Who doesn’t enjoy a delicious meal? Nobody wants to eat tuna out of a can every single day just to save some money.
I love eating out. I also enjoy preparing food sometimes. It’s weird. I just love to eat and I’m always hungry.
I’ve been working on saving money on food for the longest time. I’m pretty transparent about this. I’ve confessed to you guys that I absolutely suck at saving money when it comes to food. The good news is that every problem can fixed — or at least worked on!
Last year I wrote about how you can stop spending all of your money on food. I’ve been working on it. I’m here to share my results and tips with you guys.
What are my top tips for saving money on food?
- Always stay hydrated. Most of the time you feel hungry because you’re dehydrated and haven’t been taking care of yourself. I chug a bottle of water as soon as I wake up and I drink water throughout the entire day. Keep yourself hydrated and you won’t be running to grab fast food.
- Keep snacks on you. I now always keep some snacks on me in case I get hungry while driving or running errands. I keep it simple with a bag of almonds. A handful of these and you’re good to do.
- Shop on a full stomach. Never go shopping hungry. I did this the other day. What happened? I randomly bought a bag of Doritos and ate it on the way home. Very great for that summer body. Never go shopping when you’re hungry. You’ll come home with such random crap.
- Buy a ton of groceries. When you have good food at home, you won’t be forced to always eat out. This applies even if you live with your parents. If you fill up your fridge/closets with good food, you won’t always feel stuck at lunch time.
- Plan your meals out. Once again, you know that you need to eat a few times per day. Why not prepare it? Don’t act surprised when you get hungry at noon. What did you think was going to happen?
- Freeze meats. I try to buy meat in bulk when it’s on sale and then I freeze it. Simple enough.
- Set a budget for spending on food. I challenge myself by setting a budget for how much I’m allowed to spend on food. I do my best to stick to it. When I run low, I turn to the cans of tuna for a few days.
- Buy in bulk. Blueberries were on sale the other day and I loaded up. Buying in bulk can be great for always having food on hand. The obvious issue is that you can get the munchies bad after a night of drinking and eat everything in one shot!
- Drink black coffee in morning. I start my mornings off with black coffee, tunes on full blast, and blogging. The coffee suppresses my appetite and I get to work. I don’t think about food until after my workout.
- Consume lots of protein. Protein usually fills you up nicely. It’s well-known that 30 grams of protein in the morning will fill you up nicely for the rest of the day. Maybe you can try this?
- Try a challenge. Have you tried any challenges recently? The week that I typed this article was my vegan week challenge. I told myself that I would try to be a vegan for only one week. This saved me lots of money because I didn’t go out for random barbecue nights. Nuts and berries mmm.
- Consider intermittent fasting. I’ve become a huge fan of intermittent fasting recently. The basic concept here is that you have an 8-hour feeding window and then you fast for the other 16-hours (sleep included). It’s difficult at first, but works great after a few weeks. As mentioned above, I start my days off by getting lots of work done (this article) and then eat in the afternoon.
- Don’t eat when you’re not hungry. Simple enough. Yet, for some reason, I find myself eating when I’m not hungry. Why? Not sure? It’s usually social or boredom. Try to avoid both!
- Grab a drink if you’re not hungry. You could just be thirsty!
- Stay at home. When you leave home without a purpose, you’re bound to end up eating something. It’s just the way it works. I’ll go to pick someone up and I grab a burrito on the way there. How the hell does that happen?
- Go for a workout. We often eat because we’re bored. There’s nothing else to do so we open up a bag of chips. I’ve tried to go for a walk or a workout instead. After a few minutes the supposed hunger goes away and you’re feeling great. Oh and you save money!
See, it’s totally possible to save money on food.
How can you start off with this?
You obviously can’t apply all 16 tips at once. So how do you start?
Pick one of them and stick to it. When that works or even if it fails, move on to the next tip. That’s all I can say. Those are 16 tips that have worked for me. Hopefully they work for you.
You ready to start saving money on food? Take it from me, you’re never going to be perfect at it. Don’t feel too guilty if you splurge once in a while.
Yeah, we love to eat out. We do so about thrice a week. We know we should minimize that if we want to save. We’ll take note of these methods to help us save somehow. Thanks.
Very interesting tips, especially I like the one “consume lots of protein” and “shop on a full stomach”. Those are the two that I have to practice more often. If I don’t eat enough protein in the morning, then I feel hungry all day and tend to overeat. Then go food shopping hungry and buy too much food. I need to start cooking more often and eat healthier. That way I will always save money. Thanks for the article!