With the economy in a tailspin, more and more of us are curbing our nights out, reining in our budgets and cutting down on takeout and delivery dinners. This is an ideal time to look at a few simple ways to save money and find great value in the kitchen. As a bonus, you'll find that some of the choices will even assist you in your quest to live "green."

The place to start saving money isn't actually in your kitchen, though, it's at the grocery store. Here are a few tips to help you get through the checkout line and still have a bit left in your wallet.

Try The House: One of the biggest ways to save money in the grocery store is by buying staples such as flour, canned and frozen vegetables and other items sold under the store's "house" label. Many of these products are indistinguishable from their more expensive name-brand counterparts, and you'll save as much as 50 percent. This is especially useful when you're buying things like tomato sauce or other common ingredients that will be mixed into other dishes, rather than consumed straight.

Don't be afraid to experiment with house brands. Try things like salad dressings and peanut butter in their cheaper form. If they end up not being your favorites, you won't have spent a lot of money to find out. And who knows, you might just like them better.

Watch The Bargain Bin: Clothing stores aren't the only places where shopping the clearance racks can save you big bucks. Be observant as you walk around the grocery store and you'll likely find a rack or two stocked with discontinued, slightly old or otherwise unsellable goods. Check the expiration dates on any canned goods and you'll usually find they've got a year or more left.

Why are most of these items here? The grocery business is all about turnover. If a product isn't selling, the shelf space it occupies will be given over to another product that is. Grocers walk a fine line between offering a good variety and maximizing their profit, and when a product gets caught between those two forces it gets squeezed onto the discount rack. On a recent shopping trip, I snagged several cans of Wolf brand "mild" chili, which for my taste is just fine with a dose of hot sauce. The price was a quarter what it had been on the retail shelf.

You'll also find a bargain bin in most meat departments. When fresh meat gets a day or so from its expiration date, many grocers will give it one last chance to sell in a markdown bin. I've found high-end cuts like ribeye and New York strip steaks for as little as $2 a pound. Remember that the date on the package is the "sell-by" date. The meat will still be good for a couple of days beyond that time, but it's still best if you either freeze your finds or cook them very soon after purchase.

Watch The Signs: Almost every major grocery chain offers double coupons of one sort or another, many doubling coupons up to $1 in value. Occasionally, though, they'll outdo even that and run a triple coupon sale. Often, these sales are concocted in the individual stores and the only announcement may be a sign on the entry door or some other small notice. Keep an eye on the house brand prices, though. Don't end up paying more for a name brand just because you have a coupon!

Now, let's get into the kitchen for a few final tips:

Choose Wisely: When you stock your pantry, be sure you've got a good selection of "do-anything" meal starters like tomato sauce, condensed soups, bread crumbs and the like. Canned meats like tuna and chicken are also excellent to have on hand, and you can find them on sale just about every week at at least one store.

Feed Your Inner Child: No, I'm not talking about stocking up on Oreos and Cap'n Crunch, sorry. If you grew up in a medium- to large-size family, you probably have fond (or not-so-fond) memories of various cheap-to-fix casseroles that formed the centerpiece of many family dinners when you were a kid. Now's a good time to put your newly stocked staples to work and revisit some of them. Yes, you by and large won't be making haute cuisine, but a big pan of tuna noodle casserole is a great way to feed a crowd for just a few bucks, and if you turn on some "Brady Bunch" reruns you'll be one purple shag carpet away from reliving the '70s.

But don't let that scare you.

Save The Leftovers: A thrifty friend of mine told me that she considers in-sink garbage disposals one of the greatest enemies of frugality, because they make it easy to shovel leftovers down the drain. For very little money, you can pick up packs of cheap but durable plastic containers at your grocery store (watch for coupons!) and save those extra servings. It's often cheaper and more time-friendly to cook a double or even triple recipe of whatever you're making and sock away the leftovers. Avoid using disposable plastic bags as often as you can. Not only do they fill up landfills with trash that will take centuries to degrade, they're more expensive to use than plastic containers in the long run.

Store Properly: If you're not a big baker, it's likely that your three-pound or five-pound sack of flour sits for quite a while between uses, and you've likely had to toss unused amounts out at least once because it had attracted weevils or otherwise become unfit for human consumption. A set of good-quality plastic containers with tight-sealing lids will prolong the shelf life of things like flour, corn meal, rice, beans and other staples frequently bought in bulk. This is especially important if you're an apartment dweller, where you'll encounter more problems with insects attracted by neighbors who may not live quite as fastidiously as you do.

Use Cloth: At mealtime, do you grab paper napkins or tear off paper towels for table use? Next time you're out shopping, hit the dollar store and pick up a pile of cheap cloth napkins. They don't have to be fancy, and you can toss them in with other household linens when you do laundry. A small thing? Yes. But you'll be keeping wads of paper out of the landfill and they'll pay for themselves quickly.

Yes, the economy's not making anyone very happy these days, but that doesn't mean you can't eat well. Use some common sense and your family will never know the money you saved!