How to easily and effectively save on groceries - tips on the right purchase and menu planning for the month. How to save on food: useful tips

The first advice, paradoxical: do not save too much on food. Buying rotten vegetables and low-quality expired products is not our method. Then spend a hundred times more on medicines than you save on groceries. So we save - but in moderation, without fanaticism.

Planning is a must

When it comes to food savings, planning is the most important thing. First you need to evaluate how much you are spending now. Where are the weak spots? What expensive products do you buy and do you really need them? Be sure to highlight what you can refuse. Maybe you're into crackers and chips, you're crazy about soda, or you're consuming tons of ice cream. This is not only a serious hole in the budget, but also a blow to health.

You also need to highlight those expenses that you do not intend to give up: for example, your favorite coffee or dairy products from a good manufacturer.

Now think, maybe some products can be replaced with cheaper ones? For example, expensive yogurts produced by an advertised factory? Or very expensive juices of a well-known brand. In general, be careful with brands: often the products of a well-known company that is on store shelves in the best places are much more expensive than even better products from less well-known brands. Therefore, saving is also a reason to study the market well.

Finally, it is advisable to draw up a menu for the week and make a grocery list for it. Approximately calculate the required amount, take it with you - and to the store. Just one piece of advice: take a little more than the required amount with you so that you have room to maneuver and not feel disadvantaged in something in the store. And whatever one may say, you also need to please yourself.

What products do we overpay for?

Very often there are tips for economical housewives to do everything at home and by themselves. Buy a yogurt maker, make dumplings in large quantities, and so on ... Yes, these tips are justified, indeed, homemade dumplings are better and cheaper than purchased ones, and much tastier. That's just to stick a lot of them will take half a day off.

Nevertheless, it is worth reconsidering your attitude to semi-finished products. So, for example, purchased cutlets at cost are much more expensive than homemade ones, sausages and sausages cost a lot of money, ordinary goulash can be bought much cheaper than a kilo of sausages, but goulash is meat, not something incomprehensible fatty. And so on.

Preference - seasonal

We will not stop buying vegetables and fruits anyway. Of course, it's winter now, so fresh food is quite expensive. Nevertheless, you can choose useful and cheap. For example, oranges. With them you can meet 40-45 rubles, tangerines, however, are already running out and becoming more expensive, but pears are still quite affordable, about 50 rubles. Don't forget about domestic apples. If we talk about vegetables, then we will give preference to white cabbage, carrots and beets. You can also add celery root, some pumpkin and fresh salads from the greenhouses closest to the city to them. In general, we choose those products that were not brought to us for a long time, but were grown and preserved in Russia or brought from our south.

We choose domestic

No matter how trite, but often not too beautifully designed products of domestic production are half the price of imported counterparts. And with the fall of the ruble, the difference will become more tangible. For example, walnuts from our south are exactly half the price of their Mediterranean counterparts at fairs.

Pay attention to new products

Here, for example, pearl barley - often does it appear on your table? What about millet? What do you make of it, except for milk porridge every six months? Meanwhile, cereals are an excellent and inexpensive basis for a winter diet. 15-20 rubles per kilogram, and this kilogram is enough for 5-6 meals for a family of three.

Take a closer look at new varieties of fish, especially domestic ones. For example, foreign salmon will be successfully replaced by domestic coho salmon, expensive beef by cheaper turkey or other poultry fillets.

A few savings ideas

Buy whole chicken, not parts. Then you will cook soup from the wings and the back, and the rest will go into pilaf or chicken beef stroganoff.
To save on meat dishes, do not cook them separately, but make casseroles, pilafs. That is, combine meat with a side dish in one dish.
Don't make portioned meals. That is, fried chops for each family member (and often with an additive) can be replaced with beef stroganoff or lazy cabbage rolls. Meat will go less, but everyone will eat.
Replace meat with offal. For example, beef heart is much cheaper than regular meat, and costs two or even three times cheaper. And the heart can make good goulash, stuffing for casseroles, etc.
For the festive table, you can replace purchased smoked sausages and hams with homemade boiled pork. It is much cheaper and tastier.
Subjective advice: turn to Jewish cuisine. For centuries, its creators were forced to save money and come up with cheap, but very tasty dishes.

You yourself will come up with similar tips - a thousand, as soon as you start, how saving turns into an exciting activity, dishes are invented by themselves.

Small menu for the week

Here are ideas for inexpensive and hearty dishes. Perhaps you will cook some of them for two days, soups for sure.

