Shopping and other errands are a quick way to burn through that tank of gas that you just filled up. Isn’t it worth your while to cut down all that running around if you can? The less time you spend in the car, after all, the less gas you need to buy. You might even free up some spare time that I’m sure you can find a better use for than shuttling groceries home.

There’s a simple way to cut down on your grocery shopping: surf the web. Many of us already go online to buy books, movies and clothes. Why not buy our food online?

High-Priced Myths

Every person I talk to assumes that buying food online is insanely expensive. That used to be the case: in the past, a lot of the food available online tended to obscure luxury items that companies could still make a good profit on after shipping. But Amazon and other retailers have ironed out some of the kinks in the shipping system, making it reasonable to buy at least some of your food online.

But what is worth buying online? Plenty of foods just aren’t practical to buy and have shipped — some, like milk, go bad. Others, like flour, have high enough shipping costs to make it less than worthwhile. But some items are ideal.

For the past year, I’ve bought all my spices online. Buying in batches allows me to get great deals on bulk amounts — and spices ship for practically nothing. Other good online buys are always non-perishable items. If you find an opportunity to buy with free shipping on anything, I always recommend stocking up. For instance, Amazon Prime members can often get free shipping on select items, making certain foods comparably priced to the stuff at your local grocery store.

The Coupon Game

There are some foods that will always remain impractical to buy online: milk and eggs need refrigeration and rapid transport, something that Amazon can’t exactly promise. But you can find coupons for just about every name brand online, if you’re willing to spend a few minutes at the computer. Even if you can’t time your coupon clipping to coincide with sales, you can still more than make up for the savings you might lose by shopping at only one grocery store. My grandmother used to shop on the basis on the sales papers. She’d go to one store for fruit, another for bread and a third for milk. Sure, she saved money that way, but I can save the same amount by going to just one store and not wasting gas. Coupons just make my food a little cheaper beyond that.

A Little Extra Help

If you’re willing to plan menus in advance and spend a little time thinking about where you’re going to buy your food, you can cut your grocery bill. Food costs trail only energy prices in how fast they’re rising these days. There are so many resources online for cutting your food costs, from online stores to inexpensive recipes that spending a few minutes in front of your computer is well worth your while.

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Whether you’re saving up to buy your first house or working on eliminating some credit card debt, just about every financial guru will tell you to be frugal — to cut down on unnecessary expenditures. It’s such widespread advice because it works — brown bagged lunches, fewer Starbucks lattes and wearing clothing that doesn’t require dry cleaning can help free up a lot of money in our collective budgets.

But a new budget is like a new diet: after a few days or weeks, we start asking ourselves just how long we’re going to suffer. How long are we going to deprive ourselves of those nights out with friends or that new DVD that we really want? When can we stop being frugal?

Well, it depends on how we depend frugality. After a while, we get used to certain parts of living on a smaller amount of money each month, but that can be boiled down to simple budgeting. We really shouldn’t ever stop managing our money; there may not be another house in our future, but it’s surprisingly easy to slip into bad credit habits even if we’ve been down that route before.

Depriving ourselves of every little luxury, though — I don’t actually consider that frugal. Most of us start keeping an eye on our finances in order to make our lives more comfortable. And part of that comfort is those little luxuries. Even early on in the budget-making process, I recommend putting at least a few dollars aside each month with the intention of having a little fun.

I’m not recommending bringing those lattes back into the budget, unless good coffee really is one of your favorite things in life. Instead, consider your options. What really is the most enjoyable part of your day? What makes you want to get up in the morning, or grab a friend to talk about? That’s where your luxury budget should go. And don’t stick with the same thing every month — our wants and needs change. This month, I may be eying a particularly good book, but next month, I may want to go out for a night on the town with my friends.

And as I’ve become more comfortable with my financial situation — less debt, more savings — I’ve even increased the amount that I put towards the little comforts of life. I’ve made a point of keeping some money in savings, building towards bigger purchases like a new computer or another luxury item.

Removing every single luxury from your life may seem like a good idea if you’re trying to reduce your spending. But if you do, you’ll make yourself miserable. You may not be able to stick to it, either. I’ve got to go back to that diet metaphor: a lot of people go on diets and do pretty well the first week. Then they slip up, and go back to their old habits. It works the same way with budgets, unfortunately. The best thing you can do is make your budget a little more comfortable. Sure, it may take a little longer to save up for that house or to pay off that credit card bill, but you’ve got a better chance of making it.

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