MY "NOT" DOOM & GLOOM FOOD BUDGET POST....

Well, not to sound doom and gloom, but inflation is on the rise. Prices are going up, and with that increase comes uncertainty around food and how to feed yourself and your family.

So, how do you navigate the rising costs while still trying to satisfy your family, continue focusing on your health, and not be stuck eating beans and rice for every single meal? (Not that there’s anything WRONG with beans and rice, they are actually two of my favorites!)

First, Make a Plan. It might seem pretty obvious, but it’s probably going to be the number one money saver at your disposal.

• Knowing your schedule, which nights you’ll be home and which nights you’ll be out and about, can be the difference between packing snacks/quick meals, or stopping at the drive-thru and blowing money you don’t need/want to be spending. This also applies to helping avoid impulse purchases at the grocery store.
• Planning ahead lets you take advantage of sales and deals happening in your area. And if you have the ability, you can stock up on things your family enjoys at the discounted price.
• Making a Plan also helps to eliminate food waste. If you’re trying to stretch every dollar and make every penny count, it helps to know that Monday night you’re cooking at home and making pasta, but Tuesday night your kids have soccer and t-ball so you’re going to have to bring snacks/pack sandwiches and fruit, and know what you’re going to do with the pasta leftovers for the next day or so.

Second, Stick to the Basics. What does that mean? You probably have a pretty good idea of 

A.) what your family already likes, and 

B.) a set of go-to meals that work for your family’s preferences. 

So, while you don’t want to get stuck eating the SAME THINGS all the time, when money gets tight it’s more cost effective to prepare foods you KNOW they will eat, as opposed to experimenting or trying new things that might not fly very well.

For example, I made a new pasta dish last week. I, personally, loved it. Hubs and Mini-Me, not so much.

So, I was stuck with a ton of leftovers I didn’t expect, part of it ended up going to waste because I just couldn’t eat them all by myself even over the course of a few days, and they both ended up eating completely different meals which cost us more money for the food they used and the food that went to waste.

But everyone loves baked ziti with Italian sausage. Next time, I’ll just go with the ziti and whatever ground meat is on sale that week.

If tacos are a hit in your house, stick with tacos, and maybe try a tostada or a taco bowl for yourself if you want to change it up a bit.

Third, Make It a Point to Use What You’ve Got. I’m probably adding this one for myself as much as y’all. Because, let’s face it, I have a very bad habit of seeing something on sale, thinking, “Oh, I saw a recipe for lentil tacos on Pinterest last week!”, grabbing those sale lentils, and then they sit in the back of my cabinet for a year. The good news is, lentils keep for a VERY LONG TIME. The bad news is I SHOULD HAVE ALREADY USED THEM.

I’ve seen food content creators who use nothing but the items in their pantry/cabinets/freezer for an entire week or even a month for their meals. And while that’s a really cool idea, we just don’t keep groceries stocked like that in our house.

BUT!

What I try to do is check my pantry, cabinet or freezer and find an item that’s been hanging around in there for a while. Maybe it’s a bag of Brussels Sprouts that I intended to make as a side dish, but never got around to using. Or that random bag of lentils. So, now it’s time to see if I have anything else hanging around that will work with one of those items, and what do I need to supplement with to get them used up. I’m not talented enough as a chef to make lentils and Brussels Sprouts work together in a dish, but I can make a lentil stew with a couple of extra ingredients, and I can make air fryer Sprouts as a side dish with on-sale pork chops and potatoes.

So, I have now created a couple of meals (plus leftovers for additional meals), as well as using items I already had and saving myself just that much extra money in the process.

Utilizing these three strategies really can save anywhere from tens-to-hundreds of dollars, depending on how thrifty you already are with your grocery budget, and how much effort you put into it.  And with costs increasing weekly, it’s worth a look to see if these approaches can give your budget a little more cushion.

And feel free to grab The Hidden Power of Food, which has 14 recipes, a sample meal plan, a grocery list, and a cost breakdown of the foods.