How to save on food. How to save money on food? Proper nutrition at affordable prices

No matter how much spiel flows from TV screens (they say that the government controls the prices of goods from the food basket), statistics are a stubborn thing. The cost of conventional food products is rising again The cost of a conditional (minimum) set of food products. If in October 2017 it was 3,715 rubles, then in May 2018 it was already at the level of 3,970 rubles.

Growth by 255 rubles in six months

According to experts, prices will continue to rise. This means it’s time to learn to save. We'll show you how to spend the least amount of money on food.

In the shop

1. Make a shopping list and strictly follow it

To do this, develop a menu for the week: breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Inspect your kitchen cabinets and refrigerator and add to your shopping list the ingredients you need to prepare your intended meals. Nothing extra!

Mobile applications will help you keep a shopping list.

2. Compare prices in different stores

Buying everything in one supermarket is convenient. But sometimes, if you walk to the bakery around the corner, you can buy tastier and cheaper bread.

If you don’t have time for monitoring, try to shop once a week. “Today I’ll buy cottage cheese, and tomorrow I’ll go and buy more eggs” - an approach that leads to unplanned expenses.

Well, use special applications.

3. Attend agricultural fairs

They usually take place in autumn and spring, and there you can very profitably buy farm products: potatoes, eggs and others.

4. Avoid impulse purchases

Don’t buy products not on the list just because they are cheap or because you suddenly feel like, “Oh! Discount on Chinese cabbage! You have to take it, it’s usually 10 rubles more expensive” (are you sure you’ll eat it?), “Mmm, cake! Want! Want!" (what about diet?).

Don’t take children to the store: their “wants” are harder to resist. Willpower alone will not save you.

5. Use discount cards

You may have to pay to purchase it, but this is a one-time expense, and discounts can be used every time you visit this store.

6. Buy in bulk

Flour, sugar, salt, pasta and spices are always needed. Plus they have long term storage This means you can borrow for future use. Moreover, prices at wholesale outlets are usually lower.

“Where do I need so much? I have nowhere to store it,” are typical objections of housewives to the advice to buy food in large quantities. The solution is simple: chip in with friends. By purchasing a package of rice and dividing it among yourselves, you will quickly experience the benefits of this approach.

According to merchandising rules, the most expensive products are placed on shelves at eye level of the buyer, and the cheapest ones are placed on the lower shelves. Don't be lazy to lean over and study the assortment below.

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Also, don't look in departments you don't need (separate the products on the list into groups: meat, vegetables, etc.). And don’t forget that you should visit the store well-fed.

8. Turn off autopilot

We often wander around the store, thinking about our own things and automatically putting products in the basket. Remember how disappointing it is when you find at home that the apples are broken and the cookies in the package are broken. Choose your products carefully.

9. Don't overpay for a name

Famous brand products are more expensive. But this is not always a guarantee of quality and taste. Take a closer look at less famous but cheaper analogues. For example, brands chain stores. As a rule, the taste characteristics of popular goods (vegetable oil, groceries, etc.) do not differ from branded ones.

10. Don’t overpay for packaging

Milk in a nondescript package can be tastier and cheaper than a drink in a bottle, and loose bulk products are more profitable than those packaged in colorful boxes.

11. Pay attention to weight and volume

Often the same product is on the shelves, but one is cheaper than the other, for example, by 5 rubles. Don't rush to grab what's cheaper. Compare the difference in weight or volume of these products. It is more profitable to take a “full” kilogram than 940 grams.

12. Don't buy processed foods

They are a priori more expensive than self-prepared (from “A” to “Z”) dishes. Don't allow yourself to be lazy: cook them yourself and store them in the freezer.

And further. Sliced ​​bread and sausage are always more expensive. Can't you cut your own loaf?

13. Don’t be afraid of delays

The discount policy of chain grocery stores is a subject for a separate discussion. But when a product expires, sellers are willing to get really generous. As a rule, products “with a timer” are quite suitable. The main thing is to use them as soon as possible.

