So far I’ve done a lot of talk about investing and making money, but I haven’t gotten to discuss saving money. Google claims that the average monthly grocery cost for a family of four is over $1000. That’s insane.

The first step in saving money is of course to Budget. This involves setting a reasonable amount of money for something and STICKING TO IT. When it comes to groceries I find the easiest method is to pull out cash on the first of the month and keep that money in an envelope. If I bring $100 to the store, I can’t buy $150 worth of groceries.

The second step is to avoid major grocery stores. Aldi, Lidle, Save-a-lot, there can be others more local. These places will generally have generic brands for significantly cheaper than other places. Walmart, Sam’s Club, and Costco are also going to be key to this strategy. Also, for the most part generic brands are made in the same factories as the name brand.

When shopping on a budget it’s important to consider shelf life. Ingredients will usually cost less than pre-made foods as well…and that is a key to this strategy. We pre-cook or pre-bag months worth of meals in advance and freeze them. This lets us buy meat on sale or in bulk without worrying about it spoiling.

A quick side note on meat. It is almost always cheaper to buy larger pieces of meat and cut them down into the cuts you want, like Pork Chops, or Steaks. I really like Meatdad on Youtube for those breakdown videos.

We also buy gallon and quart freezer ziplock bags and aluminum baking trays with lids, not with the food budget money, these last through multiple meal preps. Then we prepare our recipes for our staple meals. We usually make a set amount of slow cooker meals, split between beef, pork, and chicken, the ingredients for the entire slow cooker go into 1 bag and freeze. On the day of we usually cook noodles, or rice to go with these meals.

During this time we also cook large batches of sides and entrees that go into the aluminum pans. These get mostly cooked in advanced then frozen so that they become a throw it in the oven meal. I will at some point make a post with some of our favorite recipes. During this prep weekend we also take ground beef, beef chunks, chicken breasts, and pork chops and put them into smaller bags of just meat that can be used later for cooking. The large tubes of ground beef are excellent for this as you can easily freeze 1 Lb portions into small bags that can be “grab and go” for hamburger helper, taco meat, anything that needs portions like that.

Now, I do want to caveat this, I withdraw $350 in cash each month and I avoid going above my set budget, but these meal preps usually run in the $600 range with all the meat, that means that we carry over money month to month growing the envelope “stash” to cover those big purchases. These meal preps happen in our home about once a quarter.

Some other tips and tricks, frozen meatballs separated into bags for portioning, bread can freeze and thaw perfectly fine. Bulks rice, beans, etc are great for many meals and carry your money really far. Sam’s club is $18 for a 50 lb bag of rice. Easy to store in a sealed lid plastic bin and will last a really long time.

~~Miniwing~~