How to get started for food on a budget?
Start small. Don’t try to cook six days a week right away. Get used to it and make it comfortable first.
Try to experiment one recipe a week to see what gonna fits your lifestyle. Not be afraid for experiment, not be afraid to get started. Don’t get fear when you see lots of complex recipes on the TV show, focus on the simple stuff.
Make it simple, simple ingredients, nothing complicated, nothing fancy.
Then you will figure out that food and money has the relation. People usually thought that when they want to reduce budget, they may reduce food or cut their meals. That can gonna help you to save your budget a bit, but you have to spend money on the other worse things such as rechecking your health with your serious stomach pain or other bad diseases.
So, is that worth for you to cut your budget on food? Please open your broad mindset to think out of the box, think in a smarter way. Are there any ways we can reduce the budget but still ensure your healthy life? Nothing cannot be figured out if you are dedicated to discover any problems in life.
- List down food plan and stick with it
One of the most effective ways to reduce your food budget and also reduce your burden of shopping is list down all food plans. Once you go for shopping, you just need to go ahead to choose all items in the list, it gonna helps to save your time, eliminate to look around for other luxury materials.
Of course, there will be times when you must buy something you forgot to add to the list. That’s only natural. Make sure you don’t go around too many rounds and you are tempted to buy other items that are not in the list. Another great way is to shop on the app or an online market. This way is quite popular in the context of serious pandemic spreading out around the world.
- Shop for a week and buy in bulk
A hectic life causes you to plan for a week shopping. It is a great way for woman to deal with housework in the modern life. Moreover, shop for a week and buy in bulk also assist you saving a bunch of money and being offered lots of promotion when you go shopping at the supermarket. You are gonna collected accumulated points then exchanging many more items when the program is ended. Not only buying in bulk with cheaper prices, you can save much more money with the loyalty program.
- Purchase with your friends to get good deals
Similar to the 2nd point, buying in bulk means that you can also purchase with your friends or your relatives to get good deals ever. To save more money and lower your food budget, split a bulk purchase with your friends. If you have anyone who lived closer in your neighborhood, let’s do this way to save money. It allowed us to get food for a lower price without worrying that it would expire and get tossed out.
- Stay away from convenience and fast foods
Convenience or fast foods are super bad foods that not only burn your pocket right away, but also not really healthy for your heart. Those are hamburgers, fried chicken, soft drinks, alcohol, soda, desserts, and junk foods. They are super delicious; I know, however, just reward you once a month or even eliminate it as much as possible.
Instead, another way to spend less on groceries is to pay attention to what you buy and what are genuinely useful for your health. For example, look for filling foods like dried beans, lentils, potatoes, rice, and other staples to cook with. With these types of foods, you can cook for yourself with many types of meals, get saving from there and be an expert on manage money on healthy foods.
- Check the expiration date to save food budget
When you come to buy food in bulk, you may have the issue with their expiration date. Lots of food at once may gonna make you feel lost and don’t know how to start with those ones. You might be ignored to check the expiration date frequently and waste all of things that you may not be aware of that.
Using what you have on hand at home helps you eliminate food waste due to expiration. But to lower your food budget consistently, month after month, you have to watch expiration dates when shopping too. Those potential types of foods that gonna have the sooner expiration date such as fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat, and bread need to be looked over carefully.
Still, the passing of a “sell by” or “use by” date doesn’t guarantee you must throw out the item. For some types of foods, check it carefully or if you have kept it in the freezer compartment for meat, I believe you can still use it without much consideration.