Just think about more than 35% of your salary is spent on food. Question: "How to save on food?" Today it ranks second after the problem: “How to pay off the mortgage?” In this article I will tell you which ways to save on food are not only relevant, but also healthy.
- Save on food wisely. It makes more sense to save money on food by buying it on sale in the supermarket rather than at a reduced price in the market due to expiration or spoilage.
- Plan the required amount based on the menu compiled for the week. Write lists of what you need. An example menu could look like this (the table can be scrolled from left to right):
Days of the week Breakfast Dinner Dinner Monday Rice porridge with milk, loaf with butter Sauerkraut cabbage soup, vegetable vinaigrette Beef Stroganoff with chicken hearts, wheat porridge Tuesday Potato pancakes with chicken and sour cream Pilaf with chicken Cheese pollock soup, carrot salad with garlic Wednesday Oatmeal porridge with nuts, berries or dried fruits Rassolnik with heart, puree with carrot cutlet Chicken and Pasta Casserole Thursday Cheesecakes with jam or sour cream Borsch and beet salad with prunes Fried potatoes with mushrooms Friday Scrambled eggs with tomato Fish soup and herring under a fur coat Vegetable stew with pork Saturday Pancakes with sour cream Solyanka and fresh vegetable salad Stuffed cabbage rolls Sunday Hot sandwiches Pea soup and meatballs with pasta Buckwheat with liver - Analyze your monthly purchases. Sit down and make a list of food products, where, what and at what prices you buy. Determine the products that you are ready to give up and what is useful to add. For example, many people buy diet bars, which can easily be replaced with more inexpensive oatmeal with dried fruits.
- Buy only those products that are on your list. Don’t be fooled by sales of inexpensive but unnecessary goods. Otherwise, attempts to save money on food will turn into wasteful spending.
- Have lunch before going to the store. In this case, the chance of resisting delicious smells and unplanned purchases in the store will be significantly reduced.
- Pay attention to the lower shelves. This tip will help you save a lot of money on food. After all, store marketing is designed in such a way that everything that is most expensive and popular is at the buyer’s eye level.
- When purchasing products, focus on the cost per 1 kg. products. For example, bulk candies cost several times less than the same ones, but in branded packaging.
- Give preference to soft packaging. Milk in it is always cheaper than in cardboard.
- Plant greenery on the windowsill. Onions, dill and parsley grow well at home. Now you will always have fresh herbs for pennies. It is also convenient to freeze dill collected in the summer for the winter in the freezer.
- Try products from unpopular local producers. Its cost does not include advertising costs, and the quality sometimes exceeds the products of popular brands.
- Say no to cards. The funds held on them are difficult to control. Take only cash with you + 10% on top for unexpected expenses.
- Make homemade preparations on the weekend for the week. Dumplings, cabbage rolls, cutlets and dumplings should always be in the refrigerator in case of lack of time for cooking.
- Buy meat, sausages, cheese and ingredients for multi-ingredient meals only on weekends and holidays.
- Store vegetables purchased in season at a low price in the freezer in the form of vegetable mixtures that will be used for soup and main course.
- Choose domestic analogues of Western products. Many of them are cheaper and healthier than overseas jars in attractive packaging and, in general, allow you to profitably save on food.
- Diversify your diet. Use inexpensive cereals as a side dish: pearl barley, wheat, barley.
- Try to buy whole products. For example, buying a chicken will cost less than buying chicken parts separately.
- Meat consumption can be significantly reduced if it is not cooked in pure form, and use it in pilaf, casseroles or soup.
- If you have a large family, do not prepare portioned meals. Feel free to replace chops on the bone with julienne or beef stroganoff.
- Use offal instead of meat. This will make your nutrition complete and allow you to save a lot on food. For example, the cost of a beef heart is 2 times cheaper than fillet.
- Buy as few sweets as possible. Bake your own pancakes, buns, pies and make natural sweets from dried fruits. This will help save not only your budget, but also your health.
