As with all tips, take these with a grain of salt. You may find bargains that don't follow the rules. Start by being flexible. Be flexible with serving sizes, with the amount of meats you use in recipes, and with what you've planned to eat for the week.

Tips for Not Wasting Food

• Plan meals for the week. All of them. Every week.

• Clean out your fridge every single week, without fail.

• Clean out your freezer every three months.

• Unless you can store it long-term, buy only what you need.

• Don't buy what your family doesn't like, even if it's a good deal.

• If you're tempted to run to a fast-food joint, start cooking; you're bound to finish.

Best Food Values

Generally, the simpler and less-processed the food, the cheaper it will be. Plain chicken breasts are cheaper per pound than boneless or seasoned. Pre-formed hamburger patties can be 30–40 percent more expensive than bulk ground meat.

Pasta, tomato sauce, plain fruits and vegetables, dairy products, and unprocessed meats all take more work on your part to make them into a meal, but you'll save the most money buying them. In addition, you can control what your family eats by reducing or eliminating salt, fat, and preservatives. Consider the time you have to spend and your comfort level using real versus artificial ingredients.

Generally, the closer to the source a food is, the lower its price will be and the fresher it will be. Once again, be sure to know the prices of foods in your area, so you can judge if the food offers good value.

Worst Food Values

The more processed a food is, the higher its price will be. Purchasing a 16-ounce jar of Alfredo sauce, for instance, usually costs around $3.10. But the ingredients to make the same amount of your own Alfredo sauce cost around $2.10.

While meats that have been prepared and are oven-ready, like stuffed chicken breasts and marinated pork roasts, are quick and easy, you are paying for that convenience. The cost of Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breasts is $1.85 per serving, while the same dish, frozen and ready for the oven, costs $5.09 for two smaller servings.

You also waste money on excessively packaged foods. If there's shrink-wrap, a cardboard box, plastic dividers, and more plastic wrap around food, not only is that wasting Earth's resources, but it costs you money to throw it away.

The same goes for prepared fruits and vegetables. A package of baby-cut carrots, now the most popular form of carrots in the supermarket, costs around $1.60 for 12 ounces, and a 10-ounce bag of shredded carrots is $1.99, while a bag of regular sized carrots is 99 cents for a pound (16 ounces). You need to decide how much work you want to do if your main concern is your budget.

Don't forget that almost all products you buy are guaranteed. If you buy a product and don't think that the quality is good, tell the company about it instead of just throwing it away. Write to them via their Web site or address on the package. They want you to be happy and will probably send you a coupon to try another one of their products. The store you shop at may also have a generous return policy. But don't abuse this privilege!

Actual Yield

One issue rarely addressed in budget cookbooks is the issue of yield (see table below). Sure, the price of boneless pork chops is $1.00 more per pound than the bone-in variety, but what are you really spending for actual yield?

Meat Prices Per Ounce of Cooked Meat

Meat	Type	Price Raw/Pound	Cooked Yield	Price Cooked/Ounce
Ground Beef	73% lean	$2.60	11.68 ounces	22 cents
Ground Beef	80% lean	$3.00	12.80 ounces	23 cents
Ground Beef	85% lean	$3.99	13.60 ounces	29 cents
Ground Beef	93% lean	$4.99	14.88 ounces	33 cents
Chicken Breasts	Boneless	$5.28	15.52 ounces	34 cents
Chicken Breasts	Bone-In	$2.72	7.76 ounces	35 cents
Pork Chops	Boneless	$6.85	12.80 ounces	54 cents
Pork Chops	Bone-In	$5.70	8.80 ounces	65 cents

If you calculate three ounces of cooked beef per serving, the best buy is 80 percent lean ground beef. You are getting four three-ounce servings per pound, which is the standard USDA recommended amount, and there is less waste in fat and gristle than with the 73 percent lean beef. Also, the leaner types of ground beef are usually made from a more expensive cut of meat, accounting for the different fat amounts and the price difference.

Bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts cost around 17 cents per ounce, while boneless, skinless breasts cost about 34 cents per ounce. That's a no brainer, right? Nope! Only about half of the bone-in, skin-on chicken is edible, so they average out to about the same cost. However, you can use the skin, bones, and leftover meat on the bone-in, skin-on breasts to make chicken stock for practically no cost so in this way you can stretch your budget.

Boneless pork chops are a better buy than bone-in chops because the yield is so much higher. But bone-in meat can have more flavor than boneless, especially if it's slow-cooked. The choice is yours.