You can’t escape it. It’s all over the news. And even if it weren’t, your pocketbook is telling you. The cost of many things is going up, most notably food and gas. And of course, these are the things we need to buy on a regular basis. What’s a consumer to do? Well, if there were ever a time to adopt a frugal lifestyle, it might as well be now. Let’s go over some things that you can be doing to counteract this purchasing inflation. Food is the number one culprit, and luckily there are many things you can be doing to lower your food bill. You can start with how you approach food buying in the first place. What you should not be doing is planning your meals and then shopping for the ingredients. To save money on your food bill, you should be doing exactly the opposite. The most frugal approach to food shopping is to buy what’s on sale. Every supermarket advertises a few “loss leaders” in their circular to get you in the door. Buy these sale items. Stock up on them if they are perishable. Also keep your pantry well stocked with cheap meal ingredients. Pasta, rice (and other grains), oatmeal, beans, lentils, split peas, barley, canned tomatoes, etc.) Keep your freezer stocked with frozen veggies and fruits (bought when on sale). I buy them or grow my own and freeze them during the summer months when they are in season. But you can still buy them cheaply throughout the year, especially when there is a sale or in bulk size. If you eat meat, buy it when it is on sale, and then either freeze it or make your meal out of it and freeze (the whole meal, or a portion of it) to eat another time. Also stick to more reasonable products, like chicken, or ground beef. The less meat you can get by with, the better off you will be when it comes to food costs (not to mention your health!). This same concept goes for dairy products as well (another costly part of your food budget). The more you can stay away from pre-made, prepackaged, and processed food the better off you will be. The more you can plan your meals and snacks based on simple whole ingredients the less you will spend. Better for your wallet and your waistline! Try to stay away from these kind of boxed, highly processed foods as much as you can Your shopping cart should look more like this! As for drinks, the less you can buy of these the better too. Drink water! (From the tap). Sugary drinks are expensive and not good for your teeth anyway. This would be the perfect time to try and wean your family off them if you can. And least try to reduce the amount that you buy and drink. (This includes “100% fruit juice drinks”, just as unhealthy, unfortunately, and even more expensive!) When you approach food shopping this way, you will always have the “fixin’s” for an affordable and healthy meal at home, and you will notice an immediate drop in your weekly grocery bill. And hopefully, this will keep you out of restaurants and from picking up a quick (but expensive) take out meal on the way home. For more tips on grocery savings see: money-saving-grocery-tips-from-your-auntie-victoria.html The other quicky rising cost is gas (and this includes heating gas and oil). To combat this, try to eliminate unnecessary driving. Consolidate your errands as much as possible. Carpool if you can. Stay home when you can. When you do stay home, do not overheat your house. Stop drafts as much as you can. Wear sweaters. Use blankets. Use your wood burning stove if you have one. Don’t heat rooms you are not using. Maybe (safely!) use a space heater if you are only going to be in one room for a while. I always turn my heat completely off at night when we are sleeping. We just wear warm PJ’s and socks and cuddle under lots of blankets. It’s cozy. And I think probably better for your health. None of this is rocket science, of course. It’s just frugal. It’s the way people lived back in “the day”. It worked back then, and it can work for you through these expensive times too. Give it a try. You might like it! You may even decide to adopt this way of life permanently. Why live more expensively than you have to, right? I love this frugal life and I can’t help but spouting its virtues to anyone and everyone who will listen. I hope you will come to like it as much as I do! Wishing you all a bright and frugal future! ☀️
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This is the perfect time of year to talk about a way that you can save tons of money on your food bills over the coming summer months. Grow your own! Now don’t get intimidated. You don’t have to go out and start a mini-farm in your backyard. Any amount of food you can grow will help. You don’t even need a yard. Some pots on a balcony or patio will grow enough to help supplement your diet with your own food. If you don’t have a yard but would like a garden plot, check around your area to see if you can find a community garden that you could join. If you are new to all this, start small. Do not bite off more than you can chew (so to speak 😀). Even if you do nothing but grow a few lettuce plants, you will have free salad or most of the growing season. That alone is pretty cool, don’t you think! You can grow many things in pots on patios. Besides lettuce you can grow tomatoes, cucumbers, squash beans, potatoes, radishes, scallions, and strawberries to name a few. You can also grow herbs, like basil, oregano, parsley, chives, rosemary, and dill. When you see how expensive some herbs can be at the grocery store, growing these at home can be super economical for you! You can dry them or freeze them to continue to use throughout the year as well. The key here, if you are trying to save money, is to do your growing in a frugal manner. If you go out and buy a bunch of fancy gardening apparatus, then you have completely defeated the purpose. Keep it simple! Use what you have in terms of containers (just make sure to put holes in the bottom for drainage.) If you are growing a plot in the yard, you can begin to save your shredded leaves and use your yard debris and kitchen scraps to make your own compost for free soil amendments You can buy seedlings in the nurseries in the spring, but it is even more economical and very easy to start many things from seed. For the cost of a few seed packs you can grow your own lettuce, spinach, cabbage, peas, carrots, beets, kale, swiss chard, collards, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and beans, the list goes on and on … But as I cautioned earlier, if you have not done this before, just start small. Even just one tomato plant on your patio or a few lettuce plants by your kitchen door may be enough the first year to introduce you to the joys and satisfaction of growing your own food for a frugal way to eat. And wait until you taste how much better it is than store bought! I guarantee you will be hooked! Happy frugal eating! And wishing you a bright future of home-grown food!
