The largest adjustable budget category is food. Many families unknowingly overspend every month on food enough to buy a cruise ticket.
Here are my favorite tips to help you start shrinking your grocery bills.
1. Use cash. When the cash is gone you are done spending for the month.
2. Be familiar with using healthy low cost foods in different combinations to form your meals. This would include ingredients like carrots bananas apples oranges in season. frozen vegetables such as peas corn green beans carrot coins, broccoli. and meats like whole roasting chickens chicken breasts and canned tuna. If allowable on your diet whole-grain pasta 100% whole wheat bread brown rice and quinoa are also very affordable choices.
3. Some products are fairly easy and much less expensive to make it home. I’m thinking of products like Greek yogurt, almond milk, bread, pizza crust, pancakes cornbread mix and seasonings.
4. Have a plan for when your schedule doesn’t go like you thought it would. this will save you from having to eat at a restaurant or grabbing fast food instead you can throw together one of the simple meals you already have the ingredients on hand for.
5. Reduce your budget gradually if you can so that you don’t feel the shock of it all in One month.
6. Know what regular prices on food items are. Then you will be able to recognize a really good sale when you see it and can stock up. Only stock up on nonperishable items that you use all the time and only buy enough that you won’t me to buy the item again until it goes on sale again.
7. Be gentle with yourself if your life is fairly stressful you may need to use more of mixes inconvenience and another person and that’s okay you won’t be able to stick with the budget that makes your life miserable.
There has to be more ways to save our there. What is your tip?
We rarely go out to eat anymore–with the high cost of dining out, we often find we have better quality and quantity making our own at home. We can still get special ingredients/menu items for special occasions (still when they’re on sale and fresh), and spend about half or less what we would to go out. The atmosphere is not crowded or rushed, and the best tip is a kiss to my husband for doing the cooking so I don’t have to that evening! The only downer is clean up, but well worth it in cost savings.
Carrie, That’s a great tip and so true. Your hubby is a good cook too :).
Find a way to use what you have. I have so much buried in the freezer, second fridge and pantry. We are low on butter and cheese right now, but this freeze is forcing me to be creative and use other fats and maybe milk for cheese etc. I usually put butter in my refried beans, but I had some leftover fat from some pork roasts I had yesterday. Also, I’m determined to use some coconut oil in place of butter in some recipes. (I once bought 4 gallons of coconut oil and the family does not like it’s strong taste. I forget to use it in things, but I am determined too. Muffins and granola here we come!) All of this not only saves money presently on groceries etc, but it frees up much need space in our pantry, freezer and extra fridge. Then I can be more organized with what I actually do have and what I will need in the future.
Liz, You are doing so great! I love that you are using what you have–and being super creative.
Thanks, I am so grateful you are doing this. It’s exactly what we needed!
Yay, Liz. I appreciate the encouragement.
Reader Tips:
My tip is what I like to call shoebox meals.
Create for yourself a meal that can be sitting in your pantry ready to go when life just doesn’t go as planned and costs MUCH LESS than any drive thru. This is a pantry meal not in the fridge or freezer but these can also be created if you have the space.
The BEST and easiest one is a Spaghetti Dinner.
1 pound of spaghetti
1 can of sauce
1 can of Green Beans
1 can of Pineapple
Fresh is best but eating the above items would be MUCH better for you than a trip through McDonald’s. And so much cheaper!! Savvy shoppers can get this meal in their pantry for cheap!! I would have to double all of these for my family but imagine if all of these items were a $1. Four dollars and you can feed your family with out the guilt of charging it or overspending on takeout.
I also have the ingredients for our go to Foil Dinner in my freezer purchased when on sale.
Frozen hamburger patties
chopped hash brown potatoes (not shredded)
corn
Assemble in foil packets and it is a dinner my family of 6 enjoys. No exceptions or substitutions at dinner. That rarely happens.
I believe grocery shopping should have some money allotted for future meal planning & pantry building. Even $5 every week budgeted for pantry building is smart.
Last fall I purchased roughly ten bottles of ketchup when they were super cheap. 49 cents a bottle. I won’t need to buy ketchup until maybe May. And yes, my kids kept teasing me by asking if we had any ketchup. I just used the extra savings towards the increase in milk prices.
I am maintaining my food budget? Yep!
Not having to ask for more money? Nope! And able to put decent meals on the table? Yep!
Am I saving buckets of money? Not buckets but maintaining the budget I have established for myself and treating the kids when I have extra.
Holiday weekends are your BEST time to stock up on pantry items and create these shoebox meals. Plastic shoe boxes are typically $1 everywhere.
Add a bow, share a dinner with a friend!
Happy Martin Luther King Day!
Time to stock up!!
Nicci