So:

1. Decide on a budget

First of all, decide on the amount that you will spend on groceries per month, week and day. This distribution will help you clearly know your expenses and plan your budget correctly.

2. Do an audit in the kitchen

Before you go grocery shopping, check the contents of the refrigerator, freezer, shelves with cereals and canned food, trays with vegetables. It makes no sense to collect food for the future, if they are already in the house, later you can buy fresher ones.

3. Make a menu for the week

It is very convenient to create a weekly menu and shop by sticking to it. So you will clearly know what products you need and do not buy too much.

4. Make a New Grocery Shopping List

make a list necessary products, considering the results of the revision and the menu.

5. Compare prices in neighboring stores

Go around the neighboring stores and compare prices for the same groups of goods. So you can understand where to buy cheaper products. The cost is strongly influenced by rent, the choice of suppliers, as well as the internal pricing policy of the store management. Some owners, in order to attract buyers, put prices for the most popular products slightly lower than competitors.

6. Buy products in the markets

When purchasing products on the market, you can choose a fresher product, as well as bargain with sellers. It is worth remembering that prices in the market vary depending on the day of the week and time of visit. So, you will spend the most money in the morning and afternoon of the weekend, and the cheapest products will cost in the evening at the beginning of the week.

7. Don't buy wet fruit and

In the markets, fruit on the counter and on the counter are often moistened to improve appearance. This makes them spoil faster.

8. Shop for what's in season

Out-of-season products contain fewer nutrients and are more expensive, it is healthier and cheaper to buy frozen berries and in the off-season.

9. Keep your fridge organized

Clutter in the refrigerator often leads to the fact that food can get lost, especially small ones - curds, a piece of cheese, various leftovers, etc. As a result, food deteriorates and is thrown away.

10. Put leftover food in the refrigerator in a visible place.

So they will be used first. Even better, make a selection of recipes that can use yesterday's food.

11. Take a container of food to work.

Homemade meals can save up to several thousand rubles a month.

12. Freeze Fruits and Vegetables in the Summer

It is not at all necessary to buy expensive freezer bags in winter. In summer, vegetables and fruits are much cheaper. In addition, independent freezing of vegetables and fruits allows you to choose and arrange them to your taste, and the quality of the frozen product is easy to control.

13. Use the freezer

In the freezer, you can store not only frozen food, but also uneaten surplus food. For example, cottage cheese from the freezer is quite good for making cheesecakes, and bread is easy to protect from mold.

14. Shop at supermarkets

It is most convenient to buy groceries weekly in supermarkets. Large supermarkets buy goods in bulk from suppliers, so prices are lower than in a regular store. It is worth paying attention to the remoteness of the supermarket, whether it is convenient to get to it - time and energy are also vital resources that are better spent on yourself and your family, and not on standing in traffic jams and spent nerves.

However... worth knowing

Little tricks of a big store or how we are manipulated

Do not forget that the goal of the store is to make as much profit as possible.

Flavors of pastries, beautifully designed departments with ready meals; expensive goods located at eye level; departments with milk, bread and meat, located in the back of the store; various promotions and sales are just some of the marketing techniques that help us make unplanned purchases and spend our budget.

If you are thinking about optimizing your expenses, then the first thing to start with is to review and adjust your food expenses. Because today's reality is this: the average family spends the lion's share of the salary on food, and not always with health benefits. And saving money on this item of expenditure can give a tangible result for the family budget.

Interestingly, in the case of an increase in income, the cost of food, as a rule, also increases, because now we can afford more: more “sweets”, expensive exotics, and just buy everything you want, and it doesn’t matter that part of the food is simply not will have time to come in handy and go to the trash can.
But, if you think about it, instead of “working for the toilet”, the money saved could be set aside for the implementation of goals that every family has plenty of.

Let's immediately agree that we will not go to extremes and save on our health. On the contrary, we will try to make the food of our family more useful and varied. At the same time, with savings for the wallet.




The simple tips that I will give below have allowed our family to significantly reduce the cost of food, without sacrificing its quality. On the contrary, our food has become healthier, more natural and tasty.

• Purchasing frequency
• Take a look in your fridge
• To the store - with a list
• What we gave up
• Chicken - whole or in pieces?
• Preparing for the holidays
• Children and shopping
• What not to save on

Purchasing frequency

Before we took control of our family budget, we bought randomly, "according to the mood." Accordingly, from the salary, the refrigerator was clogged with products, sometimes duplicated, which we did not always have time to eat.

