Grocery Shopping on a Budget One of the main items of expense for all families and individuals is food. Food costs can rack up quite the tab in just one month, and many families of four in the United States who are intentionally trying to limit their food expenses are still spend upwards of five hundred dollars or more in groceries and food costs every month; that’s over six thousand dollars spent a year on food costs even for those who are trying to spend less!
Working to Save Money Cutting the family’s food budget to fewer than five hundred dollars a month is certainly an accomplishment for many people, but is there more that these families could do to save even more on their food cost? And, even if they could cut back further, will doing so have the potential to lead to unhealthy nutrition practices for the family? In order of questions asked—yes, a family can do more to save further funds, and no, cutting costs will not lead to unhealthy nutrition. In fact, many experts agree that healthier foods cost less overall to processed foods because the healthy foods are natural and that people are paying for the packaging and preservatives of processed foods when they could be spending less by choosing the healthier and fresh alternatives. First, however, in order to save even more on their food costs, a family must recommit to eating out less. While the occasional night out to a favorite restaurant will not break the bank, regular trips to restaurants, even more than twice a month, can have the potential to increase a food budget significantly as the same amount of money that could be put towards multiple meals prepared in the home have instead been put towards one meal.
Shifting Your Focus After resolving to cut out the fast food and restaurants, a family can shift their money-saving focus on to spending less at the grocery store. As was previously stated, and contrary to some popular believe, it is often cheaper to buy fresh foods and prepare meals at home rather than packaged foods that are quick and convenient for the cook but not for the bank account. In addition, a person who is trying to save money at the grocery store can further their cause by only purchasing the produce and other items that are in season. For example, cherries are in season during the spring while rhubarb is not; so perhaps substitute the rhubarb crisp for a cherry pie and a homemaker will be able to save even more on their food costs.
Similarly, a simple trick that many have found helpful while shopping is to peruses the international aisles of the grocery store as the naturally flavorful items in these aisles are often cheaper that identical counterparts found elsewhere in the store. For example, cloves can run over three dollars in the spice rack, but the same cloves can be found for a dollar in the international aisle simply because they do not have the well-known brand. After saving at the store with these tips, as well as smart deal shopping and effective planning, a person can save even more on their food costs by investing in a Foodsaver. Foodsaver bags vacuum seal leftover food for future use and can help to trim overall expenditures on food costs.