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We all would like to save money. Spending less money is one of the only ways you can increase your wealth. If you spend less money, you increase your realized income. As a continuation from yesterday's post on how to save money, today I'll look at saving money on the next largest consumer spending categories; food. We all spend some money on food in one way or another.

How to Save Money on Food
The one sure way you can save money on food is to eat out less. Many of us are addicted to the convenience of eating our meals out, or having meals delivered. Instead of buying groceries at the market and preparing our lunch, it's all too easy to swing by the local deli, drive through a fast food restaurant, get a latte and sandwich at Starbucks, or grab something from the lunch wagon. The problem is that any of those victual solutions are at least twice as expensive as buying a loaf of good, whole grain bread and the sandwich fillings of your choice (unless you like blue crab and Brie sandwiches).

Say you like Boar's Head pastrami seasoned turkey breast, and swiss sandwiches on whole grain Chibatta rolls, loaded with veggies. If you buy a pound and a half of meat, a 6 pack of rolls, half pound of swiss, a tomato, an onion, and a few other assorted veggies (making sure you get specials on everything) you'll have about $17 invested in the week's lunch. The best thing is that you'll be able to invest the balance of your former lunch funds into your IRA instead of your belly. If you typically spend $7.50 a day on your lunch, that's $37.50, so there's a $20 IRA contribution.

It really does add up, and as an added bonus it's probably healthier than what you were eating before, so not only are you saving money, but you're also saving a few inches off your waistline as well. If you did this beginning at age 25, that extra $20 a week, assuming you work an average of 49 weeks a year, will add a whopping $274,000 to your retirement savings! That's one expensive lunch you were eating.

Another great way to save money if you have lunch out every day is to forgo the soft drink and just get a water instead. No, not a bottled water (they are a huge rip off), but just a cup of water from the fountain. That will save you about $1.50 per day, and it's healthier for you. Doesn't sound like very much, but again, if you began this practice at 25 and worked until 65, you'd have an extra $102,600 saved in your retirement fund.

Another surefire way you can save money on food, and I've posted on this before, is to shop at warehouse food stores. By skipping the Albertson's, Kroeger, Safeway, Winn-Dixie variety of grocery stores, you can chop as much as 50% off your monthly grocery bill. My typical savings are around 35% by shopping at my local warehouse food store, over buying the exact same foods a mega-chain market. If they only had a Pharmacy, I'd never go to the other stores again.

Don't be brand loyal. There's no money in it. Many of the different brands of foods you buy are actually produced and packaged in the same factories as one another. It's a common practice in many industries. Products are made in one factory and then private labled with packaging from different brands. Make sure the quality increase is real, not just perceived when you choose a big name brand over a store, regional, or generic brand. Sometimes there really is a quality difference, but do you really need the additional quality at the added expense? If the answer is really yes, than by all means, buy the more expensive product, but at least take the time to analyze the question first.

Be aware of buying larger quantities of food just to get a lower price. For one thing, the price isn't always lower. It usually is, but not all of the time. Cross multiply to check the unit cost before you buy. The other pitfall to buying the large quantity containers is that you may not use it all and some will go to waste. If it's an item that your family really goes through, that's great, but if you're buying a very large quantity just to get a good deal, make sure that you're actually going to use all you are buying, otherwise it's not such a good deal, is it? Another problem is that large containers can contribute to large portionitis, a disease that has been afflicting many Americans over the last 2 decades. You may be eating more due to the larger container size. That's not so hot for the ole' waistline and it wastes your money.

Other miscellaneous ways to save money on food ;

• Look for foods that are near their expiration date. You can ask the manager for a discount on these items, and depending on the circumstances, you'll often get one.

• Get to know where the happy hours are that offer free food. If you're creative you can have a happy hour beer for $1.50 and get plenty of food you can call dinner. Don't laugh, I've seen places that offer freshly cut roast beef sandwiches and other niceties.

• Watch out for the sales. Take a good look at the sale prices, sometimes they're really not that good, or they're on items you'd have never bought anyway. Buying sale priced food just because it's a good deal on sale, if you would have never bought it anyway, is just adding to your food budget. This is true unless you replaced an item you usually buy with the new sale item.

• Go online to look for food coupons at one of the many coupon sites. If you have favorite foods, look at the manufacturer's website. They sometimes have either factory direct specials or down loadable coupons.
  

Hopefully these tips can help you save some money on food. See yesterday's post for how to save money on housing and your car.