Food spending is a major budget killer for many families. Some families somehow manage to spend over $1,000 each month and if this is you then you must read this blog post today.
Here are my 4 tips to lower your food budget:
1. Visit restaurants less.
One of our bad spending habits was spending way too much money at restaurants. I know many of other people have this problem as well, but that is no excuse.
If you want to save money on food, then you should try to eat at home more often. I don’t care what you say, eating at home is cheaper unless you are eating disgusting McDonald’s for every single meal – which I hope you are NOT doing.
If you do not believe me that you probably spend too much money on food at restaurants each month, then I want you to track how much you spend for the next 30 days starting right now. You will probably be shocked, ashamed, and embarrassed.
2. Meal plan.
If you want to lower the amount of money you spend on food each month, then meal planning is where it’s at.
Meal planning helps you avoid excessive food spending in that you will know exactly what you need when you go grocery shopping.
You will be buying specific products for the specific meals you are making, and there will be no waste this way. Considering that the average person wastes 40% of their food each month, this is significant!
3. Skip super processed foods.
We used to be guilty of buying extremely processed foods. We would buy things like pizza rolls, quick pan fried dinners where all you do is dump everything from the bag into the pan to cook, and more. Processed foods like this are usually very expensive, as well as very unhealthy.
4. Meal prep.
In addition to all of the above, meal prepping is another great way to lower your food budget. Meal prepping helps because you can prep at least some of your meals ahead of time and have something quick to eat instead of feeling forced to go out to eat.
You can meal prep by freezing certain meals and eating them weeks later. You can also meal prep your lunches and dinners for the week as well. It saves a ton of time to batch cook your meals!
How much money do you spend on food each month? Are you trying to lower it?
