How to save Money by a Having a Food Budget
When money is super tight and you feel like you’ve cut back on everything you possibly can…there’s one last place to look! I’ll show you How to Save Money by Having a Food Budget! Doing this PLUS creating a Flexible Meal Plan is going to put more food on the table and more money in your pocket!
I know that food budgeting can be difficult part of staying on budget and feeding your family healthy meals is to know your families eating habits and just how much each person eats.
How to Save Money by Having a Food Budget
This post is going to focus on what your families food take actually is, so that you can make a more accurate grocery budget! It’s really a pretty fun and interesting observation!
More ways to save money on your food budget!
Use up Leftovers ~ this has a yummy quick Taco Soup Recipe
Big List of Cheap Meals ~ it’s always helpful to have ingredients and ideas for cheap meals on hand
What do I mean by having an accurate read on your families food budget? Well have you ever really observed your families eating habits?
How much does each person “typically” eat in a day?
- How much Fruit
- How much Vegetables
- How much Dairy (cheese, milk, etc.)
- How much protein (meat, eggs)
- How much snack food
This may sound a little overboard but you really need to know what the intake of your family is if you want to save money. We live in a society with a lot of waste.
Then you need to decide if it is in keeping with each member’s nutritional needs. For example an adult obviously eats way more than a small child.
Another reason it’s great to break things down, is to take a good look at just what your family is really eating. Let’s get honest with ourselves here…sometimes it’s hard to see just what we are consuming as a family. We just keep buying and buying and wonder “where does all that food go!?”
Food Portioning
Food portioning shows us just how much we should be eating of what kinds of foods, but first we need to take a realistic view of what everyone is already eating…and how much.
Use the following worksheet for a couple of days as you observe your family...I can promise you are going to be surprised! Click in the picture then download
This is not meant to be a super strict guideline. The reasons for taking a good look at this area are as follows:
- You may be overbuying food for a child – trying to feed them an adult portion.
- To make sure we are serving all food categories throughout the day for a healthy balance and to make sure our families get the proper nutrition to keep them healthy.
- Sometimes we just plain forget what our bodies really “need”.
“I learned to use the term wants vs. needs in the kitchen…. Something I did only with clothing, trips, and household. It took a little time to figure out the difference between wants and needs in the kitchen, but God was faithful to show us.
More Food Budgeting articles:
How to Make A Flexible Meal Plan
This is a great idea! I’ve pinned your printable. We are moving soon and have tried to eat down our food supply. It’s been very informative as to what we really like and what just sits in the cupboard.
Portion control starts with not cooking more than we SHOULD eat!
Yes that’s also a great way Helene! Unless of course you want to have leftovers or you are doubling up a recipe for freezing. Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day!
This is very important to know. I raised my neice and 3 children.They were all girls. Now we very seldom had leftovers. I had 2 children that ate enough for 2 people and the other 2 barely ate anything.
Very good points. My kids are much younger, but I’ve never really kept track of how much they eat. We do try and feed them small portions and offer seconds (and thirds) if needed.
Good idea… I also tend to fill the plates rather than pass the food around, since it is easier to control how much food we use.. although I give seconds when necessary.. and my growing guys are BIG eaters. 🙂