We have discussed a few simple ways to save money on dinner. I came up with a list of twelve ideas that may save you even more money at the grocery. You may not want to use them all but remember that your grocery budget is a great place to save money. A few changes can make a big difference at the grocery store.
1. Plan ahead...make a shopping list. Avoid impulse purchases or buying sale items that you don't need. Stock piling is not necessary! Yes, I believe that stock piling leads to more waste and more unnecessary purchases. Buy what you need when you need it and remember the more food you have the more you have to manage. Check out an earlier blog!
2. Substitute ground turkey for lean ground beef recipes. I checked the meat counter this week and found that lean ground beef was $3.69 per pound; ground turkey was $1.99.
3. When making chilis, soups, spaghettis or lasagna, and casseroles try cutting the meat amount in half. The spices and other ingredients will more than make up for the loss of meat.
4. Cook double or triple recipes and freeze for future use, especially when purchasing ingredients that may be wasted, i.e. fresh herbs, produce, cheese, buttermilk, etc. If you have a recipe that requires buttermilk you may need to make some homemade buttermilk pancakes to keep from throwing away the rest of the buttermilk, which leads us to #5.
5. Eat breakfast for dinner! Consider having breakfast for dinner once a week. It's easy to fix and kids love it! We did it so infrequently that our family thought it was a treat. Breakfast is an inexpensive meal with many options.
6. Eat the food in your freezer! Americans waste so much food and freezers tend to hide foods that we later end up pitching. Look through your freezer and find some key ingredients, search by ingredient through the MealEssence.com recipe database, and plan a week or maybe even two around your freezer inventory.
7. Buy in season. Vegetables and fruits tend to me more expensive when they are not in season. While we can purchase strawberries every month of the year...we may pay 2 to 3 times more out of season. So, avoid out of season produce purchases.
8. Plan your weekly meals and purchases around the weekly sale items. This may seem obvious to you but I'm talking about meal planning not just buying whatever is on sale without a plan for use. I have wasted more money buying the sale items. I still have to remind Dave that just because it's on sale it doesn't mean we need it. Check your grocery store ad before planning meals and menus, take advantage of the sales but don't buy items you don't need.
9. Skip the deli. Yes, deli meats are very expensive and another item that is easily wasted due to shelf life. So, just "walk on by"! If your family is like mine - you may want to find alternatives for sandwiches like canned chicken, tuna, rotisserrie chicken, or peanut butter. We like to smoke turkey breasts or buy whole hams; the cost per pound is about 1/3 of the price you pay for deli meats. Leftover Meat loaf and ham loaf make great sandwiches, as well.
10. Avoid eating out. On average Americans spend 40% of their food dollars eating out. While eating-in dollars will go up when you quit eating-out the savings is still great!
11. Drink more water. Reduce those soft drink, juice, and coffee/tea purchases. Water is so much better for us than high sugar, high chemical soft drinks or juices. Soft drink purchases can be costly in a family of four and therefore may offer significant savings. This is another area of waste; how many times have you poured a canned drink down the drain because someone didn't drink it all?
12. While I support the use of fresh vegetables, think about purchasing frozen vegetabes instead of fresh. You will reduce waste without reducing the nutritional benefits of veggies.