Monday

Breakfast: Oatmeal with dried fruits and nuts
Lunch: Pickle with a heart. Rice with vegetables
Dinner: Potato casserole with beef heart and onions.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Lazy dumplings or cheesecakes
Lunch: Shchi in chicken broth. Boiled beets with walnuts and dried fruits.
Dinner: Chicken breasts stewed in sour cream, wheat porridge with onions.

Wednesday

Breakfast: Milk porridge with jam
Lunch: Shchi in chicken broth. Vinaigrette with sauerkraut
Dinner: Barley porridge with vegetables and meatballs

Thursday

Breakfast: Buckwheat fritters with mushrooms
Lunch: Cream cheese soup, green bean salad and crab sticks
Dinner: Chicken or pork pilaf

Friday

Breakfast: Hot sandwiches
Lunch: Vegetable soup (pumpkin, carrot, potato). Salad of boiled carrots, beets and nuts.
Dinner: Lazy cabbage roll, boiled potatoes

Saturday

Breakfast: Potato pancakes with sour cream
Lunch: Vinaigrette with herring, borscht
Dinner: Pancakes with meat, fresh vegetable salad

Sunday

Breakfast: Cheese omelet
Lunch: Olivier with chicken or meat, borscht
Dinner: Vegetable stew, beef stroganoff

First of all, you need to learn how to follow certain rules when shopping. For example, don't go to the grocery store or market when you're hungry, as enticing colors and smells will further whet your appetite and end up buying more food than you need. Also, don't go grocery shopping with kids, as they will surely convince you to buy tasteless sweets in brightly colored packages. Ideally, you need to go to the supermarket with a pre-prepared list and a strictly defined amount in your wallet. By the way, do not forget the discount, if you have one. This applies even to small purchases, because discount cards, as a rule, work on the principle of accumulating discounts and, as a result, allow you to save a lot.

Don't forget to keep your receipts so you can estimate your food spending for the month. After analyzing all the items of expenditure, you will surely notice where exactly the funds are flowing.

To make the right list, you also need to know certain ones. The best option is to think over the menu for the week ahead, paint the food layout for the whole family, and purchases based on this. Try not to buy anything extra, especially perishable products. With a properly designed menu, there may simply not be time for them, and they will have to be thrown away. Also, do not forget that there are various seasonal vegetables that are more profitable to buy in the markets. Finally, you should think about bulk purchases of products that can be stored for a long time: cereals, potatoes, onions,. Master the manufacture of simple semi-finished products. Of course, you should not suffer with cooking sausages, but any housewife can make a supply of dumplings, cutlets or meatballs. For the winter period, it makes sense to purchase meat or poultry in reserve if you have the opportunity to store them, for example, on the balcony.

Another way to save money is to bring prepared food from home to work. Most offices have a microwave, and a homemade meal will not only be cheaper than any fast food, but also much healthier.

Insidious supermarkets

Try not to fall for the little tricks of supermarkets interested in you buying as much as possible. For example, if you went to the store for milk and bread, do not take the basket. The empty shopping cart is a psychological device based on embarrassment: people feel uncomfortable standing near the checkout with a basket containing only a loaf of bread, and supermarkets take advantage of this by placing various small items and promotional items with an expiration date before leaving. As a result, you leave the store with a bag of products you do not need, although you came only for milk. Also pay attention to the price of products per kilogram. As a rule, the most products of a particular group are at face level, and their cheap ones are on the lower shelves.

Food prices are skyrocketing. How to continue to eat deliciously without increasing the "check" for a homemade grocery basket?

Salaries do not keep pace with inflation and rising food prices. At the same time, the quality of the food basket, especially for children, does not want to worsen.

5 tips to save money on groceries

Track promotions in chain supermarkets. Today, all conditions have been created for this: in addition to paper catalogs with promotional goods, there are specialized websites and even mobile applications in Google Play and the AppStore.

In continuation of the first point: try not to make purchases once a week in one supermarket. It is not profitable! Yes, promotions in different networks at the same time are often repeated, but not always. Let it take not much more time, but try to monitor promotions in advance at home and shop in different stores.

Plan the menu in advance and cook according to it. Thus, you can exclude expensive ready-made and semi-finished products from the family diet.