Exception - dairy products. It is easy to get food poisoning with them, so it is better to buy only fresh ones.

14. Don't waste money on bottled water

It is more profitable to buy a filter for cleaning once.

15. Keep receipts

In the kitchen

1. Adjust your diet

For example, include poultry in your menu instead of fresh fish, which has become noticeably more expensive. Replace ingredients with cheaper ones whenever possible (pink salmon instead of trout, Adyghe cheeses instead of mozzarella).

Nothing beats a juicy sirloin steak, but liver, heart and other organ meats can be cooked deliciously. Buy them from time to time instead of meat - you will save money and improve your culinary skill.

3. Don't cook too much

There are housewives whose “hands don’t take much.” If you cook borscht, then in a large saucepan, if you fry cutlets, then use a full frying pan. Such wastefulness, as a rule, ends with half of the prepared food going into the trash bin. Learn to cook only as much as you eat.

Alternatively, don't cook until you've eaten what you've cooked.

4. Follow cooking sites

Budget recipes often appear there. Keep them for yourself. They will help you create your weekly menu and shopping list.

5. Use seasonal vegetables and fruits

Salad from fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in winter can cost a pretty penny. Cabbage and carrots are much cheaper at this time of year. Make a salad from them - it will turn out just as tasty and healthy.

8. Eat perishable foods first.

We bought yogurt, put it in the refrigerator, and five days later, when we remembered it and wanted to eat it, it turned out that it had expired. As a result, several tens of rubles go into the trash. Sound familiar?

To avoid getting into such situations again, stick bright stickers on perishable foods: “eat by Thursday,” “use by the end of the week,” and so on.

holodilnik.info

9. Store food correctly

Compliance with storage conditions prevents premature spoilage of products. The more thrifty you are with food, the less often you will have to replenish your food supplies.

By the way, about frugality. Many products can be given a “second life”. Has the bread started to dry out? Make crackers and add to salads.

As you can see, you don’t have to be a pedant to save on food. Anyone can follow these recommendations. But the main thing is don’t be fanatical. Sometimes you can and should allow yourself something tasty or your favorite.

How to save money on food.

Food prices are rising inexorably wage does not increase, so many want to make their menu cheaper. Is it possible to save on food? Certainly! By studying the topic of saving on food, you can significantly reduce costs and learn effective management.

Stores mark up prices on products from 20 to 50%. For example, if the cost of stewed meat is 50 rubles, then nowhere in the store will we find a jar cheaper than 60. What can I say, to find stewed meat at that price, we still have to try. You can save on food purchases from 3 to 5 thousand rubles per month. This money can be saved, put in a bank at interest, increasing the savings every year.

If you save 3 thousand rubles every month at 15% per annum, in 10 years you can accumulate more than 800 thousand rubles, and after 20 years you will already have 4.5 million in your account. Not bad money, right? After all, this time will pass one way or another, but in this case you will have 4.5 million more.

Before you start saving money on food, you need to learn how to plan family budget. Keep receipts - they will help you keep track of everything necessary calculations. To do this, get a regular notepad or use the program Excel. The simplest option is to create a table with three columns: “income”, “expense”, “total”. In the first, write down data about your monthly salary, in the second - the amount spent on food, in the third - the remaining amount of funds.

After a few months, you will be able to estimate how much you currently spend on food. Too much amount? Think about the products you buy and whether you really need them. In a separate line, write down the products that you can refuse.

For example, if you like chips and regularly drink soda, think about whether it’s worth ruining your health and spending that kind of money on it? Perhaps at one time the amount will not seem large to you, but within a month or three a decent amount will already be collected, and you would probably choose to buy something more valuable with this money.

Visit the store using the tips below. Keep recording your expenses, and after a few months you will be able to track how much you have saved.

