The past few days I have been organising my kitchen. The reason I wanted to do this was so I could take stock of all the food we currently have in the house. Buying food is a necessity and for most people will take up a massive part of a family's budget but it doesn't have to cost as much as you think. There are several things you can do to reduce the amount you spend in the supermarket and not all of them are going to take up massive amounts of your time.
The first thing you should do before decided to cut the costs at the supermarket is to take stock. The easiest way to do this is to set aside a couple of hours as a one off, open up a spreadsheet document (if you haven't got any software like this you can get some free from open office ) and make an inventory of all the food you have in the house. I have set mine out in lists with the following headings: Frozen food, Dried food, Fresh food, Baking supplies, Desserts, Sauces and Condiments, of course you can pick any format that suits you. Under each of these headings I then typed in all the food I had and then in the column next to it the amount I have. Once you have completed this you can open up a new spreadsheet. This time you are going to do a meal plan. If you have never planed meals before I suggest you start with just planning one week to start with but as soon as you feel able to try to plan a month at a time. On my meal plan I type in what evening meal I will be cooking each day then in the column next to it I type in what I will need to cook it. This does take a little while but I normally do mine over a few nights, plus don't forget if you are doing this on a computer you can copy and paste certain meals if you will be having them more than once a month. Personally I find this the easiest way to make sure I am never spending more than I need to on food. When I get a spare minute or 2 I will go to my stock list and alter the figures once we have used the items, I have mine colour coded too, if we have something but still have plenty of stock I will highlight it green, this tells me that I have plenty left but we have already eaten that recently, If we use up something and don't have much left I will highlight it orange, this tells me that I need to check before adding a meal to the plan using this item as there may not be enough, when we completely run out of something it will be highlighted red telling me that I need to add it to my shopping list.
I know some people will be thinking well what do I put on a meal plan? The best advice I can give here is don't look at it as a chore and use your stock list. One way it can be done is by looking for your favourite items that are in your stock list then thinking what could I make with this, if all the other ingredients are also in stock then add it to your plan. you want to try and plan your week or months meals with buying as little in as possible. Of course when you have been doing this for a while the food you had stocked in your cupboards will have been used up, this is when you will plan ahead.
Planning ahead will always save you money as you will know exactly what you will be cooking so only need to buy those ingredients. You may need to use up all your willpower to not buy all of those extras that bump up the price at the checkout.
Another tip is don't kid yourself, it's all well and good you putting in the plan that you will cook all these big meals that will take hours to prepare and cook if you know full well when you get in from a long day at work you won't want to do anything which brings me to another tip...get a crockpot! I call mine my electric Mother, for me there is no nicer feeling than getting in from work (especially on a cold wet day) to find that the house is filled with the smell of some gorgeous meal which is cooked perfectly and just needs to be served up. I know that all I need to do in a morning is throw in the ingredients switch it on and go to work, so if you are like me and really don't want to cook every day then invest in one. Another tip when using a crockpot is always make too much, the same can be said with any meal almost. If you have extras or purposely make extras put them in a container and freeze them. This is a perfect contingency plan for when you get stuck in traffic and get home late, for when you are sick and can't face cooking or any other reason you are unable to or don't want to cook. It's all about the planning, anyone that knows me will know I am unorganised, forgetful and a total scatter brain so if I can do this I am sure anyone can!
I know this has been a long a waffly post so if you are confused by any of it or would like clarification please ask any questions in the comments box and I will answer them as soon a I can.
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