Though eating is a worthy expenditure, it would be nice to spend a little less on food.After breaking down the price of pancakes, I found myself searching for similar breakdowns of meal costs. A friend sent me this Lifehacker article about how to make pizza for $0.38 a serving. The article referenced two money-saving blogs: Cents to Share and The Simple Dollar.
Cents to Share
In addition to the great pizza recipe, this blog has some good advice on how to stay under your food budget. The author states, “Plan.” as his first tip. It sounds easy, but many of us struggle with the amount of planning that goes into cooking healthy, budget-friendly meals. Planning ahead ultimately leads to greater savings. Lots of foods can be purchased when they are on sale and frozen until needed. The comments visitors have shared are also very informative, and the community behind this site is refreshing.
The Simple Dollar
Chock-full of money saving ideas, The Simple Dollar began in 2006 when the author decided that it was time to change his spending habits and get out of debt. I especially enjoyed reading “Rule 7: Watch Your Progress-But Make It Fun” which gives excellent insight on what motivates us to change. Tracking your progress lets you know how far you’ve come. When we can look back on where we were and see that our current situation is better, it gives us the strength to continue to work towards change. By contrast, if you have no record of the changes you’ve made or the changes you’ve tried to make its very easy to give in to feelings of disappointment that may or may not be based on fact. Its okay to look back and realize you’ve tried things that didn’t work. Take the factual information gathered and reformat your strategy until it works.
My Two Cents
Finding balance in preparing the cheapest and healthiest food choices is important. Some of the healthiest foods are surprisingly inexpensive, but the amount of planning/prep time is a bit overwhelming if one is accustomed to whipping up meals in 15 to 30 minutes. Think of that giant bag of black beans on the bottom shelf at the grocery store. Its cheap, but those beans need to soak overnight in order to be of any use in meals tomorrow.
Adjusting your expectations of what food should taste like is a good way to eat both healthier and cheaper food. Don’t get me wrong, cooking with fresh veggies and other raw (non-processed) foods can yield some amazingly delicious results. But that usually only happens if you have all the herbs and spices a great recipe and the ability to patiently read through the recipe and stand over the food while it simmers.
Some of us are still learning to cook.
In the meantime, another strategy is to actually be hungry when it is time to eat. One of the best things I ever tasted was while running a marathon. After squishing all the gel out of an energy packet at mile 19 I licked what was left of it off my hand and thought, “hmmm, salty.” Later, I realized that part of what I was tasting was my own sweat.But it tasted like life itself!
Check out Cent to Share & The Simple Dollar for many more interesting articles!
Do you have any money saving strategies to share?