- Arrange fasting days. At this time, you can do without the most expensive products: fish, meat and cheese. Replace them with porridge, vegetables and fruits.
- Bake homemade bread. Its cost is about 30% cheaper than in the store. And in a year you can save a tidy sum on food.
- Include more soups in your diet. They are considered the most inexpensive dish. To save time, you can boil a large pot of broth and cook a variety of soups using it throughout the week.
- Purchasing everything you need at specialized food markets and small wholesale centers will help you save money on food.
- Go to the store with your package.
- Do not take ready meals and sliced products in supermarkets. The markup on them reaches 30%.
- Pay attention to receipts. Did they mistakenly punch another product or the same one twice?
- Don't buy a lot of food that spoils quickly. Otherwise, instead of saving on food, you will end up spending extra.
- Take your lunch to work from home. In the canteen, food is more expensive and not as tasty as homemade food.
How and on what products you can save money
- Milk products. You can easily remove cheese curds, curds and synthetic yoghurts from your diet. Replace them with whole milk, yogurt, snowball, bifivit. It will be cheaper and healthier.
- Fruits. Various fruits are found on the shelves all year round. But their cost differs radically depending on the season of purchase. In mid-autumn, watermelons, melons, peaches, and apricots become noticeably cheaper, so it is profitable to purchase them at this time. In winter, give preference to apples, bananas, lemons and dried fruits. At the beginning of January, you can save money on exotic products: grapefruit, feijoa, pomegranate, pomelo. Prices for them are usually reduced by 20%.
- Vegetables. In general, the price of vegetables reaches its minimum level in summer and autumn. Late summer begins the season for beets, potatoes, onions and carrots. You can buy them for almost pennies, which is worth taking advantage of. You can save money on these food products until late autumn. In August, the price of eggplant, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage is also low, which will increase 3 times by December.
In winter, you can purchase pumpkin, Brussels sprouts and radishes at slightly reduced prices. By spring, this list will be replenished with asparagus, radishes, dill and strawberries.
To make it easier for you to navigate the seasonality of vegetables, look at the summary chart:
- Meat. Clean meat is expensive. But no one will stop you from adding cereals to it, which will give the cutlets an unusual taste and allow you to save money on food without harming your health. Instead of frozen, buy chilled meat, so you don’t have to overpay for ice. It is also profitable to purchase meat in quarters. To do this, you can cooperate with your family or relatives and take the half carcass right away.
- Fish. Expensive varieties of fish: chum salmon, mackerel, salmon, greenling, tuna should be replaced with more nutritious and cheaper ones: herring, halibut, cod and pollock. Buying fish with an ice coat is doubly expensive. And, whatever one may say, ungutted seafood with the head comes out more economical than fillet.
Top 3 useful apps that will help you save on food
In the 21st century, not a single action is complete without using high technology. Let's take a quick look at 3 apps that are easy to use and automate food savings.
Edadil
A free service that will help you save money on groceries. Here you will find products from all popular chains: “Magnit”, “Pyaterochka”, “Spar”, etc. The application allows you to view supermarkets on a map and compare prices for the same product in different retail networks. You can sort your search not only by price, but also by volume, cost per kilogram and relevance.
Buy a loaf
A convenient application for making a grocery list. It has very interesting feature: the ability to add ingredients to a common list by all family members. Recordings can be saved and also shared with relatives and friends. Available for IOS and Android.
Stocard
An electronic business card holder, relevant for those who forget to take discount cards when going to the store. To download a bonus card, just let the application read its barcode. But you need to keep in mind that you won’t be able to save money in all stores. Number of organizations collaborating with this software has not yet reached a global scale.
In conclusion, I would like to say a few more words about saving on food. Even using all the methods and spending hours tracking promotions, you won’t be able to dramatically save on food. Prices are rising every year, the cost in different stores for the same product changes. Therefore, in addition to controlling the cost, it is worth paying attention from time to time to the question: “How to earn more?”
