It is a fact albeit an exasperating one but, food prices keep changing. The well thought out monthly budget for the groceries just never seems to fulfill its intentions and at the end of the month there is a gaping deficit. Worse, you may have to cut out yet another item from the already very basic list. To help ease some of the frustration and maybe help salvage the planet
Start Planning Your Meals in Advance
Planning meals in advance ensures you buy only what you want and spend what you planned to spend. Also, you will avoid the hassle of queues and finding parking just for a packet of offal or a bunch of kale.
By planning your week’s menu and shopping for all the items on the list in one trip you will save money. If you like certain foods buy them in advance and incorporate them into your meal plan.
Your meal plan is simply the food that you like to eat; chicken, rice, beef, fish, beans, okra etc. so plan for it; tedious and unnecessary as it may sound it just means there will be no last minute rushing to the shops. No queues and no last minute buying at the filling station or corner stand for food that is guaranteed to cut into your budget.
Be imaginative with leftover Food
So what if you had stew and pap the night before. Have stew and rice tonight. With a little imagination the little portion of stew can be turned into a different meal by just adding a few potatoes, carrots or green beans; to eat with rice.
Left overs are a good money saver because If you eat what is left over (which most of us do anyway) it means you have eaten twice for the price of one. It will be chicken tomorrow…
Check Your Cupboards
Do not rely on your memory or another’s; go through the cupboards yourself and make sure you are really out of stock. Or check if you already have something in stock and do not buy the same thing again.
Checking your cupboards will prevent an unnecessary buy and offer money for something that you really could use but thought had no money for.
Buy in Bulk if You Can Afford the Bill
There are so few things we can actually buy in bulk that will save us money. Rice, maize meal, dried fish, beans, and chickens from a friend who raises them in her back garden maybe, but really, with the energy crisis buying in bulk is not a good idea. Unless you can store it in the cloud…which btw…is not fluff in the sky but real space on earth that uses up energy and water for the cooling systems that store the images, records, banking data etc. births and deaths.
If you can, buy small and only buy in bulk if you can afford the bill. You will be saving money and the planet.