Visual video on how to save on food

How people save on food

We all visit grocery stores and supermarkets. They offer us a huge selection of different products. Often, buyers lose their heads and spend a lot of money, purchasing, in fact, completely unnecessary goods. So, how can you learn to save on groceries using simple rules of behavior in the store? Follow these tips from people who successfully save on food, they will help you get rid of many expenses:

Before going to the supermarket, be sure to make a grocery list and strictly follow it. There are apps that can help you with this - Myconomy And " Buy a loaf!».

When walking around the store, do not be tempted to purchase items that are not on the previously compiled list. Yes, they can get your attention. There may be a discount on them - and only today! But believe me, you don't need them.

People save on groceries by shopping at wholesale stores and small wholesale stores. The disadvantage of this option is that such places are usually located in the countryside or in an industrial area. If you have a car, getting to the store will not be difficult. If this is not possible, choose supermarkets with minimal markup - for example, Auchan or Tape.

• Wholesale centers usually do not sell goods at retail. Team up with your relatives or friends to shop together at wholesale outlets.

Make a list of food items your family needs. Typically this includes vegetables, dairy products, meat, cereals, and tea. When visiting large stores, compare prices for these products and write them down in a notebook. This way you can figure out which store will save you the most money.

Pay only in cash.

Upon payment bank cards You won’t feel how much you’re spending – so there’s a higher risk of making unplanned purchases. You can take a limited amount of cash with you to the store so that you are not tempted to spend more.

Typically, the most expensive items are located at eye level with the buyer. Pay attention to the lower and upper shelves.

Instead of a cart, use smaller baskets. They hold much less food.

People save on food by snacking before going to the store. Don't go shopping hungry. According to statistics, about 20% of excess spending is made due to hunger. This will cause you to buy a lot more products than you really need.

Discount system and promotions

The topic requires separate consideration discount cards supermarkets. This is a card with which you can reduce the purchase amount in the final receipt. Some supermarkets offer to issue them for free, while others will require you to pay a small amount. But they can really help you save money if you only visit one store. How to learn to save money on groceries using discount cards?

Different supermarkets charge steep discounts - they usually range from 3 to 10%. It is best to choose the cheapest store that has its own discount system. Sometimes promotions apply only to a specific group of products, but most often - to the entire range of the store. Each specific case has its own conditions. To find out them and fill out an application to receive a card, contact the cashier, the information desk or the store administration.

• Be careful with bonuses or points. The advertisement says that by accumulating them, you can win a prize. This method is not very effective, unless you need an item from the list of prizes - to accumulate bonuses you will spend a lot a large amount to buy unnecessary products. Usually such promotions are beneficial only to the supermarket.

Cooking and saving on food: how to spend less?

Let's say you've chosen the perfect supermarket for your wallet. There is an excellent discount system here, budget prices, have you made a list and are going shopping? Great! The following tips will help you save even more:

1. First, replace expensive products to their cheap analogues. Remove fresh fish from your diet if prices for it suddenly skyrocket - instead, try buying, for example, poultry. It is important to buy chilled meat and not frozen, where you overpay by weight for ice. Buy pink salmon instead of trout, replace mozzarella with Adyghe cheese.
2. Think about offal. From time to time, instead of meat, you can buy liver or heart - this way you will save money and improve your cooking skills.
3. Check cooking sites. There you can find interesting and budget-friendly recipes - this will help you create a shopping list.

If you love kvass, make it yourself. Make your own dumplings, don’t buy frozen pancakes - you can save a lot on all this! Try to prepare food according to the season - buy fresh tomatoes and cucumbers are unprofitable in winter, but cabbage and carrots can be safely put in the basket. Usually domestic goods are much cheaper foreign analogues. You can buy unwashed vegetables, they are cheaper and last longer.

You can grow greens yourself on the windowsill; this will not only allow you to save a lot, but will also decorate the interior of the kitchen.

Consider whether some products can be replaced. Often, the products of an advertised company do not differ in quality from the cheaper option - when buying them, you overpay for the brand. Study the market and the composition of your favorite products.

The main rule for saving money on food in the kitchen is to not cook a lot of food.

