We all want to save money these days, especially in our retirement, and saving on meals you cook at home is an area filled with possibilities. Three methods come to mind when I think about saving money on groceries: preparing filling meals using whole grains, choosing less expensive sources of protein, and eating more fruits and vegetables. Cooking from scratch is an important part of all of these areas. This article talks about eating more fruits and vegetables—vegetarian meals.

If you are serious about stretching your grocery budget in your thrifty retirement, you have to be serious about preparing more vegetarian meals. This does not have to be an ominous prospect. It just means you need to fix a main dish that doesn’t contain meat. If you have been a meat-and-potatoes cook (or meat-and potatoes eater) all your life, it might mean a bigger adjustment for you. But most of us stopped eating like that years ago.

A 16-ounce T-bone steak for dinner simply makes no sense anymore. Red meat is expensive—really expensive. Few of us can afford the cost of beef on a regular basis, and even fewer of us need the fat, calories, and cholesterol of that much meat. These days, people are not out there chopping down trees for log cabins or plowing fields with horses. Because we are retired, many of us don’t even mow our own lawns anymore, or we use a riding mower if we do. We have no need for the quantity of calories, fat, and protein previous generations required. With well over half of Americans overweight or obese, cutting back on calories and cost at the same time is a notion well overdue.

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Three areas come to mind when I think about saving money on groceries: preparing filling meals using whole grains, using less expensive sources of protein, and eating more fruits and vegetables. Cooking from scratch is an important part of all of these areas. Preprocessed, prepackaged food is expensive and contains unhealthy chemicals and preservatives. This article talks about choosing sources of protein that are less expensive than meat.

When protein-rich food sources are mentioned, most people automatically think of meat, and usually red meat. Meat is a great protein food, of course, but it’s also usually the most expensive food on our grocery list. Ground beef can cost $2-$3 per pound and prices for other meats go up from there. Steaks and premium beef roasts can be $10-$15 per pound or more. Pork chops and roasts cost about the same as beef, and lamb is even higher. Poultry is a more economical choice for your thrifty retirement. You can buy whole chickens on sale for around a dollar a pound, and turkeys, either whole or as individual parts, are available for around $2 per pound.

As we try to stretch our retirement dollars, finding less expensive sources of protein should be among our top priorities. A quick search online will show you the best alternatives: beans, eggs, and cheeses. Nuts, especially walnuts and almonds, offer protein as well, but it’s harder to work substantial amounts of those into a meal. Happily, a peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread is a great lunch!

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read more about cooking with whole grains