How to Spend Less on Food Shopping
Other than paying rent, or mortgage, the next vital necessity is food. The question begs, do we eat to live or we eat to live? That’s for you to answer. Fact is, food is a basic need. Much so, it uses up most of our income percentage. For an individual to save some money, this department should also be reduced. Here are some points to help you out through the saving journey.
- Create meal plans
Weekly meal plans are a great way to give you an idea on relieving meal dilemmas. More so, it is a great way to save since with a meal plan; you know the ingredient needed for your meals hence reduced the purchase of unnecessary items in the store. This saves you some money on food shopping.
- Budget
People view the word Budget as a scary terminology that removes all the spices of life. This is because when shopping on a budget, you need to restrict yourself on the more beautiful things in life and only purchase the necessities. When starting, it is always a challenge; however, after more practice on its use, the process becomes more comfortable and enjoyable since the fruits are visible at the end of each shopping experience.
- Stop eating out
When going to work, pack some lunch instead of buying food. This will not only save you some amount of money but will also help you attain a better health plan. Most of the time when eating out we tend to consume fast foods. However, homemade food tends to be nutritious and healthy. This is a plus from medical bills and food purchases.
More so, if you must eat out, take advantage of meal specials since they are much cheaper hence save money.
- Buy in bulk
Picking up that giant bag of sugar, rice, potatoes, and onions is a way of reducing grocery shopping costs. However, you should do the math before purchasing the item. Always compare the kilogram of the item vs the large bag and whether it saves you some amount of money. Apart from comparing portions, make sure to compare the product price offered by different stores. This could be much easier if you are ordering groceries online. You can just visit a price comparison site where you can get the selling price offered by different stores for the same product. That way you can choose the cheapest supermarket uk, or wherever you reside for your grocery needs and save money every time you shop.
- Use promocodes
Many websites like eBay offer many products like pasta, noodles, drinks, etc in significant bulk quantities which can be cheaper than buying from a store. When combined with an ebay promo code the savings you make could be higher. Perishable products can also be bought in bulk but will go off if you do not use them in time, thus wasting your money. To mitigate this, you could bulk purchase perishables with a friend and share the items, reducing both cost and wastage.
- Incorporate leftovers
Most of the times you will always come across leftover meals in the fridge or during meals. As much as people do not like the idea of incorporating leftovers in meals, they are a great way of reducing food cost. Combining leftovers in your meals assist in cutting back on waste hence starch that money a little bit further.
7. Pantry organisation
Organising means tiding up your items and clearing the expired or the perished food items. More so, it helps you in identifying what you need to purchase in the next shopping activity. This reduced wastage of purchase of ingredients already in stock. Organise the pantry, the fridge or freezer and confirm what is available before the next grocery shopping.