Make a list of products, including brands that you regularly buy. Until you remember it at least approximately, let it always be in your bag or on your phone. When you meet on purpose or by chance, running for bread, something from this list, buy at least one copy (and preferably several). Of course, this is primarily about long-term storage products: canned food, tea, coffee, milk with a long shelf life. Similarly, you can buy chicken, meat, fish and freeze. Thus, you will create a certain stock of your favorite products at home, which will last until the next promotion.

If the area of \u200b\u200bthe apartment allows, then purchase a freezer. If you have a camera, you will be able to make wholesale (and therefore at more "tasty" prices) purchases of meat, fish. You can also in the summer (especially economically if you have your own dacha) to make frozen preparations of berries, vegetables, mushrooms, which can help out and become a good help in winter.

Consumption ecology.Products have risen in price noticeably, while the incomes of most of us have remained the same. We have prepared a guide that will help you eat more economically, but still tasty and satisfying.

Products have risen in price noticeably, and the incomes of most of us have remained the same. We have prepared a guide that will help you eat more economically, but still tasty and satisfying.

No matter how much firs poured from TV screens, they say, the government controls the prices of goods from the food basket, statistics are a stubborn thing. By given Rosstat, at the end of 2014, the consumer confidence index of the population decreased by 11 percentage points and amounted to -18%.

Most citizens note the rise in price of products. The growth index for them over the past six months amounted to 15-20%. According to the VTsIOM survey, sugar, cereals, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat and fish have risen in price the most. At the same time, every fifth respondent (20%) admitted that he had to switch to cheaper products, and refuse to buy some at all.

According to experts, prices will continue to rise. So it's time to learn how to save money. We will show you how to spend a minimum of money on food.

In the shop

1. Make a shopping list and strictly follow it.To do this, develop a menu for the week: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Inspect the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator and add to the shopping list the ingredients that are not enough to prepare the intended dishes. Nothing extra!

Mobile applications will help you keep a shopping list: Myconomy, "Buy a loaf!" and others.

2. Compare prices in different stores. Buying everything in one supermarket is convenient. But sometimes, if you walk to the bakery around the corner, you can get tastier and cheaper bread.

If there is no time for monitoring, try to buy once a week. “Today I will buy cottage cheese, and tomorrow I will go and buy more eggs” - an approach that leads to unplanned expenses.

3. Attend agricultural fairs. Usually they take place in autumn and spring, and there you can buy farm products at a very low price: potatoes, eggs, and others.

4. Avoid impulse buying. Do not buy products not from the list just because they are cheap or suddenly you want to: “Oh! Discount on Chinese cabbage! You have to take it, usually it is 10 rubles more expensive” (are you sure you will eat it?), “Mmm, a cake! Want! Want!" (but what about the diet?).

Do not take children to the store: their “want” is harder to resist. Willpower alone will not save.

5. Use discount cards. You may have to pay for its purchase, but this is a one-time expense, and discounts can be used every time you visit this store.

6. Shop in bulk. Flour, sugar, salt, pasta and spices are always needed. Plus they have a long shelf life. So, you can take it for the future. Moreover, prices in wholesale outlets are usually lower.

“Where do I need so much? I have nowhere to store it, ”- typical objections of housewives to the advice to buy products in large quantities. The solution is simple: shop with your friends. By purchasing a bag of rice and dividing it among yourselves, you will quickly see the benefits of this approach.

7. Look down. According to the rules of merchandising, the most expensive goods are placed on the shelves at the level of the buyer's eyes, and the cheapest - on the lower racks. Don't be lazy to bend over and study the range below.

Also, don't look into sections you don't need (separate the items on the list into groups: meats, vegetables, and so on). And do not forget that you should visit the store full.

8. Disable "autopilot". We often wander around the store, thinking about our own thoughts and automatically putting products in the basket. Remember how insulting it is when you find out at home that the apples are broken and the cookies in the pack are broken. Choose your products carefully.

9. Don't overpay for a name. Brand name products are more expensive. But this is not always a guarantee of quality and taste. Take a closer look at less famous, but cheaper counterparts. For example, trademarks of chain stores. As a rule, the taste characteristics of popular goods (vegetable oil, groceries, etc.) do not differ from branded ones.

10. Don't overpay for packaging. Milk in a nondescript package can be tastier and cheaper than a drink in a bottle, and bulk products by weight are more profitable than those packaged in colorful boxes.

11. Pay attention to the gram and displacement. Often on the shelves there is the same product, but one is cheaper than the other, for example, by 5 rubles. Do not rush to grab what is cheaper. Compare the difference in weight or volume of these products. It is more profitable to take a "full" kilogram than 940 grams.

