save money on food budget tips groceries hi it's AlaskaGranny Alaska Prepper the facts are in the
price of food just in 2022 has gone up over 10 percent I know I'm always looking for ideas and
suggestions on how to save money on food groceries food budgets are getting tighter prices are going
up but our incomes aren't going up for most of us so I'm always looking for new ways new ideas
of how to save money on food groceries I thought I would share with you some of my top ideas on
how you can save money on food groceries it's getting harder and harder to keep that prepper
Pantry food stockpile full the first thing you want to do is actually Shop with a list figure
out what meals you're going to make look through your prepper pantry food stockpile see what foods
you have food you need to rotate make a grocery shopping list from that shop sales watch for
sales if you see a sale food when you're at the store hopefully you have a little bit of money
put aside in your budget that you can add those food items if you get to the store foods you
want aren't available be ready and willing with ideas what food you could get instead because it
can be harder to afford and even find the foods we choose cook at home it's great fun to go out
to eat but food cooked at home costs about one third of what the price is of a restaurant meal
restaurants have to not only buy the groceries just like you did but they have to pay for the
building pay for utilities taxes staff restaurants need to be able to make a profit so while it's fun
nice eat restaurants perhaps you can figure out what are the favorite meals you like to
go out to eat restaurants learn how to make some of those meals at home have in your budget money
set aside for entertainment and special occasions special nights out and then it's perfectly fine
to go out to a restaurant and treat yourself every once in a while but it doesn't need to
be something that we do because I don't know what I'm gonna make for dinner so that's where
you need to have a plan for what you want to make and have shop for some of that food ahead of time
try to avoid the pre-packaged Foods the best that you can yes they're wonderful to have for
emergencies and grab and go meals things like that but don't make it something that you rely on on
an everyday basis you want to try to cook with the Basic Foods go up and down the produce aisles look
for the Basic Foods like beans rice pasta oatmeal the foods that we can make into bigger better
Fuller meals think about Basics like peanut butter eggs bread you can make a wide variety of meals
out of just a few Basic Foods compare prices at different stores one of my friends that lives in
the lower 48 recently told me that the Walmart in their area the prices have become more expensive
than shopping at Fred Meyers which is part of like Kroger she was flabbergasted by the increase of
prices in the Walmart so don't just assume that one store is the least expensive it doesn't just
mean that you need to only buy the things on sale at other stores but if you occasionally go through
the stores and see what the prices are it can help you know if you really are getting the best price
or not you can look at the ads even look them up online before you head out then you'll know
if you're getting the best deal for the amount of money that you have but remember if you spend all
of your time going from store to store to store to store you not only are wasting a lot of time
you're also wasting all that gas that it takes to get to all those stores so sometimes finding
the store that is the least expensive for the most things that you want is a better suggestion it's
a better solution than just going all around trying to get you know the lowest price on a
box of jello at one store and milk at another store sometimes all of that extra time and the
gasoline it costs you to get there is not worth the amount of money that you might have saved
swap out some of the pricey proteins if you want some meat and you can't afford the cut you want
check through and see if there are other types that could be cut up or substituted something that
you could use to make the recipe that you want or the meal idea that you have but it isn't going to
be quite as expensive yes it's great to be able to enjoy steak but sometimes we need to have ground
beef we need to have chicken canned fish look for choices different opportunities and there
are lots of things that you can add in as meal stretchers you can add oatmeal into meatloaf you
can add lentils into ground beef dishes you can serve meals with noodles with pasta or macaroni
over mashed potatoes stir in extra vegetables or serve them with rice and there are so those are
ideas of how you can have the meals that you want but stretch them a little more so that you can get
more food for or not as much money and then you can still have mostly the flavors that you enjoy
I'm sure you've all heard most of your life to buy generic but sometimes we have our ideas that
the one brand there might be a few brands of foods that you really enjoy more than some of
the generic ones and so if you really think there's a huge difference and it's worth the
extra price to you then go ahead and keep that on your list if it's something you can afford I only
want one kind of ketchup and I'm just not having the generic lots of people are happy with it but
I'm not I'm fussy about my ketchup but almost everything else I'm willing to find it generic
lots of times the generic is even the same they'll for example produce fruits and vegetables if you
go in the Cannery they're putting through the name brand with the label and then they just bring out
cans with a new label and they continue to process the same Foods so try checking it out compare them
if you want to find the best deals that you can so that you can stretch your food dollars as far
as possible try to skip the canned and bottled beverages yeah it's great to have sports drinks
and sodas but if we substitute some of that for water that we can just get out of the tap at home
you can save a lot of money that way you don't need to be serving sodas and sports drinks and
power drinks and all of those kinds of different sorts of beverages it's nice to have them a few
of them but we don't need to count on having them every day our society has become almost spoiled
that we think we need special things every day and if you have something special every single
day how is it special anymore how do you treat yourself so you want to have things that you
can look forward to I remember when my son was in high school and he and a few of his friends
started a lawn and garden service and they had different customers they would all go together
in their pickup truck and they would all work and serve uh clean up somebody's yard then the
kids wanted to stop at the little convenience store on the way home after they were working
and this the kids said to me one day he your son never buys the slushies we buy the slushies and
he just drinks water and then they realized at the end of the summer he still had all of his
money left and they had spent theirs frittered it away and so the savings that went into his college
account was far greater than his friends who had enjoyed the little frozen drinks All Summer Long
food and drinks are essential to our survival so make sure that you're keeping track of the food
that you have in your pantry that you're rotating that food and then replacing it you want to use
it rotate the older food add more food in the back and continue to grow your stockpile so that
you'll have the food that you need no matter what the Day brings we have had long stretches of time
here in Alaska where you can't get out because the snow is just too deep so it doesn't matter if
you have the things you need at home you can stay home for a week two weeks because you have plenty
of food on hand so we just never know what can happen maybe somebody will get sick maybe we'll
have a job loss we'll have something economic catastrophe a big huge bill come in and then you
don't have the money to go to the store that week or you don't have the capability to make it to the
store you'll be able to still go into your pantry and choose some simple foods to put together
and continue to feed yourself and your family and that helps you get through any difficulties
Hard Times any challenges and if you can just take care of your basic needs when challenges
come your way you're going to be far better off because it gives you the mindset that you don't
have to worry about what can I eat today you have still room left in your mind to problem
solve what can I do to make this situation better and so being prepared helps us to get
through the little challenges and the big ones we've had lots of challenges lately
and I'm afraid there's going to be a lot more in the future but the better we prepare the better
we'll be able to handle it and we can continue to make every day of Our Lives the best that
it can be if you enjoyed my video I hope you'll share it with someone else you think might like
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