So, are you the dastardly picky eater in your house, or is it one of those pesky rugrats you’ve got running around? Well, it’s a habit that you need to break IMMEDIATELY! If it’s you, you’ve been walking the tough road of money-wasting pickiness for a while now and maybe you’re not ready to stop, but I think by the end of this article you’ll be kicking yourself for not stopping sooner. But, if you’re an innocent of the household and you’ve got to tame someone else’s wild, finicky taste buds, we’ll explore a few ways in which you can do this. But first, let’s talk about how much you’re spending supporting this habit…
Do you have old food sitting on your shelves or have you recently thrown away a few expired foods? Do you remember how much those foods cost when they were new? How about the replacements that you have to buy now that they’re old and moldy? Are you going to use the replacements or are you eventually going to replace the replacements and so on and so forth? Do you have foods that you repeatedly do this with? Do you continually purchase a certain food, use a tiny bit of it (if any at all), throw it away when it goes bad, and then buy more? Well stop. You’re wasting TONS of money this way and you need to quit it as soon as you can.
It’s not only the one batch of beef tips that you didn’t eat, or the turkey burgers you didn’t make this week. It’s not just the few packages of ramen noodles or the six boxes of rice that sat on your shelf for two years. You’ve got to get more, right? Maybe it’s not something you immediately add to the shopping list, but the next time you go to the store, you’re most likely going to buy it when you walk past it simply because you “don’t have any at home right now,” or something like that. But once again, the math will show you the error of your ways. (If you hate it when I do math in these articles, I’m sorry, but it’s necessary for me to bonk you on the head with the cash you could be wasting.)
So, you bought some ground turkey meat for 6 bucks and it sat in the fridge all week. Now it’s old and you’re throwing it away. There’s 6 dollars wasted, but that’s not the end. Since you’ve already thrown away one expired item, maybe today’s the day you clear out the fridge and shelves. So you throw away the old boxes of rice. 2 dollars a box and 6 boxes makes for twelve bucks wasted there. You throw away your old fruit after it turns brown but just before the fruit flies come about and you’ve wasted 7 bucks there. I’m sure there are a bunch of other things you could throw away, but let’s just cut it off there. You’ve just chucked $25 into the garbage can this week. So you go shopping on Saturday and as you enter the store, there’s all that fruit in the giant fruit aisle. ‘I don’t have any fruit at home right now,” you say. And so you head over, pick up a few kiwis, some oranges, three apples, and so forth. Then, you cross a couple of aisles, and you end up at the rice aisle. Well, it goes great on the side of any dish and you could make it any time. So, not even thinking about the rice you JUST threw away, you buy a bunch more. Maybe you’ll make 8 of the 15 boxes you buy this time (they’re on sale!) But you’ll still let some more sit and age. Finally, you head into the meat aisle and pick up a few cheap steaks (their expiration date is near, so you get ‘em cheap.) This could go on and on with even more items, but you’ve just bought back all the stuff you threw away during this past week. Now, I’m not saying that you’re definitely going to throw it all away again. Remember, I was willing to admit that you just might eat some of that rice, but still, that meat might not be sounding so good when it’s just one day before its date is up. If you get into picky habits where you let foods sit around until they expire, then I think it’s safe to assume you won’t want to eat any near-expiration meats, now would you?
Don’t worry, I’m not judging. I’m just saying that you need to know your eating habits and your family’s eating habits a bit better. You may even need to change them just slightly if you expect to save any money. Let’s talk about ways you can cut down on your expenses:
Try to shop once a week. – When you go to the store, don’t you almost always pick up something you don’t need but you just kind of want? Well, if you go to the store on a need-by-need basis, you’re multiplying your chances of stupid purchases and you might spend more money than you would going once a week.
Make a list – If you make a list of what you need throughout the week, you can have an idea of what you’re really going to use and what is kind of just an impulse buy when you shop at the end of the week. It even helps to separate the items into smaller categories for your first couple of lists. You can make a list of things you “need every week, no matter what”, “things you need on a regular basis that you can keep around until you actually need them”, (you can shorten that name if you’d like. Not too catchy…). “Things you might like to have a little bit of on hand (these are those impulse buys that maybe would be good but you shouldn’t plan on buying every single week.
Try not to take the kids – If you absolutely have to take the kids, then you need to strengthen your resolve not to buy that expensive sugar stuff they like. Also, sometimes an outing with the kids is so exhausting that you might think “I deserve something for this” and then you’ll buy yourself a treat, whereas, going to the store without the kids might just be your treat.
Eliminate the choice for your kids to be picky – this one’s the most beneficial for you and your kids later in life, as well as now. If you’re still a picky or fickle eater, you now know the cost of your ways, but think about supporting your kids when they refuse to grow out of the habits, too. Now you’re not really saving much money even though you’ve stopped being picky. This could even cause a relapse and you could become picky once more. Your kids need to have boundaries when it comes to what they eat, but they need to have boundaries that include more than the one meal they like. That way, they’re forced to eat something other than pizza and you’re not forced to over-spend.
Last, but not least: Show some self-discipline! – When you look in your fridge at all the stuff you bought and groan about how there’s nothing good to eat, remember who bought it all. You need to polish off your fridge before going to get more stuff. This is a big one. I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I would look in the fridge, go get my shoes, and go out to get something either at a fast food restaurant, or just another meal at the store only to realize that I’ve done it every day of that particular week. Well, when that happened, I had left all my groceries sitting in the kitchen while I double-spent to get some more groceries. There comes a time when you have to stop being such a baby with food and just eat what you have. I know you don’t only buy spinach and celery when you go to the store, so stop pretending there’s nothing good in the kitchen and make yourself something here at home! You’ll thank me later when your wallet doesn’t feel so light.