Food right now is not cheap. We all feel that. Large family or small it’s expensive out there. Here are some things I do to spend less.
Part 1 Here:Simple tips to save money in your everyday life.
Part 2 Here: Money saving Part 2: How to D-I-Y to Save
Shop the AD
Whether your grocery store is pricey or less expensive, shopping the ad is always a good idea. That way you get the best deals. It’s always how we’ve done things. Now the prices are higher and you almost have to.
We shop locally and occasionally nonlocal to get the most bang for our buck. When you go to the store and shop what’s for sale in the ad it also allows you to stock up on items you frequently use, like pasta sauce or noodles.
Stock your pantry
When items we frequently use are on sale we stock up. Ketchup on sale? Buy 4. Pasta is 10/$10 then buy 10. If you know you will use it then buying it on sale helps you save.
My husband also has a prepper mentality so we have had a stocked pantry for years. It definitely helped in 2020 when you didn’t know what you could find in a store that week. When we weren’t sure if we could leave the house to shop, we still had plenty of food.
Make a plan
So to put this together – if you’ve shopped by the ad and your pantry is stocked – you can meal plan for less.
You are able to see what you have in your pantry and plan out your weekly meals. Then you need to look at what you are planning to make and if it uses carrots and you’ll have leftover carrots then plan another meal with carrots. So if you need carrots for stew then make carrots with another dish.
If you were to just decide your weekly meals based on what sounds good, then you will need to go buy ingredients, probably not likely all on sale, pay full price, and then have some of those ingredients left that will go to waste.
I have printable recipes that I have saved on my counter that I refer to. I have a pad for weekly meal planning that I use to write down what we will have on which day. It also has space for shopping lists.
It can take time to figure out how to make sure you are using up what you have and the ingredients you are using that week can be used up. Once you get the hang of it though I find it’s simple to plan ahead for a month at a time.
You can download this meal plan form here! https://mlz8kffytzh4.i.optimole.com/w:auto/h:auto/q:mauto/f:best/https://amomthatblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Monday-1.png
Other savings
This may seem wild for city folk like me but we buy half a cow. You could also get pork, chicken, etc.
Eating primarily ground beef meals also helps you save, since it is a cost-friendly meat option. If you buy half a cow you can decide what cuts you want. If you need more ground beef, then you can get that. You can get roasts, stew meat, steaks, etc.
It’s a bulk way of buying that helps you save. With us having a large family we use a lot of meat. Our deep freeze stores it nicely.
Bulk Shopping
We shop locally as much as we can. Bulk shopping is such a saver though. It has always made sense for our big family. With inflation, it’s almost impossible not to.
Hopefully, these tips help you to plan your meals and try to save where you can.