How to save money on your weekly food budget

Everyone knows that shopping for groceries can be expensive, especially if you’d gone to the store hungry. You walk in, wander around for a few minutes, then suddenly you’re standing in the parking lot with a long receipt, a full cart, and worrying how much damage you’ve done to your bank account.

Well, if you’re one of those people, rest easy: it doesn’t have to be this way. There are ways to save money on your food budget without sacrificing the kinds of food you love to eat.

The first thing you should do to save money on groceries is you should plan out your meal each week. By having your meals planned out, you’ll know what sorts of food you’ll need to buy on your grocery trip. Additionally, you should consider linking up your menu as much as possible. Plan your meals to reuse different ingredients. This allows you to extend the value of your dollar in the store. Baked chicken one night becomes a chicken sandwich for lunch the next day. White rice on the side can become fried rice the following night.

Secondly, try to let the coupons and deals at your grocery store guide your menu each week. This could be a fun way of exploring new meals and foods that you wouldn’t normally eat. If broccoli is on sale, try to incorporate it into your meals in a variety of ways. This will keep you from getting tired of the food, which is important since you’ll probably buy enough of it to last most of the week.

Finally, consider organizing you kitchen. This may sound silly, but if you organize your kitchen, especially your pantry, you’ll be able to remember much better what items you have and what items you’ll need to replace on your next shopping outing. Buying doubles of some items, especially spices, can really add to your bill. Sure, you’ll eventually use it, but that money could’ve gone better towards one of the weekly sales.

In any case, don’t be afraid to experiment with different ways to save money on your groceries. The important thing is to eat healthy, have fun, and save money while doing so.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Raine Parker, who writes on the topics of accounting degree.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: raine.parker6@gmail.com.

Tags: money saving, money saving tips

Posted by FinanceAZ on Jan 18 2011. Filed under Save money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry