Eat away the waste

 

Last week I talked about some ideas of how to stick to a planned $ amount for groceries. This included shopping only once per week, sticking to it and making use of the freezer to prevent food going off. When you throw food out it is such a waste of money.  Another thing we do is divide items such as bread rolls, loaves of bread, bacon etc into smaller amounts and freeze those into one meal size portions.

 

We have learned by experience to freeze even small amounts of leftovers as we have found if we put them in the fridge I tended to throw them out when cleaning out the fridge before doing the next weeks shopping. I call these our “free meals”. They are so handy and reduce the temptation to buy takeaways. Sometimes we have all have a different “free meal”.

 

You may be thinking when reading this - “It’s ok for them, to shop once per week, I bet they don’t have kids at home any more”!   Our daughter is living with us again for a while as she has just returned from overseas. She is used to these rules, as they are the same rules we had when both our kids were living at home. Planning a menu ahead is the key to making this work. Use this as a discussion point around the table as to who would like what to eat for the coming week.  Do your shopping list BEFORE you go shopping, not as you wander around the supermarket. Eat before you go shopping.

 

We used to tell our kids (and stick to it), “it is your choice, if you choose to eat all the treats in the first couple of days (like biscuits, juice etc) as when they are gone, they are gone. If you choose to have a few each day, then you will have some left towards the end of the week”.

 

It will not harm your children or yourself to learn to eat a certain amount of food each week. So train your kids to do this by not rushing out and topping up the fridge. You will be doing them a favour health wise and not put your long term financial future at risk.  It may be hard for your children at first but they will soon get used to it!

 

Obesity has become a major health issue in New Zealand and I believe one of the contributing reasons is that many people just keep filling their fridges when the kids or another member of the family says “there isn’t anything to eat” – whereas often the truth is, there is food to eat, but not what they want to eat. 

 

Talk with your children about why you are shopping differently, get them onside, and dare I say it, even get them helping with the shopping list and keep tally on a calculator to keep the cost of the shopping within the amount you have allowed!

 

When you tell your money where to go instead of wondering where it went, it puts you in control of your money instead of it controlling you.

 

Sylvia’s book, Parents: How To Stop Your Kids From Going Broke is available from www.silbo.co.nz, Paper Plus Stores, and Christian Bookshops. She is also available to speak with community groups and give tips on how to raise financially savvy kids.