You either throw away what you cooked or overeat. And it was possible to stretch the products over several days. Pay attention to cereals - they are a tasty, healthy and inexpensive option. A pack of rice or buckwheat for 30-40 rubles can feed a family of three 6 times.

Study the volume and grams of products. For example, one product may cost several rubles less than another, but in weight it is inferior to the first option. Sliced ​​bread and sausage are usually more expensive than their own " whole» analogues. You can cut the loaf yourself, right?

• Eat perishable foods first. Are you familiar with the situation when you buy milk and a week later you suddenly discover that it has gone bad? Carefully monitor the expiration dates of purchased products.

Saving the family budget on groceries

Another way to save money is to create a menu for 7 days in advance. How to save money on food this way? You make a list, go to the store, buy only the products you need, thus saving on everything else. You can vary your diet to suit your taste; you can include your favorite dishes in the weekly menu.

Remember: eating tasty does not mean eating expensive.

An important point in planning is to create a menu for the week at once, so you will have a clear plan and you will go to stores less often and have fewer opportunities to go over budget. For example, below is the budget and useful menu for a week:

1. Monday. Oatmeal with raisins for breakfast, rassolnik with meat for lunch, vegetable risotto for dinner.
2. Tuesday. In the morning - pancakes with condensed milk, in the afternoon - vegetable salad and potato casserole, in the evening - buckwheat with cutlets.
3. Wednesday. Breakfast - pancakes, lunch - navy pasta and borscht, for dinner - light carrot salad and cabbage stewed with meat.
4. Thursday. Milk porridge for breakfast, crab salad and cabbage soup for lunch, vegetable stew for dinner, jellies or cakes for dessert.
5. Friday. Sandwiches with sausage in the morning, for lunch - salad and cheese soup, dinner - fried potatoes with meat.
6. Saturday. Breakfast: semolina, lunch: homemade dumplings, dinner – rice with fried fish.
7. Sunday. Morning - scrambled eggs, afternoon - soup, evening - lazy cabbage rolls.

Now you know the basic rules on how to save money in your family on groceries. Whether to do this or not is entirely up to you. Expensive product - not necessary useful product. Many nutritionists believe that saving on food can be done without harm to health. You just need to properly distribute and plan your budget and adhere to the simple principles presented in the article. Spend your money wisely – there is never too much money!

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Hello, my dear hostesses! I noticed that you like to read and learn new information about housekeeping. I admit that this topic is also very close to me. It’s not for nothing that I published a series of articles about and continue to write about the house. And today I will try to outline very important, in my opinion, basics that will help you reduce family budget expenses.

I think every family has the most large quantity money is spent on food. This is understandable, we are people, and we must eat, replenish energy sources for further existence. But in unstable times, such as now, sometimes you cannot imagine what will happen tomorrow. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but you yourself understand what the situation is in the world now. Today is one thing, tomorrow is another... In general, no one is immune from force majeure. Therefore, I am for saving money, but without fanaticism. Although this is not a guarantee of future well-being.

In my previous articles, I wrote about ways to reduce expenses and shared tips on how to slow down the pace of spending. If you are interested in this information, be sure to read it and share it with your friends.

Well, today I want to talk about how to save on food. I won’t talk about the need to eat less. And I honestly admit, perhaps I won’t discover America, but if I put the advice into practice, I guarantee there will be results. The problem is that our people are very lazy. He complains and complains, but doesn’t want to do anything. Just recently, I received a letter. In it, a woman complains that everything is bad, there is no money, there is nothing to even throw away (I mean), the job is low paid, the president is bad, Obama is even worse, and everything like that. Long story short, I asked where she lived, about her family, and so on. It turned out that the situation was not as bad as she thought, at least I think so. It's just that apparently she likes to whine. I offered her the most basic thing - to go through. She explained that it was free, but it would help keep the house in order. She also has this problem, since she has a six-month-old baby in her arms. Can you imagine what she answered? - “It’s a whole 10 days to read your newsletter!” I'm still in shock!

