Money-Saving Food Planning Tips
For most families, grocery spending is likely to be a major expenditure next to house payments and utilities. Too often, families tend to over-spend when it comes to the food bill. Most of this over-spending is due to too many unplanned visits to the grocery store, poor meal planning or storing of food and a family’s inability to access stores with good buys.
Consider some simple, practical and healthy ideas to help your family save money from the grocery aisle to the dinner table.
- Have family members take cold or microwave lunches instead of buying high-calorie school lunches or expensive restaurant meals during the week.
- Reduce or eliminate store-bought sweet snacks. Instead, have your kids learn to make snacks at home. Your children could take turns making homemade chips, cookies, popcorn or candy. You can replace food dyes, preservatives and trans-fats for more natural sweeteners while cutting cost.
- Limit eating out to once or twice a month by having regular meals together as a family. Studies show that children who eat meals regularly with their family are likely to be more successful academically and have better relationships with family members.
- Try having leftovers twice a week for lunch and/or dinner to reduce throwing away food. Plan meals with the thought of how to reuse them to create new dining experiences.
- Make a family or community garden. Your children will get to experience how food grows and is turned into a delicious meal, snack or side-dishes.
- Buy food directly from wholesalers, such as bread from a bakery or vegetables from a farmers market.
- Use coupons, coupons and more coupons whenever possible!
It’s important to involve the entire family when it comes to mealtime decisions. Having everyone involved from planning to eating meals can make all the difference in getting everyone to cooperate on reducing the family grocery bill.
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Difficult economic times can put extraordinary strains on families – not only on budgets but on relationships as well. Boys Town Press offers a wide array of boosk, CDs and DVDS to show parents how to help their children develop good values and healthy relationships. Visit www.boystownpress.org to find the resources you need.
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