This week I feel like I’ve talked a lot of basics:
- Setting Food/Grocery Goals
- Creating a Concrete Grocery Budget
- Making a Plan (menu planning, price book, adjusting the plan when needed)
These are foundation stones to building an organized, healthy, and frugal budget, and for some of us, these alone are more than enough to keep us busy for awhile.
But what about afterwards?
I love learning how to eat even healthier and keep our expenses even lower, so I thought I’d compile a list of a bunch of the ways I’ve learned and read about over the years.
I’m not doing all of them. Life gets busy and we have to choose our priorities so that we give our best to what’s most important to us – and that doesn’t always mean slaving away in the kitchen or at the grocery store (thank God).
If you’re interested in lowering your grocery bill or eating healthier, I encourage you to choose a few of these you have never tried before and implement them in the coming weeks or months.
50 Ways to Save Money and/or Eat Healthier
- Be intentional about your spending, not habitual
- Browse the weekly ads before making your menu plan
- Bake some or all of your bread
- Grow a garden (or at least a few pots of lettuce and herbs – by far the easiest to grow)
- Shop at Aldi for whole food basics
- If you shop at Whole Foods, take advantage of their coupons
- Look online for local food sources – the farmer’s market isn’t always the cheapest or best quality source for local products
- Join a CSA for affordable, local, organic produce
- Split buying a whole cow between several friends
- Learn how to coupon
- Make a price comparison book so you know when to stock up on killer deals
- Make meals or baked goods and store them in the freezer for days when you “need” take out
- Learn how to freeze produce so you can stock up on sales or manager’s specials
- Make green smoothies
- Make homemade yogurt (it’s like less than a dollar a quart)
- Make some or all of your baked goods
- Remember your food/grocery goals
- If you have small children, have them help you cook in the kitchen. It will be slower, it will be messier, and fingers wil probably get double dipped into the batter. But you will be doing something together and getting some healthy cooking done, so it’s a win
- Mince veggies and add them to spaghetti sauce, chili, or soups
- Follow some of these quick leftover fixes (10 Easy Ways to Never Throw Food Away Again)
- Make homemade chicken stock and broth
- Make homemade soup regularly throughout the cold season
- Take one thing you normally buy in a box (cake, potatoes, macaroni and cheese) and learn how to make it from scratch
- At the grocery store, keep a running estimate of the total cost of your groceries. That way you (1) don’t get sticker shock when you get to the register, and (2) know just how many manager’s specials you can grab without going over budget
- Use cash or a gift card for your grocery money
- Make buttercream frosting instead of buying a jar (you can freeze the leftovers)
- If you have one close by, consider shopping at Trader Joe’s for some of your organic products
- For most people, shopping with kids is a lot more painful and stressful than it’s worth
- Use 1 tablespoon flax meal (or cornstarch, but it’s not as healthy) and 3 tablespoons warm water instead of an egg in baked goods
- Serve a meatless meal (or mostly meatless if you live with someone who thinks it’s not a meal without meat) once or several times a week
- Price match at Walmart using the weekly ads from other stores
- Plan your menu
- Always set aside a little bit of money to stock up on sales each week. Roll it over to the next week if you don’t find any
- Make your own ice cream
- Consider getting a Costco membership if you’re trying to eat mostly organic
- Use lentils to stretch your ground beef in chili or tacos
- Learn how to use the internet in creative ways to save grocery money
- Try not to grocery shop more than once or twice a week (unless you love it)
- Learn how to make it yourself
- Make a grocery list before you go to the store
- Learn how to make ingredient substitutions
- Follow some of these ideas to reduce food waste
- Stick to your list unless you (1) find a killer deal or (2) find Ruffles on sale and your favorite person in world who you live with loves Ruffles so you know you gotta. Either way, make sure that (3) you can afford to deviate from the list
- Read labels and begin to learn what the items in the ingredient lists are
- Avoid buying the dirty dozen
- Do buy the clean fifteen
- Buy ground turkey for meatballs and other recipes that call for ground beef
- Find/make a beans & rice dish you and your family loves
- Eat healthy fats
- Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do everything at once on this list or any other healthy/frugal living list
- Do take baby steps towards better health and saving money
- Do give yourself plenty of grace
- Do enjoy your food (including the occasional junk food)
Like I said, I don’t do all of these things. I buy some of the produce on the dirty dozen list, and I don’t always stick to my grocery list. While learning to save money and eat healthier, it’s important that we learn to give ourselves grace and choose what we will prioritize and what we won’t right now.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
What items on this list do you want to do?
If organizing your grocery budget isn’t your thing right now, I encourage you to check out the other organizing and cleaning topics taking place in this series by clicking the photo below or clicking here.
Need another reason to go check out the topics? While you’re there, you can enter a bunch of giveaways to win prizes like $50 cash, $20 to Lowe’s, and a few choice E-books (including my favorite one)!
2 comments
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Born27
08/27/2012 at 1:47 PM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
It’s important that we learn to give ourselves grace and choose what we will prioritize and what we won’t right now.
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Anne @ Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy
09/01/2012 at 7:50 AM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I love this list! very thorough!
Anne @ Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy recently posted..FREE Shipping at Tropical Traditions! Plus Set & Save with Vitacost and More {Saturday Savings 9/1}
5 Days of Organizing Your Grocery Budget (Part 5) » The … | Saving Money
08/25/2012 at 1:04 PM (UTC -5) Link to this comment
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