Let’s talk about food. Lordy, I love food ! I seen a meme the other day that said describe your body type and the person wrote “clearly not one to turn down a taco.” Hello, that totally spoke to me -give me homemade corn tortilla wrapped around some homegrown ground beef simmered in my bulk taco seasoning topped with homemade salsa and homegrown lettuce and tomatoes and damn gurl…….that is heaven.
(Find my homemade taco recipe seasoning Here
But more specifically, how do we save money on food? And not just any food. REAL, WHOLE FOOD.
Here’s my top 3 tips, and lest you ask what makes me qualified, I’ll tell you that my whole life has been keeping a frugal home. I saved bacon grease, washed my aluminum foil, and kept “good” jars long before it was trendy to talk about it.
1. Shop for meat sales. You can get cheap grains, rice, grow your own garden greens anywhere, but protein sources are a little more difficult to grow yourself and anywhere. Focus your frugal energy on whole food protein sources. There is nothing wrong with that 30% off roast on Saturday night at the store. Buy three. And get a freezer. Make meals from it for a week or cook it, slice it and freeze half.
2. If you want to save money on food, start buying food in its whole form. It’s always cheaper to make $1 loaves of bread with a bag of flour than to keep buying $4 bread. Buy frozen whole vegetables if you can’t afford fresh. Buy a dozen eggs, tortillas and make breakfast wraps. Buy canned fruit if you haven’t put up your own. Two cans of peaches topped with oatmeal, flour, sugar butter and cinnamon is dessert for three days for under $5. Compare that to your $2 morning donut.
3. Set aside eating out money for a really good meal once a week. Explain to your kids (or yourself) why we can’t just “stop for a snack “. Pack your own snacks or teach kids to wait till they get home. They won’t die on a 45 min car ride without a snack. The downside of being in the car so much is the mindless eating of non-nourishing food. I noticed if my kids had screen time they wanted snack time too, and sometimes we literally weren’t out of the driveway !
BONUS TIP : GROW A GARDEN
You knew I couldn’t resist. But I do understand sometimes when we are struggling to keep our heads above water, we need things to put our hands to right now, and not one more thing to do. I see you and I know the next few months may be hard. Hang in there, my dear friends, I’m praying for you.
Love Jenn xx
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