How to feed a family on a budget; especially right now, with so much going on with COVID. On the one hand it may seem easier, because most restaurants and things haven’t been opened. So you haven’t been eating out as much, but sometimes it could be even more challenging: because most people who were accustomed to going out, and eating at restaurants or grabbing pizzas, don’t necessarily have the will or desire to cook family meals. And so trying to feed a family on a budget can be quite taxing and daunting. But when you look at the prices, and the amount of money you spend eating out, and you put that in an actual budget. You would be surprised how much you could eat like Kings.

Tip #1, you can actually figure out how much money each month that you currently spend on food, groceries, eating out, all of that. Start with that number. Two, you can do the opposite. You can say, okay, in our budget, we really should only be spending this amount. So for us, we fed our family for years with $400 a month. That was it. I know, you may think that is crazy a family of 4 on $400 a month, but it is possible. And this is how you do it. 

So many tools, tricks and hacks that we did that helped to make that possible. Tip #2, if you have not already invested in, is either a chest freezer or a separate freezer. Just a freezer, not a fridge freezer combo that you can keep in your garage or something.  That little side-by-side refrigerator freezer, or that top freezer,  is never enough, and that’s kind of one of the biggest hacks to be able to feed a family on a budget, is planning ahead. Planning ahead, that means a little bit of food prep. 

So, several of us have different modalities of doing it. One of our friends takes one day a month, and they do meal prep for the whole month. Literally like they make up soups, and pastas, and all this other stuff, and then they freeze it. And then throughout the month they just pull it out, warm it up, and they’re good to go. So that’s how they particularly choose to do that. I didn’t necessarily do that in our family. 

One of the things I found I was overspending was when I didn’t have a plan. Tip #3 plan a menu, so for instance, if I made out a menu and I figured out, okay, we’re going to have hamburgers and French fries this night. We’re going to have tacos this night. We’re going have spaghetti this night. We’re going to make homemade pizzas this night. And I planned out. So for instance, we did ours every two weeks, when I did grocery shopping. Those two weeks schedules of meals. Then I’m looking at what do I already have in my pantry, versus what do I actually need to pick up. And sometimes what I was finding is that I was planning meals that I didn’t necessarily have the ingredients for. And I was often over buying ingredients that it was only a one-time thing, and it wasn’t necessarily a big hit with my family. So then, as I planned out a menu, I figured out my family’s likes and dislikes.

I figured out which foods, spices, flavors, and different things. But it took trial and error.  So  the plan is the biggest thing. Planning out that menu. After planning out the menu, figuring out what I currently have in the pantry. Because the key is, it’s so easy for things to go into the pantry, and then never come back out. It’s kind of like the washer with socks, right? So you want to be rotating things. So if you’re constantly buying, buying, buying, then you’re not using, what’s actually in the pantry. Spices will get old and things go bad, so you want to use those items you got on sale while they are still good. Then once I figured out what my family’s likes were, as I had things in the pantry, I would instead, when I would go do my menu planning, I’d pull out what do I have in the pantry. What can I make with what I have? And I would see oh, I’ve got, these seasonings, oh, I have excess hamburger. Oh, I have this. Oh, and I have that and it would help plan my menu.

After figuring out your menu, you can add to what you need for your pantry from the grocery store that helps to eliminate overspending. Especially key to that is tip #4 don’t go shopping when you’re hungry ever, ever, ever. Don’t take your kids shopping when they’re hungry, ever, ever, those are key factors, right? I always carried snacks with me in the car and offered them before we went in the store. Because the more hungry they are, the more angry they become just like we as adults do. Right? So then if your not being wore down with the constant nagging about being hungry, you are better able to focus and make better spending choices.  

Stay tuned next week for Part 2