Making the Food Budget Stretch
By Caren with a "C", on March 29th, 2011
One of the biggest ways we can save money is by making our food budget stretch. In the last article Budgets – Create, Review, and Stick to Them I talked a little about ways we could create a realistic budget with our variable spending categories. Food was one of them.
- Preparation:
We can save time and money by being prepared before we shop for food by:
- Looking through the weekly grocery store advertisements for what is on sale.
- Creating a menu for the week based on using items that are on sale.
- Clipping coupons for those items that your family uses.
- Creating a list to take with you to the store(s).
- Pantry:
Stock a kitchen pantry of basic food items that you use often in your meals. When items that you usually use go on sale, buy a few extra of those items. Items usually are on a 3 month cycle of when they go on sale. So you may want to calculate how many you might use in 3 months and purchase that amount. It may add to your current bill, but it will save you money in the next 3 months.
If you are tight on money for that month because of some unforeseen expenditures, try shopping from your pantry first before you go out and buy duplicate items. Make your meal plan from what you already have on hand and only buy those items that you need.
Having a pantry of basic items like flour, sugar, pasta, oatmeal, spices, rice, oils, and canned items like tomatoes will help you cook from scratch more often as the ingredients are at hand.
Take inventory of your pantry every 3 to 6 months to make sure that you are using what you have purchased and so items do not expire before you use them. If you decide you don’t want the item, donate it to a local food pantry, shelter, or church. Or your neighbor may be interested in the items. I’ve been blessed by a neighbor getting rid of some extra baking items after the holidays.
- Grocery Shopping:
I love my children, but they do not help me in any way when I go grocery shopping. At least not at this age. They have their own agendas when we go to the store, and usually it isn’t my agenda of saving money. They can cause you to rush through the store causing you to forget items, calculate unit pricing wrong so you pay more, and then forget to give your coupons to the checker. Believe me, I’ve been there! So has my husband and so he won’t take the kids by himself again.
Carry a calculator with you. I have a calculator on my new phone. I have used it in the store many times. A store that isn’t strictly a grocery store may not have unit pricing($ divided by weight = cost per unit of weight) on the price labels so that you can compare container sizes. If the unit price is cheaper, buy in bulk IF you are able to properly store the item and will use it before it expires. Watch out though, sometimes the sale item may be a better price in smaller cans than the bulk item.
Go to more than 1 grocery store to get savings. I have found 2 to be enough for me. Once in a while if there is a great sale, I will go to 3. I have been able to divide my grocery list between 2 stores and make 45% savings on my bill. Be loyal to your budget before you are loyal to a store. You can also try stores that are not just grocery stores, for example Target and Walmart have grocery departments in them and may have better deals on some items. I have found cans of condensed cream soups to be cheaper at these stores.
- Portion Control:
Have you ever read the serving size on the side of the cereal box? Do you really eat only 1 serving? Sometimes I think the portions are too small, however, sometimes I think we are just used to overeating.
A good way to cut your grocery budget is to eat the appropriate portion size. It can help our waistlines too! To help, use a plate that is smaller in diameter. This will give you the illusion that your plate is full. Of course you are going to have to convince your stomach that you are. It might take drinking lots of water, eating foods high in fiber, loading on the vegetables and a few days before your stomach agrees.
If everyone in your family started eating 25% less food (not less calories than recommended… I’m not saying to starve yourself) you would save money. Maybe reduce slowly over time, cutting back serving size until you reach the correct portion. Here are some additional resources and tips from WebMD
- Low Budget Meals:
Find recipes that don’t break your budget. It is fine to eat steaks every once in a while, but every week, unless you have a great source, is going to break your budget.
Here are some tips on low budget recipes:
- Recipes that have only a couple ingredients (5 Ingredient Fix) and don’t list spices that you rarely use.
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- Recipes that lend to 2 meals in 1. Being able to purchase meat in bulk and then use it to create 2 meals without a lot of additional time.
- Learn about cuts of meat. You can usually save money by purchasing meats in larger pieces and then cutting them up yourself. For example a whole chicken verses buying it already cut up.
- Cooking from scratch when you can instead of buying pre-packaged items.
- Salads that are meals by adding a meat such as thin slices of steak or grilled chicken.
- Big pots of soup with homemade bread that can be used for a couple of meals. This is easier when you are not feeding children.
- Casseroles or one pan meals that have the meat, vegetable, and bread/starch altogether.
- Combining sale items to make a meal.
- Have at least one vegetarian meal night every week.
- Other Ideas:
Some additional ideas for saving on your food budget are:
- Grow a garden.
- U-Pick Farms
- Farmer’s Market
- Day-Old Stores, example bread or bakeries.
- Food Co-op
- Stores that only sell in bulk.
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Do you have any food budget tips?
This is an article in a series of articles on emergency preparedness and self-reliance:
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Great info! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the refresher course. I have started using coupons more when I shop. I have also been guilty of forgetting to give the coupons at the ckout. It does feel really good to be a smart shopper and get the bargains that are out there. I’ve thought that I would like to just eat and shop for only those things on sale…so making my menu match the sales. Watch out though and know your prices as many things really are not a bargain and are always on sale. I agree that the bulk stores have good bargains…I was astounded to find the mayonaise that I usually buy was $8.53 at my local bargain store. I refused to buy it and found it a couple weeks later for $6. and some cents (can’t remember, but under 7) It was a coupon item at Costco with a limit of 3 or 4. So I saved $2 on each. With food costs today, it really is smart to shop the bargains. I was making chocolate chip cookies from scratch last week for a family in need. The recipe called for 2 sticks of butter…that is $2 for butter alone, so cookies need to be on my list of special occasions. Happy cooking!
We started using smaller plates and that helps.
Great ideas! Visiting here from comment hour!
Karolina recently posted..Oven Roasted Broccoli
Hi Caren! you have such a cute and awesome blog!! I’ll definitely learn a lot from you! I love how it’s so bright and talk about practical stuff
Thanks everyone for visiting from comment hour! I really appreciate the support!
I was working on my food storage when Hubby AND I both got laid off and this is what I found worked for us.
I made a list of basic food storage items and bought ONE on each shopping trip.
I have a certain amount budgeted for groceries each week.
I am in a small apartment so we dont have a TON of room for Food Storage, so I bought a $10 grocery gift card on each shopping trip, so we had a small stockpile of gift cards for perishables.
I am a newbie coupon shopper.
Great post!!
M recently posted..Day 9
M, that is such a great idea to buy the grocery store gift cards if you don’t have a lot of room for food storage. It won’t help in times of emergency like a natural disaster, but those are rare. It will be a great help in times of financial crisis! Can’t cheat and pull out the grocery savings money to buy a tech toy! I know I love being able to use a gift card at a store and save some money!
I love this post, esp. b/c I’m going to the store tomorrow!
Wow. You are really on the ball with your money saving tips : )
I will measure our cereal tomorrow.
Life with Kaishon recently posted..beauty everywhere! from the city to the country
thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog…
I’ve been ‘wanting’ to cut back on our grocery bill ~with the rise of food prices I can no loner afford to shop how I once shopped…this is great information. Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad you posted your ideas.. Sometimes I cannot control may budget.. Thanks for tour informative blog..
Susana recently posted..Pizza coupons
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