Monday, May 21, 2012

Trying to cut your grocery bills?

If you want to lower your grocery bills, like I do, it takes a lot of courage to look very closely at what you've been buying and figure out what is "excess". A lot of Jewish mothers like to feel like they always have more than enough around to feed their children, or somehow they are not doing their duty...

But really, are you throwing out food? Maybe you're preparing an extra portion or two at each meal that never gets eaten. Perhaps, like me, you bought mushrooms but let them rot in the fridge, having never mustered up the energy to prepare them (sigh. what a waste). Or whatever it is that you bought, but when it came down to it, you didn't need or didn't use.

My issue is the produce that needs intensive checking. You know, when strawberries were plentiful, and they looked so enticing in the store, but then they were sitting in my fridge, and I just couldn't find the energy to actually clean and properly check them for bugs! I can't believe I'm publicly admitting this, but buggy produce items are my biggest money wasters. I must conquer this, one way or the other...

I'm also guilty of overpreparing, but I'm working on 2 strategies to deal with this: freeze leftovers, even small portions (and REMEMBER to use them! I've been good at the freezing part for a while), or make a LOT of extra so it will be enough for another meal in the next few days (that's what I did at lunch today - made twice as much rice and lentils as we needed, and now we're well on the way to another meal).

Another way to cut your grocery bills is to simply eat simpler. Eat rice and beans or rice and lentils. Several times a week, even. It will help you cut back your spending...

What do you do when you want to reign in your bills, or just cut back for a bit?

2 comments:

  1. I can so identify with the buying of produce and then leaving it too long before getting around to making something with it. Or I buy too much white cheese with the intention of making burekas or quiche but while I'm waiting for the pastry to get made (by me) I find myself dipping crackers into the cheese or eating too much of it on toast. *sighs*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. at least i'm not alone... but now i need to conquer it! ;-)

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