By George Stella and Christian Stella
There’s no denying that food prices are going up, up and up. In the short term, it’s devastating many a grocery budget. In the long term, there’s no telling the impact this can have on our overall health. More and more families are being pushed into low priced and high calorie convenience (junk) food just to get by, but it shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be like that. Here are a few ways you can save a few without gaining a few… inches on your waistline.
Shop Around – If you have two, three or even more grocery chains in your area, invest in a plastic cooler so that you can hop from store to store picking up sale items without your cold food warming up.
Map Things Out – We like to sit down every week and plan many of our meals around the weekly grocery store ads. Think of it like the show Iron Chef, where you have a few set ingredients (the fresh foods with the best sale prices) and you have to mix and match them to make recipes.
Keep It Simple – The best meals are made with the fewest ingredients, it’s a fact (I say it is!). Simplify your favorites for savings.
Go Fresh AND Frozen –I’ve been known to go crazy and throw eight kinds of vegetables into a stir fry, from time to time—but at two or three dollars a veggie, that can add up. Try buying fresh green veggies like broccoli or green beans and an inexpensive, frozen bag of stir fry vegetables from the freezer aisle to fill in the blanks. You’ll have all of the variety, while still retaining the natural vitamins of a fresh veggie.
These are just a few of the tips I’ve found that really help keep my spending under control- stay tuned later this week for more budget friendly low carb tips!