No matter how much spiel flows from TV screens (they say that the government controls the prices of goods from the food basket), statistics are a stubborn thing. The cost of conventional food products is rising again The cost of a conditional (minimum) set of food products. If in October 2017 it was 3,715 rubles, then in May 2018 it was already at the level of 3,970 rubles.
Growth by 255 rubles in six months
According to experts, prices will continue to rise. This means it’s time to learn to save. We'll show you how to spend the least amount of money on food.
In the shop
1. Make a shopping list and strictly follow it
To do this, develop a menu for the week: breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Inspect your kitchen cabinets and refrigerator and add to your shopping list the ingredients you need to prepare your intended meals. Nothing extra!
Help you keep a shopping list mobile applications.
2. Compare prices in different stores
Buying everything in one supermarket is convenient. But sometimes, if you walk to the bakery around the corner, you can buy tastier and cheaper bread.
If you don’t have time for monitoring, try to shop once a week. “Today I’ll buy cottage cheese, and tomorrow I’ll go and buy more eggs” - an approach that leads to unplanned expenses.
Well, use special applications.
3. Attend agricultural fairs
They usually take place in autumn and spring, and you can buy very good prices there. farm products: potatoes, eggs and others.
4. Avoid impulse purchases
Don’t buy products not on the list just because they are cheap or because you suddenly feel like, “Oh! Discount on Chinese cabbage! You have to take it, it’s usually 10 rubles more expensive” (are you sure you’ll eat it?), “Mmm, cake! Want! Want!" (what about diet?).
Don’t take children to the store: their “wants” are harder to resist. Willpower alone will not save you.
5. Use discount cards
You may have to pay to purchase it, but this is a one-time expense, and discounts can be used every time you visit this store.
6. Buy in bulk
Flour, sugar, salt, pasta and spices are always needed. Plus they have long term storage So, you can take it for future use. Moreover, prices in wholesale retail outlets, as a rule, lower.
“Where do I need so much? I have nowhere to store it,” are typical objections of housewives to the advice to buy food in large quantities. The solution is simple: chip in with friends. By purchasing a package of rice and dividing it among yourselves, you will quickly experience the benefits of this approach.
According to merchandising rules, the most expensive products are placed on shelves at eye level of the buyer, and the cheapest ones are placed on the lower shelves. Don't be lazy to lean over and study the assortment below.
comefare.com Also, don't look in departments you don't need (separate the products on the list into groups: meat, vegetables, etc.). And don’t forget that you should visit the store well-fed.
8. Turn off autopilot
We often wander around the store, thinking about our own things and automatically putting products in the basket. Remember how disappointing it is when you find at home that the apples are broken and the cookies in the package are broken. Choose your products carefully.
9. Don't overpay for a name
Famous brand products are more expensive. But this is not always a guarantee of quality and taste. Take a closer look at less famous but cheaper analogues. For example, brands chain stores. Typically, taste characteristics popular goods (vegetable oil, groceries, etc.) do not differ from branded ones.
10. Don’t overpay for packaging
Milk in a nondescript package can be tastier and cheaper than a drink in a bottle, and loose bulk products are more profitable than those packaged in colorful boxes.
11. Pay attention to weight and volume
Often the same product is on the shelves, but one is cheaper than the other, for example, by 5 rubles. Don't rush to grab what's cheaper. Compare the difference in weight or volume of these products. It is more profitable to take a “full” kilogram than 940 grams.
12. Don't buy processed foods
They are a priori more expensive than self-prepared (from “A” to “Z”) dishes. Don't allow yourself to be lazy: cook them yourself and store them in the freezer.
And further. Sliced bread and sausage are always more expensive. Can't you cut your own loaf?
13. Don’t be afraid of delays
The discount policy of chain grocery stores is a subject for a separate discussion. But when a product expires, sellers are willing to get really generous. As a rule, products “with a timer” are quite suitable. The main thing is to use them as soon as possible.
The exception is fermented milk products. It is easy to get food poisoning with them, so it is better to buy only fresh ones.
