<prompt> Human: 2017 for me is the year of cutting down my grocery bill. Our current grocery spending is above average for a family of 3 mewife1 year old kid. Id love to figure out how to cut the prices down without compromising on the following, generally: We buy organic meat and lots of other organic stuff and conversely avoid cheap boxed prepared foods We almost entirely avoid the center aisles, outside of seltzer just got a soda stream so thats a thing of the past, baby snacks like rice cakescoffeebeanssalsachipsetc We want to give our son a balanced diet, which includes fruits, veggies preferably not frozen, etcA few things Ive started doing that certainly help avoid takeout, but I havent figured out how to do on the cheap yet: Meal planning specifically prepping crockpot freezer meals Analyzing receipts to figure out what the high ticket items are, and either ditching them or finding alternatives Other common stuff like list making, not being hungry, yadda yaddaIve not dug into coupons at all, nor checking the weekly sales starting that after this post but Im curious if anyone else has practical tips that dont interfere with our well being - money is important, but Im not going to switch to eating ramen every day to save some money but we are willing to sacrifice if its reasonable.Assistant: Buy frozen when things arent in season. Frozen is just as healthy as fresh and often cheaper when the fresh stuff has to be brought it from South America. And if youre cooking it in a crockpot, youll never tell the difference. Human: How about eating fruits raw? Like my son loves blueberries but they are the most expensive. Is there an effective way to thaw them and have them still take good by the handful?  <response>: I always freeze blueberries; theyre a little soften when you thaw them but otherwise totally fine.The trick is to freeze them completely dry on a baking traycookie sheet so that every berry is frozen individually. Then once theyre hard I put them into tupperware or ziplock bags. Viola - no squishing! 