Hold on to your wallets.

This winter is shaping up to be a perfect storm of bad weather, high prices and the need to pinch pennies.

Heating oil has seen double-digit increases in price, and gasoline prices are still above $2 a gallon. Natural gas prices have risen 9 percent, and colder-than-usual temperatures may mean bills of 17 percent more than last year for the average household, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused the loss of thousands of chickens on Southern poultry farms. Even if birds weren't killed, power losses and gasoline costs have driven up of the price of chicken.

But chicken may look like a bargain, compared to the price of beef. Here, too, high gasoline prices affect the price you pay at the supermarket.

A summer drought has pushed up the cost of the grains used to feed livestock, so dairy prices are liable to rise at the grocery store.

And with jet fuel prices rising alongside gasoline, imported fruits and vegetables will be more expensive, too.

You can't fly away (airfares are expected to rise), and you can't drive away (gas prices remain at historic highs). Time to hunker down, tighten the ol' belt and drink a toast to those recessionary '70s.

But at least you'll have something good to eat. Here are some great tips on how to stretch your grocery bucks so you won't have to dig out that copy of Doyne Nickerson's 1960 classic, "365 Ways to Cook Hamburger."

The USDA creates food plans designed to match four levels of spending. The four levels are Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal.Here's how much money the USDA estimated you would spend per week at each level last October (the most recent numbers available when this story was written).<b>Family of two</b>Ages 20-50 years:Thrifty, $70.80; Low-Cost, $89.50; Moderate, $110.50; Liberal, $138.30.Ages 51 and older:Thrifty, $66.70; Low-Cost, $85.90; Moderate, $106.50; Liberal, $127.80.<b>Family of four</b>Children ages 2 and 3-5:Thrifty, $102.10; Low-Cost, $128.20; Moderate, $157.40; Liberal, $194.30.Children ages 6-8 and 9-11:Thrifty, $118.60; Low-Cost, $151.90; Moderate, $189.20; Liberal, $229.20.For more information, visit the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion's Web site at www.usda.gov/cnpp/using3.html.

The USDA also publishes suggested menus for a week's worth of meals at the Thrifty Food Plan level. The menus include breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack and assume that all food is prepared at home.To see more menus, visit www.usda.gov/cnpp/foodplans.html and click on "preparing nutritious meals at minimal cost."Here's what a day's worth of menus for a family of four at the Thrifty Food Plan level looks like:<b>Breakfast:</b>Orange juice, cold cereal, toasted English muffin, milk<b>Lunch:</b>Turkey patties and hamburger buns, coleslaw, milk<b>Dinner:</b>Beef-noodle casserole, lima beans, banana-orange salad, milk<b>Snack:</b>White bread, chickpea dip, lemonadeHere's a week's worth of dinner menus for a family of four on the Thrifty Food Plan, suggested by the USDA:<b>Monday:</b>Southwestern salad, steamed rice, margarine, apple-orange salad, milk<b>Tuesday:</b>Spanish baked fish, steamed rice, peas, whole-wheat bread, margarine, peach cake, milk<b>Wednesday:</b>Stir-fried pork and vegetables with rice, dinner roll, margarine, mandarin oranges, milk<b>Thursday:</b>Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, white bread, margarine, orange slices, milk<b>Friday:</b>Baked spicy fish, noodles, peas and carrots, white bread, margarine, chocolate-rice pudding, milk<b>Saturday:</b>Baked meatballs, spaghetti and sauce, leaf lettuce, salad dressing, French bread, milk<B>Sunday:</b>Cheese-stuffed potatoes, macaroni, peas, margarine, orange slices, milk

