Being on a budget does not have to mean you are not eating fun, tasty meals. It also does not mean it should take an enormous amount of your time to plan, purchase and prepare meals to stay on a budget. It simply means you have determined how much of the money you earn will go towards the foods you want to nourish yourself or other's in your household. Your goal is to spend no more than that amount each week or month. Here are some tips I have found to help me stay on budget AND love every bite of what we create for our meals.
1. Breaking it down into smaller amounts: I look at my food budget as a monthly pot of money to spend. I do have an target of how much to spend each week, however some weeks I spend less and more depending on what our taste buds are in the mood to savor, what looks good when I go shopping and what may be on sale that week. By thinking of it that way, I give myself more flexibility to be successful in meeting my targeted food budget amount too. I am all about feeling good about my decisions and actions, so why not set myself up for success?
2. I am not a contestant on The Price is Right! Unless you add it up on a calculator, research the food prices online or your brain can compute how much each food item costs, you have to realize that it will take a few times of purchasing food items before you know the cost and effect items have on your food budget. After an initial 4 week period, I found it was easy get a good feel of costs, especially of what we needed for staple foods like bread, milk, juice, pantry items, seasonal fruit and vegetables, deli foods, and cheese. This is another reason I give myself a monthly budget. I can spread the cost of the food we eat over the whole month.
3. A general action plan: You have to start somewhere, so I begin in my kitchen. I start out looking at what I have on hand in my pantry (rice, pasta, beans, canned goods) and my refrigerator. If there is something we are running low on, I add it to a grocery list on my phone's notepad. Then mentally I think of what we may want to eat that week in generalities: chicken, eggs, fish, stir fry, pasta, soup, or stew. From there I create a list of what I think we would like for meals for the week. If there is a specific recipe I would like to prepare, I add the specific ingredients needed to make the dish.
4. Where to shop: Keeping on budget is like a game for me. The more I stay on target with our food budget, the easier it will be buy or save money for something else we really, really want or need. Part of this game is knowing where I can get the best deal for my money. One of the best things about moving and living full-time in Florida is the ability to go to the local Farmer's Markets for our produce year round. For about $20 I fill up my entire 20x15x10 fabric shopping bag! That is a HUGE savings compared to shopping at our local grocery store's produce section. In the same breathe, I know that sometimes, buying berries at the my local grocery store is better priced than at the Farmer's Market. It does pay to watch and remember. #DowntownFortPierceFarmersMarket
5. Be prepared to be rigid and flexible: Ha ha, I know that those are completely opposite adverbs, however you have to be both to keep on your budget. One, you must create a quick weekly shopping list to focus your shopping while in the store and RIGIDLY stick to that list. However, once you head into the grocery store and you see that whole chicken (not on your list) is on sale and a better price than the beef on your list. Seeing this, as a savvy shopper you have two options. Option one, you remove the beef for your beef stew and buy the whole chicken to roast with your beef stew vegetables. You know the beef will be there next week AND it may even be on sale! Option two, could be to buy the beef and the whole chicken. I know that busts the weekly budget, but you could freeze the whole chicken. By buying it on sale and freezing it, you are saving money on future food bill over the month. If I am on budget for the month, I would choose to follow Option 2.
All of these tips are food for thought! How you shop, prepare and enjoy your food is part of your healthy journey. Thank you for taking time to read my 2 cents! Here's hoping it will save you some time and cents in the future!
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