Is bringing up the kids breaking your budget? Are you borrowing money to maintain your family? Are you at a loss regarding your financial status? If you think that the eating habit of your children is the culprit, you will have to make some compromises on the food front.
Children have to be fed everyday. You cannot stop their food supply just because you are indebted to friends and family. Giving the right amount and the right type of food to children is essential for their growth. You must, therefore, do a debt review and start maintaining a separate food budget.
Follow the below mentioned debt management tips to control the monthly food expense.
# Do not give them food that they cannot complete
Instead of serving them an entire plate of food, which they will eventually not finish off, give them in small amounts. If they need more, you can serve extra. This way, you can save the food that they would have otherwise declared more than enough after mashing around and serve it for another meal.
# Do not buy what the children do not eat
If your children like any type of healthy food that comes at low price, keep buying it. Do not waste your money on buying things that they do not want to eat.
# Cook ahead and use it in innovative ways for some days
Cook an item at the beginning of the week. For instance, you can prepare a chicken stock and use it for numerous purposes like salad, sandwiches and wraps throughout the week. In this case, you are using low cost ingredients to prepare an item that can be used in different ways for a considerable span of time.
# Feed them more vegetables
Beans, lentils and vegetables are less expensive than meat. So, you can prioritize buying them instead of investing on non-vegetarian items. You can reduce your costs by making tomato sauce at home and using it to dress a fusili dish. You can use macaroni in a vegetable soup instead of spending on meat-oriented dinner,
# Do not buy junk food
Junk food does no good to the body and is expensive. Cold drinks, chips and some takeaway meals are costly and can ruin your monthly budget. You can treat them to such expensive items sometimes, but not on a regular basis.
# Avoid buying pre-packaged and pre-prepared items
You must always remember that anything that comes in pre-packaged form and is meant to save your time is costly. Whether you buy snack packs of raisins or peanuts, ready to eat meals or pre-chopped vegetables, they are all quite costly.
# Compare and shop
You can maintain the finance of your family by shopping around. Take a list of the monthly or weekly essentials and look around the shops in your area. Find out the shops that sell the items you need at a cheap rate and buy from there.
# Be on the lookout for weekly special offers
Supermarkets are aware of the rising cost of items. For this reason, they have come up with a unique idea of specials. Lookout for these special offers, so that you can buy stuff at low prices. If you are planning a get-together or a family party, this is the perfect time.
# Create a strategy for shopping
You have to find out ways of spending less, before you leave for shopping. If possible, leave your kids home, so that you are not forced to buy anything extra.
Therefore, it can be concluded that domestic finance can be maintained by controlling your food budget.
Author Bio – Samantha D’Souza is one of the stalwart writers on debt review and maintenance of domestic finance. She has helped many people get back to the right financial track.