Welcome to Day 13 of 30 Days To Your Financial Freedom Challenge!
One of the ways you can reduce your spending during a financial crunch is by saving on food. To save money on food, you want to avoid eating out, make more things from scratch, shop sales, and avoid junky processed food to maintain your health.
Feeding Yourself And Your Family
Here are some ways to make sure you are still eating well during a financial crunch.
#1 Make Do With What You Have
You likely have a lot of food hanging around already. Start using it up. Find out what you have and make a plan for using it all up. Only buy things that go with what you already have or choose to buy nothing. Some families discover they can go for a month or more without buying anything.
#2 Set Up a Real Budget
You cannot do this without having a clear dollar amount that you can spend each period on food. Even if you figure out, you only have $20 a week, that’s a number to start working with to make hard choices with. It’ll tell you if you need beans, rice, or the food bank.
#3 Shop Sales and Use Coupons
When you do shop, only shop for items on sale and use coupons when you can. Sometimes you can get free food with coupons, but don’t buy things that you’re not going to eat or that aren’t healthy just because you have a coupon unless, of course, it is free.
#4 Consider a Meal Box
For some people ordering ready-made meal boxes through the mail is going to be healthier and less expensive. The serving sizes are normal in the mailboxes, and they’re easy to use. The cheapest and most loved right now is dinnerly.com. It turns out that for one or two people, this is a huge savings due to the lack of waste. If you want variety and a budget, this is the way to do it if you can.
#5 Look for Farmer Boxes and Markets
Sometimes, buying from a local farmer is cheaper than buying from the store. However, be aware that sometimes it’s not. Do your due diligence and price check. If you know people who have land and grow veggie gardens, you can also work with them by paying money for a share if they’re offering. Check-in your area for “pounds of food” deals through ugly veggie or farmer plans.
#6 Go to Your Local Food Pantry
Sometimes things get really hard, and there is literally no extra money to spend after you’ve paid for your shelter (which should be first), which is a good reason to go to the food bank or food pantry. Each local area has one, and usually, they don’t even check your finances.
#7 Let Go of Daily Variety
Most of us are used to eating a lot of variety due to shopping each week and having distribution of off-season food all year long. However, the variety can be more expensive. If you get a great deal on potatoes, for example, eat different types of potatoes all week instead of trying to use a different starch that week.
#8 Mind Your Nutrition
This is the easiest way to cut your food bill. Only eat enough calories and nutrition to meet your health standards. Most people eat double the calories they need and still lack nutrition. If you educate yourself on what you need to be healthy and make sure you get that, you’ll save money and your health.
#9 Drink Water Only
The only beverage you really need is water. Everyone needs 8 to 10 glasses of water a day to maintain their health. But it’s also a lot cheaper than drinking soda or other drinks that are really only for entertainment and pleasure.
#10 Cook from Scratch
When you do cook, try cooking most things from scratch. It costs pennies to make a loaf of bread compared to a couple of bucks at the store. Plus, it tastes so much better.
#11 Start a Garden
While this is a longer-term plan and may not help today during your financial crunch, if you’re doing well, consider having a garden at some point if you have time. Growing food for yourself can cut your food bill by more than half.
#12 Turn Meat into A Condiment
Meat is a very expensive protein in most cases unless you have access to your own free stocked pond or something. Take a look into how the Japanese people eat and try to go in that direction in terms of meat serving sizes.
#13 Do You Qualify for Food Stamps?
If things are really bad right now, don’t be too proud to seek relief from the government. If you can get food stamps due to your financial condition right now, do it. Food stamps actually help farmers and keep food prices reasonable while ensuring farmers make a profit.
You really can spend less eating than you may think. Get out your bank statements for the last three months and add up what you’ve spent on food. Then think about what you’ve probably thrown out too. With better planning, you and your family can actually eat better and healthier meals during a financial crunch than before.
Please leave any comments or questions below.
Thank you for joining me! To go to your next lesson simply click the “Next Post” button below.