I started talking and got distracted. In general, if you want to save on food, keep reading and put the tips into practice, and don’t just read and forget.

How to save on food: three simple rules

Plan!

Lists are something that can completely free you from many problems. How did I start doing it?

I made a list of dishes that I remember, love and want to cook in the future. As a rule, it turns out to be impressive, but this works to our advantage. The more varied the food, the happier your husband and children will be, and the healthier you will be. There is no need to rush, take some time to do this activity. It took me about 4-5 days. Look through the magazines cookbooks. I didn't write down the recipes, just the names of the dishes. I immediately understood how to cook them. But if you have problems with this, then write down the recipe itself, or sign the source where you can view it from (name of the book/website, page).

Next, under each name, I wrote down the ingredients that I would need for cooking, right down to salt. I’ll tell you why this is needed later. I prepared the notes on A4 sheets in the form of a table. You can download the example. Be sure to put them in a folder or files so they last longer and leave room for notes. Suddenly you'll add a few more recipes to your list. By the way, for those who do not like paperwork, keeping such a journal in in electronic format.

Now every week, for example, on Friday, plan the menu for the week, every detail - breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks, drinks, snacks. Make a shopping list. Use the second column in our table, this is exactly what it is for. Consider the supply you already have at home. As a rule, these are cereals, pasta, meat or vegetables. Estimate approximately what else you need to buy. And don’t even think about buying in reserve, especially for all-season perishable products, the price of which remains virtually unchanged throughout the year. Let them be stored in stores.

Now you can go shopping. I usually choose Saturday or Sunday. There are times when you have to buy something more during the week, for example, bread. This is fine. But try to go into the store as little as possible without a reason. I know from myself that this can end badly)))).

Freezing is a thing!

Do you know the situation when there is a little soup or potatoes left at the bottom of the pan, no one wants to finish them because you cooked something new? I used to have this in my refrigerator until it was gone. We had to pour out soups and throw away potatoes. But there is also a very economical option - freezing! Prepared food can be stored in the freezer for quite a long time, up to a month. So be sure to consider this method. To do this you will need plastic containers, which are suitable for freezing. Leftover food is easy and simple to store and take out when the time comes. This not only saves the family budget, but also time. Imagine, you come home from work, you’re tired, it’s been a hard day, and you’re not really in the mood to cook. Oops, we took a portion of soup out of the freezer, heated it up and ate it or fed it to our husband and children. In general, take a closer look and try to put freezing prepared food into practice.

I also often freeze vegetables and fruits. I recently bought a bunch of bananas and they quickly started to spoil. It became clear that we would not have time to eat it, and it would probably disappear. Then I peeled them and froze them. From time to time I add bananas to my porridge.

It is better to cut meat, poultry and fish into portioned pieces immediately after purchase. So as not to defrost them ten times. After all, they thus spoil and lose their taste.

bell pepper, carrots and onions can also be frozen by first chopping them. Thanks to this technique, cooking. It is important for me to spend a minimum of time cooking. Almost anything can be frozen, so go for it!

Switch to healthy food!

It's easier than it seems in reality. After all, you can start small. If sausages are frequent guests on your table, I advise you to get them out of your life once and for all. Do you know how much they cost? Well, of course! But again and again you spend money on dyes, preservatives and flavors. It is better to buy a piece of meat and bake it with seasonings in foil. It turns out tastier and healthier than the most “natural” store-bought sausage. Are these store-bought cookies? Take it and bake it yourself, it will be healthier and cheaper! And you spend no more time on this than going to the store. Still drinking carbonated drinks?! I sincerely sympathize with you. This is poison! Homemade fruit drinks and compotes are a storehouse of vitamins and minerals. Buy special cups with a non-spill lid, pour clean water or tea and carry it with you so you don’t have to buy anything along the way.

The problem for many is that they are too lazy to do this. At the same time, a huge amount of money is spent, which can be invested in pleasant emotions (going to the cinema, theater, zoo) or buying something useful and necessary.