12. Don't buy convenience foods. They are a priori more expensive than self-cooked (from "A" to "Z") dishes. Do not let yourself be lazy: cook dumplings, cabbage rolls and meatballs yourself and store them in the freezer.

And further. Sliced bread and sausage are always more expensive. Can't you cut the loaf yourself?

13. Don't be afraid of delay. The discount policy of chain grocery stores is a subject for a separate discussion. But when the product expires, sellers are ready to be really generous. As a rule, products "with a timer" are quite suitable. The main thing is to use them as soon as possible.

The exception is dairy products. It is easy to get food poisoning with them, so it is better to buy only fresh.

14. Don't waste your money on bottled water. It is more profitable to buy once a filter for cleaning.

15. Keep receipts. They will help manage the family budget.

In the kitchen

1. Adjust your diet. For example, include poultry meat in the menu instead of fresh fish that has noticeably risen in price. Replace ingredients with cheaper ones whenever possible (pink salmon instead of trout, Adyghe cheeses instead of mozzarella).

2. Look at offal. Nothing compares to a juicy tenderloin steak, but liver, heart and other offal can be cooked very tasty. Buy them from time to time instead of meat - save money and upgrade your culinary skills.

3. Follow cooking websites. There are often budget recipes. Keep them for yourself. They will help you create a weekly menu and shopping list.

4. Cook yourself what you can do at home. For example, kvass. In the store, a one and a half liter bottle of this drink costs an average of 50 rubles. Three liters of homemade kvass will cost you only 20 rubles.

5. Cook according to the season. Salad of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers in winter can cost a pretty penny. Cabbage and carrots are much cheaper this time of year. Make a salad of them - it will come out just as tasty and healthy.

6. Don't overcook. There are housewives from whom "the hand does not take much." If you cook borsch, then in a large saucepan, if you fry cutlets, then a full frying pan. Such waste, as a rule, ends with the fact that half of the cooked flies into the trash can. Learn to cook exactly as much as you eat.

Alternatively, don't cook until you've eaten what's been cooked.

7. Make blanks. It's not about three-liter jars of pickles. With the modern pace of life and urbanization, this is an amateur activity. But everyone can freeze greens and berries.

Finely chop parsley, dill and other favorite herbs, put in a container and send to the freezer. Fragrant seasoning is always at hand.

8. Use perishable foods first. We bought yogurt, put it in the refrigerator, and five days later, when we remembered it and wanted to eat it, it turned out that it was expired. As a result, several tens of rubles are sent to the trash. Familiar?

In order not to get into such situations again, stick bright stickers on perishable products: “eat by Thursday”, “use by the end of the week”, and so on.

9. Store food properly. Compliance with storage conditions prevents premature spoilage of products. The more frugal you are about food, the less often you will have to replenish food supplies.

By the way, about thrift. Many products can be given a "second life". Is the bread starting to dry out? Make crackers and add to salads.

As you can see, to save on food, it is not necessary to be a pedant. Anyone can follow these guidelines. But most importantly - do not be fanatical in food savings. Sometimes you can and should allow yourself something tasty or favorite. published

picodi

Most of the money from our monthly budget goes to an apartment (in case we rent a house) and food. If we live in our own apartment, then it is food that most often comes out on top.

Some might say that saving on food is quite extreme. After all, food for many is a joy, and family dinners are a real sacrament. “Well, now eat only black bread ?!” some are outraged. But let's not exaggerate: saving on food does not mean starving. No one is forcing you to eat one porridge with bread and stop buying your favorite cabbage pies. You just need to approach the purchase of products, especially now, in a crisis, wisely.

So, how exactly save on food? Of course, each situation is individual, and some solutions may not suit you at all. But we will try to give you some universal advice. Some of them may seem elementary, but think about it: are you following them exactly?

When we go to the store and do not know what we want to buy, we begin to look at everything. “Actually, I wasn’t going to buy sweets, but this cake looks so appetizing that it’s simply impossible to resist ...”, “Oh, I’ll take a couple of pizza packages. Only once!”, “Hmm, I haven’t eaten smoked sausage for a long time” - sounds familiar, right? In order not to find yourself in such situations and not to spend extra 100-200 rubles, make a shopping list ahead of time.

You can make a list on a regular sheet of paper, write it down as a note on your smartphone, or use a special application - fortunately, now there are enough of them.

