Like the cost of just about everything you need to survive, the price for food has continued to increase in recent years. While it was possible for a single person to live on $90 worth of food per month in 1995, it is much more difficult to do the same thing today. Many people further exacerbate the problem by frequently eating out. To show you how expensive eating out is, look at it this way. As of this writing, $5 can get you a meal at a cheap fast food restaurant like McDonalds. If you were to spend $5 there each day, you would spend $150 each month.
Keep in mind, if you ate one combo meal at McDonalds each day, $5 would only buy you one meal, and more than likely, you would be hungry before the end of the day. This gives you an example of how much people pay for food each month, and I didn't even mention more expensive casual restaurants where meals generally start at more than $10. Because many people are busy working trying to pay their ever increasing bills, eating out saves them time they would normally have to spend making meals. Unfortunately, it doesn’t save them much money.
The first step in saving money on food is to sit down and decide how many times you want to eat out each month. The needs and desires of one person will vary from another, but when saving money a good number to strive for when eating out would be about four times each month or once per week. Even when eating out, avoid the most expensive items on the menu. Many times restaurants have reasonable combination meals or less expensive dishes. No matter how many times you eat out, the general rule of thumb is to make sure the bulk of your money goes towards buying food that can be prepared at home. In other words, reserve about 30% of your food budget on dining out, and spent 70% on lower cost foods that can be purchased at the grocery store and eaten at home.
I understand that many people are constantly on the run, and they don't have time to spend preparing meals at home. The best solution to this problem is TV dinners. Even though TV dinners can be expensive, they are cheaper than dining out each day, and all you have to do is put them in the microwave. While the typical meal at a fast food or casual restaurant will run you more than $5, many TV dinners can be purchased for less than $3, and several companies have put millions of dollars into improving the quality and taste of these TV dinners. Many of these meals, however are high in sodium, therefore you will want to make sure you get a TV dinner that is low in sodium and saturated fat.
You should also avoid buying TV dinners that have large amounts of Tran’s fat. Generally, TV dinners are much cheaper than fast food, and they are healthier as well. The nutrition facts will be clearly printed on the side of the box, and one of the healthiest TV dinners you can purchase is from Healthy Choice. They put vegetables in their meals, and they are considered to be some of the healthiest TV dinners available. In addition to TV dinners, there are a number of other things you can do to save money on food.
In addition to TV dinners, the Internet contains a wealth of information on good meals you can prepare at home. In many cases, you can make these meals on a Sunday and they will serve as your dinner for the the next 3-4 days and all you will have to do is simply reheat them. This is by far the best way to save money while eating healthy at the same time.
The next secret weapon you will want to use are coupons and / or items for sale at the markets. Coupons are special discounts stores give on many of the products they sell. In addition to stores, they may also be offered by restaurants. Collect these coupons and use them as much as you can. If you are
going to the grocery store, and you're planning on buying large amounts of food, you will want to make sure you collect your coupons in advance. The amount of money you can save with coupons can be quite staggering. The only downside to using coupons is the fact that they can be time consuming to collect and use. However, the money you save will be well worth it. It is also important to buy generic brands as much as possible. While many people have loyalty to brand name foods, these companies simply want to make a profit, and often, the generic brands taste just as good. Why would you buy canned corn from Dole for $1.29 when the generic brand is $0.79. These savings add up quickly.
Another technique you will want to use when purchasing food is to always purchase products that are marked down or on sale. All stores cycle a series of products through that have sale prices, sometimes reducing items by as much as 75%. Focus on purchasing these items and you will save a significant amount of money. It will also force you to try new items for breakfasts, lunches and dinners and force you to be more creative in your preparation. Each week, most grocery stores in the United States will have sales, and these sales papers will be sent to residents who live in the area. Many of these sales will allow you to save a great deal of money, and you will want to take the time to go through the paper circling the sales items that you find appealing. If you are able to use all the strategies listed for buying food so far, you will no longer be spending large amounts of money each month on food, even if you have a family. I want to sum up all these strategies with one rule:
Always spend less than 35% of your food budget each month eating out
Spend more on foods that can be purchased from the grocery store.
Always use coupons and / or buy items that are on sale.
Only buy the bulk of your food when it is on sale.
When the food goes on sale, buy some of it in bulk to save more.
Buying generic brands will almost always be cheaper than brand name foods.
This rule is very important. Following it will ensure that you don't fall victim to the exorbitant prices that are being charged for food these days. Now that I've talked about food, I want to spend time talking about clothing. I personally feel that it should be easier for you to save money on clothing when compared to food. However, for some people, buying expensive clothes is a habit, one they will want to break if they wish to become masters at saving money.