14. Don't waste money on bottled water
It is more profitable to buy a filter for cleaning once.
15. Keep receipts
In the kitchen
1. Adjust your diet
For example, include poultry in your menu instead of fresh fish, which has become noticeably more expensive. Replace ingredients with cheaper ones whenever possible (pink salmon instead of trout, Adyghe cheeses instead of mozzarella).
Nothing beats a juicy sirloin steak, but liver, heart and other organ meats can be cooked deliciously. Buy them from time to time instead of meat - you will save money and improve your culinary skill.
3. Don't cook too much
There are housewives whose “hands don’t take much.” If you cook borscht, then in a large saucepan, if you fry cutlets, then use a full frying pan. Such wastefulness, as a rule, ends with half of the prepared food going into the trash bin. Learn to cook only as much as you eat.
Alternatively, don't cook until you've eaten what you've cooked.
4. Follow cooking sites
Budget recipes often appear there. Keep them for yourself. They will help you create your weekly menu and shopping list.
5. Use seasonal vegetables and fruits
A salad of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers can cost a pretty penny in winter. Cabbage and carrots are much cheaper at this time of year. Make a salad from them - it will turn out just as tasty and healthy.
8. Eat perishable foods first.
We bought yogurt, put it in the refrigerator, and five days later, when we remembered it and wanted to eat it, it turned out that it had expired. As a result, several tens of rubles go into the trash. Sound familiar?
To avoid getting into such situations again, stick it on perishable food bright stickers: “eat before Thursday”, “use before the end of the week” and so on.
holodilnik.info 9. Store food correctly
Compliance with storage conditions prevents premature spoilage of products. The more thrifty you are with food, the less often you will have to replenish your food supplies.
By the way, about frugality. Many products can be given a “second life”. Has the bread started to dry out? Make crackers and add to salads.
As you can see, you don’t have to be a pedant to save on food. Anyone can follow these recommendations. But the main thing is don’t be fanatical. Sometimes you can and should allow yourself something tasty or your favorite.
How to save money on food.
Prices foodstuffs are growing inexorably, wages are not increasing, so many want to make their menu cheaper. Is it possible to save on food? Certainly! By studying the topic of saving on food, you can significantly reduce costs and learn effective management.
Stores mark up prices on products from 20 to 50%. For example, if the cost of stewed meat is 50 rubles, then nowhere in the store will we find a jar cheaper than 60. What can I say, to find stewed meat at that price, we still have to try. You can save on food purchases from 3 to 5 thousand rubles per month. This money can be saved, put in a bank at interest, increasing the savings every year.
If you save 3 thousand rubles every month at 15% per annum, in 10 years you can accumulate more than 800 thousand rubles, and after 20 years you will already have 4.5 million in your account. Not bad money, right? After all, this time will pass one way or another, but in this case you will have 4.5 million more.
Before you start saving money on food, you need to learn how to plan a family budget. Keep receipts - they will help you keep track of everything necessary calculations. To do this, get a regular notepad or use the program Excel. The simplest option is to create a table with three columns: “income”, “expense”, “total”. In the first, write down data about your monthly salary, in the second - the amount spent on food, in the third - the remaining amount of funds.
After a few months, you will be able to estimate how much you currently spend on food. Too much amount? Think about the products you buy and whether you really need them. In a separate line, write down the products that you can refuse.
For example, if you love chips and regularly drink soda, think about whether it’s worth ruining your health and spending that kind of money on it? Perhaps at one time the amount will not seem large to you, but within a month or three a decent amount will already be collected, and you would probably choose to buy something more valuable with this money.
Visit the store using the tips below. Keep recording your expenses, and after a few months you will be able to track how much you have saved.
Visual video on how to save on food
How people save on food
We all visit grocery stores and supermarkets. They offer us a huge selection of different products. Often, buyers lose their heads and spend a lot of money, purchasing, in fact, completely unnecessary goods. So, how can you learn to save on groceries using simple rules of behavior in the store? Follow these tips from people who successfully save on food, they will help you get rid of many expenses:
Before going to the supermarket, be sure to make a grocery list and strictly follow it. There are apps that can help you with this - Myconomy And " Buy a loaf!».
