Wishful Homesteader

reduce your food budget

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Reduce your Food Budget
by Monica Resinger
13 easy ways to cut your food budget down to size

When trying to cut expenses, food is a great place to start
because there are so many opportunities to save. One way to
watch your savings pile up and be able to use it for a goal,
such as a vacation, down payment on a home or paying off debt,
is to put the cash you saved from any purchase into an
envelope or a jar until you get enough to make a bank savings
deposit. Make a strict rule to not use the money for anything
else but your goal. Here are thirteen easy ways to reduce your
food budget that will help you achieve this:

1. If you don't want to stop going out to eat, check your
local newspaper, the back of grocery receipts and junk mail
flyers for restaurant coupons. A lot of restaurants offer "buy
1 meal get 1 free" on certain days of the week. If you want to
cut back even more, cut back on the number of times you go out
in a month or week.

2. Shop grocery outlets. Every major city has them. Ours is
called The Canned Food Warehouse. Not every item in the store
is a deal; you have to know normal food prices to compare, but
when you do find a deal, it is usually a great one. You will
find enough of these deals to make your trip worth it.

3. Be sure to comparison shop. Look at the sale tag on the
item's shelf and see how much per pound, ounce or whatever the
item is sold as. Compare that to the other products to
determine which is the best deal.

4. Always check the weekly grocery ads for the good sales. If
there is a really good deal on something, be sure to buy it in
multiples. This will save you from paying full price later.

5. Use coupons for food products. I have found the best way to
use them is combined with a sale. Most of the time, if you use
a coupon without combining it with a sale, you will still be
paying more than other brands, so be sure to watch for this.

6. Always use your leftovers. This saves a tremendous amount
of money and time by extending your shopping trips. If you
need ideas for using leftovers, check out "The Leftover Recipe
E-book" that includes over 100 ideas and recipes for leftovers
at http://homemakersjournal.com/leftovers.htm

7. Grow as much produce as you can to eat fresh and/or
preserve for later. To save as much money as possible, start
plants from seed. This can really add up quick and you will
know how your food was grown rather than wondering what
chemicals may have been applied to the plants of the produce
you purchase. If you purchase organic produce to relieve this
worry, it can be quite expensive.

8. Stop buying junk food, sodas and prepared food. These are
not only expensive, but unhealthy. Therefore, they are a waste
of your hard-earned dollars.

9. Always shop with a grocery list and stick to it so you
don't buy unnecessary or expensive items.

10. Never shop hungry! Have you ever gone grocery shopping
hungry? I have and I wanted to buy everything in sight because
everything looked delicious! I didn't buy everything in sight,
but I did increase our grocery bill that day. Also, because I
was hungry, I didn't feel like shopping or making decisions so
this added to the problem.

11. It is good training for kids, if they are old enough, to
comparison shop; I usually ask mine to go get the cheapest
ketchup or whatever is nearby so I can still see them, so they
get hands-on experience. You'll need to supervise this in the
beginning, then later you'll be able to trust they are making
the right decisions. Kids have a tendency to ask for things in
the store; the best way to handle this is to let them get
something within a set price limit and keep this limit each
time you go shopping. If your kids are younger, you may want
to consider leaving them at home with a friend or relative;
younger kids can tire and get difficult in the store spoiling
your frugal efforts.

12. Shop at the store's off-peak hours when you will be less
rushed and can make better decisions.

13. For many, many more ways to save money, check out The
Frugal Living E-book Package that includes the following 7 e-
books:
~ The Big E-book of Frugal Tips
~ Fantastic Frugal Grocery Tips
~ Homemade Household Cleaners
~ Journal Jar (Wonderful Homemade Gift Idea)
~ Frugal Creative Christmas Ideas!
~ Turn your Recyclables Into Crafts!
~ The Leftover Recipe E-BookClick here for information:
http://homemakersjournal.com/ebooklets.htm

Apply these tips to your life and I guarantee you'll see
results!

Untitled Comment

{ 12:45 PM, Thursday, May 8, 2008 } { Posted by haflinger }

Nice topic thanks for sharing
Blessings Sister Brenda

Untitled Comment

{ 10:42 PM, Thursday, May 8, 2008 } { Posted by gabbie427 }

Thanks for sharing the tips and the links. I am going to check them out right now.

God's Blessings,
Amy Jo