3-Ways to Help You Save Up on Groceries This Week
You’ve probably noticed a sudden shift in your overall food spending habits, such as a steady rise in your weekly grocery bill (despite minimal purchases), a need to cook more often and perhaps a bigger reluctance to splurge on the “good stuff” such as eating out or buying specific food items.
Grocery shopping, cooking and integrating meal prep as a part of the weekly routine are all great ways to help get you started on a healthier food journey, and towards a more sustainable eating lifestyle! However, with the rise in the cost of living, it’s no secret that we may need to adapt certain lifestyle habits in order to better keep up with the times — and our eating & food spending habits are certainly not ones to overlook.
Here are my 3 best ways to help you cut down on your next grocery bill.
1.Meal prep by finding inspiration from your fridge pantry & freezer
Every meal prep starts out with a rough plan, and pantry staples and freezer items can definitely be there to hint at us when we’re simply lacking some inspiration. They typically can last long and can often come in handy to skip the more lengthy steps in the cooking process such as roasted tomatoes, pre-soaked & cooked beans, or frozen fish.
They can be a blessing in disguise when we’re looking to reduce our overall food budgets and especially for those more difficult or scarce times of the year…except when things start to go bad. For instance, have you ever found a frozen chicken that is now 2 years old and ask yourself…is it even still edible? (Get more facts about frozen meats here.)
Before making your next trip to the grocery store, take a moment to sneak a peak at what you may have left laying around in your freezer or pantry. Let it inspire a variety of possibilities for your meals & snacks!
Some recipes using frozen goods
(Frozen Blueberries) Lemon Blueberry Baked Oatmeal
(Frozen Salmon & Frozen Peas) Pasta Salmon & Peas
(Frozen Spinach) Spinach Artichoke Pizza
Some recipes using pantry staples
(Canned Tomatoes) Easy Creamy Tomato Soup
(Canned Chickpeas) Chickpea Brownies
(Peanut Butter) Spicy Baked Peanut Butter Tofu
Note: You may need to take the time to prepare certain items such as defrosting (ex: fish, meat or chicken) or rinsing (ex: canned legumes).
2. Prepare a grocery list and use grocery store flyers
Overwhelmed by the variety of products available at the grocery store? Upon your next visit to the grocery store, take a moment to look at the store flyer. If you’re stuck the between the choice of two bread types, simply looking at what’s on special can help you to narrow the search for specific store items and make a more budget friendly choice!
By going along with the weekly specials, you will likely pick select the fruits & vegetables that are in season, stumble upon a locally-made product or discover a new item you never thought of cooking with before!
3. Know your ingredient substitutions
The secret to being a great home chef is in knowing how to make the most of your ingredients. It can be easy to feel discouraged or a lack of motivation when there’s a missing key ingredient. Luckily, with the right knowledge and expertise, many items can easily be swapped out in recipes.
Get creative with these common recipes swaps:
In sum, integrating meal preparation as a daily practice while doing our best to be more mindful of our food habits & choices can give us the chance to get a little more creative in the kitchen, all the while helping us to save up and to reduce our overall food waste.
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Happy home-cooking!