One of the most popular shopping list apps- This "Buy a banana!"(Buy me a pie). The application is simple and convenient. It allows you to manually enter a list of products and their quantity, underlines products from different categories with different colors and can group items from the list. To delete a purchased product from the list, just click on it. By the way, the application has a built-in dictionary and can tell you what to add to the list. Application "Buy a loaf!" can be installed on Android or iOS devices. There is a free and paid version.

Another popular application is Listick. Here you can not only create an infinite number of shopping lists, but also keep track of financial resources. Data can be synchronized between different devices. Like Buy a Loaf, Listick has a built-in dictionary.

Of course, there are plenty of other shopping list apps out there, and you can use the one that suits you best. The main thing - do not forget to make lists! When you have a clear plan in place, it's easier for you to focus on the right products and move past the ones you don't.

You have already made a list, but the temptation to deviate from it is still great. This is solved simply: calculate how much it will cost you to go to the store, and take it with you (+100 rubles). Of course, this method is not very suitable for those who pay exclusively by card. But you can, for example, withdraw a certain amount from the card - just for going to the store. Or get a separate, "shop" card.

When we are hungry, our eyes stop at all the products in a row, and the stomach only asks: “Buy, buy!” As a result, we return from the store and wonder: why did I buy (a) so much unnecessary food? On the contrary, if we go shopping after a heavy lunch, there will be much less temptation. This way you can only buy what you need.

It would seem that advice is banal. But think about it: often the store around the corner can be one and a half times more expensive than the one that is five minutes away. At the same time, the quality of the products does not differ.

To give an example, a Moscow couple told us that they were able to save 30% on food when they switched stores. “We used to go to the Rodnik store near our house,” says Irina, 40, Moscow. - “But then the prices of groceries went up significantly, and we decided to look for other grocery stores nearby. It turned out that Pyaterochka had just recently opened. Now we buy only there: the savings are significant! For example, a five-liter bottle of water costs 30 rubles here, and 60 in Rodnik!”

Except "Pyaterochka", shops are traditionally inexpensive in Moscow "Magnet", "Dixie" And Auchan(however, the latter is not very convenient to get to by public transport). Slightly higher in price category - "Crossroads" And "Billa". The most expensive are elite supermarkets such as "ABCs of Taste" or one of a kind "Eliseevsky", where most go as a museum.

Of course, it is worth remembering that in the same Pyaterochka a bottle of water may turn out to be cheaper than in Rodnik, and another product may be more expensive. Well: it remains only to remember where what and how much it costs. To understand where it is most profitable for you to go shopping, you will have to buy the same set of products in several different stores a couple of times, and then compare receipts.

… Or at least reduce their number. Semi-finished products are not only unhealthy, they are also quite expensive. Compare: how much do ready-made pancakes cost and how much do the ingredients for them cost - flour, eggs and milk (or kefir)? Calculate how many pancakes you can make from a kilogram of flour, a dozen eggs and a liter of milk. It will turn out clearly more than 4 (usually there are exactly that many in a standard package). The same goes for many other finished products. It is clear that you are most likely working and do not have time for frequent cooking. But how many times a week do you eat pancakes? Think about whether it would be more profitable for you to cook yourself (by yourself) once a week than to constantly buy semi-finished products.

One pack of salt is enough for several months, why do you need ten of them at once? You can buy several packages of buckwheat, oatmeal and rice at once, but do not overdo it with their quantity. Do not forget that bugs love to start in cereals. You will spend more time and effort fighting nasty insects than going to the store!

Perishable products are especially not worth buying in reserve. If you doubt that in the next week you will eat a kilogram of tomatoes and two kilograms of cucumbers, then buy them half as much. Otherwise, you run the risk of extracting rotten vegetables from the refrigerator one fine sunny morning.

The advice is directly related to the previous one. You still could not resist, and now your lockers and refrigerator are bursting with stocks of all kinds of products? Don't go to the store to buy new ones until you've eaten these. For example: if you find two packages of rice in your closet, then do not buy three more packages of buckwheat until the rice is over.

And if you have butter, milk and other products in the refrigerator, the expiration date of which is about to expire, eat them first, and then buy something else.

Today cheeses, sausages and other delicacies are very expensive. Think: do you really need them every day or even once every two days? We do not urge you to completely abandon cheeses and meats: they are healthy and, in the end, just delicious. But try to at least start eating them less often. For example, if you currently buy cold cuts every two days, try starting to buy them every four days. Your life from this is unlikely to change, but the savings will be significant.

