A lot of people make resolutions in the new year, and while I have not always made them in years past, this year I really wanted to focus on a few things.
- Losing my baby weight and then some.
- Cutting our food budget and save money!
I’m a bit ashamed to admit this, but in the past, we have spent A LOT of money on our food. Dining out, last minute food runs, and even inefficient grocery shopping has led to hundreds of dollars spent that could have been saved with better planning. In the past my grocery shopping has been poor to say the least! Not only did we not have the food we needed to create the meals we wanted to eat, but I have been more than guilty of throwing away copious amounts of food at the end of the week.
I’ve had enough. This year I am focusing on cutting our food budget! I will be doing this through a couple of ways!
- Meal Planning. Each week I will sit down with my family and plan 3-5 meals depending on our needs for the week. Then I will create a grocery list to compliment our meal planning.
- Using Food We Already Have. I need to go through our freezer and work with things we already have! No reason to purchase more food if it is already in our home. Plus I really need to make some space in our deep freezer for Baby D’s breast milk.
- Bountiful Baskets. I am lucky enough to live in a state that has a great program called Bountiful Baskets. This is a weekly pickup of produce either Organic or regular at a significantly discounted price. I did this when Squishy was a baby and I was making his food, and we always had so much great produce to pick from!
- Dine out with Restaurant.com. This is something I am really excited about. Often times when you cut your food budget, dining out is the first thing to go. However, my husband and I love eating out and trying new food so much we really didn’t want to compromise this part of our budget. Thankfully with Restaurant.com we are able to have the best of both worlds. Discounted dining at hundreds of Las Vegas locations means we can save money and still enjoying a great date night or family outing.
We have really enjoyed picking a new restaurant each month for the past several months and exploring all the fun dining options Las Vegas has to offer. We really love that we have been able to save money doing it. Because dining out is something we are going to do, we can plan ahead and use Restaurant.com to save anywhere from $5-$50 when dining out! This has not only been a great savings to our monthly food budget, but has been a lot of fun too! I look forward to doing this throughout 2013.
How do you plan on saving money in 2013?
Disclosure: I am a Restaurant.com brand ambassador. Compensation is given for my role as a brand ambassador for Restaurant.com. All thoughts and opinions about Restaurant.com are 100% honest and my own.
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Big fan of menu planning here and freezer cooking. We spend way way to much $ on food also. I’d love to get better at saving this year.
I’m a huge fan of Restaurant.com – Its a great way to eat out and cut your bill in half 🙂
I need to re-sign up for Bountiful Baskets! I did it when Shane was little & was amazed at how much they had! I need to check out Restaurant.com too!
I am back to meal planning and shopping at Aldi for as much as I can and then getting the rest of products where ever I can find the best deals. It saves a ton of money.
I plan to save money this year by not buying so many snacks and remembering to eat BEFORE I go out!! Bountiful Baskets sounds great – we love organic produce at my house!
I definitely need to start saving on what I spend on food, as well. It adds up, all those little snacks and nights out! Meal planning is something I really need to try and do haha. Here’s to 2013!!
I’ve never tried Restaruants.com. I got a GC from some one and need to try this.
We’re on a spending fast. Only spending on groceries.
I’m jealous of your Bountiful Baskets program!
We use Restaurant.com a good bit and it does save money!
I am trying really hard to meal plan this year, too. I find that it not only saves us money on groceries, but it leaves me less stressed during the week when I know exactly what foods I need to prepare for my family.
I need to do more meal planning. Not only for money sake, but for sanity sake.
I never find restaurants my family will eat at on there. I need to re-check them.
This is something I really need to do I spend way too much on food.
We just started menu planning and it’s cut our food budget as well as forces us to eat healthier!
We are cutting down how much we eat out, it got atrocious in 2012.
Great post!
Just getting what we NEED…we have so much debt right now.
I really want to menu plan this year and to find deals on eating out
We are trying to cut back on going out to eat as well. It is so expensive and that money could be used for other things.
I would like to try to do meal planning this year.
I’m already 3 weeks behind, but we have been so sick here. I hope to get back on track!