I had a conversation the other day with someone about how much we spend on groceries weekly. My number was 30% of hers. She has 2 small kids, I have none, but still, there's a discrepancy there. We talked about what we bought and there didn't seem to be much difference. It got me thinking, what am I doing that she isn't? I have a few ideas, and we'll explore these in coming blog posts, but today we'll talk about the easy wins.
No matter where you live, groceries are more expensive now than they have been in working memory. It's hard to know when and where to save money without increasing the inconvenience too much. Sure, we could all grow our own food and raise a cow to milk, etc. but that's not necessarily feasible - we all have lives to live that don't involve cows!
How do you want to pay?
One of the big concepts is how you want to pay, in money or time? There's no right answer, and it can change depending on the circumstance.
Someone is doing the work to chop up the veggies on the veggie tray, or marinade the meat, so you need to decide if you want to pay the increased cost when someone else does it, or take the time to do it yourself?
There, of course, will be times when you need or want to pay someone to do the work for you. But think of when those might be and when you can pay in your time. Do it yourself as much as you can, which will save money, then in those instances where you choose to pay in money for convenience it's not such a big deal. Week to week your grocery bill will get smaller the more you do yourself.
An added benefit of doing things yourself is that you'll start building cooking skills, and these things can be great activities to get children involved in the kitchen, building their skills too!
When thinking of nutrition, convenience isn't always better either. Is almost all instances, you making the food at home will be healthier than buying it pre-made. A good example is yogurt. Let's consider yogurt with honey. If you bought (or made) plain yogurt at home and added honey to it yourself, without trying to limit the amount, it's most likely going to be less than what they add in the premade stuff.
How to start saving money
I said at the start this blog would take care of the easy wins. The items below have a big difference in cost between the convenience and doing it yourself and should be avoided as much as possible! If you can prepare these things yourself (or at least some of them), you'll be saving lots of money without too much inconvenience.
•Fruit or veg trays
•Sweetened oatmeal or cereal
•Store-baked muffins
•Instant rice or noodles
•Flavoured yogurt
•Shredded cheese
•Pre-seasoned/marinated meat
•Canned/dried Soup
•Salad dressings
•Prepared entrees
•Bottled water
Think of how you can change your buying habits to be a bit more frugal, and see how it goes!
If you're interested in learning how you and your family can save money on food, let me know! I'd be happy to help you come up with budgeting ideas that work for you and your family.