Rising food prices

Chances are if you frequent a lot of the same restaurants, you have seen prices for your favorite dishes increase over the past several months, especially at pizza restaurants. This phenomenon is a result of exploding food prices. Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices have risen 4.7% in 2007, with wheat prices and milk prices being the highest, as a result of higher oil prices and the deflating dollar. What can you do about it? There are several ways to save on food prices and still stay within your monthly budget.

Cooking

One, is obviously to eat out less. A great example of how this breaks down can be found at The Simple Dollar's article Does cooking at home really beat the mcdonalds 1 double cheeseburger. The article breaks down how it is possible for foods bought in bulk to cost much less than a single McDonald's cheeseburger costing $1. If you budget $5 to eating out for lunch every day of the week, it could cost you $125 each month. However, bringing a $2 sandwich or even pre-made soup from home will reduce your monthly costs to $50, leaving much more room in the budget for other things, like savings and retirement funds.

When you are shopping for groceries, time is your best friend. For example, if you realize you need something NOW, it will be much more expensive running out and picking up one thing at a time than doing all of your grocery shopping at once. You will also miss out on sales that happen on a weekly basis. Another way time can help you is by cutting coupons from your weekly newspaper, or signing up for online coupon sites such as www.Smartsource.com. And always sign up for the grocery store bonus card. A .50 cents savings is not much at all, but if you save .50 cents every time, it will only take you a couple weeks to get to $10 and further, by not even doing anything.

Most importantly, plan a menu ahead of time. Sit down on Sunday night and plan out what you will cook for the week. If you do it correctly, you should only have to prepare two or three dinners as opposed to seven because you will have leftovers, which will not only save you money, but will prevent you from having to cook every day.

Eating Out

If you are continuing to eat out, there are also ways you can reduce your meal check every time. One is to not order dessert. Additionally, bring your own wine, if allowed, or skip out on the wine entirely…alcohol is almost always overvalued at restaurants. The best way to save money is to share dishes, especially if they are large. At ethnic restaurants, it's almost always better to order small portions of lots of different samplers, to get a better idea of the culture, rather than just eating one dish. Also, try the specials, which often come with several sides and tend to cost less on that night. Last, drink water. Not only is it healthier, it will end up costing you at least $2-3 less.