One of the ways that you can improve your frugal meal planning is to consider what you already have in the house. Many people have some type of home food storage. While you don’t need to have a huge stockpile, it can be a good idea to save money by buying in bulk when certain items or on sale, or when you can get multiples with a coupon. However, you don’t want that food to go to waste by spoiling.
The most effective food storage is rotated through periodically. You can’t expect your food to last forever on that shelf, so it’s a good idea to use it on occasion. This is where your frugal meal planning can come in. Pick a week, and try to plan your meals around what you already have.
Going Through Your Food Storage
Every couple of months, my husband and I make an effort to clear out some of our food storage and eat it. This can be a very effective way to make sure you have room in your home for fresher items for food storage, as well save some money on one week’s worth of groceries.
Before you make your meal plan for the week, go through your pantry, your cupboards and your freezer. Look for foods that are close to expiration, or foods that you canned or bottled more than six to eight months ago. You don’t have to deplete your food storage to do this, but you should use items that won’t be good for much longer. That way they won’t go to waste.
Make a note of the food items that you can use before they go bad. Once you have those items identified, you can begin building your meal plan. Build your meal plan for the week around the items you want to use in your food storage. You may have to buy a few things at the store to round out your meals, but your grocery bill should be If you want to further increase your frugality, you can look to round out your food storage meals with items that you have coupons for, or that are on sale that week.
Replenishing Your Food Storage
Of course, once you have used up some of the items in your home food storage for a week’s worth of meals, you will need to replenish your stock. This doesn’t mean, though, that you go out at once and replace everything. That will defeat the purpose of saving money with your frugal food storage meal plan. Instead, build up your food storage slowly. Get items that are on sale, and look for good deals.
If you can get a good process going, rotating your food storage items through regularly, you should be able to have enough of a stockpile to making frugal meals from your food storage, as well as restock during sales. It can take a few months to get into the rhythm, but once you establish a pattern, it becomes easier to effectively use your food storage as part of your frugal meal planning.
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