Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping Tips

 

Grocery shopping can be difficult when you are on a tight budget but most of you that cook know that groceries are not cheap and with all the demands of sticking to a healthy diet can be very tricky.

Here are some tips on how to stretch your money out for the week.
1 Write down each day of the week with breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner underneath it.
2 Go through your fridge and cupboards to see what you have to work with and write those ingredients down.
3 Buy large items of the things you are going to use the most during the week, like rice, chicken, pasta, baking supplies and other stock items.
4 When you are shopping think of each item as something you can use for more than one meal. If you are making one meal always think how can I turn this into another meal for the next night. Nobody likes leftovers so that is why I advise you to be creative and think of how you can turn it into something totally new for the next night.
Example: If I am making a roast chicken one night I can slice it up the next to make a stir fry, soup, chicken pasta and so on.
5 Go through the week's breakfasts and start writing down what you want to have and then write down on the shopping list what you need. Go through your lunches, dinners and snacks the same way, write down the meal then break it down on your list. Make sure to use your large bulk items as much as possible.
6 Stocking up your fridge and cupboards  with healthy ingredients is very important because if that's all there is to cook than you will always make a healthy choice for you and your family.
7 Buying lots of produce will help you to stay in a budget too because you can really stretch your meals out by adding lots of fresh green and chopped vegetables. You will be healthier too by adding so much produce to your meals.
8 Baking from scratch really helps when it comes to saving because all those processed goods can really add up. Sometimes there isn't always time to bake I know but if you measure your baking out in zip locks for the week it will make it a lot easier just to have all the measuring done. I like to get a good muffin recipe or loaf recipe and use that for my base then I just switch it up by adding different ingredients to the mix. Bananas to make banana bread, quinoa, blueberries, bran and all kinds of other healthy ingredients can change up your recipe. Bake double batches of muffins and freeze them, that will make it easier for you to grab a muffin out of the freezer instead of stopping for breakfast all the time.
9 Shop smart by going to the dairy first then your protein. Get your stock items and last but not least  load up on all  the produce. This way when you stick to this plan you won't get into the habit of wandering around all of the other processed  packaged foods.
10 Be creative look up lots of recipes that are cheap and that are healthy, stick to a plan stock up and be resourceful.