To eat healthy and economically will take some planning and organization.
I can’t afford to just chuck out all the
food I have on hand, but I can being by making healthy meals and watching my
portion size. I’m also cutting back on
my intake of chicken, fish, veggie meats,
cheese, eggs, sodas and fructose juices. I would like to eat a more vegetarian diet that
will help improve my overall wellbeing.
What can I do right now to cut my food budget? Making home cooked meals and next, stop using or buying disposable paper goods such as plates, cups, cutlery and paper
napkins. I have set the table with a
nice tablecloth, candles and flowers for the center piece. And laid out nice dishes,
glasses, cutlery and cloth napkins. By not using disposable dishes, cutlery and
napkins keeps dollars in my pocket and helps the environment too. Breaking bread together giving thanks to God and we talk and share our days experience with each other will help to strength family relationship.
Next, I pull all of the food items from the kitchen
cupboards and found out I had spices and herbs more than 10 years old, 10 boxes
of cake mixes, 2 cake meal mix, 3 large boxes of oat meal, way too many can
goods! In the upright freezer there were a lot of
frozen vegetables, fruits, veggie meats and chicken. After sorting and throwing
way expired food items. I then made a
short list of additional nonperishable food items along with getting a few
perishable items every 2 weeks I would be able to make about 2 months of meals.
Wow! That was surprising!
I will need to use Saturday evenings and Sunday to take time
to cook several meals for the upcoming week.
Then I have food that I take with me to work for breakfast and lunch. Meaning I will not need to buy a meal out. I have
budget a $100 each month February and April.
Here is my action list:
1.
Plan out menus of breakfast and lunch/dinner meals;
2.
List the ingredients needed meal and check the
cupboards, freezer to see what have on hand already;
3.
Then make the list;
4.
Use coupons on the items that we use the most,
5.
House and personal items can be bought in bulk
and also consider making household cleaners,
6.
Don’t go shopping without a list and stick to the list!
By starting with tiny steps and
modest goals to help reducing your food spending by $10 or $20 dollars per week will help to lower the food
budget and still maintain a healthy diet.