It would seem that 3 simple and well-known tips, it seems to me, will help you save on food! This is cool! Try it and share your results in the comments. I look forward to your feedback!

I wrote the title of the article and was horrified. The phrase “saving money on food” sounds so monstrous that poverty, poverty and empty counters immediately materialize before your eyes. But if you are reading this post, it means you have the Internet and everything is not as bad as it might seem at first glance. 🙂

I purely intuitively don’t like the message "save on food" , so I'll change it a little to “reconsider food costs in order to reduce expenses and improve the overall health of the family” . Let's try to find a balance between tasty, healthy food and saving money.

I have been managing a family budget for several years now and I know for sure that monthly food costs account for 20-22% of the total budget. The amount is quite decent, it is almost a quarter of all expenses for the month.
The first thing you need to do is understand how much you really spend on food. The figure should not be approximate, but quite specific - taking into account food at work, cafes and restaurants on the weekend. And don't forget about coffee during your lunch break.

1. So let’s write it down - the first thing you need to do is enter cost accounting for food. Yes, it's boring, but not fatal. 🙂 It’s enough to collect checks for two months to understand the scale of the disaster. Next, you need to try to cut the budget as a first approximation by at least 5-10%.

2. In austerity mode, it is better to immediately say “no” to gatherings in a cafe, ordering pizza and sushi, or buying ready-made food in the supermarket. So much for saving 10%.

3. If at work you are used to ordering a business lunch, then know that this another hole in the budget. Try to take food with you from home.

4. Helps out the owner a lot. It still remains a mystery to me why this works, but given the menu, I personally experienced real budget savings of about 10-15%.

I’ll share my little life hack regarding the menu for the week. I was incredibly obsessed with the idea of ​​making a weekly meal list, so I came up with my own version. I made a table in Excel, divided it into three columns (first, side dish, second), mustered my will and filled out the table once. Include only those dishes that your family eats. For example, fish soup is not on my list because no one really likes it. Second courses can be the simplest. Don’t forget that you have to cook them later.

This table works very simply - you just stupidly go through the list. We've run out of borscht, let's see what's next and buy some groceries. If there is pilaf for the main course, then we do not prepare a side dish. We repeat the cycle every time. Try to think through and diversify the menu, include fish at least once a week, do not put chicken on the list, followed by chicken breast cutlets. Voila, your “endless” menu is ready! From time to time you can cross out something and add something. We buy products specifically for the planned dishes.

Next we move on to the grocery basket.

5. The first candidate to be excluded from the list of products is sausages. This is far from the most healthy food in the world. Yes, and normal sausage costs from 450 rubles per kg. - significantly higher than the cost of meat.

But what if the family loves sandwiches? We offer an alternative! I give simplest recipe for a la “sausage” for sandwiches.

Pastorma. Let's take it chicken breast(kisses) and soak her in saline solution per day (per 1 liter 60 grams of salt). In the evening, place the breast on a napkin to dry, and then coat with spices (pepper, mustard, garlic). Choose spices to your taste. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, set the breast for 30 minutes. Next, turn off the oven and leave the breast in it to cool until the morning.

In addition to pastrami, you can make liver pate or smoked brisket. There are a huge number of such recipes on the Internet.

6. Do you often buy snacks? Seeds, chips, peanuts, crackers? You will be surprised how much money goes into all this. By the way, crackers can be perfectly dried at home.

7. Packaged juices and lemonade follow the chips. From a nutritional point of view, these are not healthy products.

8. Sweets for tea. Without sweets it’s somehow completely sad. I will not urge you to remove sweets and cookies from your diet, but be sure to analyze their quantity and quality. Especially for cookies. Margarine is used for baking on a production scale, which is not good.

What should you eat then?

9. Meat. It is better to take chicken whole carcasses. Thighs, drumsticks and wings can be fried, the breast can be used for pasta or simply used in salads, and what is left can be used to make broth. By the way, the broth freezes well.
Beef is quite expensive now. Try replacing it with turkey (thigh).

