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Lower Food Costs
By Daphne | April 2, 2008
Do you find that everything increasing except your paycheck? Or did your recent raise just bring you up to the level where you were before - covering expenses?
This is nothing new. Many people have seen that their dollars buy less at stores lately. When you are buying food especially good, healthy food at the grocery store, it seems that the staples such as cereal, milk, bread and cheese are higher than ever. We have already seen that the quintessential take out food - pizza is increasing in price because of the increase in ingredient prices.
While you can’t stop eating, you may be tempted to buy the less expensive food that often may cost you more in the long run because it is filled with more preservatives - chiefly sodium. The next time you are at a grocery store and you see a salad dressing or steak sauce in the aisle that is a generic or store brand - check the amount of sodium in the product. Many prepackaged and canned foods have high levels of sodium but some items have an even great amount of sodium in them.
Yes, you may save money on your grocery bill now, but a steady diet of less expensive food with higher sodium content may spell disaster for your health later on. Some cereals even have high sodium levels. This doesn’t mean that we have to have bland low sodium diets all of the time, we all like a salty, savory snack once in a while, but if all of your foods have high levels of sodium in them, you will pay with your health.
Read the labels, if it means that you have to pay an extra 20 cents for a name brand item with less sodium this is a savings that you can’t pass up now. If you are saving a dollar on your overall grocery bill, it’s not worth it if you have to pay with your health later.
Try some other seasonings to your food other than salt that will add flavor to your food.
Groceries are expensive and for many food is the greatest expense of their budget after housing. Make sure you are shopping wisely. Make a list before you go and stick to it. If there is something that is on sale that you know you will use before it expires or goes bad, then purchase it, otherwise do not deviate from your list. Say you go shopping and see your favorite cereal on sale. You already have two boxes at home. Don’t buy any. If you have a half a box of cereal at home and were going to wait until next week to buy some, then go for it. Some cereals don’t have long shelf lives.
Another way to stretch your food budget would be to have a filling non-traditional meal once or twice a week. You could have an omelette for dinner or a bowl of cereal. Even with the increase in egg prices and milk, these meals are very effective and add variety to your diet.
Topics: April 2008 |