Here are a couple of easy and attainable ways to meet your food-oriented financial goals in 2012:
- Limit eating out to once a month. Sounds easy enough, but if eating out is one of your recreational activities, you may need to find some new (and free) hobbies - like exercising!
- Fit beans into your diet at least two times per week. The nice thing about this fibrous food is the price-to-nutrition conversion. For a serving of pinto beans, you get around 220 calories, nearly 40% of your daily fiber, 20% of your daily iron, and a healthy dose of protein, too. The total cost? 13 cents.
- Get in the habit of buying meat and vegetables frozen. Not only are they often cheaper, but you’ll avoid the possibility of wasting food. Besides, if you don’t use that extra breast of chicken, the work of putting it in the freezer is already done for you.
- On a similar note to the point above, when fresh cuts of meat do go on sale, stock up, portion out, and freeze.
- If you don’t know how to butcher a whole chicken, learn now. Often, buying a whole chicken and butchering it yourself can save you quite a bit.
- Tofu. When this protein source goes on sale, take advantage and stock up. And, yep, you guessed it - it freezes beautifully. In fact, freezing tofu can actually improve the texture.
- Wholesale food suppliers (e.g. Sam’s Club, Costco, Cash & Carry, etc.). Even though I don’t use the prices from wholesale food suppliers on this blog, I do get almost all of my food from such vendors. Basically, everything besides bread, eggs, and milk, I buy in bulk. I’ve read mixed reviews about the benefits of the wholesale food industry for the everyday, single American, but when push comes to shove, even single folks can benefit from a 10 pound bag of beans for five bucks. My advice? Limit your trips to reduce gas/transportation costs, and if services require a membership, find out when your friend with the membership does their grocery shopping.
- Stop cooking your food in butter. Not only is it loaded with saturated fat, but it’s also significantly more expensive than its heart-healthy counterpart: vegetable oil. Costing twice as much as vegetable oil per ounce, butter is perhaps one of the last foods you should be buying this year.
- Take one day to cook yourself meals for the remaining weekdays. Not only will this save you time in the long run, but you’ll be less likely to make an impulsive food purchase because you’re hungry and don’t have the time to prepare yourself a meal.
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