Are You Snacking Away Your Food Budget?

Are You Snacking Away Your Food Budget?

Did you establish a food budget but keep going over it? Food budgeting only works when it is enforced; if you and your family are snacking away your food budget here are some helpful tips to not only shave dollars off your budget but probably your waistline to.

• Throwing away expired food is wasting your money. To solve this issue take an inventory of what’s in your pantry and the expiration date and rotate your pantry items weekly so that you are using the earliest expiration dated foods first. Keep your inventory list on the inside door of your pantry. A clip board attached by a hook works wonders for this.
• Forgetting items at the grocery store that you need in order to make meals means a second or third trip to the supermarket and this costs time and money not to mention you are probably leaving with extra items that you didn’t need. Create and take a shopping list with you and stick to it. To make this work you have to make sure you write everything down on your list.
• Processed junk food can quickly eat away at your shopping money even when the items are on sale for unbelievable prices. When you think about it, if a bag of cookies is on sale for .99 cents and you buy 5 bags, that’s $5 you could have used on fresh produce. Plus those processed junk foods are probably having a hay day on your waistline. Leave the cookies, cake and ice cream at the grocery store so you are not tempted to eat those items at home.
• Stock baking essentials so that if a snacking moment does arise you can create something in the kitchen. It may seem crazy but a bag of flour or sugar is less expensive than a carton of bakery brownies and they are less processed which means they are better for your body. Chips can be made at home just as easily from fresh potatoes, olive oil and salt.
• It can be very easy to eat too much of a product which wastes money. Packaged foods have serving size suggestions along with calorie content on the packaging. Pay attention to serving size on processed food packaging and how many serving per package. If your family goes through a package of crackers in two days but there is enough in the package to feed your family for a week that is wasteful and is taking money from your food budget.

By following these tips, hopefully you and I both will be on our way to having more money to buy fresh foods that will help you stay full longer. You will snack less and eat more whole foods that are better for your body then the highly processed ones we so readily reach for.