8 Simple Ways to Lower Your Monthly Food Cost
People who do not know how much they spend on food cost each month are twenty times more likely to be over their heads in debt than those who know exactly how much they spend. Those struggling with debt are always surprised that when they keep a record of every food-related purchase made for a month, including dining out, fast food stops, vending machines, etc., and realize just how much they spending.
Of course, everyone has to eat, but there are ways you can reduce your food budget significantly by following a few simple steps.
Stop eating out — This one is a no-brainer and doesn’t really need an explanation. Dinners you prepare at home are significantly less expensive than meals you pay someone else to prepare.
Don’t buy frozen meals — If you empty the contents of a frozen dinner onto a plate you will quickly realize that you are getting very little food for what you are paying.
Don’t buy marinated meats — You are paying a premium for the supermarket to marinate your meat and chicken.
Buy generic — Generic and store-brand products are often processed at the same plants as name brand products, but they are much cheaper because they aren’t advertised.
Brown bag it at work — This is one of the easiest ways to save money, as brown bagging it is about one-third the cost of eating lunch at an inexpensive restaurant.
Avoid vending machines and bring your own snacks/drinks to work: You pay significantly less for the candy bars and soda pop you buy at the grocery store than from a vending machine.
Use coupons — Use coupons or membership cards at the supermarket. A family of four saves an average of $484.00 per month just by clipping coupons out of the Sunday paper.
Leave the kids at home — Caving in to pressure from crying children begging for certain cereals, snacks and toys adds, on average $6 to $20 to the weekly grocery bill. Leave them at home and buy only what your family needs.
Learning to live within your means is key to gaining the financial security you desire. Living within your means is possible if you can identify the difference between your needs and your wants. Once you are able to identify what you need vs. what you want, it will become much easier to make choices as to how you spend on everyday items.
Update:
If you you liked this post please see more debt reduction tips and these weeks carnival of debt reduction.
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