Do you think this is a joke spending money only $300 a month for the whole family? With this tight budget, what sort of food would make the list?
Could you save $25
a month on groceries? How about $50 or $100? Possibly you could cut your bill
by almost 50% if you consider some of the following suggestions:
1. Divide the
budget you have into three categories; weekly, bi-weekly and monthly. Once you
have the totals fixed, try to find a way to make it work. If you budgeted too
tight, only then consider how much more you really need to spend.
2. Identify your weekly
needs; milk, bread, fruits. These will be your saving graces when the troops
are hungry. You can load up every week and always have a healthy snack
available. Think about $15/week.
3. Identify your bi-weekly
needs; eggs, cheese, vegetables, meat and cheese for sandwiches etc. These
items have a slightly longer shelf life but you will watch how much you use
when you know there's still four days until your next purchase. Try $20 every
two weeks.
4. Get the
remainder of your groceries in one place. Use cash to pay (to avoid temptation
of over spending) and work out your shopping list ahead of time. You only need
to do this once as many of the items (Cereal, meat etc.) will need to be
repurchased each time. Other items (sugar, flour etc.) may be substituted every
other month. In this example you have $200 left.
5. Have a schedule
of meals that you can rotate. Cheap, healthy meals like stir fry can be
inexpensive as they use less meat than full pieces of chicken or beef for
dinner. Plan to have a meat meal offset by a simpler dish like pasta every
other night. This way your family will not go through 'feast-and-famine' when
they eat like kings the first week and are eating canned chili every night for
the last week.
Always determine your
meals based on what you really plan to cook. If you have easy weeknight
staples, try to find the cheapest method of preparing them, or make do with
less pre-packaged affair on other nights when you have more time. Using items
like frozen vegetables can make eating cheap also healthy and convenient.
Clearly the $300
suggestion will depend on your family, the age of your children and how much
your budget really allows. Whatever your budget, taking the time to draw up a
plan and think about your choices will guarantee that you keep more cash in
your wallet for other important things.
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