And other nasty things. It's true: sometimes we feel so hungry that we are ready to put anything in our mouths just to satisfy our hunger. But think about it: is a chocolate bar sure to serve as a great snack for you? Try making yourself a sandwich early in the morning or the night before, or taking some fruit with you to work or the city. It will be more useful and cheaper than giving money every day for a snack that is not quite necessary.

If you can’t imagine your life without “little nasty things”, then set yourself a limit. For example: "Skickers - only on Mondays."

Going to restaurants or cafes is such a joy in the life of every person that it can be difficult to refuse. Therefore, we do not consider it necessary to completely exclude catering from our lives. But try to make sure that he is present in it not every day, but several times a month: plan trips to the restaurant in advance. You can take lunches from home to work, and if you don’t like this prospect at all, add the expenses for the dining room to your home budget to avoid unpleasant surprises at the end of the month.

Yes, grandmothers with boiled eggs in second-class carriages make us smile. But eggs are not the only food that people take with them on the road. If you know that you have a long train journey or a flight with several transfers, take care of food in advance. Make yourself at least a few sandwiches, take a banana or dried fruit with you. Food at airports is extremely expensive: do you need to pay almost a thousand rubles for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake? And in low-cost airlines, in general, all food is paid, so here sandwiches will be doubly useful to you.

In winter, during classes or travels, you really want to drink hot tea ... Meanwhile, a cup of tea in different establishments costs from 50 rubles - and to infinity. A good thermos can be bought for 700 rubles, but it will serve you for many years. In addition, a thermos is clearly not one cup of tea, but much more. If it seems to you that a thermos is unaesthetic, then you are mistaken: we live in the 21st century, and thermoses are even pink and flowered.

You are capable of eating a huge plate of pasta in 3 minutes, but is this skill really to be used? You really do not have time to chew food, and therefore your body thinks that you have eaten too little. As a result, you buy yourself another serving, and then another dessert ... So it turns out that you spent twice as much money on food than you intended. If you eat slowly and chew your food thoroughly, it will be better absorbed and your stomach will get rid of overeating.

Surely we have not listed all the ways to reasonably save on food. Well: how many people, so many opinions. It may turn out that we have forgotten something. If you know other ways to save on food, be sure to share them in the comments!

There are various ways to save costs. There are situations when finances run out, and the salary is not soon. In such cases, in order not to overpay extra money, knowledge of how to easily and effectively save on food, what are the rules for an inexpensive diet, where to buy cheap food will come in handy.

How to eat sparingly

Modern women are trying to save on food without compromising the quality of food. Housewives come up with many ways, from buying in wholesale stores to cooking dishes according to the recipes of their mothers and grandmothers: from simple products, but with fiction. Saving money on food without harming your health is easy, you just need to follow the rules of reasonable nutrition. For this:

plan purchases;
use products effectively;
do not pay attention to marketing and advertising tricks;
keep track of expenses;
plan the menu in advance;
do not buy semi-finished products;
avoid perishable foods;
choose fresh fish, chilled meat;
do not buy wet vegetables, fruits (perish quickly);
keep long-term storage products at home;
make home stocks: pickled tomatoes, cucumbers, jam, jam;
prepare drinks yourself: compote, fruit drink, jelly.

Eating cheap and healthy

A modern hostess, after thinking, will make a tasty, varied and economical menu. This business requires a systematic approach, desire, and imagination. Do not be afraid to spend a lot of time: the most difficult thing is to organize the process, and then it will become a habit. Immediately it is worth analyzing the contents of the kitchen. What is useful in the refrigerator, are there fruits, vegetables, eggs, dairy products? Perhaps it makes sense to exclude something from the diet, for example, canned food, sausage, pate? What is stored on the kitchen shelves - cereals or instant noodles?

Then you need to make a menu for a week, taking into account culinary preferences, not forgetting that the body needs proteins, vitamins, trace elements, carbohydrates, and fats every day. In order to save money when buying groceries, it is recommended to make a thorough shopping trip once a week. An additional effect of this will be time savings in the coming days.

Eat cheap and tasty

Food is supposed to be tasty, but how can you save on food at the same time? To do this, you can use culinary tricks. When buying, it is better to choose a whole chicken, not a cut one. It is easy to cook soup from the wings and the back, and use the meat remaining on the skeleton for a hearty salad like Olivier or pies. The remaining parts of the bird will make, for example, pilaf or chakhokhbili.

