You can often find seeds at twenty cents a pack at your local stores, like Walmart. You can build your own compost pile out of things that are laying around, or that you normally throw out. Things like the outside lettuce and cabbage leaves, cucumber peelings, dried leaves, grass clippings and coffee grounds.

You can start a pile in the yard, cover it with a plastic bag after you have wet it down, and let it cook in the sun. Stir it occassionally, and add more to it as you get it. This eliminates the cost of having to buy plant food and fertilizer, and the yeild you will get from the vegetables you grow will save you a ton at the store.

Go to the scratch and dent section of the store, and get cans of food that are slightly dented, at a much lower price than regular. Look for items like beans, pinto beans, lima beans, navy beans and such. These have enough protein in them and can actually be substitued for the meat in your meals.

Buy regular rice instead of instant. Buy produce in season. Watch the sales papers. Produce often goes on sale, when a crop has been big and the store needs to move it fast or lose their money.

Buy vegetables and produce raw, not processed. The store actually charges you more if they clean and peel the items for you. Go to farm and produce stands. The farmers sell their excess fruits and vegetables at a much lower price than the stores.