When walking around the store, do not be tempted to purchase items that are not on the previously compiled list. Yes, they can get your attention. There may be a discount on them - and only today! But believe me, you don't need them.
People save on groceries by shopping at wholesale stores and small wholesale stores. The disadvantage of this option is that such places are usually located in the countryside or in an industrial area. If you have a car, getting to the store will not be difficult. If this is not possible, choose supermarkets with minimal markup - for example, Auchan or Tape.
- Wholesale centers usually do not sell goods at retail. Team up with your relatives or friends to shop together at wholesale outlets.
Make a list of food items your family needs. Typically this includes vegetables, dairy products, meat, cereals, and tea. When visiting large stores, compare prices for these products and write them down in a notebook. This way you can figure out which store will save you the most money.
Pay only in cash.
Upon payment bank cards You won’t feel how much you’re spending – so there’s a higher risk of making unplanned purchases. You can take a limited amount of cash with you to the store so that you are not tempted to spend more.
Typically, the most expensive items are located at eye level with the buyer. Pay attention to the lower and upper shelves.
Instead of a cart, use smaller baskets. They hold much less food.
People save on food by snacking before going to the store. Don't go shopping hungry. According to statistics, about 20% of unnecessary spending is caused by hunger. This will cause you to buy a lot more products than you really need.
Discount system and promotions
The topic of supermarket discount cards requires special consideration. This is a card with which you can reduce the purchase amount in the final receipt. Some supermarkets offer to issue them for free, while others will require you to pay a small amount. But they can really help you save money if you only visit one store. How to learn to save money on groceries using discount cards?
Different supermarkets charge steep discounts - they usually range from 3 to 10%. It's best to choose the most cheap shop, which has its own discount system. Sometimes promotions apply only to a specific group of products, but most often - to the entire range of the store. Each specific case has its own conditions. To find out them and fill out an application to receive a card, contact the cashier, the information desk or the store administration.
- Be careful with bonuses or points. The advertisement says that by accumulating them, you can win a prize. This method is not very effective unless you need an item from the prize list - to accumulate bonuses you will spend a much larger amount on buying unnecessary products. Usually such promotions are beneficial only to the supermarket.
Cooking and saving on food: how to spend less?
Let's say you've chosen the perfect supermarket for your wallet. Excellent here discount system, budget prices, have you made a list and are going shopping? Great! The following tips will help you save even more:
- First, replace expensive products to their cheap analogues. Remove fresh fish from your diet if prices for it suddenly skyrocket - instead, try buying, for example, poultry. It is important to buy chilled meat and not frozen, where you overpay by weight for ice. Buy pink salmon instead of trout, replace mozzarella with Adyghe cheese.
- Think about offal. From time to time, instead of meat, you can buy liver or heart - this way you will save money and improve your cooking skills.
- Check cooking sites. There you can find interesting and budget-friendly recipes - this will help you create a shopping list.
If you love kvass, make it yourself. Make your own dumplings, don’t buy frozen pancakes - you can save a lot on all this! Try to prepare food in accordance with the season - buying fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in winter is unprofitable, but you can safely put cabbage and carrots in the basket. Typically, domestic goods are much cheaper than their foreign counterparts. You don't have to buy washed vegetables, they are cheaper and last longer.
You can grow greens yourself on the windowsill; this will not only allow you to save a lot, but will also decorate the interior of the kitchen.
Consider whether some products can be replaced. Often, the products of an advertised company do not differ in quality from the cheaper option - when buying them, you overpay for the brand. Study the market and the composition of your favorite products.
The main rule for saving money on food in the kitchen is to not cook a lot of food.
You either throw away what you cooked or overeat. And it was possible to stretch the products over several days. Pay attention to cereals - they are a tasty, healthy and inexpensive option. A pack of rice or buckwheat for 30-40 rubles can feed a family of three 6 times.
