My first Penny Pinching post is about the dreaded Supermarket.
I know as much as the next person that sticking to a budget at the grocery store can be very difficult.
Walking past all the specials and yummy food can be very tempting to stick in your trolley, especially when they are 'only $2'. But after the whole shop is done and your putting your groceries up on the conveyor belt and all your 'its only $2' shops start to add up do you realise that its not really 'only $2'.
A few months ago I was talking to my mum trying very hard to find out what I was doing wrong. The amount of money going out far out weighed the amount that was coming in and we were far heading into trouble. She asked me how much our bills were. All seemed fine there apart from out far to expensive car insurance. So she asked how much I spent on food a week, my answer was any where from $250 to $300. She nearly had a heart attack. That's when I realised that not every one spent as much as we did on food. So I was on a mission to bring down that amount by half.
And can you believe it, I did it! I now spent roughly $100 a week on food, including baby formula, to feed a family of 4.
Here are some of the ways I learnt along the way to get and keep that amount down.
1. Never shop when your hungry. It always pays to have something to eat at home before you go. It is a lot more easy to resist the yummy food when you have a full belly.
2. Make a shopping list.
3. Do a stock take of all the food in the house. You will be amazed at what is hiding at the back of your freezer or pantry and what meals you can make from it.
4. Shop for the sales. Grab all the Supermarket catalogue and have a look for the good sales. If you have a look in the Woolworths catalogue and they have chicken breasts for $6 a kilo stop in a grab some.
5. Don't over look the cheap grocery stores like Rite price and Aldi. You can save yourself a fair bit of money by getting some of your things there. Of course be careful about what you buy, Rite price usually sells things that are past there used by date so make sure you give it a good look over. But for things like canned goods the are more then likely fine to eat.
6. Shop in bulk. One of the best investments towards culling the food bill I have made was my chest freezer. Now when I see that $6 a kilo chicken at Woolworths and I can buy a few kilos and store them in the freezer.
7. Bring a snack for your kids. Grocery shopping can be a tedious task at the best of times and made worse by hungry kids. When your 2 year old is screaming all over the place because he is seeing all the yummy foods instead of grabbing those crackers off the shelf for him, give him a bag of veggie sticks and cheese from your bag.
8. Try to keep to one trip to the shops a week. If keep having to duck to the supermarket for more milk you will most likely walk out with more then just 1 litre of milk. Less trips to the shop means less impulse buys.
9. Try to avoid buying the things you can make yourself cheaper. A few of favourite to make are, Bread, Jam, Yoghurt and treats like biscuits, cakes and muffins. They will have to dedicate a few posts to those recipes. So simple and so yummy!
10. Reward yourself. My favourite thing as a child was that all famous reward chart. You know the one, if your room is clean all week you get an ice-cream. It works wonders! Keep all of your shopping dockets and at the end of the month have a look over them. If you have kept in your budget all month go treat yourself. It is alot easier to stick to the budget it you have something to look forward to. With all the saving I have made the last few months our family treat is an overseas holiday in June!
Tiffany.
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