If you have budget constraints, making your own meals and DIY-ing some of your household chores can help you save a tonne of money. For me, I enjoy and am always figuring out ways on how I can minimise my spending and save money on groceries and household items, so I have more money for other things I enjoy.
Here are 10 tried and tested ways that have been tremendously useful in helping me to save on groceries and household items, so I have more cash to spare!
1. Set a budget
Before you go to the supermarket, you should state down your budget. You should be able to gauge how much your budget should be, based on your current money situation. However, if you are not able to, a good way to do this is to buy ONLY what you need for a few weeks and then after a month, you can identify how much your budget should be. If you are strapped for cash, my advice to you is to buy non-processed groceries that you actually need, such as vegetables, fruits, meats that are on discount, good carbs like brown rice, spaghetti etc. This helps you keep your budget in check AND stay healthy at the same time. Remember, Health is Wealth.
2. Buy less meat
Did you know that meat is more expensive than carbs, fruits and vegetables? It is well known that meat tends to be more expensive than vegetables. By buying less meat, you can easily save a lot of money in the long run. I personally enjoy having more vegetables for my meals so I do not have any issue when it comes to buying less meat. Also, it is good to have more vegetables in your meals! You can check out this Harvard article to find out more about why having a variety of fruits and vegetables is GREAT for you.
3. Buy ingredients that are great for meal prepping
I love meal prepping for my meals because it helps me to save a lot of time for the week. All I need to do is to set aside about 2-4 hours a week to prepare all my meals and WALA, all my meals for the week are set. Another reason I love meal prepping is because it helps me ensure that I only buy what I need for each week. Since my meals will likely use the same ingredients, this also helps to ensure that I do not overspend.
4. Make FULL use of your groceries
Did you know that you can eat the seeds of jackfruits? Or that Salmon bones can be used to make delicious soup stock (For that matter, any animal bones can be made into some form of soup stock!). Or that your leftover white rice or even brown rice can be made into delicious fried rice? Or that your overripe bananas can be made into banana cake? Before you throw away your groceries, do some research to see if there is anything that you can do to make further use of them, so your hard-earned money spent on them does not go to waste.
5. Make your own nut butters and nut milks
Making your own nut butters and nut milks can be oh so satisfying but better yet, doing so can help you save lots of money over the long run. I am someone who consumes nut butters and nut milks on a daily basis and hence, making them on my own has definitely helped me save quite a fair bit. In my opinion, handmade nut butters and nut milks are also so much more rich and delicious than those that you find in stores, especially when done right!
6. For 1 month, buy from different locations and note down your spends for all items
Track all your expenses in an excel sheet where you can easily see how much you spent on each item. Stating down every single thing that you have spent on will give you a much clearer idea of what you need and don’t need.
7. Do not overstock the fridge
It can be tempting to get whatever that is on sale. However, doing so may overload your fridge and you will start to lose track of what you have. This leads to a higher chance of buying the same things again and again. A tip for you to ensure that you do not overstock your fridge, is to always keep your fridge well organised by having well-labeled organisers in the fridge. First, identify the categories of groceries that will frequently be stocked up in your fridge. For each category, decide if you need to get a Large, Medium or Small storage container for it. Then, go ahead to purchase your containers! Once your containers have arrived, clear out your fridge and place your groceries into their respective containers. Label each container. When you do your grocery shopping, keep in mind not to overflow each container. This way, your fridge will never be overstocked.
8. Identify the cheapest place to buy each item
After a while, you will realise that certain supermarkets are cheaper than others. For each grocery trip, you do not need to go to all the supermarkets at one go. You can consider going to Supermarket A on the first week, Supermarket B on the second week and so on and so forth.
9. Identify what u can buy in bulk and how much u can save
For items that you will constantly need to use, such as hand wash, shampoo, dish washing liquid, it is good if you can buy them in bulk. Not only does this help you save money in the long run, it also helps to save you the time and energy constantly needing to think about getting them when they are running out of stock.
10. Continue to note down how much u saved
Always note down your expenditure and if you want to be more detailed, I recommend you to also note down how much you spent for each item. Do this for at least 6 months in order to easily track how much you have saved (and can further potentially save).
I hope that you find the above 10 points useful for your grocery budgeting journey.
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