From my budget increases I have found that the cost of the foods we buy has gone up by about 20% on average. This is a pretty good jump and hit to the budget. Our income hasnt gone up so we must make the budget cuts. How we cut our budget. We eat less meat now and have more vegiterian days. We shop less and plan our meals further out so we can avoid trips to the store. We are growing more in our garden and letting others know that we are interested in any extras from their garden as well. We are using more beans and rice. We eat out a lot less. We plan our leftovers to make the next meal. What other things have you done? What have you thought about doing but you have not done yet? Has the rising food costs hit your budget like this?
I think the same way you do, so the first thing I will say to you is to take a deep breath and calm down It is true that food costs have gone up a little more noticeably over the past few years than in years past, but it is manageable without sacrificing good, healthy meals. I do all of the shopping and cooking in my house, and meat is the one item I have noticed the highest price increase in. Check your grocery store flyers and stock up when things are on sale. Roasts, chicken, and pork tenderloins freeze beautifully as long as you don't let them sit for more than 4 or 5 months. One of my favorites - pork spareribs - also freeze well, and they are usually a great bargain. Frozen vegetables are in most cases just as good as fresh, so stock up on those as well. I guess my point is to be a smart shopper - you'll save money and you'll end up with much better meals.
I don't eat as much fast food as I used to. I make sure that I bring snacks with me when I'm out so I'm not tempted to buy food because I get hungry. We also cook most of our meals. We try to cut down on the amount of convenience foods we buy.
My biggest vice is splurging on specialty ingredients for some new recipe I want to try out. Then I wind up wasting many of them because I wont ever really use them again. I've got to try and think ahead with these more often instead of cooking them on an impulse. Sometimes it helps to just take a step back and total up everything in your head before you head out to the store and decide if it was *really* going to be worth all of that cost. My friend has a buffalo chicken dip recipe that he likes to make, for example, but by the time you buy all the ingredients in it, that's almost $20-$25. Some people only have $30 to last them all week for groceries.
I have ended up cooking the same things over and over again. When I find an item for a great price I stock up on it and then use it to make my budget streach. Next year I will have a garden that is twice the size of this years so that we can get those vegis and nutrient rich foods in out home with out spending a fortune on them.
Since we have implemented a grocery budget this past summer, the rising food costs haven't caused us to change our shopping habits much. We are simply smarter shoppers and planners. We are on a mostly Paleo diet, so we consume a considerable amount of meat. However, I have been cooking smaller amounts of meat at a time while including more vegetables in meals like stir frys, spaghetti, and soup. I am also learning to take advantage of produce when it is on sale and reduced meat. In the near future, I would LOVE to start up a small garden to help offset some of the cost. However, I have a black thumb so I will need to find someone to help me first.
I have more meat free days, and I only ever buy meat now which is reduced for a quick sale or on special offer. Then I'll stock up and freeze it for future use. I'll also pad out meat meals with lentils or chickpeas, or extra vegetables, and I make all my own soups - usually from leftover vegetables, so nothing gets wasted. I think making sure you waste nothing is the single most important way to keep control of your food budget. Unless you can cut out waste, any other tricks are pretty much meaningless.
I would love to have a garden, but I live in an apartment building with no balcony. And I am not allowed to have any space on the roof or the backyard like other apartment buildings that have allowed this. I do find myself in a similar situation - I cook a lot of rice and pasta. But, I try to mix it up with vegetables that are in season (so they are cheaper) or frozen vegetable bags that are on sale, meats that are on sale, etc. A lot of the less expensive meats are great for stews and chili, which are loaded up with beans and hearty vegetables - and can easily go over a bowl of rice. I try to keep some snacks around - homemade hummus with cut up vegetables, salsa and chips, apples.
Almost all of my days are vegetarian days, that makes my food bill much cheaper than that of the average person. A couple vegetables and a grain go pretty far for me; I buy the amount I need for a few days instead of big packages of things I have to try and use before they go bad. One of the local farmer's markets supplies a box of mixed items for $25 that they say is enough for two people for one week. I don't always use everything and neither does a friend who shops there.
I stopped eating meat because with our budget, we could not afford good meat (no antibiotics, good taste, no cruelty) though this also has to do with ethics. But before I just cut meat, I used to just disminish its proportion in the dish -- added lentils to the burgers as well as veggies, for instance. Also, stocked up on non-perishable staple foods!
I've definitely cut back on meat, since that was one of the most expensive items in my budget. I've switched many of the brand name products I was buying for generics, and I shop at Dollar Tree a lot more, although I'm careful to only buy things there that are actually cheaper. Often, the dollar store canned goods are more expensive than generics are at the grocery stores. I also do what @helluva mentioned, and I've started substituting about half the meat in a recipe with a substitute, like mashed chickpeas, or occasionally, tofu. The taste and consistency really aren't changed much, especially if the meat is small pieces, rather than one large piece or chunk. I also eat a lot more peanut butter.
I've been doubling up on the beans when I make chili, and cutting the amount of ground beef in half. I could barely tell the difference from when I make it with a full pound of ground beef vs. a half pound that I'm using currently. Mushrooms are another favorite to use as a filler/extender for ground beef - or in place of it all together. While I usually keep canned mushrooms on hand, I really prefer the fresh ones when I can get them. You have to be careful though as fresh mushrooms can cost practically as much as ground beef, and even more so if you consider they are mostly water. which cooks away leaving them to shrink down to a fraction of their original size. What I usually do instead is wait until our local discount grocer marks some down on clearance - usually because they are starting to brown too much. They still cook up perfectly fine anyhow - unless you planned on using them raw in a salad, it makes no sense to pay full price for the fresher ones when you're just going to cook them down anyhow. Turkey in place of beef is another great way to save a few dollars. I can get 2lbs of ground turkey for almost half of what I would pay for ground beef.
I don't belong to a membership shopping retailer but I try to buy in bulk when I can. Making note of large items on sale means having to buy less in the future. If there is a coupon for it, that's even better.
Like you we eat much less meat now and fill up on cheaper frozen vegetables, I have done a lot of research and started a blog about monkey saving meals (and REAL money saving, not the Jamie Oliver kind!)
I plan what to buy around specials and what is on offer. I tend to decide what I will be eating for the next few weeks rather then how I used to on the spur of the moment. I stock up on basics more so as it saves money and I will find the room and also I shop around more and tend to go back to shops rather than buy on the spur of the moment these days.
I make a lot of Chinese meals where the rice, sauce and veggies play a starring role and meat is more of a garnish. My beef and broccoli is more broccoli than beef but my daughter loves it.
I price match a lot and print off as many coupons as I can before I go shopping. Doing both really makes a big difference on my bill when I cash out.
I'm finding that the cost of groceries is rising too and I'm now having 3 meat-free days per week. I don't particularly miss having it either. Besides that, I use a variety of supermarkets, in order to get the lowest price on everything and always look out for vouchers and coupons.
We eat less now that we have had to to tighten our budget, the warm weather helps! We have smaller portions and use creative ways of making our food for further. We include a lot more vegetables in our meals and shop for smaller sizes than before. We too have cut right back on eating out.
Food is the most difficult thing for me to stay within budget on. Primarily because I love & respect it so much. Or that's what I tell my family. I want to make insane dishes from all over the world & I want to be able to do that whenever I can. I WILL splurge on that expensive hunk of cheese but hopefully my intense research into which pasta is the best & cheapest or the work I put into making my own compensates for that ridiculous purchase.
