Want to save on your grocery shopping? Start with the planning of a menu for the week! What you already have in the house, rice, lentils, maybe tomatoes or vegetables, foodstuffs bought earlier and not yet used, all help, incorporated in the menu, and keeping your expenses down.
Buy only, those items missing from the meals you have chosen accordingly! You will be surprised at how few they most likely are!
Do not be tempted by buying items that are not on your shopping list because you will be over budget. Ask yourself this question “Do you need it” or can you do without it?
Concentrate on your necessary shopping for those items which you often use, as something left over here and there, as being bought packaged above your immediate needs, comes in handy for the next or another meal!
Invest in a small or inexpensive book of suitable recipes to help you with planning meals!
If you need a particular item on the menu, like mushrooms or salad mixes for instance, of which the price per kilogram probably frightens you off, consider the weight of it and how much a kilogram it would be and buying just enough of it for your meal, would most likely come down to less than $3.00 in value, which you will find you can surely afford to make your dinner attractive and exciting.
Buy fruit and vegetables with preference to what is currently in season!
On toiletries and cleaning materials, look out for those put out on “special”! Such bargains are frequently available at many supermarkets!
Save on your grocery shopping by buying what you need for the week and such items if consisting of more than that, which you can use often and repeatedly, so your fridge or pantry is never hoarding foods which eventually you have to throw out.
Focus on the nature of your meals for those that can be limited to a cooking time of about half an hour. These preserve nutrition, particularly when vegetables are steamed instead of boiled, and also considerably save on gas or electricity!
There are great varieties of salads for summer meals, which need little or no cooking at all and are healthy and food saving! Avoid overcooking altogether, which is not only more economical, but also more robust.
The savings on all fronts will make itself noticed!
Y. A Eden ( 1928-2018)