7 Affordable Ways to Prepare for Rising Food Prices

Food prices continue to climb due to ongoing inflation, supply chain disruptions, and global challenges in agriculture.

When we can barely afford groceries for everyday, how are we supposed to afford to prep on top of that?

If you’re looking to build food security without spending a fortune, here are 7 practical and affordable strategies to stock up even with rising costs.

1. Focus on Pantry Staples

Building a well-stocked pantry with versatile, long-lasting staples is key. Look for affordable items that can be used in a variety of recipes, such as:

• Rice
• Dried beans and lentils
• Pasta
• Canned vegetables, soups, fruits, and meats
• Flour and sugar, in addition to other baking staples like baking powder, baking soda, yeast, cocoa powder, salt, vanilla, etc.
• Oats and other grains’
• Oils like olive and coconut
• Don’t forget about stocking up your freezer with foods such as chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, sausage, fish, bread dough or baked bread, butter, oils, fruits, vegetables, pastas, ready made meals, etc.

If you can purchase these items in bulk, that will help to reduce prices even more. Costco, Winco, Azure and other such places all have great prices on bulk food.

These staples form the foundation of meals and can help you stretch your food budget for everyday and during emergencies.

One last friendly reminder: store what you eat! Don’t waste your time, money or precious storage space on food you don’t eat.

It’s great if you want to experiment with new foods to see if you’d like to add them to your everyday meals or food storage, but there is no reason to purchase foods you don’t eat, let alone store it.

2. Start a Small Garden

You don’t need a lot of space or money to grow your own food. Start small with herbs, lettuce, or tomatoes in containers on a balcony or windowsill.

You can also grow things in a countertop hydroponics garden or a tower garden.

For those with a yard, consider planting high-yield crops like zucchini, green beans, or potatoes. You don’t need a ton of yard, growing in containers is a viable option for high yields.

Gardening provides fresh, nutritious food while reducing your grocery bill. Plus, it’s a great way to become more self-reliant.

3. Preserve Seasonal Produce

Take advantage of seasonal produce when prices are lower. Freeze, can, freeze dry or dehydrate fruits and vegetables to enjoy them year-round. For example:

• Freeze fruits and vegetables
• Can tomatoes, peaches, or pickles
• Dehydrate apples, bananas, or herbs

These preservation methods help reduce food waste and give you access to healthy foods even during off-seasons when prices tend to spike.

4. Meal Plan and Reduce Waste

Meal planning is a simple yet effective way to save money on food. Plan your meals around sales, discounts, and what you already have in your pantry. Use leftovers creatively to avoid waste:

• Turn last night’s roast chicken into soup or sandwiches
• Use vegetable scraps to make homemade broth
• Repurpose stale bread into croutons or bread pudding

By minimizing food waste, you can make your groceries last longer and save money.

5. Shop Strategically

Stretch your food budget further with these tips:

• Buy store brands instead of name brands
• Look for sales, discounts, and coupons
• Shop at discount grocers or bulk stores
• Purchase items in bulk, especially non-perishable goods
• Look locally for eggs, meats, honey and vegetables. While they may be more expensive sometimes, finding your local growers will give you a self-reliant edge to ensure you never go without.

It’s also helpful to track prices over time so you can recognize a good deal when you see one. People are getting tricky these days saying it used to cost so much, but they have “reduced” it, but it wasn’t reduced at all, it’s just a marketing trick. Good to pay attention.

6. Learn Basic Cooking Skills

Cooking from scratch is often cheaper and healthier than relying on pre-packaged or takeout meals. While it’s not a bad thing to keep some pre-packaged foods in your pantry or freezer, we can eat healthier and better if we learn to cook from scratch. Plus, ingredients tend to be cheaper than buying whole pre-packaged meals.

Learn how to make simple, affordable meals like one-pot meals, air fryer meals, baked meals, instant pot meals, crock pot meals, soups, stews, casseroles, or homemade bread. These recipes often use pantry staples and can feed your family for less money.

There are countless free resources online to teach you how to cook, especially on a budget, so take advantage of them! I don’t get fancy with the food I make because I like easy, quick and simple. But it’s also not crap, either! They’re balanced meals that the whole family enjoys.

7. Build a Food Storage System

Gradually build up a supply of long-lasting foods to protect against price hikes and shortages. Aim for a mix of items like:

• Freeze-dried or dehydrated foods
• Canned goods
• Freezer foods
• Shelf-stable proteins like peanut butter or canned tuna
• Oils like olive and coconut

Rotate your stock to ensure nothing goes to waste. Use the ‘first in, first out’ method. Place new food behind older food so the older food gets picked and used first.

Remember, best buy dates on canned foods are just that, the manufacturer has determined that it’s going to be BEST by that date, not that it expires. Many canned foods can last longer than their best buy date.

BONUS:

Learn skills that can help you supplements your food storage and become more self-reliant:

• Learn to hunt and fish
• Learn wild edibles
• Get quails or chickens or find a neighbor or local source
• Learn to barter and trade

Final Thoughts

Keep your food in ideal conditions such as between 50-80 degrees, away from direct sunlight and keep moisture out of dried goods to preserve your food even longer.

If you want to build a long term food storage system with dried goods, invest in mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. Use code ROGUE at checkout for an even greater discount!

Building your food supply should be a slow, step by step process. For example, get 4 cans of food and a bag of rice one grocery store visit. The next visit, get a few more cans and another bag of rice. And so on. Slow and steady will win the race. You’ll look at your food storage one day and be shocked at how much you have because it really does add up so quickly!

Start small, be consistent, and you’ll see the benefits of these strategies over time.