We have all heard that one. If your goal for the year is to reduce your food bills , this one is for you. With the stock market going up and down, mostly down, more of us on retirement income are feeling the pinch. They are talking recession again. Not what we want to hear, but preparing by lowering our basic costs can head off a disaster or at least help. If it doesn’t happen, you still are richer than you were last year.
We have lived on a four dollar a day budget for food for 2 years. In fact, our budget this year comes to five dollars a week less . And, we are eating down the pantry , so we are basically buying perishables and replenishing what we are out of. Our pantry was purchased with the regular budget. Our COL is 28 percent higher than the average in America.
It is little steps that most of us will find easy to implement. I’m not going to insult anyone’s intelligence by saying it doesn’t take any effort. I will say the rewards are great and you can implement ideas a little at a time.
There are many articles and books out there and some are good, some not. You can’t spend ten dollars a day to eat four dollars a day. I was an accountant for 50 years, it doesn’t pass the logic test . You need to eat more on the healthy side than some dire straights food blogs. We don’t eat fake food . The occasional times that we eat hot dogs, we eat the best quality ones with wholesome ingredients. We buy real food. Real Parmesan cheese, real maple syrup, real butter, real milk and real cheese.
The secret is in not paying full price for your food and sourcing your food from different places. Not different than most retail establishments work. You buy in bulk when it makes sense, you always buy a limited stock when something is half price or less.
Take advantage of sales and if you can pair a coupon, or two coupons with a sale, it just makes sense. You can pair a manufacturers coupon (coupons,com) and a store coupon in the same transaction. You can also take advantage of basket coupons and buy just what the coupon dictates. F you have a ten dollars off of a basket of fifty dollars. You are getting 20 percent off. But, only I’d you keep your basket to fifty dollars. Buy anything you need to stock that is a good price. If you go to a store that is twenty percent over regular price and buy full price items , You haven’t saved.
One of the first things you can do is invest 20-25 dollars in a bulk bag of flour, oatmeal, and yeast from Costco. I assume sams club will be a about the same, we do not have sams club here.
The savings between buying muffins, bread, frozen pancakes or waffles and making your own is remarkable. Many times 90 percent savings . There are recipes for mixes and quick recipes all over the internet to make life easy. Oatmeal is healthy and costs .085 a serving when bought in a 10 pound box. Takes no longer than making a microwave bag. You can add a bit of apple. Bananas, or brown sugar, honey, whatever you like.
Buy baking supplies at holiday time. Buy picnic supplies like BBQ sauce with coupons at picnic time. Buy enough to last you all year. The savings will make it worth your while. The cost can be a third of the cost.
Get into a routine of buying bulk protein on a rotation basis. You will spend less and have a supply of protein ahead. We have pork loin that we “slice” ourselves. Chicken breast that are sometimes De boned ourselves, and good hamburger. Add cheese on sale, dry beans, and some ham or sausage if you want. The cost between a can of beans and cooking your own beans is about 90 percent cheaper.
Simplify your food pantry. It is easier to control and takes less time to shop. Group items together are on the shelf. You can tell at a glance what you need to watch for a sale to buy.
Set a specified amount of any one thing that you are putting in your pantry to stock. Start with a four to six weeks supply. If you use two cans of diced tomatoes a week, you need to keep 8-12 cans. If you know your target price is .50 and no more than .58, you can also know where to find that item and stick when you see white space on your shelf.
Some things like sugar, catsup, BBQ sauce, cream soup, chocolate for baking, or marshmallows, if you buy them are best bought in sale during holiday months. Like picnic time or the fall holidays like thanksgiving, Halloween, or Christmas. Buy a years supply of anything that will not go bad. The difference, between 1.58 for a can of cream soup and the .41 we paid with coupons is remarkable enough to make it worth your while and getting 75 percent off means that your bulk purchase costs not much more than buying a few at full price.
Meal plan. List the meals your family likes that take inexpensive sources of protein. Now, list the items you need to buy to make the dish. We use a matrix for meal planning that is protein based. It affords you a variety of meals and helps to judge how much of things you need to stock.
One last thought. Studies have shown that not having food in your cupboards lowers your life expectancy. No child should live not knowing where the next meal is coming from. It makes for stress. S t r e t c h i n g a dollar šµ is not hard, it just takes a concentrated effort.
Note - typing on a reader can be a blessing or a curse. This thing puts words where it thinks you want them. It is convenient when my back is out or my hip is giving me hell, but it is a challenge to avoid mis-spelling words. Every effort has been made to correct errors. There will still be judgmental people that are perfect and not understand . I get that.
