According to a recent poll, 78% of Americans think it is a “luxury” to eat fast food. That is because it has become quite expensive.
The cost of eating food “away from home” has risen almost 22% over the past three years.
Grocery store prices have gone up by just 1% over the past year. However, those have also increased 21% over the last three-year period. Cooking at home still will be the cheaper option because you can control how much and what is prepared. That can help reduce the cost per meal over eating out.
With that in mind, here are five ways to help save money on food…
- Don’t Be “Too Busy” to Cook – Make sure you have everything necessary to make an easy 15-minute meal in your cupboards. That way if things get hectic, you don’t have to order out.
- Eat Less Meat – Make your portions of meat less to make it last longer. Perhaps even consider having a meal or two a week without meat.
- Stop Wasting Food – If you know you are not going to eat the leftovers, don’t make enough food to have them. Additionally, if you are throwing away fresh vegetables often because they spoiled, switch to frozen … they can last up to a year in the freezer.
- Snack Less – Junk food is expensive. You can save money by eating less of it and you may even lose some weight.
- Go For More Generic Brands – A lot of store-brand products taste as good as name brand and cost less. Find the ones that suit your taste to not pay for the name.
Do you have any food budget money saving hacks you can share with everybody?
By: Buck Stevens
