Saving money at the grocery is all in your strategy

Milk, eggs, meat and produce prices are way up. Meanwhile, gas andheating oil are gobbling up more of our available cash, leaving usless to spend on food. What's a home cook to do? Here are sometips:
Cut back on meat
• Find the meat department's "reduced for quick sale"section. Most supermarkets have them, and though you won't find adeal every week, occasionally you score.
• Build filling meals around cheap protein. Dried beans are a goodbet — especially tiny red lentils that cook in a flash. Pairthem with ginger and curry powder or other zippy flavors, andsimmer with inexpensive veggies like cabbage and carrots.
And don't forget about eggs, still a decent deal even though theprice is going up.
Get organized
• Make a weekly menu plan and shopping list, and stick to it.Set aside an hour each week to get organized, on a weekend or anevening after the kids go to bed.
• Grocery shop only once a week, at the store that has thebest combination of deals and products for your needs.
Eat in season
• Eat mostly or only seasonal fruits and vegetables. Cookmore root vegetables in the winter; eat more grapes, tomatoes andzucchini in the summer.
• Use your freezer, especially for winter temptations likeout-of-season fruit. In late spring and summer freeze rhubarb,peeled and sweetened peaches, and summer berries to use year-round.Freeze black bananas to use in muffins or bread.