Save Money in the Kitchen
Filed under Cooking Tips, Featured, Groceries
For many people, cutting back on their grocery budgets can be an overwhelming experience. They know they’re spending too much, but don’t know where to begin to cut. Often, they fear that they will deprive themselves and their children if they become frugal. The good news is that there are ways to have your cake, eat it and save money at the same time. The whole secret is to start slowly. There are countless ways you can cut, but if you need to, target just one thing at a time – you will still be saving money if you do only one thing.
If you are a frugal beginner, try these simple suggestions for saving on your food bill:
- Cooking frugally is like changing your diet. You need to learn gradually how to save money and cook frugally. DonÙt expect that you will get your food bill down to $150 for four people in the first month if you are spending $600 a month right now.
- Try cutting just $25.00 or $50.00 a month. Even if you cut back only $50.00 a month, you will save $600.00 a year. If you save just $1.00 a day that is $365.00 a year. You can then apply that $365.00 a year to paying off your credit cards. At 21 percent interest, you will save over $70 a year. This will eventually cause a snowball effect since the more you pay off, the less you pay to interest. When you pay less to interest, you have more each month to apply to paying off your overall debt. This means that as you pay off the debt, the rate that you can pay it off increases.
- Before you shop, take a tour through your pantry and your refrigerator. Be organized! Don’t buy what’s already hiding in your kitchen.
- If you’re a fan of coupons, remember this: It’s not what you save, it’s what you spend. If you save 30 cents on something you wouldn’t ordinarily buy anyway, you haven’t really saved anything.
- A typical fruit item is significantly larger than one serving. Most people would be just as happy eating a small apple as eating a large one — so buy smaller fruits! You will save money by the pound.
- This month, try two meatless meals a week (or one, if you’re a diehard meat fan).
- Make simple meals. One-dish meals can contain your meat, your vegetable and your bread.
- Drink water for your meals.
- If your family is used to drinking milk, juice or pop for every meal then start by cutting juice from one meal or snack a day and drinking only water. After you get used to this, cut from another meal until you drink only water for meals and a glass of juice or milk at snack time.
- You can also try allowing one glass of juice at meal times and then water after it is gone.
- You save over $500.00 a year by cutting just one glass of juice per person per day for a family of four.
- Don’t assume homemade is cheaper. If you get a VERY GOOD deal on chocolate chips and ingredients for candies, it is cheaper to make them than buying them pre-made. Make sure you do the calculations, though! If you donÙt purchase them on sale, homemade candies can be more expensive than candies purchased at the store.
- Stop wasting food. Give young children small portions. They can always have more if they are still hungry. Give them a half glass of juice and a half sandwich so you donÙt waste uneaten food. Put food in the refrigerator right after the meal so it doesnÙt spoil. Use leftovers for lunches, in other dishes or frozen in one portion sizes for a quick meal.
- Don’t buy everything at one store.
Prices vary greatly from one store to the next. Go to different stores to buy only their sale items. You will save more than the cost of your gas. It usually only takes half an hour to 45 minutes per store to get the items that are on sale including driving time. If you save a minimum of $20-$30 per trip, it is like “earning” $40-$60 an hour. If I save $60 spending one hour going to two different stores, it is five extra hours my husband does not have to work for us to pay for that same food purchased at the regular price. I would rather have him home with us. - Remember, cooking frugally is a mind set. You have to change your cooking and eating habits. Don’t get discouraged if one idea fails. Try another one.
- Stop buying things like toaster pastries and breakfast bars for breakfast. Eat oatmeal, pancakes, granola and fruit instead.
- Don’t assume that bulk is cheaper. Compare cost by the ounce or pound.
Most people don’t think they can live the frugal life and still be comfortable. I feed my family of five on $250 per month. Over five years, when my husband earned an average of $22,000 per year, we paid off $20,000 debt. When cutting your grocery bill, it’s the little things that add up.
