Saving money is great! Especially if you are on a tight budget, trying to pay down debt, or saving up for something. There are many ways to save money. This article will focus on how to save money with some tips related to spending on food. It is so easy to spend money on food! I get it! Who doesn’t love going out to eat – no cooking, no dishes, someone catering to you for once! Yes! I love it too! It is also so nice to just conveniently swing through a drive-thru and grab some fast food when you are in a hurry, especially when it comes to lunch. When in the mood for cooking it can be fun to try a new recipe that you found on Pinterest – I mean look at how good that picture looks – right?! Even if it calls for 25 ingredients that you don’t have. Honestly, this is all fine, in moderation, when you have the money to make it happen. Here are 5 food-related tips to help you save money!
1. Budget
Yes! Let’s start with budgeting. Budgeting is extremely important when it comes to saving money. (PERIOD). You need to know how much money you have to work with – how much money is coming in and how much money is going out. What bills do you need to pay and when do you need to pay them? You can’t just go out to eat every day if you don’t have enough money to do so and pay your rent or mortgage, electric bill, cell phone bill, etc. So, sit down and figure out your budget. Compare how much money you will bring in over the next month (at least) and what expenses you have. Once you know how much money is left, then you can start making decisions such as how much money do I want to spend on groceries, eating out, etc. Once you set a food budget, stick to it. This is harder than it sounds. I know! I love spending money on food but sometimes, you have to say no to the ice cream or choose to buy what is on sale versus your favorite brand instead.
2. Meal Plan Around Sales
Who doesn’t love a good sale?! Right! Take advantage, especially now when food prices have increased quite a bit over the recent years! Take some time and review different stores’ ads. Who has some good sales going on? This can be really impactful if you have multiple stores that sell groceries in close proximity to each other. You could grab your produce from one, meat from another, and dry goods from a third depending on sales. Some stores still send out ads in the mail, and others have apps. So, pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea (or a glass of wine), sit down, relax, and review those ads! Take note of different sales that you could benefit from. If you eat meat (or your family does) and chicken thighs are on sale, plan that into one of your meals for the week. If it is a really good sale, buy an extra pack and throw them in the freezer for next week. Do you pack lunches? Yep me too! I love the convenience of individual serving-size chips and other snacks that I can quickly grab and throw in a lunch box but pre-packaged items like this are more expensive than bulk. So buy a regular-size bag of chips (maybe even generic branded – or whatever is on sale), and sort out what you will need for the week into reusable containers. You will save money, and it is better for the environment too! Win-Win!
3. Inventory Your Pantry
Have you ever gone grocery shopping, bought what you thought you needed, and then when putting stuff away, realized that you bought multiple things that you already had? Come on, I can’t be the only one! You live you learn! Now, if it is something that you use often, it probably isn’t a big deal, but if you are trying to save money, every dollar helps! Before finalizing your meal plans and heading out to the grocery store, take a few minutes and inventory your food pantry/cabinets. What do you already have? What can you use that you can make a meal with? If you already have pasta and meatballs, then all you need to buy is sauce. Or, do you have a big can of tomato sauce sitting there that you don’t know what to do with? Guess what, you can add a few seasonings and make your own pasta sauce. Piece together what you have on hand with some potential recipes and pick up the odds and ends you need to complete that meal. In addition to saving money, it is also nice to use stuff that has just been sitting there collecting dust.
