10 Budgeting Tips With Three Young Children and Grocery Inflation

With all that inflation, groceries cost so much now! Many Americans are struggling and families find it hard to save on their grocery bill.

Recently I came across a post stating, “We are in a tough financial spot, and I need to improve my budgeting. My husband makes money, but I allocate it: making bill payments on time, savings, and so on.”

 

““Groceries are costing us A TON lately, and I’m looking for tips to cut down on these costs! We have a four-year-old and two under two. I’m looking for budgeting tips.” Here are the top-voted responses.

1. Cut Out the Costly Drinks

“We only drink water, coffee, and milk. Water is so good, you’re not going to miss a thing after not drinking all that other stuff for a while, but first, you rebound from less sugar,” one confessed.

2. Cut Down on Meat

“Cut down on meat in meals. Beans, tofu, or chickpeas are an excellent substitute for the meat in a meal and are very healthy,” shared one. Another added, ” Also, homemade Hummus is great and easy to make cheaply.”

3. Buy Fresh

“We buy our veggies at the farmers market or the dollar store. Our dollar store gets produce from local vendors (we’re a farming county) and is fresh and cheap,” one explained.

4. Check Some Grocery Apps

“There are many receipt cashback apps if it sounds like your thing. Most of them require you to scan your receipts. Ibotta connects to my club card, so I add the offers before putting in my grocery pickup order,” another suggested.

 

5. Meal Plan

“Try meal planning. I started planning dinners for a week, matching what was on sale to what I could make. Buying bulk dry goods I could use for multiple recipes. Now I do a whole month,” one user confessed.

6. Plan With Your Leftovers

“I try to buy things I can use for multiple meals. For example, tonight, I made pulled pork with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob,” shared one. “The leftover mashed potatoes will be used for fried mashed potato cakes for breakfast tomorrow morning. I will use the leftover pulled pork on Monday night to make a pork mac and cheese.”

7. Buy Fresh as Needed

“I buy fresh foods in absolute minimum amounts throughout the month. So whatever I want from the produce department, but only one or two of each, it won’t go wasted,” answered one.

 

“No more bags of apples- I buy two apples, two pears, two peaches, a small bundle of carrots if it’s involved in dinner, etc. Dairy is on an as-needed basis, too,” a second person replied.

8. Reduce Your Grocery Store Trips

Someone stated, “I make one major shopping trip per month. I will buy all my meats, pantry foods, cat food, and cleaning supplies on that day. Doing this reduces the number of trips I make, reducing impulse buying on unneeded foods.”

9. Stay Away From Marked-up Items

“Focus on avoiding marked-up items where you pay extra for prep labor,” another reported. “These include prepackaged snacks (buy the bulk bag and portion it yourself), precut veggies and fruit, ready-made meals or sides, meal kits, etc.”

10. Freeze Meals for Lazy Days

“If you want to save time and money, or just something prepped for a lazy night, try to cook in batches with double or triple recipes and freeze the rest (cookies, pasta, meatballs, spaghetti sauce, soups, chopped cooked meat),” explained one.

 

“That way, if you get a good sale on ground meat one week, you can prepare meatballs and reuse them over the following weeks here and there.”

 

We hope you enjoyed this Reddit picks list of budgeting tips to combat grocery inflation.