Advantages of Creating a Food Budget

In today’s diminishing economy, creating a food budget can be advantageous in  many ways.

Dawna Pacini, a single parent with 2 chidren, has learned how to “stretch her money” and have enough to eat “great” on a budget”. Through experience she knows that Creating a Food Budget is the first step to eating frugally but well.

Here’s her insight and explanation so that you too can take the necessary steps to creating a food budget and reaping its rewards.

The first advantage to creating a food budget is that it saves you time. For example, when you plan meals ahead, you know exactly what you want to buy at the store, so you will spend less time wandering grocery store aisles in search of ingredients and meal ideas.

Secondly, creating a food budget keeps you stay organized.  You will no longer find yourself staring into the freezer at five o’clock wondering what you should cook because you failed to plan ahead.

Thirdly, creating a food budget can help you  save  money.  When you are organized and buy only what you need, you will stay within budget and save money normally spent on unnecessary purchases.  Also you will waste less food because you buy exactly what you need; therefore, you are saving money.

Creating a food budget,(an excellent way to stay organized, save time, and trim your family budget), requires four easy steps:

1. Choose a time period to budget for.  That is, take a look at what you spend on groceries in a day, a week, bi-weekly, or monthly; then find the average amount you spend on food. Use that average to decide what your budget goal will be.

2. The second step to creating a food budget is to plan your meals for the time period you choose: a day, a week, a month, or longer. For example, if you choose to create a weekly budget, plan breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks for each day.  If this method is too structured for you, another way of planning is to create a general list of meals and snacks and then each day choosing your menu from that list.

3. The third step to creating a food budget is to create a grocery list.  Identify all the ingredients you’ll need to create the meals and snacks you have on your menu plan, and stick to your list when shopping.

4. It’s obviously a good idea to avoid the big expensive grocery stores in favor of stores in which you can pay less for your grocery items. Shopping at stores such as No Frills and Price Chopper makes it possible for you to buy more food with your budgeted money.

When creating a food budget, you can remain within your food budget and still get the food you need by taking advantage of the following great tools: using flyers, buying in bulk, and using coupons.

The first tool, using flyers, can be a great tool because you can match your list of ingredients to whichever stores have the wanted items on sale that week and shop there to save money.

Also, editing your menu to include ingredients that are on sale will save you money.  For example, sometimes, I substitute canned tomatoes for fresh tomatoes if they happen to be on sale.

The third tool, buying in bulk, can be a great tool only if utilized properly.  Just remember: A deal is only a deal if you actually need it.  So buy in bulk only if it is to your advantage.

The fourth tool, using coupons, will not only save you money but also can make it possible for you  to get free, or close to free, items.  For example, I once had a coupon for $1.00 off egg beaters and then they went on sale at one of the grocery stores for $1.00.  Because I had ten coupons, I bought two for my family and donated the other eight to the local women’s  shelter to help them out.

The great thing about coupons is that finding them is so much simpler than it used to be. Coupons can be found in flyers,  magazines, and on the Internet. Just search “Canadian Coupons” (or the name of your country + coupons) on Google, and you will find a whole realm of new coupon sources ranging from print your own to entire databases created by users and even companies who will mail coupons to your home for free. Here’s a sample list of these Canadian sites:
save.ca
websaver.ca
gocoupons.ca
brandsaver.ca
frugalshopper.ca
smartcanucks.ca

To summarize, the advantages of creating a food budget by using the simple guidelines and tools provided in this article will allow you to eat well and help you save money in the process.
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Sources: Pacini, Dawna. Frugal Eating. “Eating Great on a Budget”
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Do you have other ideas, suggestions, or comments on this topic of saving money when buying groceries? If so, I’m sure the readers would appreciate hearing from you. You can leave your comment below. Thank you. ~Marcie

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Tags: advantages of creating a food budget, budget grocery shopping, food budget, food budgeting, groceries on a budget, save money on groceries

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