The important item you might forget about for keeping yourself on a budget or keeping your grocery bill low is planning ahead and keeping the pantry stocked. When you have an extra $5 one week you can buy a spice that’s running low, or buy 3 bags of pasta noodles that you can use in the future. You are keeping to a budget but if you plan ahead and keep the pantry stocked up, you will be able to have weeks where you don’t have to spend hardly any money to get buy!
Items I suggest you keep on hand:
-Pasta Noodles – stock these babies up! The more you have the better off you are! This also proves for a super cheap meal when you are scraping by – my daughter LOVES butter noodles, so if we were ever in a pinch… Butter noodles for dinner! Shred in a little Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper and you have a gourmet meal to a 5 year old! lol! been there.
-Can food – stock up the green beans, white beans, rotel, tomato sauce, etc – if you use it quite a bit then keep it stocked up where you have 2-3 on hand at all times! In my white turkey chili and 3 different soups I like – there are white beans (or northern beans), so I keep 3-4 of these on hand and there are weeks I can make these recipes with just having to buy the meat or spinach (for soup).
-Pancakes/Bisquick – keep some sort of fun breakfast item on hand. I LOVE the Krusteaz Pancake mix, This baby is about $2 and its just add water! WHAT! You have about 4 meals in 1 box for $2 and water (p.s. the secret to this box is to LET IT REST for about 5-10 mins before cooking the pancakes, it truly makes a HUGE difference). Keeping these items in the pantry makes for a fun – “let’s do breakfast for dinner” meal that the kids will think is fun and will be easy on the pocket book!
-Bread – this is an item I have a love/hate relationship with. This item can mold on you and make you feel like you are wasting money 😦 but great for quick sandwiches or Egg-in-a-hole meals! We make a sandwich for my little’s lunch everyday, so we ALWAYS have bread on hand
-Crackers/breadcrumbs – this is a weird item but this can be helpful for changing up your recipes (crusting the chicken in crackers and cheese for a Ritz cracker crust) or making a patti (left over Salmon or Zucchini patties) out of items. This is a good item to have on hand
-Eggs – These are always good to have, they are a quick easy meal – or add in items for pasta (Carbonara)
-Chicken/Beef Stock – I keep the Better Than Bouillon on hand – its in a tub (pic below) you keep it in the fridge – you scoop out what you need and it lasts longer than an open stock, you can make as flavorful or not as you want your item, and you then always have the option to make a soup. Soups go a LONG way.
-Heavy Cream – this item lasts A LONG time (just pick one with a far out date) but then you can make your own white sauce, you can also do this with milk
-Cheese – I grate my own cheese, so I buy up blocks of cheese when they are on sale at the grocery store because as much as I try to avoid it, I LOVE cheese in my dinner 🙂 lol
-Spices – figure out which spices you like to use and buy them in the big containers or when they are on sale – keep these on hand because you will need them EVERY night. The key to a good meal is to flavor it up 🙂 I use a TON of Onion Powder since my hubby HATES onions. If I use fresh onions I have to put them in the food processor to make them into a paste that he cannot get the texture, so most times it’s onto the onion powder! Also – Garlic, you can buy pre-minced or frozen cubes! This is amazing as you will find yourself needing garlic (wanting more than what the powder can give you) and having these to help flavor will help your meals.
Now these are important to my household. Keep track of your house and what you eat a lot or use a lot and figure out what you can buy ahead. Use light weeks to help keep the pantry stocked. If you buy them all in one week you could blow your budget right out of the water! But planning ahead and keeping a little on hand at all time will ensure that you don’t have to create the list above all at once and get yourself into a pickle.
Steph's Lifestyle 