American families are tightening their belts to deal with rising fuel and food costs, but what if you could find a windfall in your grocery cart?

Food prices rose about 8 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the last quarter of 2007, according to the most recent American Farm Bureau Federation Marketbasket Survey.

Despite rising prices, if you implement the following five tips, you can save up to $2,000 a year on your food bill.

Perfect Preparation Makes Perfect

Alice Henneman, a registered dietitian and extension educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, put together a Supermarket Savings guide for consumers. She said smart consumers start saving money before they even leave their house.

"If you make a list, you don't have to make another trip to the store -- which also saves you gas -- and you get only what you need," Henneman said. "And the less (times per week) you shop, the less likely you will make an impulse purchase."

Before you make the list, open your local newspaper. You can save on average $2 per unit when you buy the meat, chicken or seafood that's on sale, rather than just choosing what sounds good, Henneman said.

If it's a really good sale, stock up. Meat freezes well if you package it correctly.

"It is safe to freeze meat or poultry directly in its supermarket wrapping but this type of wrap is permeable to air," according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and Inspection Service. "Unless you will be using the food in a month or two, over wrap these packages as you would any food for long-term storage using airtight heavy-duty foil, (freezer) plastic wrap or freezer paper, or place the package inside a (freezer) plastic bag."

Once your list is compiled, peruse that newspaper -- plus online sites -- for coupons that apply to those things on your list.

"Use coupons only for foods you normally would eat, rather than for extras," Henneman said.

Registered dietitian Cindy Brison said some people don't like to bother with coupons, but they can make it pay off for them personally.

"I'm a coupon nut. I think the five minutes it takes me cut out coupons to maybe save $2 to $3 a week -- but over weeks, that adds up. I knew someone who put that money in a savings account as mad money," Brison said.

Those coupon savings pile up even faster when you wait to shop until a grocery store offers double or triple coupon days.

Finally, before you head out the door, consider a snack.

"Avoid shopping when hungry," Henneman said. "Everything looks good on an empty stomach."

If you don't shop hungry, you'll save the $2.50 you might have spent on a box of snack crackers or the $1.50 on a energy bar to tide you over until you get home.

How Much Will You Really Eat?

What goes for meat goes for staples and shelf-stable foods, too. Stock up on rice, canned or dried beans and pasta sauce when they're on sale. Then, they'll be in your cupboard to supplement leftovers.

Buying in bulk isn't always as wallet-friendly as many people think. Big-box bulk discounters like Sam's Club and Costco sell food in units with miniscule per-serving prices, but that doesn't mean you're saving money. If you buy more animal crackers than you can eat before they expire, or you get them home and get sick of them before they're gone, you've wasted money.

"Buy something smaller, even if it costs more," said Kathy Tack, a registered dietitian at Iowa's Glenwood Resource Center. "It still costs more to throw it away. If you're not going to eat it, that's just wasteful."

To avoid trashing food, check expiration dates before you leave the store and plan leftovers carefully.

"If leftovers get the heave ho because they’re left too long, we’re putting money in the garbage can," Henneman said. "Recycle (mashed potatoes) as potato patties, shepherd’s pie or potato soup within a day or two."

When you want to try new items, avoid food flops by researching recipes before you leave the house. Henneman said had to throw her first pomegranate away because she didn't understand that their sweetness was in the seeds and not in the rind.

Shift Buying Habits

Busy families sometimes turn to convenience foods to save time. But you can save money by, for example, buying a carton of oatmeal that holds 30 servings instead of buying three single-serving boxes of 10 individual packets. Henneman figures the saves at $5.50.

Also, give the store's "toasy oats" a try in place of your Cheerios.

"Try to explore using the store brands," said Tack. "Some are just as good or better."

Instead of buying bottled water, buy a reusable water bottle and fill it from the tap.

Sack Lunches Pile Up Savings

Toni Kuehneman, registered dietitian in the cardiac unit of Alegent Health, said she did the math on brown-bagging versus cafeteria lunch. She came up with a savings of $2.50 a day or up to $100 a month for brown baggers.

Kuehneman said she started in her hospital's cafeteria, where she spent more than $5 to get a fruit, a vegetable an entrée and a dessert. She said it costs about that much to get a similar meal at McDonald's.

Then for comparison, she started building peanut butter and jelly; tuna, lettuce and tomato or hummus sandwiches.

"You can get three sandwiches out of 99-cent can of tuna. A loaf of bread is $2.69, and that lasts my husband and I for 10 days. Add seasonal or sale fruit. A package of carrots is $1.50 over 7 days. The total is about $1.50 a day," Kuehneman said. "You could buy a lot of gas with that."

Count Your Money

The dietitians admit, the measures they suggest above aren't necessarily easy for everyone. And you don't have to implement all of them.

But if you do go to the work and save the whole $2,000, Henneman said, consider it a bump in your salary.

"You're saving money and you're not paying taxes on it. If you'd earned that saved money, you'd owe more taxes," she said.