Study the volume and grams of products. For example, one product may cost several rubles less than another, but in weight it is inferior to the first option. Sliced bread and sausage are usually more expensive than their own " whole» analogues. You can cut the loaf yourself, right?
- Eat perishable foods first. Are you familiar with the situation when you buy milk and a week later you suddenly discover that it has gone bad? Carefully monitor the expiration dates of purchased products.
Saving the family budget on groceries
Another way to save money is to create a menu for 7 days in advance. How to save money on food this way? You make a list, go to the store, buy only necessary products, thus saving on everything else. You can vary your diet to suit your taste; you can include your favorite dishes in the weekly menu.
Remember: eating tasty does not mean eating expensive.
An important point in planning is to create a menu for the week at once, so you will have a clear plan and you will go to stores less often and have fewer opportunities to go over budget. For example, below is a budget and healthy menu for the week:
- Monday. Oatmeal with raisins for breakfast, rassolnik with meat for lunch, vegetable risotto for dinner.
- Tuesday. In the morning - pancakes with condensed milk, in the afternoon - vegetable salad and potato casserole, in the evening - buckwheat with cutlets.
- Wednesday. Breakfast - pancakes, lunch - navy pasta and borscht, for dinner - light carrot salad and cabbage stewed with meat.
- Thursday. Milk porridge for breakfast, crab salad and cabbage soup for lunch, vegetable stew for dinner, jelly or cakes for dessert.
- Friday. Sandwiches with sausage in the morning, for lunch - salad and cheese soup, dinner - fried potatoes with meat.
- Saturday. Breakfast: semolina porridge, lunch: homemade dumplings, dinner – rice with fried fish.
- Sunday. Morning - scrambled eggs, afternoon - soup, evening - lazy cabbage rolls.
Now you know the basic rules on how to save money in your family on groceries. Whether to do this or not is entirely up to you. An expensive product is not necessarily a useful product. Many nutritionists believe that saving on food can be done without harm to health. You just need to properly distribute and plan your budget and adhere to the simple principles presented in the article. Spend your money wisely – there is never too much money!
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Greetings! Today we have a burning topic: saving on food. Let me note right away: the article was not written to teach someone how to survive on pearl barley alone) It will not be possible to reduce food costs by 70% using these tips. Let's be honest: a significant part of the family budget is spent on groceries.
But it is still possible to reduce these expenses a little, by 10-20%. The article was born because I myself have long wanted to somehow optimize my nutrition. And I decided to save on food. I wanted to do everything “scientifically”: conduct a survey of friends, turn to useful sources, sketch out a sample menu for the week... I’m sharing with you what I managed to come up with.
So, how to save on food without compromising your health? How to spend less on groceries?
Poll of friends: how to save on food?
Firstly, I asked my friends the following question: does saving on food have a place in your life or do you not consider it possible/necessary? My acquaintances do not include millionaires - these are people with an average salary, men, women, families with one or two children. Let's listen...
“My attitude towards products is this: once a week I go to the hypermarket and buy groceries. Then I live only on them for a week, forbidding myself from buying anything other than bread or dairy products.”
“My husband and I calculated that if we take it to work for lunch, it will be much cheaper than eating every day in a nearby cafe. Of course, it takes a lot of time to cook, but it’s more economical this way.”
“I'm not married, I live alone. At work I go to the canteen every day, and after work I often have dinner outside. It turns out expensive. 1/3 of the budget is spent on food, but what can you do?.. I see only one way to save on food: get a wife)))”
“I eat very simply: porridge, potatoes, seasonal vegetables, I freeze fresh zucchini, eggplant, and pumpkin for the winter. For me, it’s better to eat simpler, but put it off. For me, traveling is more important than food." “Nutrition is life, my well-being. I think that you can’t save on food, and how? Don't spend money on fruit or buy spoiled ones? Or stop eating good fish
, quality meat?”
