I have been afraid to adjust our grocery budget because I don’t want to admit it’s actually going to be costing us so much money, I’ve been living in denial - but it’s time. When you go to Sprouts for dinner and some snacks and it’s $70, you know times have changed. I will be adjusting our budget this week. But our old budget was about $120/week. That is not working anymore!
I wanted to make a post about this in case you are desperate (like I was) for ideas on how to save some money on groceries. I have to admit, we were on an eating out kick for a long time. I got sick for a couple weeks and it was just easier for us. But it’s not sustainable. We have a family of 5! It’s a good $35-$50 for us to eat out. That’s at cheaper places like Chick-fil-, not sit down restaurants which would be even more. And if we do multiple times a week? DANG!
I wanted to get us out of this rut, and be more disciplined about our money, and really what we’re putting in our bodies. I’m not harping on anyone who does this consistently, if that’s what you do, you do what’s best for you! We have just noticed that we feel worse physically when we eat out a lot, and I feel some guilt, because I feel like we’re not being good stewards of our money.
Proverbs 3:9-10 “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”
As a stay at home mom, am I being a good steward if I am spending hundreds on eating out in a week? I personally, for our family, have felt I should do it differently. I have the time to invest in a meal that is good for us financially and nutritionally. I have, most of our marriage, been making meals at home with occasional eating out. But I was sick, I was also in my first trimester of my pregnancy with our 4th child, and I was just too sick and too tired to do anything else. and I needed that. But now I’m feeling better and ready to go at it again.
here are 10 ways to help your grocery budget:
1. Cook meals with what you have
“Shelf cooking” is making meals based off of ingredients you have. Have some frozen chicken, carrots and broccoli that are going bad? Rice in the pantry? Casserole night! It’s cheaper to cook with what you have than to go buy ingredients for a meal. It can be so hard to get creative and think of meals with limited ingredients, but there are apps that do the thinking for you. Plug in the ingredients and it comes up with recipes. Amazing! Try SuperCook, AllRecipes, or BigOven.
2. Have a dedicated leftover/scrounge night
We call it ”scrounging”. Yes, I know leftovers are not super appetizing to some. But hear me out: Let’s say you have some leftovers for 4 nights that week, there is a variety of food to choose from, and a night that you don’t have to cook! Um - yes! And not wasting food, score! Not ordering out? Score!
3. Have a dedicated cereal/oatmeal night.
This is something we just started doing, in addition to a leftover night, we have cereal and oatmeal. We usually do this on sundays when we’re at church in the morning and evening. We’ve come to love cereal night! So easy and cleanup is easy as well.
4. Make the cheap classics in a new way
Revamp those old tired recipes into new ones. Spaghetti is a cheap meal but can get boring. Make it a new fun recipe by turning it into spaghetti pie! So yummy! You can also add different meats, if you usually do ground beef, change it to spicy sausage. Here’s my favorite spaghetti pie recipe https://www.aspicyperspective.com/baked-spaghetti-pie/
5. Reuse leftovers to make new meals
One night you may have a taco night, you can reuse the taco meat for casseroles, spaghetti and other things. You don’t have the leftover night, and you’re not wasting food - which means you’re saving money. I do this one all the time. Chicken is also great to go in a variety of recipes.
I hope these ideas spark something in you to help you save some money during these hard times! Do you have any other ideas to share? Please comment below, I’d love to hear them!