4. Pack Lunches & Snacks
There was one point early in my career when I would eat out or buy food from the company café every day (sometimes multiple times a day). It was convenient and easy but oh my does that add up quickly. Now if you have room in your budget for this and this is what you choose to spend your surplus money on after expenses are paid, go for it! But, if you are looking to save money, this is a great place to save some dollars! I work remotely now, so I rarely eat out for lunch anymore and I have snacks at the ready. However, recently I had to go out for a doctor’s appointment right about lunchtime. After the appointment, I decided to stop and pick up lunch since I haven’t done that in a very long time. So, I stopped at Pot Belly’s and ordered a full sandwich and a soup. It came to $14! I guess this isn’t bad when you go out for lunch once every 6 months, but I can’t imagine paying that much for lunch on a daily basis or even a couple of times a week. Obviously there are cheaper options out there but even if you are spending $7 a day on lunch. That adds up. Do the math. Let’s say on average you spend $10 a day on lunch at work and you do this 5 days a week for the month. That is $200 a month. If you do that 12 months out of the year, that is $2,400! Now if you are looking to pay off a credit card, or save up for a vacation. This is a great place to make some cuts and save some money. If you don’t want to completely give up picking up lunch, try cutting what you do now in half. Instead of 5 days a week, try to get down to 3 days a week and down to 2 days every other week. Then, make sure you are saving that money that you would normally spend on food. Make sure it doesn’t creep into another unnecessary expense. Another place to save some money is by canceling the vending machine. $1.50 (or whatever they are charging now) for a bag of chips or a candy bar adds up over time too. Remember the tip about pre-packing containers of chips for lunch from tip #2? You can do the same thing for snacks. If you get that afternoon sweet tooth, as I do, pick up a bag of bite-size candy to keep in your desk drawer. Well, as long as you can control yourself not to eat the whole bag in one day! I know it is tempting sometimes! Especially on those stressful days! A bag of bit-size candy (depending on the size of the bag) is maybe $5 (cheaper if you find a sale after a holiday like Halloween or Easter), and it could last you weeks if you are good at limiting yourself. You may even have enough to share with your favorite co-worker to help them save some money from the vending machine!
5. Make Your Own Coffee & Lattes
Coffee – one of my weaknesses. I LOVE me some coffee! This is another expense that I used to spend way too much money on. I used to visit Starbucks and other coffee shops way more than I should have. Again, if you have extra money after all of your bills and necessary expenses are paid, and you want to spend some of that extra money on buying coffee then add coffee shop stops into your budget but stick to what you budget for. If you like to pick up coffee every day before work, and you spend $5 per day on that coffee. That adds up to $100 per month and $1,200 per year. Do you have that in your budget? If so, great! Keep picking up that coffee but if you are looking for a place to save some money, this is a great place to make some changes. You can brew your own coffee at home for a fraction of the cost compared to buying coffee from a coffee shop. If you are a sucker for iced coffee, you can easily make that at home too. There are many recipes out there if you don’t know what to do. If a hot latte or cappuccino is your fancy, you can make this at home too but it will take a bit of an investment up front. You will need to buy an espresso machine and a milk frother or frother/steamer. You can find an espresso machine for as low as $40-$50 and a handheld frother for $10-$15 or a frother/steamer for $20-$30. Of course, prices go up significantly depending on capabilities and brand but if you want to get started you could do so for less than $100. If you buy specialty coffee 5 days a week, this could pay itself off in less than a month (or a couple of months) depending on how much you spend on the equipment. So become your own barista and save some cash!
Bonus Tip
Here is an extra tip that helps me save money on groceries. If you think it would help you, give it a try if you don’t do this already. Try ordering groceries through a grocery store’s app and pick up your groceries. Some stores have a fee for this but it is usually pretty low. So, how does spending more money on fees, save money? Well, when I go to the store to shop myself, I often lose track of what things are adding up to at some point which isn’t ideal when you are trying to stick to a budget. I also have a tendency to get suckered into sales or end-cap items that I don’t NEED. Yes, impulse control is important when budgeting but I also find it helpful not to have to deal with the temptation. Only human after all. When I order groceries through the app, it is easier for me to just search for what I need for the week and stick to that. I also don’t lose track of what I am spending so I know for sure that I am sticking to my grocery budget. Also, it is so nice to just pull up and have someone else load your groceries in your trunk for you. Saving time is just as important to me as saving money!
Do you have other food-related tips for saving money? Leave a comment.