Tips and Strategies for Food Budgeting
1. Set a budget …
Write out a budget by listing in two columns your income and expenses, note whether your expenses are fixed (all ways stay the same) or fluctuating.
Example: Income $2750.00
Other $380.00
Total $3130.00
Expenses: Montages/Rent $900.00
Utilities $200.00
Insurance $400.00
Debt $600.00 (use 20% of income to pay off debt till debt free, than add to savings.)
Car $400.00 (gas, maintenance, payment)
Food $280.00
Savings $300.00 (10% of income, always pay your self first)
Total $2880.00 Differences ( $250) to be used for unexpected expenses and adding to savings
2. Now that you have your food budget … lets plan
$280.00 = $70.00 per week or $2.70 a meal (note that you will not spend the same for breakfast and lunch as you do for dinner). If you take out the $30.00 - $60.00 per month for staples, that leaves you with roughly $62.50 - $55.00 week
1) Inventory your pantry and see how many meals you have most ingredients to, make a list.
2) Make a meal plan, I usually plan 4 meals a week for dinner, 2 nights of leftovers, and one night eating with in-laws. I rotate a set breakfast and lunch plan for ease.
• Making up a “meal plan box” with 15 to 25 of your family’s favorite meals, numbering them and writing down all the ingredients is an easy way to rotate a meal plan painlessly. (Note: you do not need to place the recipes on the card, just write down the page # of where to find it in your cook books.)
• When setting up a meal plan box make a list of staple items you use to cook with. This will become your bulk item list to build a pantry with.
3) Make a list of all the items you need for the week, check the sale adds to see if you can substitute one item on your list for one on sale. Also note if any staple items are on sale.
4) Allocate $30 to $60 a month to your staple items list to buy them in bulk. If you do not use this money one month, save it and roll it over to the next month for sales. In our area case sales are very common in the fall. This money can also be used to buy larger items such as meat for the year from a farmer, or bushels of veggies at harvest time when prices are lowest.
5) Shopping …
• Shop the out side of the grocery store. This is where you will find the greatest nutrition for you buck. Bulk ideas are also much less than their packaged counter parts.
• Grocery outlets can have good bargains, BUT ALWAYS CHECK DATES!!
• Only use coupons for things you would normally buy – do not buy something just because you have a coupon. (Coupons are sometimes for new products with elevated prices. They are also often given on processed/less-healthy foods.)
• Compare similar items by their “ounce price;” that price is stated on the label on the self.
• Do not buy pre-packaged or junk food, it will cost you more in health care and is much more expensive per once of nutrition. This includes pop and juice. Eat the whole fruit if you crave sugar.
• Shop with a list and stick to it.
• Do not shop hungry.
• Shop at off peek hours with well-fed kids, this will help you stay sane.
• Try to go grocery shopping only once per week. You’ll be surprised at how you can get by without one or two ingredients instead of running to the store (and buying more stuff!)
• Try to find out when your store gets their fresh produce and shop that day, not the day before when the produce is less fresh (the produce stock person will tell you – same goes for the meat department).
LeAnne
No comments:
Post a Comment