Trying to feed a family can be expensive. And the bigger the family, the more money you have to spend on food to fill everyone’s bellies. But what if you could keep those food bills down? No matter how big your brood is, there are always ways to keep the food bills lower. Here are some of my favorite ideas.
Frozen Food
Frozen food gets a bad reputation because it isn’t fresh. But frozen food can be just as wonderful if you give it a chance. You can fill your freezer with a variety of things from frozen Chinese food to plant based meat substitutes. Frozen vegetables are a great way to always have veggies on hand to throw in a pot, and they can be cheaper than their fresh counterparts. The added bonus of knowing that they won’t go off as quickly (you can keep stuff in the freezer for around 3 months before they develop freezer burn) means savings all round.
One Big Shop
If you shop a few times a week on the way home from work, your food bill is going to be sky high! One of the best ways to keep the bill under control is to do one big shop once a month. In this shop, you need to buy things that will stay in date for long periods of time such as tins, frozen food, and long life products. You can still buy fresh products but by having most of the items you need at home after a big shop, you will find you don’t have to spend as much. The only issue with this is making sure that you have space to store the stuff and having the cash available to do a big shop instead of spreading it out.
Meal Plans
Meal planning can be a joy or a curse, depending on who you ask. One thing for sure, if you do plan your meals, you can save yourself time and money in the long run. The idea is simple, just work out what you will be eating for the week and stick with it. You will need to plan your shopping, and make sure you can get as much as possible in the big monthly shop.
Leftovers Are Your Friend
Have you ever considered adopting a zero waste kitchen? Leftover food is regularly binned when it could easily be used to create another meal. For example, if you have a big meal on a Sunday, the leftover food could be used as part of a meal for Monday night. This will save you time and effort after a long day of working.
Coupons And Store Discounts
All over the country, supermarkets are accepting vouchers that can help cut your food bill. Promo codes are available online for a wide variety of foods, and coupon clubs are growing in popularity after people have discovered the massive savings that people are making. Collecting the coupons can seem like hard work but sometimes the savings are worth it, especially on long life items such as tinned tomatoes and toilet paper.
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We have lowered our expenses for food through making a weekly meal plan and then buying only the food that we need for the plan and nothing else. It works really good. That would make a monthly shopping a bit akward, as that would mean to make a meal plan for the whole month. And we don’t really have the space to store everything, if we went shopping once a month. But I guess when you shop once a month for all the basic stuff that you always need, and then weekly for the cooked food meal plan, that might also work. Meal plans save money, that’s a fact, even when – in rare cases – one deviates from the plan. I also have some frozen veggies stored at home, although I prefer fresh in general.
… And on Friday we have mixed leftovers day … 😉 … very often tasty dishes, which can never be repeated.
That’s so wonderful!!! 🙂👏 We usually do the same – weekly planning is the best! 🙂
Hi Ula, Great tips! I would add to this list: cook a bigger batch and freeze for later (you’ll save up some money and time), cook from scratch – it’s always cheaper and healthier (you’ll make your future self a favor) 🙂
That’s a great tip! 🙂👍