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Yep, we cut out a lot of meat and make meals stretch through a few nights by cooking in bulk. If you don't want to eat the same thing multiple nights, then make something you can freeze half of.

Cutting out packaged/convenience foods, like precut fruit

Can you grow your own vegetables in the summer? I seriously wish I lived somewhere that I could garden year round.

http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/

@regberadaisy: Oh and for cooking from scratch we just got really simplified. We stick to basic recipes that don't call for a lot of ingredients. Cooking at home should be cheaper not more expensive!

I cook simple meals that don't require a lot of ingredients. I usually prepare meat and two veggies. Simple doesn't mean boring when things are well seasoned. If there is a week where I want to try something new or a little more elaborate then I have a couple cheap meals I can cook the rest of the week, like pasta or chicken pot pie, so that I don't go overboard at the grocery store.

If you can swing it (have the space) we buy meat in bulk and then our grocery store trips are about 1/3 cheaper if not more (we are a meat eater, I try to do 1 vegetarian meal a week but my husband grumbles a lot about it. He thinks protein = meat and does not think beans are an acceptable substitute.)

We split a cow with my sister and parents, 1/3 of a cow (we did all ground beef this time) and it'll last us 8 months. We also buy chicken in bulk and freeze from Sam's club when they have their sale. They will do a package at less than $2 a pound, and I will get 15 of them and clean them and bag them. Pork chops & bacon I wait for our 10 for $10 sale at a local store, and stock up and do the same thing. Portion them out and freeze for future use.

I also freeze veggies to use in the winter. Corn right now is huge in my area, so I buy a few dozen and clean it up and freeze to use all winter. If you are interested, I also do a little canning. I can my own tomatoes for chili/spaghetti sauce/pizza sauce so I don't have to buy that stuff. You can also can veggie soup too right now that veggies are so readily available.

Meal templates always save us money. Sandwich night, soup night, Mexican, pizza, grilling night, etc. Find a template that works for your family and then mix and match to use up leftovers and veggies throughout the week. For instance, crockpot shredded chicken could be tacos one night and then pulled pork sandwiches another night, and then chicken noodle soup another night. Carrot sticks as a side with tacos, carrot salad or slaw to go on the BBQ sandwiches, then diced carrots in the soup.

We did a meatless night and a pizza night a lot. Meatless night was almost always a curry - if it's flavorful and full of chickpeas or tofu, DH didn't really notice. Black bean sweet potato chili was the same idea. Pizza was always a way to use up bits of leftover meat and veg from the week. We also did nearly meatless meals, like soup using broth from chicken bones and making a big pot of minestrone with salad and bread.

Meat as a component to meals and not a center also really helped. We buy those big bags of bacon bits from Costco and can use them to flavor a while quiche, or throw in a handful for fried rice with an egg on top, and do similar things with hams after they go on sale after the holidays.

Our deep freezer also saves us lots of money too by buying meat and frozen veg on sale, as well as bread. We also store bulk cooked foods.

We get eggs from a local farmer in exchange for a minor errand once a week. We pretty much have unlimited eggs and all love them and eat a lot!

We also eat vegetarian mainly. I'll get a rotisserie chicken and use all of it, then boil bones and make soup.

Beans are a really good source of protein that can be used instead of meat. They are much cheaper and can be made into many meals that are very filling.

At our grocery store ground turkey is about half the cost of ground beef. So we started using turkey almost exclusively (and it's healthier, too).

@catlady: does your whole foods have meatless Monday? I recently discovered ours does and this has saved me a Ton throughout the week. The salad bars (hot and cold) are all you can fit in a container for $8.00. It's usually $8.99/lb. I get an assortment of veggies for a weeks worth of salad (buy greens separately) then top with something from the warm bar- like black bean quesadilla, spinach patties, bean salad, etc.
off this $8 I can usually stretch it for 3-4lunches and 1-2 dinners. If you use veggies in fried rice or something it goes even farther!

@regberadaisy: black bean or lentil burgers, black beans or lentils instead of ground beef for tacos, edamame in fried rice instead of meat or in a stir fry. And I want to try these sometime - http://www.onegreenplanet.org/plant-based-recipes/how-to-make-homemade-spicy-italian-sausage-vegan-and-gluten-free/

@regberadaisy: We started adding beans to our mexican dishes (black beans). Mixed in with the enchiladas (make 2 pans and freeze one).

Yes, corn, you would just pull it off the cobb and freeze it kerneled. But honestly, we can get a bag of corn kernels frozen year round for about $1/bag (grocery store brand on sale from normal price of $1.50). So corn may not be a great options. But summer zucchini and squash can be cubed up and frozen too!

Probably heard this already but the difference between a fish + red meat week and a poultry (chicken/turkey/eggs) week is ENORMOUS. Cutting meat isn't an option for us either, so we try to do ONE expensive meat a week (fish/lamb/beef) and then poultry or eggs the rest of the week.

@mrsrain: That's a good idea. The fee is only $2.00 at our preferred store and it's free if you spend over one hundred.
I do have a question for you - how is the produce that they select for you? Our store is great in almost every respect, but their onions (of all things!) really suck. I wonder if they try to push the less-desirable produce when they select it for pick-ups?

@T.H.O.U.: My husband is the same way...if it doesn't have meat, it's not dinner.

@TemperanceBrennan: We use PeaPod (Stop&Shop) and they pride themselves on selecting the best produce for their customers. I have never had a problem. The ONLY complaint I have would be them selecting bananas that are greener than I would choose, but that's definitely a matter of preference!

Another thing we do is to pick our own raspberries (and sometimes peaches, apples, etc) when they are in season at the local orchards. Then we freeze them to have all year round.

We also make our own chicken broth by saving chicken bones and scraps in a bag in a freezer, and veggie scraps in another bag in the freezer. Then periodically we boil up some broth and freeze it in bags (2 cups of broth per bag). It tastes SO MUCH better than store-bought broth, and costs us nothing to make.

@regberadaisy: here is how I do it: http://www.pickyourown.org/freezingcorn.htm