Have you ever considered “Meal Planning” to cut food cost? With a very unstable economy we are experiencing today, it is always a practical solution to go to an extensive meal planning to cut your food budget into half. Just because you are cutting down the food cost doesn’t mean you are depriving you and your family to eat what is right. Meal Planning is simply a method that everyone can use to plan their meals ahead to reduce unnecessary expenses.

Establishing an ideal meal plan is easy yet in order to embrace its effectiveness, you must remain faithful to it and turn it as a habit. Listed below are some of the effective tips and Meal planning ideas to cut your food budget.

It’s not a meal plan without plans. In order to start an effective meal planning, you should learn to list down your menus for the entire week or better yet for the next 2 weeks before hitting the grocery stores. Once you have established your preferred menu for the day, you now have the idea of what ingredients you need. Build your grocery list and make sure not to miss anything before shopping. Stick to your list and try to avoid any unnecessary expenses. Just because you see a promo doesn’t mean you should always grab it especially if you don’t actually need them.

The best way to save money when shopping is to take advantage of the coupons and discounts! There are many ways to obtain coupons. Some groceries are distributing them but you can also obtain some from specialised mobile apps. You can keep yourself updated with the latest promos through these apps and you grab those codes in no time! Coupons may only offer small discounts but you’ll be surprised how it can make a huge difference with your entire food budget.

Don’t you love having organised kitchen? It’s always nice to see those stock pantry filled with goods and items you need. Interestingly, did you know that you can actually save money from it? Most of the time, we tend to forget what we have in the pantry and freezer. Chances are, if we cannot find such ingredient we tend to buy another one and duplicate them, thus wasting money.

Make sure to use the First-in First-Out policy when stock piling. Check on the labels and see their expiry date to know which product should be consumed first and which ones to follow. It may not be considered entirely as meal planning but having an organised kitchen can be a huge role for budget cutting.

Today, it is really important to be very practical. If there are leftovers in the fridge, then take advantage of them instead of throwing them into waste. If you know that leftovers are still good to eat, you can actually exert your creativeness or better yet look for some ideal recipe online to turn your leftover foods to a brand new delightful meal.

Also pay attention with your recipes. Try to purchase items or ingredients that you can use for more than one meal. Let’s say you decided to have a pasta dish for tonight which requires some handful amount of spinach. Those that are left can be used as a salad or a smoothie the next day.

These are some useful tips on how to cut food cost through meal planning. How about you? What kind of Meal plan you have?