Eating Healthy Without Going Broke Part 1- Focus

Now I wouldn't say we're the experts on this, and there are only two of us in this house, so some of these may not apply to everyone. However, because Chris likes to cook and to experiment with different foods we eat pretty well. This includes more meat than we probably should, and on a lower grocery budget than many people use. Besides that, we eat healthy. Since everyone knows about cutting coupons and shopping the sales, this will be a series of posts about more unusual things that we do to keep our grocery budget under control while still eating well.
Tip 1.  Focus on the bigger ticket items that will net you the most savings. For example, we cook almost exclusively with olive oil. To the tune of a liter or two of it each month. Because olive oil is such a large part of our grocery budget, we did some searching to find quality olive oil at a good price. For a long time we were buying it at a local bulk store that does not charge for memberships. This was a pretty good deal, and we would go several times per year and stock up on enough olive oil to last a few months.
However, recently I realized that Amazon actually stocks a really great olive oil at a lower price than anywhere else I've found. It is this Zoe olive oil. We do the Subscribe and Save option, which actually makes it about $17 for two liters. For us, this is about one months worth of olive oil, so I have the delivery set to that frequency. The olive oil arrives at our door automatically every month. Even better, I turn my Swagbucks in for $5 Amazon gift cards, which means that I rarely pay the full $17 for olive oil each month. Besides the fact that the price is great, this is some great-tasting olive oil. If we run out early and I buy a small bottle of oil from the store I can definitely taste the difference.
Along the same lines, we also usually make our own yogurt. Because Chris cooks a lot of Middle Eastern foods and I drink yogurt smoothies daily in the summer, we use a lot of yogurt. I'm picky and won't buy yogurt that has anything but cultured milk in it, which eliminates most of the less expensive brands that contain corn starch. We also particularly love Greek yogurt, which is even more expensive. Because of this, it makes sense for us to make our own yogurt, particularly when it is so easy. We use these instructions for crock pot yogurt. The times listed there are a bit off because we use a 6 quart crock pot and about a gallon and a half of milk. It takes us about 12-18 hours from start to finish, but the amount of actual effort involved is minimal, especially with a thermometer that has an alarm. The difference in cost between a gallon of milk and a quart of yogurt is enough that it is worth it for us to make our own yogurt.
In your house, the items with the biggest return might be different. Maybe your family doesn't do yogurt, but they eat a lot of bread. In that case it might be worth it for you to make bread from scratch and buy the yogurt. We rarely eat bread, so when we want some we buy a loaf of good whole wheat bread. If your family eats three boxes of cereal each week, it may be worth looking into making granola from scratch.
Everyone is different, and its no secret that cooking from scratch takes more time than buying a product. However, its generally less expensive for better quality. Figure out which things you use often enough to make it worth the time to make it instead of buying, then focus on those things. If you can find a better price on one of your big ticket items, this will free up your grocery money for other things.