Category: Money Saving Ideas

Meal planning can be a GREAT way to save big bucks.

It doesn’t have to be painful, either! There are ways to make meal planning super-simple, and so doable that it quickly becomes a habit. (It might even be fun to do your meal prep for the week.)

Why meal plan? For one thing, groceries and eating out can take a HUGE chunk of the budget each month. We spent an average of $679 per month on it ourselves last year. (Can you tell we I love eating out?)

But that kind of spending isn’t really out of the ordinary.

Groceries and meals out are big budget busters

According to The Economics Daily, Americans spent an average of 11.2 to 15.4 percent of their household income on food in 2015.

That’s a LOT. It breaks down to somewhere between $3,767 and $12,350 per year on average, with lower income households naturally needing to spend a larger percentage of their income on food. (Of course some people spend more, and some spend less.)

But it’s not just about saving money.

The things you and your family eat matter

If you are what you eat, what would you be? (I might be a giant pizza right now, which is a problem.) The point is, eating the right things can improve your health and help reduce or eliminate issues.

Living better + spending less money on healthcare is another huge win if you ask me. Meal planning can make that easier too.

I’m a big believer in making things easy on yourself. The easier something is to do, the more likely it is that you’ll actually do it. Meal planning is one of those areas where this is especially true.

3 simple ways to meal plan

With that said, let’s talk about 3 simple ways to meal plan that can put you on the path to saving money and feeling better.

(Because not everyone likes to meal plan the same way!)

Take a look at each of them to see which feels like the best fit for you and your life. Then get started!
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(This article contains affiliate links, so I may receive a small commission if you buy something through them. There’s no extra cost to you.)

I don’t know about you, but food (*cough* eating out *cough*) is a huge portion of our budget.

But do you know what things that take up a huge part of your budget ALSO are?

Huge opportunities to save some cash — cash that you could apply to your debt snowball.

With that in mind, here are tons of ways to save money on food & drink, broken down by area for easy reference.
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Ready start saving money like nobody’s business? You can reduce your monthly expenses with these money saving tips — saving thousands over time. Plus, you can get the things you want without feeling deprived!

(After all, you do NOT have to live like a monk that’s taken a vow of poverty in order to pay off debt. But you CAN cut things out of your budget that you’re not getting value from.)

Why pay extra for stuff you’re not even enjoying, right? (Or sometimes not using at all.) You can also pay less for the things you DO enjoy and want to keep. There’s no reason to pay extra for stuff ever, no matter what your money situation.

Fair warning: This post is chock full of money saving tips that you’ll want to come back to later. Pin it now so you have it handy, then start saving today with these simple-to-implement money saving tips :)
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