In addition, when buying products on impulse, we do not think at all when, how and with what we will cook it. As a result, products are bought that are waiting in the wings for weeks or even months.
To avoid this, it is imperative to plan large purchases in advance. For each family, this period may be different, depending on habits and needs - once a week, every two weeks or even once a month.

Take a look in your fridge

Before you go shopping, check your refrigerator, check your kitchen shelves, and don't forget to check your freezer. If possible, systematize all products as much as possible in order to see what and how much you have and not to buy too much.




During such an audit, it may well turn out that you have enough food to get through the next week. And in the store you need to buy only a trifle, like fresh bread, milk, some fruit.

To the store - with a list

The following habit is extremely useful for the family budget, it has been tested more than once. Personally, I can no longer imagine how we used to go to the store without a list. It would seem trite, but it really works.

Before going to the store, you need to audit the products and write a list of what you need to buy. Buy only those products that will be on your list, so you will save yourself from reckless spending.

I think it goes without saying that it is more profitable, if possible, to buy products in large hypermarkets of well-known retail chains.

We buy fruits and vegetables wisely

Very often it turns out that purchased fruits and vegetables spoil in the refrigerator. They just don't get eaten. But this is a real hole in our family budget through which money escapes.

When buying vegetables and fruits, it is better to take a little less than planned than to buy more and throw it away. Remember, everything has its expiration date.

Another useful tip is to give preference to seasonal fruits and vegetables. This advice has a double benefit. For the wallet, as seasonal products are cheaper. And for health, since they are fresher, they have more vitamins and they are less processed for long-term storage.

What we gave up

There are certain products, from the purchase of which we turned out to be completely, of course, with benefits not only for the wallet, but also for health. This:
- semi-finished products, for example, such as dumplings, sausages, sausages;
- canned food (canned peas and corn, except on holidays in salads);
- ketchup and mayonnaise (the first was replaced by tomato paste, the second - for sour cream);
- loaves, rolls;
- sweets, cookies were not completely excluded, but they began to buy much less often, replacing them with homemade desserts.

Freezing as a way to save money

Very helpful advice for thrifty housewives- to adopt products. It often happens that the family does not have time to eat cheese, herbs, vegetables and even fruits. But cheese can be frozen and then used for pizza, greens - finely chopped into a container, frozen and used for soups, the same with vegetables. And frozen fruits - put on compotes and stuffing in pastries.
Some housewives go further and freeze even cooked food that the family does not have time to eat. Personally, we do not practice this, but judging by the reviews on the Internet, this method is quite popular.

Chicken - whole or in pieces?

A very controversial issue is to buy whole chicken or in parts. Many economy television programs advise buying a whole chicken, butchering it and using each part for its intended purpose: the back and bones in soup, fry the thighs and legs, and the breast into cutlets.

But my personal opinion is somewhat different. After all, if you calculate the cost of an individual chicken and meat bought in parts, of course there is a saving, but it is insignificant. Now imagine that I don’t need a back, I don’t buy it and we don’t cook soups so often. We don't eat chicken skin. In fact, we only need the breast and thighs, which are much easier to buy separately chilled at the rate of family nutrition for a month and freeze in portions.




In this case, we do not need to deal with cutting the chicken, it is enough just to pack the parts into bags and put them in the freezer. Saving time and your own comfort is also important.
But of course, everyone should try and decide for himself - how convenient and easier it is for you.

Swapping store-bought treats for homemade ones

Another way not only to save money, but also to make a contribution to your health is to abandon store-bought sweets in favor of homemade ones. Yes, it will require more effort and time, but there will be much more health benefits. I'm not even talking about how much homemade sweets taste better.
A very important plus of home baking is that you know exactly its composition. You should not buy margarine for baking to save money. It has already been proven that it is simply incredibly unhealthy, and you can always find it in store baked goods!

Homemade sweets are, of course, cakes for the holidays, pies,. But it's not just baked goods. If you want a chocolate bar - pamper your family with homemade hot chocolate. Only cocoa, sugar, milk and butter. And no preservatives, flavorings or other harmful additives. Check out the recipe.




You can do exactly the same homemade marmalade, jellies and even sweets. Or you can simply replace sweets for tea with fresh cottage cheese with jam or fruit.

A little about promotions and sales

Promotions and special offers in hypermarkets act like a red rag to a bull for many lovers of savings. We are accustomed to believing that a promotion means profitable. This is our mistake.