“I allow myself to buy everything except sweets and buns - and economically, and my figure is preserved.” Firstly, almost everyone has a desire to save on food - and such a desire is not at all reprehensible.
Secondly, not everyone knows what they can save on, considering the price of a product to be an indicator of its quality. In many cases this is true, but it’s no secret that the price of a product depends not only on the quality, but also on the promotion of the brand and beautiful packaging. Pleasant impressions We transfer from a beautifully designed pack to the taste and usefulness of the product. Meanwhile, in that modest paper package there will be sold an inexpensive product that is not inferior in taste, but with much less “chemicals”.
But let's not talk in general terms. I offer you tips that I managed to collect among friends, on the Internet and partially apply myself.
- Spending less on food will help product lists. By the way, it doesn’t have to be on paper – you can use mobile applications. It’s convenient to make a shopping list and shop once a week, after planning what you will eat every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Before going to the store, check your kitchen cabinets: there may be something you don’t need to buy.
- Get discount cards V grocery stores. Sometimes they are given for free, sometimes you have to pay - but if you buy it once, you can save on food all the time: the card will pay for itself quickly, the main thing is not to forget to take it with you.
- Go to agricultural fairs. Here you can buy potatoes, carrots, beets, zucchini and other vegetables very cheaply
- Buy seasonal vegetables and fruits. What is grown in your own country and in season will be several times cheaper. Of course, in winter it is difficult to find domestic vegetables and fruits, but then you can find inexpensive ones: for example, apples and pears are inexpensive even in winter.
- Can't live without meat? You are wrong: you simply cannot live without protein. A couple of times a week is quite possible to give yourself a weekend away from meat.: Other protein-rich foods will support your body, but will cost much less. I'm talking about legumes (beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas) or eggs. As a last resort, you can replace expensive types of meat (for example, beef) with chicken.
6.Don't buy processed or processed foods own production in shops. It turns out to be much more expensive! Case from real life: four ready-made cutlets cost the same as a kilogram of fresh chicken fillet - but four cutlets are eaten by a family of two people at a time, and fillet goulash can be eaten for several days.
7. Do you like herring? Avoid buying it in jars or packs - It’s cheaper to buy fish with the head and cut it at home.
8.Muesli can be replaced with regular oatmeal, adding separately purchased raisins and nuts. The savings will be significant.
9.Instead of expensive teas, you can drink herbal ones, which will be much cheaper and often much more useful.
10.Write down recipes for economical dishes– and don’t forget to cook them every week. By the way, here for creating menus and so on. kitchen affairs.
11. Sliced bread, cheese, sausage are always more expensive... Probably Is anyone able to cut a whole piece of cheese or a loaf?
12. Bottled water is a big expense. If you buy constantly, isn't it better? buy a filter?
13.Freeze greens for the winter. In the summer, parsley, celery, and dill cost pennies, but in the winter you will pay three to four times more for a bunch. Do it wisely: stock up in the summer, chop finely and put it in the freezer.
Who would have thought that such a little thing as greens can significantly save your budget: buy in the summer and freeze for the winter 14.Carefully monitor the expiration dates of products. You can even designate a separate shelf in the refrigerator for foods that need to be eaten first.
15.To save on food, eat... less. Non-trivial advice, right?)) But it has the right to life: sometimes we eat more than we need, because we don’t understand when the body really wants to eat and when it wants to drink. Do you want to have a snack? Drink a glass of water - perhaps it was thirst. If you still want to eat, then you can have a snack. It's also a good idea to know how many calories you need to consume for your body type. Perhaps you habitually eat much more than you should?
Small, beautifully decorated portions on small plates are another way to save on food. 16.Saving on food will help refusal of portioned meals: Meat will run out faster if you make chops or cutlets out of it for each family member, while goulash from the same meat will be used up more slowly.
17.Pay attention to rare foods on your table. Do you often eat semolina, barley, millet? But you can prepare many dishes from these cheap cereals.
A dressing room will help you save on clothes - could you wear 33 things for 3 months?