A while back when my niece was moving out on her own, I made this guide for her to help her save on grocery shopping. And now I thought it would be a good idea to share it with the rest of you. So just consider me your "Auntie" Victoria, as I present you with some of my sage tips on getting the most from your food shopping dollar. #1 – Do not start with a menu list for the week! #2 – Look at the circulars every week, and make your list from the sale items (you have to know your prices, just because it says it’s “on sale” doesn’t mean it’s a good price). Learn your prices. You can keep a book/ list of them if you want to. #3 – Then plan your meals for the week, based on what you have. #4 – Stock up on items when the sale is super good. #5 – Buy store brand / generic. It is almost always just as good (and, in fact, the same exact product) as the name brand. And you will pay much less. #6 – Keep a running list of what you are getting low on (to replenish), and keep a well stocked pantry. This eliminates the need to go out shopping for a few needed items between (weekly) shopping trips. # 7 – Which brings us to: Shop only once a week! (In fact, some savvy shoppers shop only once every other week), This saves time, gas, and the temptation to impulse buy! #8 – Plan meals based on inexpensive ingredients! Rice, pasta, eggs, etc. Eat less expensive meat. Chicken, ground beef, stew meat, things like that. Eat meatless as much as possible, See my blog on how eating healthy (vegan) is cheaper. #9 – Don’t buy prepackaged food (i.e. boxed “mixes”, frozen “meals”) Make things from scratch. It's cheaper and healthier too! #10– Don’t buy things in single portion sizes. Portion out your individual size snacks yourself into baggies, little containers, etc. #11 – Use reusable containers as much as possible. Not “throwaways” (such as tin foil and plastic wrap,) Always ask yourself if a reusable container would do for this purpose. (Baggies can be washed out and reused, but even better to use an actual reusable container). #12 – This goes for cleaning products too. Use rags instead of paper towels (you can wash them, and reuse). #13 - Don’t buy bottled water! Tap water is fine. In fact most bottled water comes from a tap somewhere! If you are worried about your tap water, you can buy a filter for your tap, or a filtered pitcher for your fridge. Buy reusable water bottles to fill yourself when going out. If you absolutely must buy bottled water (which you don’t), buy the gallon size (of store brand), and fill your water bottles (or glasses) from that. This also saves the environment from all that plastic! #14 – In fact don’t buy drinks! They are a super expensive, and unnecessary product, and usually just glorified sugar water. Not good for your budget or your health! Stick to water, or non-dairy milk drinks, or maybe orange juice (which you can buy from frozen concentrate, and make yourself). I know they sell “100% juice drinks”, but they are even more expensive, and even though it is “fruit” sugar, it is still just sugar. If you must buy juice (which you don’t), then at least water them down (a lot!) when you drink (serve) them. And don’t even get me started on soda! #15 – Use the smallest amount of product necessary to get the job done. Experiment to to see what this would be (by using smaller and smaller amounts – or starting with a tiny amount, and working your way up. For instance, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toothpaste, laundry detergent, dish soap, cleaning products, and also expensive ingredients in recipes (if you can’t eliminate them altogether). Make a game out of it. “Waste not want not!” Does anybody even know what this expression means anymore? (#16– And now for the subject of coupons. I know you would think being frugal, I would be one of those crazy coupon ladies, but actually I’m not. The problem is they are mostly for expensive, prepackaged, processed junk food. And it is way too expensive (and unhealthy) to buy that crap anyway. If you do come across a coupon for something other than that (usually for health and beauty products), it is still usually cheaper to just buy the store brand. The only time it is usually worthwhile, is if the store is having a sale, and you have a coupon (especially if the store has a double coupon policy). But, of course you have to know your prices (what that item usually sells for, and if store brand is cheaper). #17– You also have to know your prices, when it comes to Bulk Buying. I often find that the prices on those giant bulk packages (i.e. Sam’s Club) are not better than you can get when that item goes on sale in the grocery store. So, if you are going to bulk buy, make sure you check the unit price (you should always be comparing unit prices anyway!) and know what it typically goes on sale for. And make sure you will be using that item up, before, say, 2 years past the expiration date or (if it is perishable) it turns into a science project. It’s not a bargain if you end up throwing half of it away. #18 – Speaking of Expiration Dates, they are not that magical. The item is not made to self destruct, or go suddenly bad, on that very date on the packaging. And the companies give themselves plenty of leeway on that (better to be safe than sorry on their end) – it also keeps you buying more of their product as the one in your pantry “expires” and you have to replace it. Take them with a grain of salt (so to speak). I have eaten things long past the expiration date, and am still here to tell about it. #19 – Don’t throw any food away!! Save even the tiniest amounts. You can use them for your lunch the next day, or incorporate them into dinner, or whatever. Learn to be creative with leftovers! #20 – Always start your dinner plans with “What has to be used up first?” (vegetables or meat “on their way out”, leftovers that have been in there a while, etc.). (Things in your pantry past the expiration date!). In other words: Don’t waste food!! You should never be throwing out food that you spent good money on! #21– You can also take advantage of this concept at the supermarket. They will usually have a ‘bargain rack” of bread, etc., just at it’s expiration date, or fruits veggies that have to be used up in the next day or two, at very reduced prices. Take advantage of this. Buy them and use them right away. Well I guess 21 tips are good to start with. LOL!! I could go on and on . . . . Not only with food shopping tips, but ways to save money on everything!! If you ever want help on budgeting to raise a family and “get by on less”, you know who to come to! Your “Auntie” Victoria, of course! Happy Saving! Bonus tip! (Since you read all the way to the end)... If you really want to save money go Vegan! Meats and dairy are the most expensive items in your shopping cart. If you eliminate them from your diet you will save even more. It's cheaper AND healthier to eat this way. I did it! It's easier then you think! And you will feel great too!
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