My husband has this ideology that we should never scrimp on food let alone groceries. This is completely opposite on how I was raised. I remember during my gradeschool days that I have to ask permission if we could buy one pack of oreos and my mom always says no. We never had much during those times and grocery shopping is really for the essential items. When I got a job and got married, I enjoyed executing this new ideology. However, I realized that I love grocery shopping too much to the point of being excessive. I have no budget and no meal plan! So just imagine how incohesive my groceries are and how much are wasted because of expiration.
It was only when I had other expenses to consider with our growing family that I decided to be mindful of my purchases. Although I still have yet to master it, I was able to cut down expense dramatically to fit my grocery budget. I also felt that I am eating better by packing food from breakfast, lunch, and snacks (including desserts!). I also saved by not succumbing to eating out because my packed meals are tastier. So here's what I did to avoid wasting money:
- Prepare a meal plan. The internet is my source for simple recipes that you can even further simplify. It is amazing how many variations you can make with the basics such as eggs, cheese, chicken, milk (to name a few). And how tasty breakfast is with just eating eggs and toast with fruits.
- Make a budget and more or less try to stick to it. I still really need to list the items down because if I don't I usually end up buying things that are still available in my pantry.
- Only buy what you will consume until your next grocery run. This will also mean that I will get fresh items all the time, save me space, and watch my diet. It helps me to be aware of what I will be eating for the week.
- Eat in, eat your groceries. We are not a fan of frequently eating out because not only do we arrive late from work, eating out is really expensive. We occasionally splurge but most of the time I just experiment and make sure that they eat what I bought! haha!
- Simplify and be honest. I try to be realistic and not get items for overly complicated meals that I will not prepare. Instead I focus on what I can do to make me want to eat what I make! and that my other two little bosses will like it too!
Here's a sample of what I ate during the start of the week when I bought avocados. This may be surprising to many but avocados in the Philippines are consumed as a dessert (at least where I grew up). We add condensed milk and cream, freeze, then eat as ice cream. But when I bought avocados last Friday, I had a purpose to make these as part of a savory meal. I kept on seeing mexican guacamole recipes on the internet but since I'm not into chips, I decided to eat it with toast. Yum!