Save Up to 50% on your grocery bill!

Salam sejahtera,
Buat apa tu? HIhi...saya kan, tengah lepak ni. ops, tengah ngemas macam2 bil. Hm...Macam mana nak saving duit dapur? Gi pasar basah pun, dah abis RM50. Kat Giant macam2 benda nak beli, padahal yang perlu untuk masakan hanya sedikit. Cukup ke duit dapur bulan2? Ada yang berkata, untuk makan jangan berkira. Tetapi lihatlah lebihan makanan yang ada.. Just want to share 2 artikel ni.. Moga2 kita para isteri dan ibu bole jadikan panduan untuk menjimatkan duit dapur.. :)

Save Up to 50% on your grocery bill!

By Jill Cooper
http://www.LivingOnADime.com/
Copied from : http://www.homemoneyhelp.com


I have discovered the secret of saving money feeding babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Well, I can´t take the credit for it. My mom taught it to me many years ago but I didn't put it into practice until the first financial crisis we had when my husband was laid off.

What I have been practicing now for many years has now become one of the new buzz phrases -- "portion control". Usually when we think of portion control it is in connection with dieters and not young children or saving money.

Most American parents serve themselves and their children huge portions of food. Their families eat only part of it, and then they discard the rest. Next time you scrape those half eaten plates of food into the trash, think about this: 30% to 50% of the food and drinks we buy, whether we eat at home or out, get thrown away. If you don't believe it's true, observe your own family this week. How many half full bowls of soggy cereal do you throw away? What about half empty glasses of juice, milk or pop?

It is easy to forget that children under the age of four have only about a quarter of an adult's body weight. Often, we feed them adult portions and when we do give them smaller portions, each portion is usually only reduced to about half an adult portion. Do you use that large serving spoon and dump a full spoon of food on your child's plate? Say you give yourself two spoons of green beans and your child one-- That means that you have given yourself about 24 green beans and your child 12 when in reality, that child needs only about six.

When deciding how much food to give your kids, start small and work your way up. Remember, if they eat what is on their plates you can always give them more.

Use the same method for drinks. Even a small sippy cup should only be filled half full. This not only reduces the amount that you throw away, but also reduces the losses from spills.

Another great way to save a lot of money is to give children more water. In addition to serving children overly large portions, failing to give them enough water leads to obesity. At this point, many parents point out that young children need lots of milk and juice. That is true to a degree, but consider this: The USDA recommends 12 oz of milk per day for children under 4. That is equal to two sippy cups. Don´t forget that kids get milk from other sources too, including milk with their cereal and cheese.

We think the more juice and milk they get the better, but once kids have had as much as they need nutritionally, the rest just adds calories.

If you are ready to cut the waste from your food budget, here are a few more tips to save money and make your life easier:

1. Cut the crust off your child's sandwich before you give it to him. I have tried for years to get my children and grandchildren to eat the crust and have discovered that it is like trying to climb Mount Everest. It can be done, but I'm not sure if it is worth all the work and headache. So give in and cut off the crust. Throw it in a bag and use it for bread crumbs or croutons. Then the kids will eat their entire sandwiches instead of just that hole in the middle and you won't waste the sandwich filling that would have been tossed with the crust.

2. Cut kids' sandwiches into small squares or triangles. Their hands are smaller then ours. Imagine always manhandling sandwiches that are two to three times normal size and you can relate to kids with full adult-sized sandwiches. This goes for all their food. Cut anything they have to hold in their hands into manageable sized pieces.

3. Spills always happen, but they can be minimized. Try placing a paper doily at the top of your child's plate or someplace where you know a cup won't be likely to spill. Then teach the child that the cup belongs on the doily.

4. Start giving your little ones only half of items like candy bars, gum, and popsicles. When you go out to eat, split a hamburger or order of fries between two younger children. You can even ask for an extra cup and split milk shakes and drinks.

5. Control snacks. Don't just let the kids graze all day on candy and chips. Give children healthier things to fill them up, like popcorn or a piece of fruit at specific time intervals.

6. Feed toddlers and preschoolers your leftovers. They usually don't balk at them like older children do. All those two tablespoon leftovers that are hardly worth saving are usually just the right amount for younger children.

Save on Groceries Before You Leave Home

By Jill Cooper
http://www.LivingOnADime.com/
Copied from : http://www.homemoneyhelp.com


One of the easiest ways to save money on your grocery bill starts before you even leave the house. It's no extra work, you don't have to deprive yourself of anything and you don't have to clip any coupons. What is it? Stop wasting food.

On average most families throw away 50% of the food they buy. If you have trouble believing that then watch your family's eating habits for the next few days. How many times did your child eat only half of his lunch or dinner or drink only half of his glass of milk or juice? How much food gets thrown away when you wash dishes? How many fruits and vegetables have rotted and been tossed? How much meat have you thrown away because it is freezer burned? And what about those leftovers in the fridge or the cartons of sour milk?

If this is you, do you realize if you spend $400 a month on groceries you are literally throwing $200 of it into the trash? What would you think if someone you knew took two $100 bills and threw them away?!? That would make dumpster divers out of the most genteel among us.

Better planning keeps you from throwing away so much food, saving you money!

Here are some ideas on how to help you to stop the waste:

1. Only fill a child's (or adult's) glass half full if they normally don't drink it all. You can always give them more when that is gone. If they do have left over milk or juice at the end of the meal put it in the fridge for them to finish at another time.

2. When you get ready to cook a piece of meat like a roast or chicken, plan ahead. For example, when I take a roast out to thaw I don't think, “Ok, we'll have roast and mashed potatoes tonight.’ But I think “I will have roast and mashed potatoes tonight, Bar-B-Q beef tomorrow and beef and noodles the next night.’ That way you won't find yourself three days later gazing guiltily at that dying leftover roast thinking, “I really should do something with this but what?’ and then end up throwing it out a week later.

3. Check your fridge the night before you go to the grocery store. That way you can plan your menus and choose what to buy based on the leftovers you have.

4. If all else fails, make one night a week as leftover night. That's when you set out all your odds and ends of leftovers for everyone to polish off. This is especially good if you do it the night before you buy groceries because this leaves your fridge empty for the new things you are buying tomorrow.

Jill Cooper and Tawra Kellam are frugal living experts and the editors of http://www.LivingOnADime.com/. As a single mother of two, Jill Cooper started her own business without any capital and paid off $35,000 debt in 5 years on $1,000 a month income. Tawra and her husband paid off $20,000 debt in 5 years on $22,000 a year income.