Ready to see your grocery budget plummet? I’ve been married and budgeting on a small income for 37 years. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that in order to successfully reduce my grocery bills, I must use what I have on hand and stop wasting food if I want to spend less every month on food.
It begins by taking stock of items you already have on hand and use them!
It’s seriously that easy!
I’m not kidding! This one, single trick can save you significant money on your grocery budget when you employ it on a regular basis.
It’s time to get down to brass tacks and see exactly how I implemented this super savvy saving tool this week in my kitchen!
Let’s get started!
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Step 1: Take Stock
Saturday morning, I threw open the fridge doors on a recent Saturday and pulled out every item that had been in there for a week. Any other items that looked slightly wilted, were also placed on the table.
I labeled the items in the photo above. I knew I needed to use all these items up quickly or I would wind up throwing them out in the garbage in very short order, because I hate wasting food!
I was a woman on a mission to use this glorious produce, for which I had paid good money, before it rotted and was good only for the compost pile or the garbage can!
Step 2: Find recipes.
My “budget meter” swung into fully charged mode as I used Google to create a menu plan using all of the items on my counter. It’s so easy to look at ingredients and envision them as the main contributions to any number of soups, main, and side dishes!
Google one or two of your featured ingredients together followed by the word, “soup” or “main dish” or “entree” or “casserole”.
I Googled, “vegan pasta main dish” and found a huge variety from which to choose. I then narrowed my search to include those recipes, which featured ingredients which I already had in the house. Remember, the goal is to help your grocery budget plummet. So, focus on low-cost ingredients.
Planned substitutions
Recipes are not the Holy Grail! You can substitute various veggies and fruits you already have in the house without significantly changing the final dish. Trust me. I have done it for years.
Afraid to substitute? You can Google things like: “Can you substitute broccoli for cauliflower?” and find out situations in which the swap works and others in which it doesn’t end so well.
You may even come up with a new family favorite. For instance, one night the kids wanted air fried buffalo wings. But, I didn’t have cauliflower on hand. So, the 15 year old sous chef substituted fresh broccoli. Wow! It had fantastic flavor! We liked it so well, that we use broccoli instead of cauliflower on a regular basis now!
Step 3: Gather additional ingredients
I made a list of soups, entrees, and side dishes that I was going to make with my stash of week-old items from the fridge. There, were, of course, a few more items that I needed to add. Those went on the ingredient list, as well. As with the recipes you choose, be sure that all additional ingredients are low cost. Otherwise you will thwart your attempts to help your grocery budget plummet.
Step 4: Chop and Cook!
Once, I had compiled a complete list of recipes and ingredients, I bulk cooked, making sure I used up all the perishables which would, otherwise, have rotted in the fridge or on the counter.
Since I knew that I planned to use every morsel, I washed, trimmed, and chopped all the ingredients and set them out in piles on a large cutting board. This made for a very fast and efficient process when I began cooking.
The end result of my culinary adventures:
Ultimately, I made enough food to feed my family for four days from items I already had in the house! I didn’t have to go the store for even one item! Score a BIG WIN for the monthly food budget!
If you employ this same strategy once a week, you WILL be able to slash your food budget!
Hi! I know you said no link for the soup but what is the base please? Thanks! Just found your website and I love it!
Hi, Julie. Thanks for the nice message. If I have veggie broth on hand, I use it for my vegetable soups. Otherwise, I use the veggies and water. I also add a can of tomato sauce to the soup so that the broth has a tomato flavor. Be sure to add herbs and spices for additional flavor. I like onion and garlic powder, a couple of bay leaves, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning and maybe some dried basil in veggie soup. If you have fresh herbs, basil or dill are nice, too.