My frugal tip this week is one that you’ve probably heard before, but the reason why it’s mentioned over and over again is because it works.
Eat out less, make your own meals, and meal plan.
By doing just these three things, we were able to save a few hundred dollars last month.
Now, before I get too far, I would like to say that we really didn’t eat out much to begin with. We’d get the occasional pizza, fast food, or carry out dinner, but it wasn’t a daily occurrence… more like once a week. We’d also indulge in the occasional milk shake or Blizzard, but usually only if we had a buy one get one coupon. Eating out adds up quickly, and this became very apparent to us once we actually started paying attention to where our meals were coming from.
The other thing that really helped us reduce our food budget was meal planning. I’ll admit that I was never really big on planning out meals days advance. I was more of a “cook with what you have” girl, but planning out a weeks worth dinners has worked wonders… both on our spending and my sanity! Ha! My ultimate goal is to cut our grocery spending in half… it’s a lofty goal, but I’m confident I’ll reach it sooner rather than later.
We’ve gotten pretty used to the changes we made two months ago… we no longer miss eating out and I love knowing what the next 1 to 2 weeks of meals will be. We still indulge in the occasional milk shake or Blizzard, and have even gone out to eat too… but those things aren’t weekly necessities any more… cutting those former “necessities” and changing our grocery spending habits saved us about $400 in the first month… not too bad if you ask me!