Before you buy a promotional product, think about it, would you buy it if there was no such discount? If the answer is no, we boldly walk past and are not tormented by remorse. You have just saved your family budget from unnecessary expenses.

If, however, the answer is yes, also do not rush. Carefully consider the lower shelves, the entire range of a similar product presented. Maybe the same can of corn is different trademark even cheaper than stock.




When it comes to the number of products that are worth buying on a promotion, then use common sense here as well. You should not buy for future use if these are not essential goods, such as sugar or butter. But even in this case, fanaticism is not welcome, 2-3 packs of "reserve" will be enough.

What is and is not worth buying for the future?

In general, I have a positive attitude towards buying goods for the future, but within reasonable limits, no more than 1-2 months, and only if the store really has a good promotion, and you buy essential goods, and not sweets or any delicacies that are not on your shopping list.

For example, you can buy sugar, flour, pasta, cereals, freeze meat for a month or even several months in advance, but this principle does not apply if you buy a package of juices or cookies, just because it is profitable. So you only make things worse for your health and wallet.

Preparing for the holidays

We always plan all the holidays for several months, at least roughly determine the menu and look for goods on promotions that can be bought in advance. For example, the same peas, corn, canned food, meat, alcohol.

Children and shopping

Children are able to confuse all the plans and they do not care about any lists. How to be in such a case? If it is possible to leave the child, for example, with a grandmother, and not drag it to the store, it is just perfect.

If not, try to agree that he can choose one thing in the store for himself. Only one. So the child will learn to make decisions and choose what will give him the most pleasure at the moment.

What not to save on

We have a list in our family, on which we quite consciously DO NOT save:
1. Margarine instead butter. By the way, many housewives sin with this, and no wonder, because margarine costs 2 (!) Times cheaper than butter, and the difference in baking is almost imperceptible. So why overpay? Nevertheless, it is worth overpaying, because when buying oil, we buy a natural healthy product. Margarine is a vegetable fat converted into a solid form, that is, essentially modified. It has already been proven that margarine is the cause of oncology, because the “wrong” fat molecules are used by the body to build the cells of our body, which can cause various tumors.
2. seasonal fruits and vegetables. Due to this, it is also not worth saving, because seasonal products are the most beneficial for health, they will saturate the body with all the necessary vitamins and microelements. And this is an improvement in immunity - that is, savings on medicines. And you will not need to buy additional vitamin supplements.
3. Spices. This is not about quantity, but about quality. The higher quality and aromatic spices, the tastier dish. In addition, this is not such a significant item of expenditure, which should be severely cut. Naturally, we choose natural spices without glutamate and other non-natural additives in the composition.

5 3 505 0

Products are getting more expensive. Salaries are on the spot. According to statistics, the average family spends more than half of their income on food. But there are also other expenses - utilities, transport, health, clothing, education, etc.

Is it possible to eat varied, but at the same time save on food? The answer is yes. As the saying goes: "A penny saves a ruble."

Let's look at the most effective and proven savings tips.

Using our advice, you will learn how to rationally approach the issue of buying products, and in a couple of months you will be pleasantly surprised by the amount saved.

You will need:

Don't go shopping without a list

When you go to the store, be sure to write down everything you need to buy in advance.

If you don't like to walk with a notepad and a pen, download a special application for your smartphone. Spontaneous purchases will be made less frequently, and after a while you will completely get rid of a bad habit.

Avoid mindless wandering around the supermarket, putting unnecessary items in the basket.

Don't go to the grocery store hungry

When you want to eat, fragrant pastries, sausage, chocolate look especially appetizing. On an empty stomach, there is a desire to buy everything at once. Don't be tempted. When you come home and satisfy your hunger, you will realize that you have bought a bunch of unnecessary things.

If possible, be sure to take a light snack when going grocery shopping. If not, stick to the list you made earlier.

Children are best left at home.

The child will certainly want a new toy, "Kinder", "Chupa Chups" or all together. Throwing tantrums in the store makes it easy for kids to get what they want. Yes, and I myself want to pamper the child with goodies and trinkets.

Plan your menu for the week/month

1. Develop a family menu, first for three days, then for a week, for two.
2. When you go to a store or market, you will have an idea of ​​what products and how much you need.
3. Prepare meals with seasonal fruits and vegetables that are both healthy and cheap.
4. Having a prepared menu, you will roughly know where and what you can buy.

You will no longer need to stand at the supermarket shelves with the question: "What to cook for dinner." Everything is already thought out in advance.

