Saving Money on Food

Our family spends a lot of money on food. So I am willing to bet it’s the same for your family too. So how do we make our food budget go father? Even more important, how can we afford to buy some extra so if something big and unexpected comes up – would we (you) be able to deal with it because you know you can live off what food you already have?

The first thing I recommend is getting a stand alone freezer. And everyone CAN find room where they live for one. We live in a tiny apartment and we have the smallest freezer they make. But our tiny freezer has made a big difference in our food budget. I am able to buy a lot more when it’s on sale and just skip the meat department when things aren’t on sale. We also have a HUGE stock of frozen veggies, bottles of frozen juice and some frozen bread.

I cut coupons from the Sunday paper. I get coupons in the mail and email and print them out and use them. I shop the local farmers market for fresh fruits and veggies. We are lucky living in Southern California that we have farmers markets year round. And one other place we get extra money for our children’s food is WIC (Women Infants and Children) it’s a state run agency that give checks each month to families under certain incomes with children under 5 years of age. Look at your states web site or Google to see what your state offers. Many people may qualify and don’t know it. You can get up to $60 a month per child under 5 in California. It’s a HUGE help for us. And the larger your family is (total) the more money you can make and still qualify, but only the children under 5 years old will qualify for the checks. You pay taxes … see if you qualify and use every resource you can. They are there to HELP you, not look down on you.

And the last thing to spread your food budget farther … is learn to make a few more items from scratch. Now I am all about saving time but something’s you can do with your kids for fun and save money too. A simple example is making cookies. You can go out and buy the refrigerated cookie dough and just spoon them onto a cookies sheet and bake. Yes super easy, but for a whole lot less you can make cookies from scratch and have a lot more cookies! Do I suggest making your own bread every morning?? Not unless you love doing it! But once in awhile fresh baked bread is a nice treat!