10. Vegetables. This is a huge layer to work through. We somehow got used to the set - potatoes, cabbage, peas... oh. Focus on the season. You shouldn’t buy eggplants and zucchini in the winter at exorbitant prices, but in the fall these vegetables provide great variety to the menu. Don't forget about legumes - beans, chickpeas. This is a healthy vegetable protein.

It is no secret that in our difficult time Many families are trying to get out of the current difficult financial situation by any means. After all, according to statistics, more than half of the money earned is spent on food! But in order for our bodies to function normally, we need to adjust a person’s diet every day. And still get the required amount of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates from somewhere. We’ll try to tell you how to save on food profitably in our article. We hope that our tips will help you properly distribute your family budget.

Cut costs

So, the task set before us is to reduce the cost of food for an individual and the entire family as a whole. How to do this correctly without harming your own health? Ideally, it would be great if 20 percent of the family budget goes to food expenses. This can be achieved quite easily with the help of simple rules, compliance with which makes life much easier for the housewife.

How to save on food. Menu for the week

Why is it necessary at all and is it necessary to compile it? Planning is one of the most wonderful human habits. And in the question of how to save on food, a chaotic approach should also not be allowed. Because if a sufficiently thorough menu for the whole week is not developed, then cooking turns into a kind of lottery: what were you lucky enough to buy today, what will we cook from, what dish and how? A huge number of questions will immediately arise that require you to resolve them as quickly as possible. And precious time is running out. In addition, much more money is spent, and the products may not be as fresh as we would like. Because a chicken bought in a hurry on the way home from work is not at all what you need for successful resolution the question of how to save on food.

Let's start creating a menu

So, let's start by drawing up sample menu for the whole week, for example, for a family of three. By the way, this needs to be done on a day off, say, Saturday, but not in the morning. Having had a good rest, sleep and breakfast, you can begin. Of course, you need to consult on these important issues and with the rest of the family, taking into account their wishes (well, certainly not excessive - within their means). It is clear that some may treat your endeavors without due reverence, jokingly teasing you. But still try to convince them of the feasibility and necessity of this project. Yes, and why is it better to do it on Saturday. We explain: you still have a full day and a half ahead of you in order to select the freshest and cheapest products from the menu you have planned for implementation. And of course, in order not to ask yourself the question: what to prepare the planned dish from, you must first purchase these necessary products.

A few more arguments in favor

List of dishes

The next stage in our project “How to save on food. Menu for the week" should be a listing of those dishes that you can prepare easily, and those that you would like to cook, but have not yet decided (but, of course, once we're talking about about how to save on food; the recipes you choose should not be too expensive or difficult to prepare). Divide the sheet into seven columns according to the days of the next week. Each column must contain at least breakfast, lunch and dinner. For now, in order to save money, we will stick to three meals a day. Of course, you can also include kefir in the list before bed as a product that is good for the stomach. But the main food should still be consumed during the day.

Considering the nuances

It will be important to consider the nature of work and study of your family members. That is, for example: the husband leaves for work at 9, the son goes to school at 8.30. You stay at home (work remotely on your computer). My son arrives at 2:30 p.m. My husband returns from work after 18.00 (ideally, he can pop home for a break in the middle of the day). Weekends for the whole family - Saturday and Sunday. What follows from the described data? Most likely, the main meal for the whole family (a kind of late lunch) will be after 18.00. A joint breakfast is possible - depending on the circumstances, it is hearty, but light enough so that after it the stomach does not put pressure on the eyes. Lunch for my son upon arrival from educational institution and for my husband, if he stops by for a snack (but again, not too loaded with calories). On Saturday there may be some holiday dish. As on Sunday (just try not to ruin all your savings efforts and make sure it’s tasty, but not too expensive).

Cheap products

It should be remembered that cheap does not mean bad, especially when it comes to food. In fact, do you know the pricing process for, for example, pork or chicken? How are food prices determined? And what is included in this price by the state, and what by the supermarket? What profits does the manufacturer receive and what profits does the merchant receive? We know about all this rather vaguely. But there are a few tips that will help you save money and buy healthy and fresh products cheaper.

