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So maybe you’re already bringing your lunch to work to cut back on spending.
You’d still like to save a bit more on the food budget.
You may think it’s your lifestyle but don’t get discouraged.
Your digital storage methods could be the culprit.
Here are three tips to catapult your meal planning efforts to save you money.
How to Turn Your Favorite Bookmarking Site into a Money Saving Machine
I’ll confess. I’m a little over the top when it comes to collecting my favorite money saving recipes. I love watching food shows and trying the budget-friendly meals featured on them. However, most people don’t have time to do that. This lack of time loses them money.
When my husband and I both worked full time, we would buy deli items on a regular basis from the grocery store just to have a decent lunch to bring to work. Here I was shopping at the grocery store but still overpaying for food. After watching food shows, I literally started to take notes to make inexpensive meals and you could too. All kidding aside. I truly do this.
Here’s exactly what I do:
1. Get a recipe retrieval method that works for you.
When was the last time you bookmarked a website? Remember that feature. It’s hard to believe we ever used that as a method of storing our internet goodness. If you still use it, that fine as long as you really go back and check it. Otherwise, it’s useless.
Figure out the best way to pool recipe resources that you like. For all you pin fanatics out there, if you haven’t already done this, I highly recommend you put the Pin it button in your browser. This way, if you come cross a website with a a budget-friendly dish you want to remember and you don’t have time to thoroughly look at it in the moment, it’s one click Pinterest bookmarking. Think of it as your recipe wishlist or culinary category of online discoveries.
2. Store in the moment.
If you watch a show or have a friend recommend something to you, store it right away. I’m a big fan of the Chew. If you haven’t watched it before, it’s a cooking-themed talk show. The hosts are Mario Batali, Clinton Kelly, Daphne Oz, Carla Hall and Michael Symon. Many times I’m watching and if I don’t remember the name of the recipe, it can be hard to find it later. It’s most likely because I can’t remember the name of the dish. Like most things, if you take care of it in the moment, you’ll be organized when it comes time to do the task.
I’ve been known to hunt down recipes later by figuring out the date of the show I watched from the DVR titles to retrieve the recipes. Don’t waste time like I have in the past. Gather up everything on your Pinterest boards. Use my Pin it to Win it Solution. Here’s exactly what I do to store recipes, create shortcuts to my favorite recipes and meal plan on Pinterest.
3. Actively use what you store.
How often do we have the best intentions of making a recipe or carrying out the tips we found but then check out after we save the information. It happens to the best of us. Take one small action step within the first 48 hours just to get things moving.
Make it a routine to use the recipes you save. This also goes for any other money-saving tips or goal you set out to accomplish. If you have a set day to grocery shop, take a look at what you saved. Write the ingredients down or store them on your phone right away. Maybe you keep the recipe on an app. I like this meal plan app. Whether you store stuff there or on Pinterest. You can also pick up items on the go if you remember the recipe last minute.
If you are able to be more planned, incorporate this as part of a routine. I like finding the recipes but sitting down to figure out what I have to purchase and making a list isn’t always the fun part. So I’ve been doing my meal planning at Starbucks. I go there at least once a week with my family. So it was a no-brainer to use the time wisely and get “rewarded” to do so. You will actually make the recipe and not just look cute pretending that you did something just because you stored it.
Any meal plan tips? Write them below.
If you’re new to meal planning on a regular basis to save money, try my free meal plan mini-course here.
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