Big Bite: How to cut your food costs as prices go up

Catherine Puchalski has a jobnot to make money, but rather to save it.

• IN DEPTH |Big Bite: How to combat high food prices
• 5 ways to take a bite out your grocery bill

A year ago she was laid off from an engineering firm another victim to slumping oil prices.Nowher job is to keep her family food budget down, even as food prices rise.

"It's now become my job to make sure that I not only give our kids and husband healthy meals but also save money."

The 38-year-oldtakes this seriously.

It all starts at the kitchen table where she plans her menu for the week, so that she only has to shop once.

"I only do it once because otherwise I'd spend too much. You never leave the grocery store with just one item."

Once her list is done, she opens Flipp, an app which compiles all the flyers she used to get in paper form, so she can scour for deals.

Today, she finds leaf lettuce on sale, so she scratches out the "romaine"on her list and replaces it with "leaf." Puchalski subscribes to the "watch the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves"school of saving.

Puchalski also sticks to her favourite store, Real Canadian Superstore, for a few reasons. She has a credit card that allows her to collect shopping points which she then redeems on groceries.

And she uses their app to watch for deals.

"Typically I get $40 to $60a month in points I can then spend on groceries."

Strict budget

She keeps to a strict budget, spending no more than $150 a week on food for her family of four.

"And that includes everything from food to toiletries to cleaning supplies."

"It's definitely more of a challenge. I've had to get a bitmore creative. I used to buy chicken breasts. I'll make it fun to have drumsticks on a weekly basis and then I wait until chicken breasts go on sale and then I'll pick up a pack and freeze them."

She makes a pound of ground beef into pasta sauce that she can stretch over three meals.

Other tips she has: never buy too much or you'll waste food, andmake it yourself aspackaged food is always more expensive.

Calgary Eyeopener6:13The Big Bite: Saving money at the grocery store

We meet a super-thrifty shopper who shares her tips for saving money at the grocery store.

"I'm not one of those that's going to pull lint out of my dryer and use it for fuel starter. I'm not that nuts. But if I don't have to spend, I'd rather save it."