BUDGET GUIDE

posted on Dec 11, 2019

Reducing Your Food Spending

Okay, so we have talked about BUDGET on two posts, basically what it means and the supposed end result when you eventually create a budget for yourself. We also gave some TIPS on how you can create and keep a budget.

The focus of this guide is not to make you totally quit spending on food, sometimes you just need that meal in your belly, but instead to help you adapt your current habit to reduce costs. You will be amazed by the end result when you make a little tweaks on your food budget.

WHY NOT EAT INSIDE?

There are many legit reasons why you prefer to eat out; from reaching home late from work to not having the energy to strike a match, you might not like cooking or you might be bad at it.

If you’re a working class Nigerian, we can probably make two assumptions:

1. You eat out more than you ought to, and
2. Those meals away from home are significantly more expensive than ones you could make at home.

True? True.

The goal here is to help reduce eating outside. If you are bad at it, there are many videos on Youtube that can help with that. If you get home late, you might as well wake up early to prepare something to eat.

Will it come easy? Maybe not. For many, eating out is habit, and habits are hard to break. If you’re struggling, however, it may be helpful to take a step back and remind yourself of what you’re really trying to accomplish.

At whatever time you feel like you’re surrendering something, just remember what that sacrifice is leading to. Because as famished as you may be right now, there’s no shawarma in the world better than being debt-free.

SHOPPING THEORY

Creating a meal plan is an important aspect of shopping. Why?

·         A weekly meal plan will help ensure you are buying groceries that coordinate with your needs

·         A weekly/monthly plan will help ensure you don’t end up spending too much money on last minute outside orders

Creating a meal plan isn’t terribly difficult, but it does take a few minutes. You can start by making a list of the breakfasts, lunches and dinners that you plan on eating during the week or you can far as a month. Buying in bulk also helps in reducing cost.

When you have a plan at hand, shopping won’t be a problem because you already know what to buy and not spending on impulse, you can add some basic things that may be of need like milk, bread, fruit etc. Smart!

FOOTNOTE

The idea of cutting your household budget sounds good in theory. The problem is that budgeting “tips” and “secrets” often require that you make fundamental changes to the way you behave.

If you need a professional financial adviser to guide you in budgeting, or you have too many expenditure variables that you are finding it difficult to adequately budget and stick with it, then our FREE financial consultation might just be right for you.

At Page Financials, we understand that financial literacy is the basis of what we do, so we have experts who are ready to help you understand finance and how to handle it.

This service is completely FREE, all you have to do is call our number; 016317243, or send an email to customer@pagefinancials.com to get help on any finance related issues, including getting a quick loan of between N200k to N5 million in less than 3 hours.