A Recession Proof Food Budget

If you have been watching the news, especially the economic news, experts have been saying that the recession is technically over. Ok, but employers are not hiring and you may have been lucky enough to keep your job, but with a reduction in salary, you really are stretched financially. How can you save money? You need to watch your food budget. How should you do this?

You can do it the traditional way and look into your pantry and refrigerator for what food you already have in your kitchen. Then, go to your cookbooks and see what you can make with what you already have in the kitchen. Write down the ingredients you need to buy and head to the grocery store with your shopping list. That’s a good method, but that’s how things were done in the 1950s. Nowadays, you can utilize the internet to keep your family on a food budget.

Why would you find recipes the old fashion way, which will take an hour? You can utilize the internet and get the job done much much faster. Simply search “recipes by ingredients” and select from the list of recipe websites.

Now that you’ve found a website to find recipes based on the ingredients you already have, it’s time to jump onto the site and give it a whirl. When on the recipe website, type in the ingredients or groceries you already have at home and search for what recipes you can make with those ingredients. It’s that easy!

I try to do this each Sunday for the entire week because I have the most time on Sundays to grocery shop. I grocery shop early in the morning because the grocery store is not crowded and it’s most efficient. I add in all the ingredients I already have at home and then select 5 recipes for the week. The website I use will allow me to print out a list of groceries that I need and I take this list to the store.

We spend around $50 for 2 people (my wife and I) for the entire week (Monday through Friday) and that includes lunches. We use our leftovers for lunch throughout the week. After all, who has money to spend $8 on lunch each day? We spend around $200 per month and this saves us probably around $100 each month or $1,200 per year in savings. These websites are free (never use a recipe website that is going to cost you money).