- Shop creatively. Sometimes drug or hardware stores offer terrific prices on kitchen items, especially shelf-stable foods, gadgets and storage/cleaning products.- Visit different stores when you can. Or at least skim the advertisements and circulars that come in the newspaper or mail. The more knowledgeable you are about prices and stores, the savvier you will be when it comes to knowing whether an advertised sale is really a deal.- Shop ethnic to buy ethnic. Prices for staples such as tortillas, rice, soy sauce and the like will be cheaper—but do consider the store's location. You don't want the money saved going toward gasoline.- Low profile, low price. Meats that are in less demand often cost less, so skip the beef steaks and pork chops and try the pot roasts and pork shoulders. Pass by the skinless, boneless chicken breasts and choose the whole bird. Buying larger packages of meats often can save dollars; at home, divide them, put into smaller storage bags and freeze.Freshness counts. Fish is no bargain if it isn't fresh. Be flexible at the fish counter; choose only the freshest-looking (and sweetest-smelling) products. The sniff test is especially valuable: Anything that smells fishy is fishy. If you are suspicious, ask to smell the fish before buying or, if the staff refuse, open the package as soon as you purchase it and complain if the fish stinks.- Eat something before you shop. Then you'll be less likely to fill your cart with giant bags of those barbecued potato chips you love so much.- You've heard it before, but here it is again. Making a list before you head for the supermarket helps you not only get everything you need but also helps you avoid spontaneous, frivolous purchases.- Use dried instead of canned. A 15-ounce can of black beans (which holds about 1½ cups) will set you back only 79 cents or so, true. But a one-pound bag of dried black beans costs 99 cents (and yields 5 to 6 cups of cooked beans). If you eat a lot of beans (and you should; you're supposed to get 3 cups of beans and other legumes a week), you'll save money and you'll have better-tasting meals.- So-called "baby" carrots or "mini" carrots are mostly nothing of the kind. They are regular carrots processed in a tumbler. You pay for the convenience of having them peeled and cut. Make carrot sticks yourself, saving money and keeping them fresh longer (and preserving their nutrition). Mini or baby carrots: $1.64 a pound. Regular carrots: 89 cents a pound.- When butter is on sale, seize the opportunity: Buy extra and freeze it.- Buy frozen concentrate orange juice, instead of orange juice by the carton, which costs twice as much. One leading brand in a 64-ounce carton recently cost 7 cents an ounce, compared to the 12-ounce frozen container, which makes a 3.5-cents-per-ounce drink.- Post-holidays are a great time to cash in on products emblazoned with seasonal colors. The reductions can be as much as 75 percent. Don't know about you, but we don't mind using resealable bags in January that have elves or pumpkins on them.- If you can, buy spices in bulk: Buy only what you think you might use in a year. The little jars cost so much, and most contain more of the spice or herb than you'll use before it's too old to have much flavor left (about a year). And that's a waste of money.We priced three common spices at a large chain grocery store in the typical small glass jars (net weight varies because of the differing masses of the herb or spice): cinnamon ($3.54 a jar or $1.89 per ounce), black peppercorns ($3.60 per jar or $1.98 per ounce) and bay leaves ($4.55 a jar or a whopping $25 an ounce — bay leaves are very lightweight).Buying in bulk at an area Whole Foods store, these spices were, respectively, 68 cents per ounce, $1.37 per ounce and $1.06 per ounce.- Cruise the perimeter. The sidewalls of the typical supermarket carry the fresh foods: produce, dairy, seafood and meat. The middle aisles contain more processed foods, which by their very nature carry extra costs for production, packaging and advertising. Aim for "fresh" foods, not packaged foods.- Use the unit-pricing labels found below each product on the shelf. Price is broken down by ounce; use that per-ounce price to compare two products to find the best value.Think seasonally. Complement your meals with produce that's in season where you live, because the farther food has to travel, the more expensive it becomes. Skip the winter tomatoes and substitute shredded carrots in a salad.- Markets often have a cart or shelving unit in an out-of-the-way corner for their last-ditch clearance products. (Smart shoppers know where they are.) These are usually overstocked products they no longer have room for, and savings can be dramatic. Check the expiration dates when applicable.

Put "planned-overs" in your dinner rotation.There are two ways to do this. The first is to make a double batch, then freeze half for another night. We like to fill the pot or casserole we'll use to reheat the second batch, freeze it, then remove it from the container and put the frozen meal into a resealable bag. When it's time to reheat, it'll fit in the pot and we don't have to wait for the meal to thaw to find out.The second part of planned-overs is to cook once to save time the second night. The rest of the roast chicken makes a great potpie the next night. Leftover roast beef turns into terrific hash. In fact, this planned-over plan is what makes roasts and larger cuts more economical than ground beef. Buy bone-in when you can for better flavor and a bones bonus for the stockpot.Think you can't afford those roasts and larger cuts? Plan soup for dinner one night, and pasta another. You'll have even more in your meat budget if you make a third night a meatless menu, like cheese enchiladas, or eggs in some fashion, or vegetable stir-fry.

Stale baked goods leave us cold except for French or Italian breads. Slice, dab with a little garlic and fry in good olive oil to make exceptional croutons for salads. Processing stale bread in the food processor gives you bread crumbs, useful as a topping for gratins or binders for meatballs and fish cakes.

Packaged waffles, pancakes, rolls and biscuits in the freezer section seem ridiculously expensive when you consider how easy it is to freeze homemade versions. Preparing waffles or pancakes for 4? Simply double the recipe and freeze the remaining in a large freezer bag between sheets of parchment or wax paper.Freeze extra bread or bagels. When you are ready to eat them, remove frozen bagel halves from the freezer, wrap them loosely in paper towels at room temperature. They will be ready for the toaster in a matter of minutes.Be a cheese scrooge. Save those leftover pieces of hard cheese and freeze them in a plastic container. When the container is full, grate the cheese pieces using a food processor, mix in plenty of minced garlic, pack it all into a crock and bake in the oven until bubbly and browned. Makes a great cocktail party spread.

Those half-ounce packages of fresh herbs are expensive. Keep a little pot of fresh herbs growing on a windowsill, and you'll save a lot of money without sacrificing flavor. Group them by water and light needs: Basil and parsley love damp feet, rosemary cringes if its feet are too wet. Thyme isn't terribly picky.

Can the cans. Canned soup is expensive! For such a humble (but nutritious) food, why pay from $1.25 to $2 for a can? You can make homemade soup, without all the added sodium, preservatives and other questionable additives, for a fraction of that. And you can make it in large stockpots on the weekend and freeze in batches for weeknight dinners.Make your own meat stock. Even if it's only a quart or two at a time. Use chicken wings or whatever's on special that week; buy the cheapest beef, even ground beef, for broth. It's not that the stockmaking saves you much money — the brand we use costs about a buck for nearly 2 cups — but that you can cram more flavor into it by adding more vegetables to the stockpot. Freeze it, 2 cups at a time, in plastic food storage bags.Contributing to this report were Good Eating staff members Bill Daley, Renee Enna, Joe Gray, Robin Mather Jenkins, Carol Mighton Haddix and Donna Pierce.