets.

Beware of basics creep. Foods that were once luxuries in my house are added to the shopping list as if they are staples. I con myself into thinking dijonnaise (mustard and mayonnaise) is a staple. Luxuries are fine, but need to have a dollar figure assigned to them, in the budget.

Don’t buy packaged foods. Food marketers are always looking for ways to upsell old products for more. That can be as simple as fancy new branding and packaging on fruit and veg. Or they create high-margin foods that you never knew you needed.

Buy budget brands. Many budget brands are the same as the expensive stuff. Tuna is tuna, for example. And some own brand products such as Homebrand cocoa is nicer than the branded stuff, in my humble opinion.

Buy bulk. I’ve taken to buying 10kg sacks of potatoes, 5kg of rice and big bags of onions, paying less than half of what I would if I bought smaller packages. My friend Google helps me find lots of interesting recipes to use them up. If a basic is on sale and it keeps, buy up large. But make sure you use it.

Go ethnic. Supermarkets aren’t always the cheapest place to buy. If there are ethnic supermarkets in your hood check out the prices. The savings can be huge on items such as herbs and spices and dry goods such as rice and flour. Bulk bin shops have bargains. The bulk bin stores and local markets can be very cheap indeed.

Eat up your leftovers. Aussie families collectively waste $8 billion of food each year. Eat it. Brown bag it for lunch. Freeze it. Share it. And most certainly use it up before you buy more.

Substitute ingredients. Expensive ingredients can be substituted. Type in Alternatives To (Ingredient). Thanks to Google when I run out of eggs I used aquafaba, the liquid from a chickpea can, which is an excellent egg replacer and effectively free.

Make your own. There are so many things I’m too cheap to buy that cost a pittance to make. Let’s start with crackers, pavlova, biscuits, birthday cakes, pastry, rye bread, fresh pasta, dips and much much more. My friends think I’m a foodie. But actually I’m a tightwad.

Eat frozen. Frozen fruit and vegetables can be cheaper than fresh and retain their vitamins. But make sure you cycle through your freezer monthly.

Go vegan. Or at least have some vegan meals. Bean and tofu based meals can be very cheap and super tasty. But beware of buying all the fancy meat and dairy replacement foods targeted at vegans. While you’re at it, price the protein on your plate. If it’s more than $3 per person then read our pay less for your protein blog here.

You can do it. Start with point one and then try the other tips one at a time.

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Protein – at least the meaty versions – is expensive. And research indicates that we’re obsessed with protein, to our detriment. Most Aussies spend far too much on that protein, by not eating and shopping consciously.

It’s simple to cut the cost of a plate of food radically. First off, not all protein is created equal in terms of cost. A nice porterhouse steak for four can cost $28 for the protein alone. Even own brand sausages can cost more than $15kg. There are heaps of sneaky supermarket saving tricks to help you cut costs.

Think for yourself to slim down the protein on your plate

Here in Australia we’re taught that protein comes from the meat element of meat and three veg. That’s fine if your wallet and arteries can afford it. But there are tasty alternatives that cost several times less.

Let’s get one thing straight: I love a good steak. But the vegans have it right. A medium priced steak such as porterhouse is $28kg at Coles. Dried chickpeas are $5.90kg at the same supermarket and weigh much more when cooked.

Tips to slim down your protein, your plate and your budget

Cost that plate. Observe your dinners for a week and work out the cost per plate of your protein. That’s pretty easy if it’s meat. If you are spending more than $3 a plate you have a lot of work to do. In our house it’s more like $1.50 to $2 most nights. In our house we sometimes buy tofu from the local Asian supermarket (hint, it’s way nicer than the supermarket and costs half as much). The whole family can be fed for $4 of protein and that isn’t a typo.

Cut that lump. All over the world, meat and dairy lobby groups do an amazing job convincing us that we need a huge hunk of meat on our plate in order to be healthy. Most Aussies actually eat more than enough protein. Compare us to the Japanese, who use meat more as a garnish. So take those lovely portions of porterhouse steak from the supermarkets and cut them in half and bulk the meal out with more vegetable on the plate. That’s going to make you and your wallet more healthy. If you want to get technical. Consider the cost per gram of protein: 100g of cooked chickpeas contain approximately 19g of protein and chicken 24g.

Go eggs and cheese. We often don’t think of egg and cheese or even yoghurts centre-of-plate for our dinner. But these protein sources cost less than most meat cuts and are quick and easy to cook. Try an egg curry for one meal a week.

Eat vegetable proteins. Beans, lentils, chick peas, peanut butter, whole nuts, egg pasta, wholegrain bread, rice, couscous, and broccoli are all good sources of protein. Of vegetable protein, only soy and quinoa is complete. But it’s easy to get enough protein from non-meat sources by eating a variety of foods including cheese, eggs, or pulses. If you don’t want to give up meat, go for cheaper cuts such as brisket or corned silverside and learn how to cook them.

Mix it up. Instead of cooking a kilo of gravy beef or mince for your stew or curry, use 400 grams and make it more filling by adding chick peas, lentils or kidney beans and a whole heap of grated vegetable. The basic taste will remain the same, but it will cost less to cook.

Give a thought for the environment. Vegetable protein saves cash. It can save the environment as well. I’m wading into emotive territory here. Yet you can find plenty of research that shows meat production is far less efficient and according to the Oxford Martin School widespread adoption of veganism would see emissions fall by about 70 per cent.

To get yourself started on cutting the cost of protein on your plate by having a meatless Monday. Plan the meal in advance. Ask friends for recipes, or check out a site such as taste.com.au, or PETA’s recipe archive.

Not everyone can give up their meat. If not, give a thought to being flexitarian. That’s a flexible vegetarian or even vegan. That’s someone who eats a mostly plant-based diet with the occasional lapse.

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