Have you noticed the price of food lately? Everything is going up, slowly but surely. Also with the lack of rain in various portions of the country, more increases are anticipated in the food industry as a whole.
If you are like me, I can't afford to keep paying these higher prices. So something is going to have to be removed from my list.
So our challenge for week #6 is the cut our grocery budget by 15%! I know that is a lot, but we can do it and I am not sure about you, but I NEED to try. So here are a few tips to help slash your grocery budget and put more money in your pocket(savings)
1. First, Actually establish a monthly budget.- In order to accurately track what you spend per month, you need to keep track of your monthly grocery bill. Review your checkbook or bank statement and add up your grocery spending. Set an amount that you will spend, and try not to over extend this budget.
2. Set a goal for your new budget. If you are currently spending $1000 per month, try to spend only $850.00 on food this month. That is only a $37.50 a week cut.
3. Plan a weekly menu plan- making a food plan is not hard it just requires a little of your time. You can find online websites that can help you plan a weekly menu and print a shopping list as well. I use http://www.allrecipes.com/ for my menu planning and shopping list. It works great.
4. Make a shopping list and stick to it. Only purchase needed items. Watch out for items at the end of the aisles, they are there for a reason.
5. Use coupons! I registered at http://www.coupons.com/ and I save at least 5-7 dollars on my shopping trip. You can find a lot of coupons online for free. One caution is to only use coupons for the items that are needed and that you currently use. You can easily get "caught-up" and start trying new items.
6. Look at prices before you buy. Sometimes the bigger, "on-sale" item is not the better buy. Check the prices of the smaller item and make sure you are getting the best deal.
So our challenge for week #6 is the cut our grocery budget by 15%! I know that is a lot, but we can do it and I am not sure about you, but I NEED to try. So here are a few tips to help slash your grocery budget and put more money in your pocket(savings)
1. First, Actually establish a monthly budget.- In order to accurately track what you spend per month, you need to keep track of your monthly grocery bill. Review your checkbook or bank statement and add up your grocery spending. Set an amount that you will spend, and try not to over extend this budget.
2. Set a goal for your new budget. If you are currently spending $1000 per month, try to spend only $850.00 on food this month. That is only a $37.50 a week cut.
3. Plan a weekly menu plan- making a food plan is not hard it just requires a little of your time. You can find online websites that can help you plan a weekly menu and print a shopping list as well. I use http://www.allrecipes.com/ for my menu planning and shopping list. It works great.
4. Make a shopping list and stick to it. Only purchase needed items. Watch out for items at the end of the aisles, they are there for a reason.
5. Use coupons! I registered at http://www.coupons.com/ and I save at least 5-7 dollars on my shopping trip. You can find a lot of coupons online for free. One caution is to only use coupons for the items that are needed and that you currently use. You can easily get "caught-up" and start trying new items.
6. Look at prices before you buy. Sometimes the bigger, "on-sale" item is not the better buy. Check the prices of the smaller item and make sure you are getting the best deal.
7. Last but not least. DO NOT GROCERY SHOP WHILE YOU ARE HUNGRY! You will spend up to 25% more in the store. So eat prior to hitting the store.
If you have other suggestions to saving, please post under the comments.
If you have other suggestions to saving, please post under the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment