Our Empowerment

Start by analyzing how much money you have to spend on various food items. Do this by keeping an accurate spending record for the next two weeeks. With this information you can decide what and how many changes you need to make in your buying habits.

Then decide what to buy, create a delicious nutritious daily menu plan for several days or a week at a time. This may take a half hour or so but the finacial savings (hundreds of dollars a year) will more than pay for the added time you spend on planning.

Start planning your menus with the main dishes, since the largest part of the food dollar will be spent on meats. For diversity and a budget bonus add substitute less expensive meat alternatives such as dry beans or peas for meat.

Besides meats plan to spend monies and use other bargins that your local stores advertise. Fit these into the remainig parts of the menu you created, with side dishes, salads and desserts, being sure to fulfill the requirements of the Basic Four. Remember that the food pyramid has been recently upgraded.

Now that your menu plans are complete, covert these plans into a shopping list. From the recipes, list the ingredients plus the form and amount that you need to purchase at the store. Also check your cupboard to see what staples you are low on. Make it a habit to replace staples when they are on sale. Finally, to save time later, reorganize the list into the order that you will see the foods in your store.