Sadly (but very true), we spend a lot of money on food. Aside from the regular bills (heating, cooling, water and other comforts of the modern homes) and aside from housing (be it paying for the mortgage or paying the rent), our largest and heaviest bills are always food-related.
Thankfully, there are some tricks you can use to reduce your food bills by a lot. At first, you may find it a bit more difficult to follow these tips (especially since some are a thing of habit). But once you dive deeper into them, you will find it much easier to make the right choices.
Here are some of the simplest and most efficient tricks to help you save money on food.
Coupons
It may not seem that $1 off one product will make a huge difference. And it won’t, if you use coupons only now and again. However, when you learn how to maximize their profits, you can save tens of dollars on every grocery shopping trip you make – and that’s a lot, considering that every penny counts when it comes to making your piggy bank sturdier.
For instance, using a couple of coupons on products that are already reduced can double the savings. Let’s say you have two coupons, each with $1 off for a jar of peanut butter. If the peanut butter normally costs $4 and you get a 1+1 free offer, you will get your peanut butter for $2 a jar. If you add your coupons to the mix, you will basically get peanut butter for ¼ of its original price.
Cooking in large batches
Cooking in small batches very frequently means that you buy in small batches. However, buying in bulk can save tons of money in the long run – so you can cook very large batches and refrigerate the leftovers for future meals. For instance, you can cook 4 batches of lasagna, eat one and refrigerate the other 3 to eat in the following weeks.
Planning ahead
Planning your meals ahead of the week is the healthiest and most financially savvy thing to do. As long as you resist impulse buying and impulse eating (especially “impulse eating out”), you can save a lot of money and you can help yourself stay slim and healthy as well.
Take a pen and a sheet of paper and plan every meal of every day for one week. Think very well of the items you already have in the household, put the other items on a list and go grocery shopping with that list in your hands. Stick to it and resist the urge to buy whatever you lay your eyes on! Believe it or not, this will save you important sums of money, especially long term!
Grow your own food
Sure, you may not have a huge backyard where you can grow all of the food you eat in a season, but you can at least plant some of the “basics” and save money doing this. Tomatoes, carrots, salads, cucumbers – these are relatively easy to grow even in a smaller space and they can be absolutely delicious when they are home grown.
And if you have no space at all, try container gardening to grow your own herbs at least. They will have more flavor, they will be 100% organic and they will be free as well! Great deal, right?
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