Take a limited amount of money

By planning the menu in advance and writing a list of products, you will know roughly how much money you need. Take exactly this amount. Knowing that there is a clearly defined amount of money for groceries in your wallet, your hand will not reach for unnecessary packages.

Joke: Money is evil! You come to the store, there is not enough evil 🙂 🙂 🙂

Cook at home and don't buy fast food

Prepare lunch at home ahead of time to take with you to work. Eating in cafes and restaurants, it is difficult to save money.

As for fast food: hot dogs, store-bought pizzas and hamburgers, it is costly and harmful.

You can, of course, allow yourself such a weakness once a month, but do not make such a snack your usual meal.

Forget about bad drinks

Remove from diet:

Sweet sparkling water;
- juice in packages;
- energetic drinks.

Include in your diet:

mineral water;
- homemade fruit juices;
- homemade kissels.

Also, teach your children to drink healthy drinks.

Follow the promotions

• Supermarkets often offer discounts - keep an eye out for promotional offers;
• You can buy quality long shelf life products with a margin.

The main thing is to pay attention to the shelf life of products and do not take perishable goods “just in case”.

Take a basket, not a cart

The larger the capacity for folding purchases, the more you want to buy.

Have you noticed that in some supermarkets there are no small baskets at all, but only carts? This is a common trick. It is difficult for the buyer to carry purchases in his hands, he takes the cart. As a result, he puts there twice as much as he planned.

Prepare your own products

• Grow greens on the windowsill, germinate cereals;
• If you have a private house and have a garden, homemade vegetables and fruit trees will do a good job;
• Bake bread - compared to store-bought, it is both more fragrant and more cost-effective, cook pies and cookies at home instead of purchased ones. To do this, we suggest finding out, since yeast baking leads to excess weight. You can buy a bread machine once, and save the rest of the time on bakery products. But remember that .
• Go fishing, pick berries and mushrooms in season (but only if you are good at them). Mushroom pickers are strongly recommended to read our article about.

The items of expenditure for all families are approximately the same - food, payment for housing and communal services, clothing, education, medicine, and entertainment. However, the share of each item in all families is different. It largely depends on the lifestyle of families: some like to travel, others teach children at the university, others often get sick. But with the right approach to business, part of the funds from the "Food" expense item can be transferred to other, more interesting things.

According to the calculations of well-known economists, the average family should spend 25% of their income on food, but Russian realities show a different picture: people spend 35 to 40% of their money on food.

Often the reason for such a bias is not only low income or the high cost of goods, but also the inability to purchase them correctly.

There are a number of time-tested ways to help optimize the cost of purchasing food:

How to save money on food by shopping at the right places

The "wholesale cheaper" system works all over the world, so you need to think about where it is more profitable to buy food. Most often, the most expensive are small shops located near the house. Their owners buy goods in wholesale markets and then resell them at a premium. If you are thinking about how to save your family budget on groceries, then you need to pay attention to these tips:

• Basic food products that are not perishable are best bought at small wholesale markets or bases. Prices are lower there, but special attention should be paid to the expiration date of products, since big discounts are often given for stale goods or those with an almost expired shelf life. Goods such as sugar, flour, pasta, various cereals can be purchased in the volume of the bag. It does not hurt to purchase 5-10 liters of sunflower oil.
• Often there is no need to buy some commodity items in in large numbers, and the good price is set only for the wholesale batch. In this case, you can cooperate with relatives, friends or neighbors, buy a batch of goods together and share it. You can also order a wholesale company to deliver the goods to the address.
• It will not be possible to do without trips to the market, since it is best to buy vegetables and fruits in the season when they are most useful, and their cost drops sharply. In winter, foreign fruits will cost much more, so you can consider freezing at least the berries in your home freezer. It should be remembered that after dinner, many products can be bought cheaper on the market, because. the seller does not want to take them back and is ready to reduce the price. It's also better to buy weekdays when the flow of buyers is less.

In connection with the next crisis, we have to adapt to rising prices and falling incomes. Saving on food is especially unpleasant, but prices will continue to rise. To keep money in the budget to meet other needs, follow a few rules.

The crisis in Russia is unwinding, its obligatory attributes are more and more clearly manifested: rising prices along with falling incomes. Unfortunately, we have to cut costs, including food. Inflation reached double digits, and in February, Russians reduced their consumption by 5%, a sharp drop that hasn't been seen in 15 years.

