@jnl a) taking advantage of overproduction: foodsharing or toogoodtogo or similar ; We barely buy bread anymore as there is so much excess stuff over here - sometimes a whole minivan full of food, and that's already after the food bank took what they need. b) shop selection: shopping at the farmers market or small local shops (e.g. bread mix from local mill), cutting out the middleman. Its not always cheaper but the quality is way better and the money stays local vs. to big corp grocery store c) timing: Shopping on Saturday evening usually leads to reduced prices for some items that can't be sold the next week even if they are good for at least another week. Some shops have a "best before is tomorrow" box with 1/2 price d) connect with your neighbors, grow yourself: we give old bread to one neighbor, this is fed to her chickens and we get some eggs in exchange. Grandpa grows zillions of pumpkins each year. One neighbor grows way more tomato plants in spring, just in case they don't get enough. We take the excess ones and have tasty homegrown tomatoes for nearly no effort. Fruit trees, grapes etc. don't need thaaat much maintenance, the main effort is preserving the fruit (jam, juice, just sharing with neighbors, ...)