For more efficient use of meat, combine it with a side dish in one dish, rather than cooking separately. Eliminate portioned dishes: chops are an expensive option, while lazy cabbage rolls, beef stroganoff or goulash are cheaper. Instead of meat, use offal, for example, you can make a filling for a casserole from beef heart.

Economical food for the family

If you want to understand how you can easily and effectively save on groceries, try planning a family menu for a week. To do this, set aside an hour of free time for choosing dishes and compiling a list of necessary products. During the week, you won’t have to figure out what to cook for dinner, and then run to the nearest store, buying what is available.

You can make a menu in a form convenient for you: print the list; manually write; create a template in which weekly dishes change places or add new ones. With this approach, it is important to consider that hot food can be prepared for 2-3 days, such as soup or roast. Fish or meat products can be served with different side dishes. However, salads are best consumed fresh, they do not take much time to prepare.

How to save money on shopping

The cost of buying food is up to 35% of the family budget. If you approach this process rationally, you can save money. Going to the store, take a pre-prepared list so that you do not buy unnecessary products and do not forget what you need.

Products in factory packaging (vegetable oil, tea, coffee, pasta) buy where they are cheaper. But for meat, fruits and vegetables, it is better to go to the market or to a trusted store - they are rarely of good quality in cheap hypermarkets.

Stores often hold promotions, sales - keep track of them, do not miss the opportunity to save money on products.

Products by weight

Bulk goods, sweets, cookies, sweets buy by weight. So you will not overpay for packaging. This will save up to 20% on products. Sugar and salt are best purchased in winter, when the conservation season has not come. Cereals are also recommended to be taken by weight and preferably domestically produced. This approach will save family money.

Purchase of groceries for a month

Making a shopping list for a month is not such an impossible task as it might seem. To do this, within 2-3 months you need to record information about what, how much, at what price was purchased. The effect of compiling such records will not keep you waiting long: a picture will form in your head and everything will be put on the shelves. Bulk purchases should not be made in small shops, it is better to go to a supermarket.

Promotions and discounts

Large stores regularly hold promotions for certain groups of goods. This does not mean that the products are of poor quality or that their expiration date is coming to an end. To track discounts, you can use modern technologies, for example, install the Edadil mobile application. The service finds and compares prices for specific products.

Almost all retail outlets have introduced a system of discount cards, which allows you to make purchases at lower prices. However, if you accidentally stumble upon a great deal on a product that isn't on your list, don't buy it. Be aware of prices so you don't fall for a marketing ploy when the discounted price is equal to the original price.

How to buy groceries

When choosing products, it is helpful to read the labels and understand their contents. The ingredients included in the composition are in descending order. So, if beans are listed first on the label, then its contents prevail over other components contained in the tin can. Do not take foods in which sugar is in the first place, salt should not be in the forefront either. It is undesirable that the number of components be more than 5-6. Choose products with a long shelf life. When buying frozen foods, keep them in thermal bags.

How to save on food during a crisis

The main advice of “anti-crisis” nutrition is to cook your own meals, trying not to purchase semi-finished products. For this, it is not necessary to spend a lot of time, effort and money, you just need to approach the issue wisely. As a result, you will get tasty and healthy food at home at a budget price. Grains and legumes are easy to prepare, nutritious and easy to digest.

Buckwheat, chickpeas, lentils, bulgur, mung go well with vegetables and are suitable for garnish.
From the undeservedly forgotten pearl barley (price 30 rubles), you can easily cook soup or pilaf.
Sprouted chickpeas and lentils are suitable for salads and garnish.
Croquettes are easy to make with rice mixed with spices and cheese.

Regular potatoes are affordable and offer many cooking options: fried, stewed, boiled, steamed, baked. A tasty and healthy vegetable can decorate a festive table. Don't forget about spices: a skillful combination will easily give ordinary dishes a new accent. The use of turmeric, mint, cumin will add an “Indian” flavor, and soy sauce and ginger will add a “Japanese” flavor.

Seasonal vegetables can become the basis of the diet during the crisis. Avocados, greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers are best replaced with local beets, radishes and pumpkins. They are perfectly stored and contain a storehouse of vitamins. Combining them with each other, it is easy to get new tastes every time. If you own a summer cottage, then you are doubly lucky: include more seasonal fruits and vegetables from your garden in the menu.