There’s no magic wand for saving money with food. It’s like everything else that matters–it takes hard work, and a little bit of sacrifice to make it happen.
When I give tips such as shop the sales, garden, make more from scratch….The thing I hear a lot is, “I don’t have time for that.” That’s a statement I relate to and get frustrated about at the same time. I have 6 kids. They play violin and piano. They do sports and ballet class. I work 4 part time jobs and have a toddler. We volunteer at church. I understand busy.
We all have the same number of hours in the day, and we each get to choose how we spend them. When I hear “I don’t have time for that,” I understand that person to mean, “That is not important to me.”
I usually buy bread instead of make it from scratch. The savings of making over buying bread isn’t high on my priority list with everything else on my plate–even though I understand the health benefits. On the other hand, I do make my own Kombucha and Greek Yogurt. It probably doesn’t make sense to anyone else.
You don’t have to do EVERYTHING the hard way to whittle your budget down to a workable number, but you will have to choose some things. Your hard, won’t be my hard. I don’t do coupons, maybe you do.
The important thing is that you are willing to push up your sleeves and do something to change the direction of your finances. Do what YOU have to do. Your family is counting on you. And the people watching are about to be inspired.
If you had an envelope with $200 cash and knew you had to feed your family with that alone for the month, would they starve? I bet you’d figure it out. What are the first 5 things you’d buy?
(PS $200 is a ridiculously low amount–and I’m not in any way suggesting that is what your budget should be…. I think it’s interesting for arguments sake to think about what we’d do with it. When your survival depends on it, something changes in your brain. Unfathomable things become fathomable.)
My first 5 things: Salt, Dry Beans, Wheat flour, Eggs, & Yeast
My 2nd 5 things: Potatoes, carrots, onions, brown rice, Whole Chickens
Leave what you would buy in the comments :).