15 Money Saving Secrets

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Ever find yourself thinking groceries cost a fortune?

Spending twice what you expected?

If you’re like me, you’ve walked into a store to pick up something quick…..Only to end up buying much more than we planned!

We all want to eat healthy or we would not spend time, energy and money into researching how! You want to eat healthy too, don’t you?

Eating vegetarian should save us money, as meat is an expensive food source, both for our bank balance and for the planet.

However, when I first started eating vegetarian, my food bill went through the roof! I was buying expensive produce, much of which I did not manage to eat before it started looking quite sad.

I was picking up meat substitutes and vegetarian ready meals that were mysteriously more expensive than their meat equivalents!

When I did cook for myself, new recipes called for new herbs and spices, which added to my shopping bill each week.

It took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong.

In this report, we will look at 9 amazing tips to save money and eat vegetarian.

15 Money Saving Secrets

In the beginning, it is easy to make a lot of mistakes that are costly in both time and money. Here are some of my more obvious mistakes!

  1. I was not planning what I would eat for the week properly.
  2. I was not thinking about how I would use unused ingredients from one recipe in other meals so as not to waste anything.
  3. I was not factoring leftovers into my weekly meal plan.
  4. I was still thinking like a meat eater, making an expensive meat substitute the center of my dish.

Choose a delicious vegetable as the star of your meal!

Proper meal planning and shopping with a list is essential to keep food bills low. Following are fifteen top tips that I use when making my shopping list in order to benefit from sales and minimize my grocery bill.

I will share with you how I go about putting my shopping list together, and the benefits I have seen from shopping in this way. I will also share eight tips I use for optimizing my shopping list to ensure it is not too rigid and I can still benefit from sales and discounts. The key was meal planning and always shopping with an excellent list.

  1. Meal Planning

After talking to some friends about how they do it, I stopped just buying whatever produce looked good at the market. I started making a realistic plan for what I would actually eat each week, and made a list of the produce and other ingredients that I would actually need. I quickly saw the benefits of shopping with a list, both for saving money, but also just making my shopping trips easier.

  1. Save Time with a List

I find myself having to visit the market less often as I rarely forget important things. This means fewer quick runs to the shop to pick up that one thing that I need, and coming back with two full bags! Each trip to the market is also a lot quicker, as I can go directly for what I need, rather than endlessly browsing the aisles.

  1. Save Money Not Buying Extra on ‘Sales’

While having a list did not make me immune to the sale signs and new biscuit ranges, it did help me resist the temptation to pick up extras. It felt as though I had already decided everything that I would buy. This meant that I had also already decided what I would not buy, so it was easier to leave those indulgence items.

  1. Reduce Waste and Help the Planet

When I was throwing out rotten vegetables from the farmers’ market, I was not only thinking about the money I had wasted, but also the food. Reducing my impact on the environment is one of the main reasons I decided to cut back on meat. Wasting produce made me feel like my decision was a bit pointless. Shopping with a list has helped me reduce my food waste significantly, and I challenge myself to throw out no food each week.

  1. Be Specific

Of course, there are lists, and there are lists. If we have a vague list with the ‘things we usually buy’ on it, it is not likely to save us much money. We need a very specific list that shows exactly what we need, and in what quantity. But it also needs to have a little bit of flexibility to allow us to take advantage of sales and discounts.

  1. Be Flexible