When faced with rising costs of groceries, what can we do to bring our weekly shop back into a budget that we can afford and manage. It doesn't seem likely that anytime soon we are going to see grocery prices decrease. It seems that every time we go to the supermarket something else has increased in price!
I understand it is quite difficult for a lot of people, no matter what country we live in, we are facing the same rising costs in all aspects of living.
Here I am going to share a couple of big ways I shop when I want to keep the budget right down on some weeks.
Of course there are plenty of small things we can do on a daily basis to stretch the meals we cook and stretch our budget.
- Adding beans and lentils to meat to make the meal go further without doubling up on the meat.
- Having more meatless meals
- Scraping our butter on toast or bread just like during the wartime. (Butter was rationed during the war).
- Porridge with water or half water and milk instead of full milk. (Milk was also rationed)
- Reduced portions
- Buy cheaper 'wartime' vegetables such as cabbage, carrots & potatoes
- Save vegetable peelings for making stock for cooking
- Frugal recipes instead of expensive ingredients for 'fancy' meals
- Cook wartime recipes which are very frugal
- Reuse teabags - this stretches out your box of tea
The first big thing I do is: Shop my cupboards, fridge and freezer first. I understand not everyone has a full pantry or freezer to start with but I think most people have some ingredients and canned goods in their pantry to carry over.
Take a look at what you do have on hand and write a list of these items and plan what meals you can make from them.
Do you already have a can of chickpeas, some rice and spices in the cupboard? With a couple of extra ingredients you can make a curry. Have baked beans in your cupboard? Have a nice easy lunch or dinner with baked beans on toast and add some scrambled eggs if you like.
I usually incorporate one or two vegetarian meals on tight weeks to reduce the amount of meat I cook with. Checking what vegetables you have left in the fridge and fruit in the fruit bowl can help stretch out the budget for the week.
Frozen vegetables are great to have on hand for a tight week. Perhaps there are half used jars of sauces or chutneys that can be used up instead of buying any.
Look at what else you can manage with so you are just buying what you need for the week only.
Second thing I do is: Decide what extra food can be cooked or baked from scratch to avoid buying such as homemade bread and extra baking so I don't buy crackers or biscuits (cookies) that week. Can you make your own pizza dough or homemade muesli/granola and muffins?
The third thing I do is: See what ingredients I have that I can get a 'free' meal from. For example; a few weeks ago I made a breakfast French toast casserole using up leftover bread that was almost stale and some scones that weren't going to be eaten.
I found a recipe on YouTube and it was delicious! I had never made anything like it before and it was so yummy and my family really enjoyed it too. It was very much like an old fashioned bread and butter pudding and it was really in the wartime spirit of making do with what I had and using up ingredients instead of throwing them out.
Check your freezer for leftovers that can be used up such as frozen cooked meat or leftover burger buns could be turned into pizza bases.
During the wartime, housewives regularly had to make do with what they had to hand. A trip to the grocery store didn't always go to plan if the shopkeeper was out of stock of regular items, which happened often. Rationing and items in limited supply meant the thrifty wartime housewife had to be inventive with what they came up with to feed their families with limited ingredients.
Quite often there were long queues at the grocery stores or butcher shops and housewives didn't necessarily know what everyone was queuing for and sometimes when they reached the shop and top of the queue they had then either sold out or they found out the items were something they didn't really want. We are at least fortunate that we have such variety but the downside to this is, that there is so much food or food items in our supermarkets and they are all vying for our attention, it takes a lot of time and energy to plan what we need and stick to it.
Which leads me to another point of, writing out a shopping list and sticking to it!
This is definitely a big factor in sticking to a budget otherwise all sorts of things find their way into our trolleys. The only exception I have is if I see a really good special on regulary used ingredients, then I will stock up a little so that I am not paying full price when I need that item in a few weeks.
And finally, by taking inspiration from wartime housewives, perhaps we need to go back to basics more with our meals and be content with more simple and inexpensive meals. They ate very simply to survive but they were also a lot healthier than general populations today.
Vegetables and fruits were high on the menu with meat just a few times a week per ration allowances. Basic dairy food groups such as butter, cheese and milk were consumed along with a limited amount of eggs, unless you lived in the country and had your own hens or access to farm fresh eggs.
Potatoes were eaten in large quantity, rice and pasta not as much. Meals on the whole were made from far less ingredients than recipes today so that is definitely an area where savings can be had.
I hope you have found some ideas and inspiration here to implement into your weekly grocery shopping budget.
Thank you for visiting and have a blessed week.
Love, Fiona
"She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family.." Proverbs 31: 14-15
