The ability to operate an effective household requires Macro&Micro Skills! Given around three months, I could create a 250 page book and still be lacking 80plus percent of the tips that would help you along the way. The goal now is to get you thinking and view in the Macro sense; and overview of a week of meals in the minimum is required and a budget established for food(s). In the Micro sense. Menu Planning, recipe deconstruction, pantry inventory, coupon gathering, store flyer review, budgetary considerations and TIME! Actual shopping and selection are critical! When you head out to shop, here are just a few hints... many many more are there, but at any rate:
- select a time to shop when it is not hectic and you are pressed by the crowd
- EAT before you go and you will be less inclined to impulse shop the little things
- try not to take anyone with you, like the kiddos or a partner, unless you have them tasked them with an active shopping list;
- deviate from your list/coupons as a last resort--is there a substitute, can you get a rain check;
- if there is space available, and you are working a week at a time, set up your pantry by meal menu ingredients;
- look to enhance and extend your meal with "extenders" such as corn meal, bean flour, cabbage, pastas, quinoa, fruits, etc;
- be very critical when selecting fresh fruits and vegetables such as celery, which must have an aroma or it has no flavor, husk onions must be firm with no green shoots etc;
- buy whole frozen or fresh chickens and butcher them yourself, you will save hundreds of dollars a year with that one activity alone!
- buy seafood a little at a time, insure the eyes of the whole fish are clear, whole shrimp you can shell, clean, and devein yourself (your freezer scent may suffer the more you stock);
- everything said, it is all to be taken with a grain of salt... shop with good sense, and with health and economy.
One area where paring down the expenses is effective is portion control measures. Take a critical assessment of your (and likewise all in your group) caloric needs, and your outlay of energy. Shop to supply those activities but don't feed the couch and TV activities!
We have reached the point where you must realize a stark fact! Everyone a party to these exercises must be on board, or it will create a weak link and possible collapse of your actions. Review each week to come an establish a menu that all buy into; review the budget to determine if a surplus/deficit exists. Maintaining a reduction in spending should not be the only goal; channel the potential savings as an additional payment to pay down a high interest debt, as an example.
We didn't eat out for a month, fast food or sit-down, and realized over four hundred dollars in savings. In January one year we all, children included, dropped our pocket change into a four gallon jar when we returned home in the evening. The change from four people amounted to over $900 in mid-December. Just $1.28 per person dropped in the jar every night did it; we did not count it until the end, and each one of us underestimated the end total.
Savings don't have to be all at once grand sized, but are more gratifying when they are tucked away by seemingly insignificant small amounts. It is the same with weight loss; we want it all gone at once, but have to work at it with small numbers and great effort to achieve the result.
As I stated earlier, have a Macro/Micro outlook; have all parties on board with defined and achievable goals; review your results and proposals often; experiment with foods and spices and expand te gastronomic adventure of your group; as with most tasks, they are sometimes trying, but have fun while you try!
Any journey worth taking requires a first step!
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