Stock

They are currently quite popular in various supermarkets. So, for example, a weekend promotion in one of the stores involves reducing prices for home-produced products by 20-30%. Accordingly, by purchasing these products on Sunday, you can save a lot of money allocated for food.

Wholesale food markets

If you have the time and desire, try buying what you have planned at the nearest wholesale market. Prices for products on the market (some) may be significantly lower than what you are used to usually stocking up on. But first, try to at least compare and analyze them. Perhaps it is more profitable to buy meat here, and vegetables and cereals there. Ideally, you should have not one, but several places where you regularly purchase products.

Sample breakfast

Breakfast is important start every day. It is especially important for children who simply need to be fed before school! Of course, there are adults who generally prefer not to eat in the morning, but there are only a few of them (by the way, if your husband, for example, is one of them, try to convince him: give him something tasty and nutritious for breakfast, he might like it, and he will be happy to have breakfast every day). Here are a few economical and quite popular dishes to help you decide how to save on food. Their recipes are quite simple to follow. But for everyone, the most important thing is to understand the basic principles of saving. And then, you see, you yourself can figure out what to cook and when and how much time and money to spend on it.

Omelette

An excellent option for a complete, quick and inexpensive breakfast is the omelette king and all its various variations. Judge for yourself: vegetable oil and eggs are relatively inexpensive. You can add just a little bit of sausages for taste. Green onion. A drop of milk. And a gorgeous nutritious breakfast for the whole family is ready! You don't need to be a genius cook to prepare this dish. However, try to avoid frequent and daily repetitions in variations. You can cook it next time, for example, with cottage cheese. And today - with pieces of tomatoes. In general, an omelet is a universal food, because almost every time it can be cooked with any additives, giving the dish originality.

Ingredients for three people: 6-7 eggs, 100 grams of good boiled sausage or ham, a pinch of salt and soda, a large spoonful of milk, a spoonful of low-fat cottage cheese, a little vegetable oil for frying, fresh herbs for decoration.

1. Beat eggs with milk, soda and salt.
2. Finely chop the sausage into cubes and fry in vegetable oil in a frying pan.
3. Pour the whipped mixture into the frying pan. Crumble cottage cheese on top.
4. Cover with a lid (preferably transparent so that the process itself can be seen). We wait a few minutes without opening the lid. As soon as the omelette thickens and stops flowing, you can turn it off and serve, garnishing with chopped herbs. In this design it turns out tender and soft. Some people prefer to turn the omelette over and fry on both sides. But then he will become redder, but tougher.
5. You can serve the omelet for breakfast with croutons made from day-old bread in the toaster. Wash it down: for children - milk, for husband - coffee or tea. And now, with peace of mind, you can send your household members to school and work.

Breakfast options

Of course, there are other options for a tasty and satisfying (and inexpensive) breakfast. Milk porridge - rice, buckwheat or oatmeal - is especially suitable for children. Don't say no to sandwiches! In the end, they can be given to a child at school as a second breakfast (necessarily an apple in addition) or to a husband at work as a snack. Many people consider sandwiches to be unhealthy food. But it's all about what they're made of. For example, you can use yeast-free biscuits as a base, and cheese paste and pieces of vegetables and fish fillets as a filler. And then the sandwich will be more likely to be beneficial. And its preparation is relatively inexpensive. And under no circumstances use sausage, especially boiled sausage, for school lunches!

Full dinner

Of course, with this lifestyle, it is the main meal of the day and looks more like lunch. Try not to let it be too late. If the husband, for example, comes home from work at 18.00, then the whole family can be invited to the table almost immediately. Try not to eat after 19.00 - many doctors and nutritionists are against this. For starters, you can offer borscht. For the second course, serve chicken with vegetables and salad. For the third - compote or tea. For dessert - homemade apple pie. And no store-bought sweets!