So if you don’t know we live in very rural area and we are limited to Walmart or a small locally owned grocery store for groceries. As much as I want to get to Aldi (a whole hour drive from us) I just don’t get over there much. So I would say I buy 90 percent of groceries from Walmart.

So when we started to do the whole budget thing back this last summer I started to find ways to make my food last longer. I spend hours on you tube learning about what you can and can not freeze and other neat tips. So here are my top tips.

Tip #1. Shelf Cooking
This where you will have to get creative. Take inventory of what you already have on hand and then meal plan based on only what you have on hand. You would be surprised to see what you can come up with. This is great for in between paychecks when money is a little tight.

Tip #2 Repurposing food
Does your family hate leftovers then instead of throwing them out repurpose them. Did you have tacos last night and had lots of taco meat left over. How bout take that taco meat and turn it into sloppy joes the next night or left over rice makes a excellent stir fry. There are so many possibilities from leftovers. So get creative and turn those leftovers in to something great!

Tip #3. Freeze, Freeze, Freeze
I have learn that there is so much you can freeze like salsa, broth,tortillas, bread, etc. This saves us from wasting food and money. You can’t freeze everything but there is plenty of videos on YouTube to teach you on what you can freeze.

Tip #4 Batch cooking.
Batch cooking is cooking extra when you cook a meal than your family can eat, either for left overs or to freeze for later that week. Sometimes people will cook all there food up in batches for the week on Sunday evenings. This great if you are super busy during the week.

Tip #5 Meal Planning
Meal Planning is simply what you are going to have for supper for each night of the week. Make sure you check what you already have on hand and plan around those items to plan your meals.

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