These simple ways will help you save on food. What tricks help you spend less on food? ?
How to learn to save on food? This question has become very popular in recent years. And indeed, with rising food prices and marking time wages, this question is becoming increasingly relevant.
Saving on food, how to spend less
Popular wisdom says: “Every cloud has a silver lining.” Indeed, when starting to save on food, Russians have a unique opportunity to “jump” from a diet filled with all sorts of products that empty their wallets and at the same time harm their health (crackers, salted nuts, sweet carbonated drinks, chips). Proper and healthy eating should become a habit; at first it will not be easy, but pretty soon a person will feel positive traits such a diet.
- For proper organization It is recommended to plan a weekly menu. This helps in planning purchases and saves you from hard thinking about what to cook for dinner. Taking into account your plans for the week, you can prepare more food during certain periods to last for a couple of days. So for those who are thinking about how to save on food, the weekly menu is a step in the right direction.
- Refusal of semi-finished products and the transition to self-cooking will significantly allow you to learn to control the contents of your plate yourself, without relying on the conscience of the producers of dumplings or frozen pizza. Homemade food is tastier, healthier and cheaper than processed foods.
- Sausage is expensive and not very healthy. Oven-baked meat with herbs and spices will perfectly replace it. In general, it is better to buy meat in large portions at once in order to prepare different dishes from it. For example, you can cut up a leg of lamb, cook kharcho soup from the bone, and pilaf from the pulp.
- If beef or pork is too expensive, then good option there will be chicken meat. It is more profitable to buy a whole chicken than individual parts. When cutting, you can find a use for all components of the carcass.
- You should not neglect by-products. Dishes made from beef, chicken, pork liver or chicken hearts and stomachs are a good alternative to expensive meat. Liver cake or pate, prepared with skillful hands, can become a decoration for any table. Rassolnik on kidneys, soup from beef or pork tails - original, satisfying and inexpensive.
- Meat should be used sparingly. From one kilogram you can easily prepare three dishes: cutlets with vegetables, borscht and pilaf, for example. In addition, the meat should be served with a side dish. A huge steak is good on a plate in a restaurant, but at home, meat gravy with mashed potatoes or buckwheat porridge.
- Purchase seasonal vegetables and fruits - serious savings on food. During the season, prices for many products (depending on the harvest) drop so much that they can not only be eaten as often as possible, but also stored for the winter. Common vegetables such as cabbage and beets will become a real storehouse of vitamins on cold winter days.
How to save on food, recipes from famous chefs
When switching to home cooking, problems with the menu will arise at first, but this can be avoided if you take your mother’s or grandmother’s cookbook out of the closet or from the mezzanine. There you can find a lot of dishes for any budget, which are prepared completely without the use of semi-finished products. For example, like this:
- Chicken cutlets with vegetables. Take minced chicken and ground vegetables (for example, potatoes) in half, form cutlets and fry them in breading. Very tasty and the meat savings are obvious.
- Borscht with beans. All the ingredients for classic Ukrainian borscht, only it is cooked in bean broth, not meat. The dish turns out rich and tasty, while its price is noticeably reduced.
- Dumplings with cherries. A kilogram of flour, 7 eggs, half a liter of milk and salt for the dough, 2 kilograms of fresh or frozen cherries and 2 tablespoons of sugar for the filling. That's all the ingredients needed to prepare 10 servings of a delicious dish.
An important part of the dinner table is fish, which contains phosphorus, iodine, and omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential for the human body.
You should not give up fish, you should just replace it with cheaper varieties (hake, pollock, herring, tilapia). It will be cheaper to buy the herring whole and pickle it yourself with spices than to buy it already prepared and packaged in jars.
Using modern electric yogurt makers and bread makers, you can completely avoid buying fermented milk products and bread in the store. Thanks to this, you can always be sure of the quality of the product you consume.
In general, a properly selected economical diet can be considered as one of the aspects healthy eating, which is now receiving great attention all over the world.
