Here's How To Stop Spending All Your Money on Food
No matter which way you slice it, food is a basic need we all have. However, the amounts different people spend on food varies wildly. From dollar store finds to gourmet, convenience to bulk, there are so many ways to buy! The good news is, whatever you are in to, there is money to be saved. And when you consider the cost of going out to eat (even fast food), buying groceries and preparing your own meals will save you a ton over the long run.
1. See the value in eating at home rather than going out.
Let’s say the average takeout meal out costs you $10 per person. This could be your local deli or nowadays, this isn’t hard to do in the drive-thru either. Now let’s say you do this every day for lunch during the week. 5 days a week x$10 per day is $50 a week. Multiply this by 4 weeks and you are looking at about $200 a month for lunch alone in a month. Now let’s say you dine out 3x a week for dinner as well. Dinner out may range from $8 at the drive-thru to $20 at a restaurant when tax and tip are considered as well. We will average dinner at $14 to take both in to account. Let’s do the math again. $14 a day x3 days lands you at $42 for the week and about $168 for the month. So for going out to eat alone, you are looking at $368 a MONTH for ONE person. Double this for 2 people and find yourself at almost $750 a month to go out to eat. And this doesn’t even cover all your meals. In a breakfast, lunch, dinner scenario, you would still have 30 breakfasts, 8 lunches, and 16 dinners to figure out for the month. Going out to eat for convenience or as a habit can zap your budget in a heartbeat.
2. Plan your meals ahead of time.
You don’t need to go overboard with this, but some simple planning can go a long way. The most important meal to plan is dinner as it tends to be the priciest. Map out some simple recipes and use the shopping list to gather what you need at the store. There are a ton of great apps that can help you do this for free or for a small fee. Grab a few staple items to repeat for breakfast (eggs you can hard boil ahead of time, yogurt, toast, fruit- whatever you prefer). Make lunches simple sandwiches or leftovers until you get the hang of meal planning and want to start getting fancier with luch. When you buy what you know you need, you cut down on food waste (saving you money) and you take the stress out of cooking. If you don’t have a traditional schedule or don’t have time to cook when you get home, cook ahead and freeze. Research batch cooking or freezing meals- there is a ton of info out there! Or pull out the crockpot from the cupboard. Put the ingredients in the pot, set it and dinner will cook while you work. Tada!
3. Be mindful of sales and pricing at different stores.
Some stores tend to be less expensive in general, but they do not always have the best deals on specific items. When you visit different stores, pay attention to the price of the items you buy regularly. Sometimes the store that you consider to be more expensive has the best everyday deal on a couple of your favorite staples. So when you are in the area, plan to pick up those specific things and save yourself a few bucks at a time.
4. Use what you buy.
Buy a 10 pack of onions at a great price and only use 2? This happens to the best of us. Next time you buy that 10 pack, try chopping up the other 8 at one time and freezing them. You can research how to best freeze foods to get more of the how to. Can you get chicken at a better price in bulk? Great, plan enough meals for the week around the chicken so that it gets used. Or freeze what you don’t use andutilize it at another time.
5. Take advantage of coupons.
Most are digital these days and are as simple as scanning a barcode at checkout. No more sifting through little pieces of paper at the register. Most stores have their own apps you can sign up for to save. Hop on the app before shopping and add all the digital coupons you might use. Just remember to scan the app at checkout and voila! Instant savings. There are also apps like Ibotta or Checkout51 that allow you to take a picture of your receipt after shopping to scoop up additional savings. Sometimes you can double up on a product for even steeper savings.
There are countless