The fact that food becomes the main item of expenditure in times of crisis is quite a “normal” phenomenon. As a result, the vulnerability of this household budget item when it arises. It is significant that in February 2015, Russians reduced their food costs by 18.5 percent, and only lamb, bread, salt and pasta fell in price. Experts warn that prices will continue to rise, even though most families already spend more than 40% of their income on food. To keep money in the family budget to meet other needs, you need to follow simple rules.

1. Plan your purchases

It is best to make a menu for a week, then it will be easier for you to calculate how much and what products you need to buy. But even if you can't bring yourself to live this organized way, make a grocery list when you go to the store. So you do not buy too much, and at the same time do not forget anything.

2. Do not go to the store on an empty stomach!

It's no secret that we usually make ill-conceived purchases in grocery stores on an empty stomach. If you go for groceries after dinner, or at least a snack, the costs will be reduced by 20%.

3. Do not go shopping every day

It is not necessary to visit the supermarket every day. For many, such visits have become something of a habit. It is much more rational to make purchases once a week or even once every 2 weeks. Have you also noticed that you often buy at least something in the store so as not to leave empty-handed? Naturally, the less often you visit places of shopping, the more money and time you will save.

4. Basket instead of cart

If you find it inconvenient to go out shopping once a week, make it a habit to use a shopping basket at the supermarket, not a large cart that will seem empty even if everything you need is already loaded into it. A basket is a completely different matter - firstly, it won’t fit much into it, and secondly, the weight of the luggage sobers up many.

5. Pay in cash

Bank card payments are convenient, but dangerous - not seeing the money, you lose the feeling of spending. It is much more difficult to let go of banknotes. Going to the store, take with you the amount sufficient to purchase the planned one - if you do not have money for extra purchases, you will definitely not make them.

6.​ You are not required to pay for the manufacturer's advertising campaign

The price of goods, especially those that have recently appeared on the market, often includes the cost of advertising. Look at the neighboring shelves, most likely, there you will see a product that is cheaper and in no way inferior in quality. This rule also applies to beautiful packaging: it is nice to hold bread in a bright bag or cheese in a beautiful box. But the packaging will be thrown away as soon as you take the product out of it. The boxes are completely meaningless, but not free. Do not follow the cunning manufacturers, try to avoid such irrational spending.

A must-have trick for network marketers - the most expensive products are displayed on the shelves that catch the eye first. There are usually products that have an expiration date. Now you know about these "tricks", and you will be more attentive to the upper and lower shelves.

8. Save safely

If, in order to save money, you decide to buy products in wholesale markets, carefully study the marks on the expiration date. No need to buy a pack of yoghurts if you can only eat them for three days. It is especially dangerous to buy products at discount prices, always look at the release date so as not to buy kefir or another product whose expiration date is tomorrow.

Promotions are usually arranged for the sale of stale products. When buying expired food, calculate how much one day in the hospital costs. Never take stale meat, fish, eggs, mushrooms and canned food - this is very dangerous. The only exception can be made for vegetables and fruits, if they are a little wilted, but still quite edible. Do not take products with mold or signs of decay, no matter how cheap they are.

9. Cook at home

A jar of yogurt costs several times more than the same product made on your own from milk, sourdough and sugar. Boiled pork is twice as expensive as raw pork. Semi-finished products are always more expensive than dishes prepared from start to finish. And there is no need to talk about quality and usefulness.

Meat

Vegetarians know how to do without animal protein. We will not discuss the optimality of vegetarianism, and those who are used to meat can switch to chicken and eggs, which are a complete source of protein and vitamin B. whole chicken costs less than its parts. Cutting the carcass yourself, you will find application for all its components. Cook meat not as a separate dish, but with a side dish. For example, pilaf, stew or casserole. Meat can be replaced with offal. Very tasty dishes are obtained from beef heart or liver.

Fish

Should be on the menu at least once a week. Inexpensive varieties of fish, such as flounder and herring, contain omega-3, protein, iodine, phosphorus and vitamins in the same way as sturgeon and salmon. An excellent substitute for fish can be squid - one of the cheapest seafood.

Dairy

A necessary component of the menu of any person. You can save money by buying regular milk, and not the one that has been stored for months.

10. Balance

No need to save on food, eating pasta and tea. Our task is to survive the crisis and maintain health, so the menu should be balanced, with enough proteins, fats and carbohydrates. In the case of products, a high price does not always mean the best quality. Switch to eating domestic products grown in season - it will be good for your health and for your wallet. cook vegetable soups, buckwheat with milk, cabbage salad, omelettes and baked chicken wings. You will spend more time in the kitchen, but you will be able to appreciate the quality of homemade food.