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I am a greatgrandma 73yrs old, So I’ve gone thru more than one depression(People are suffering loss of jobs and loosing their homes and possesions, having to depend on government programs) the same as during the Roosevelt administration, when i was a child, at that time I was living with my grandparents in a rural area of illinois(it’s now a small town) while my mother worked as a live-in maid in the nearby state of Missouri(in or around St. Louis) so the family could have money for things like coal for the Potbelly stove in the living room and the big black cook stove in the kitchen, There was also coal oil for the small kerosene stove which granny used mostly in the summer.
my grandma made light bread for the family and half the neighbors. I grew up in New York with my mother, stepfather and four younger brothers(i don’t do halves and steps , we had the same mother, we are bros and sis)My mom followed in her mothers footsteps, she made homemade everything in the kitchen, laundry, clothes for me and my brothers. She made the old brown bar soap(which i later did the same when I married and had children) commonly called lye soap(basidally it was Octagon or fels naptha in appearance amd ingrediants. She would great that soap and use it in the old secondhand washer she used to do the family wash in, The thing washed but one or two of the boys would have to sit on top of it so the lid would stay closed and keep it from dancing into anything across the floor. She saved cooked grease to make the soap with. and oh boy was she and I mending fools( folks don’t mend sox,clothes and sew buttons back on anymore. old bread became bread pudding, left over rice became eather rice pudding or cerael. White vingar cleaned everything,clothes, appliances, spots food etc. so I have always tried to live within my means and now i have a small fixed income of around 764.00 a month and i just remeber what it was like in the days of 5 cent sodas and DIY as much as possible. Theres more but I’m trying to keep this short. All i’m trying to say is history repeats itself so Remember—travel back in time, grab it and bring up to date. thanks for listening. ” THERE IS NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN” Bible, King Solomon
I’m a little concerned about the lack of milk in your children’s diet only because Ca++ lactate is such an absorbable source of calcium for the bones, and little girls are going to be needing those strong bones one of these days for both childbirth and old age.
Donna you don’t need to be concerned. We live in a world where if a little is good a huge amount of anything is better. That is part of the reason there are so many over weight kids. People don’t always take into account that kids can get a serving of milk in their cereal, poured over oatmeal, in baked goods, yogurt, cheese sandwiches and like my grandkids do for a snack they will have a glass of chocolate milk. What happens is the kids get all those servings of dairy and then the parents have them drink a glass of milk at each meal on top of that because we are worried they aren’t getting their vitamins we pour tons of milk and juice down them forgetting the really need water even more. Most doctors will tell you people aren’t getting enough water.
Also I liked the idea Tiff said earlier that she only let her kids have a couple of sips of something to drink at a meal because whether it is water, milk or anything, if they drink too much they get filled up and then don’t eat their food. Often picky eaters are just kids who have filled up on liquid right before a meal. This is also why some kids get up from the dinner table and are hungry 10 mins. later.
Great tips on how to save money on groceries!!! I am currently spending about $600 a month for a family of 4 (kids are 19 and 17) so they eat A LOT! I’ve never been a fan of coupons because I always felt I was spending more using them, rather than saving money. I tend to throw out a lot of uneaten or spoiled food, so that’s where I’m going to start my savings–I have a feeling within a couple trips to the store I’ll be spending less money. And I always assumed I’d spend more gas money going from store to store for the sale items; thanks for doing the math for me so I can see it’s more of savings on the groceries than cost for the gas. So I am gong to start studying the grocery sale papers before shopping for the week, plan my meals and buy sale items from a couple different stores. THANK YOU!!!! You are going to save my (financial) life!
Way to go Marilyn. You are doing it just right. I always tell everyone to start out slow because if you try to do everything at once you can get overwhelmed and quit. Plus if you even start with one or two things you are still saving more then you were before.
I really hate pushing our products but for those of you who need much more info you might check out our Grocery Savings E Course. It is really pack full with a bunch of stuff on how to save on groceries other then using coupons but for those of you who do love coupons I even have a section on those. I know I don’t use many coupons now but there was a time when I really was considered a coupon queen so I don’t hate them as much as some people think I do.
Also don’t let the name of the E course throw you. It really is just a book I wrote with much more info on saving then is in Dining and the web site.