Ways to Stretch Grocery Dollars
With rising food costs, eating on a budget can be challenging. Use the following tips and tricks to decrease your grocery bill and stretch your grocery dollars!
- Reduce Food Waste – Although eating all your groceries can be challenging, a little planning can stretch your grocery store budget. Plan your weekly meals, organize your fridge, and use every part of the food you buy.
- Always Save Leftovers – Have leftovers from dinner? Save them, even if it’s just one serving. Leftover dinners are a great, easy lunch for the following day.
- Learn How to Store Produce – Knowing how to store produce can extend the shelf life of your fruits and veggies. Carrots tend to dry out and should be stored in water to provide them with moisture. However, moisture is the worst enemy of lettuce. The best way to preserve and extend the life of lettuce is to cover it with a paper towel and store it in a closed container. Find out how to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables to get the most out of your grocery dollars.
- Shop Your Pantry – Cook meals with ingredients that you already have. Do you have a mishmash of stuff in your pantry that you don’t know what to do with? Go to www.NutritionForMe.org to help you come up with unique recipes. It will cut down on how much you spend each grocery trip.
- Buy Frozen – Buying frozen is typically cheaper than buying fresh produce. You can get a large quantity by buying bulk frozen produce. If you buy large bags of frozen fruits and vegetables, they’ll keep a lot longer and cost less than fresh produce in smaller quantities – which will stretch your grocery dollars. Some recipes don’t require produce to be fresh. See the recipes below that allow you to use frozen instead of fresh.
