PHOENIX — When Beth Moncel created her free website, Budget Bytes, in 2009, her goal was to help people save money on groceries while still cooking delicious meals.
Among Moncel and Budget Bytes’ practical saving tips are also six principles to help people jumpstart budgeting while food shopping, while also reducing food waste.
“The six Budget Byting Principles [are] the things that really helped me cut down on my budget the most,” Moncel said.
First and foremost, she recommends planning meals ahead of time. Taking 15 to 30 minutes a week to plan out meals, Moncel explained, helps lower the likelihood of impromptu shopping and spending.
“If you don't have something already planned out and ready to go, you're more likely to go eat out and things like that,” Moncel said. “You go to the grocery store without a plan, you start grabbing random things off the shelf, and you never cook them. They go bad and they go in the garbage. Throwing food in the garbage is just like throwing money in the garbage.”
It’s not necessary to plan every single meal of the week when starting out, Moncel said. She advises people to start small and work their way up.
“So maybe you're just planning one dinner a week at first until you're really comfortable with that. Then maybe add some packed lunches or maybe add that second dinner,” Moncel said. “Work your way up and see what level works with your lifestyle because it's going to be a little bit different for everybody.”
The second principle for Budget Byte savings is to use ingredients wisely.
“Scaling back a little bit on the most expensive ingredients and bulking up with the lesser expensive ingredients to find that ratio where you're still satisfied with the recipe but it's costing you less,” Moncel said.
Meats, cheeses, and nuts are among the ingredients that can cause the cost of a recipe to “skyrocket,” according to Moncel. She opts for bulking up her recipes with pastas, beans, and vegetables like cabbage, carrots, onions, and potatoes.
“Those are all very inexpensive [and] still very healthy,” Moncel said. “Then I tweak the ratio of the recipe that way. So I'm still satisfied, but it costs less.”
The third principle, Moncel said, is to portion out meals, or use “portion control.”
“I like to divide my meals into single portions before I freeze or refrigerate them and that helps keep me from over-serving myself later,” Moncel said. “So the meals last me longer throughout the week.”
Portioning out meals also helps make “grab and go” easier, Moncel said.
“If I have a big vat of soup in my fridge, I'm so much less likely to pull that whole thing out, ladle some out into a bowl [and] reheat it,” Moncel said.
In that vein, Moncel’s fourth principle is “to not be afraid of leftovers.”
“I think in our society, we are really trained to want fresh, fresh, fresh. Everything's labeled fresh these days, even if it's not necessarily fresh,” Moncel said. “[When] you go to a restaurant, they're batch cooking, too. They're not making everything on your plate fresh from scratch when you order it. And we don't need to do that at home either.”
Keeping leftovers longer is why the fifth Budget Bytes principle is: The Freezer is Your Friend.
“I love using my freezer to its fullest extent,” Moncel said. “So not only am I freezing leftover portions of meals, but I'm freezing leftover ingredients.”
If Moncel has a can of tomato paste, for example, and does not use the entire thing in a particular recipe, she portions out the paste into tablespoons to be used at a later time.
She also recommends freezing “grocery store sales in place.”
“If I see something that's on sale, it's normally very expensive, whether it be cheese or meat, I will grab them when they're on sale and then freeze them so I can have them later,” Moncel said. “And I don't have to pay full price later when I actually do need it.”
Finally, Moncel stressed the importance of shopping around at different grocery stores to compare prices.
“Take a look at what grocery options you have in your area and go explore a little bit,” Moncel said. “You might find that, you know, a store that you haven't been to, you know, a couple of miles away has much better deals on a certain type of ingredient than the one that you're used to.”
On their own, the six principles might seem small, Moncel said. “But when they add together, it ends up giving you a big result.”