The average U.S. family spends 13% on food. Is that about what your food budget is? Have you thought about ways to reduce what you spend on food? Meal planning is one effective tool to help you manage your monthly food bill. How does it work?
- Create a grocery list based on your menu choices.
If you arrive at the grocery store prepared, you can avoid impulse purchases.
- Buy only what you need
Because you’ve planned ahead, you will know the measurements and amounts of everything you will prepare for the week. In the store, you won’t have to guess if you need the large or small size of the item that’s on your list if you have written it down. Remove the guesswork and grocery shopping will become a lot easier… and less expensive!
- Eliminate last-minute trips to the grocery store
Last-minute trips can cut into your food budget because you arrive at the store unprepared. You are more prone to fall into grocery store traps like buying expensive prepared food items and products on displays.
- Plan around sales
If you know what’s on sale at your local grocery, you can select recipes that incorporate these items. You can find the sales in your store’s weekly circular in the mail, or many stores publish their circulars online. If you feel like you don’t have time to look through the circular, there are services (like Food on the Table) that will email the sales in your store to you.
- Avoid eating out
When you don’t plan ahead, the easy option is the restaurant. We all know that eating out can quickly “eat in” to your monthly food budget.
Have you used these strategies to reduce your monthly food bill? What worked and how much did you save?
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3 Comments until now
I love meal planning! I used to put it off because I thought it would take so much time, and it really only takes a few minute each week now. I love it!
My husband is on board big time now that he realizes how much money we save in planning a weekly menu and not eating out so much. Another thing we have started doing is making our dinner serving size more that what we know we will eat so that we have leftovers for lunch!!! Wow that has really helped me get out of the kitchen and cut down on our lunch expenses!!!!
I recently started meal planning because I could not go to the supermarket on a whim or eat out anymore with a new baby. Without even trying, meal planning has saved me quite a bit each month. I’m lovin’ in.
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