{"id":20822,"date":"2020-03-18T22:57:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T20:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/zaparents-blog\/?p=20822"},"modified":"2022-01-05T12:37:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T10:37:05","slug":"making-my-monthly-grocery-budget-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/lifestyle\/finance\/making-my-monthly-grocery-budget-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Making my monthly grocery budget work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The Coronavirus pandemic has certainly tightened the reign on our budget. So much has come to a screeching halt, and with the fear of an economic crisis, we&#8217;ve got to exercise caution on all our spend &#8211; including groceries. That&#8217;s when we&#8217;re not blowing it all on toilet paper and the like!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Keeping an accurate budget<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">My husband told me in January, \u201cWe HAVE to keep an accurate budget\u201d. This was painful to set up but I am really enjoying the benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">This is what I found:<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> I spend, on average, R7500 per month on food, cleaning agents, and personal items for 4 adults. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Shopping at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dischem.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dischem<\/a>, the local butcher, local fresh fruit and veggie shop and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnp.co.za\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pick &amp; Pay<\/a> has saved me a good deal. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">I ALWAYS ask for a discount, no matter where I go and I usually get it! Like anyone, I look out for and shop specials. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Making a list helps me not to forget anything or buy unnecessary items. <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">The loyalty cards and schemes offered by various retailers are my best buddies in helping us save too, even if it is a few Rands per shop.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-size: 16pt;\">Manage your kitchen &#8211; and your budget, with these tips:<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">I try very hard not to waste or throw away food.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">1. Wash veggies very well if you peel them. Keep the peels and either use fresh in a soup or freeze until needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">2. Collect and freeze odd bits of cheese that have either dried out or are a bit old and use in a cheese sauce.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">3. Don\u2019t throw away your roast chicken bones. Make a soup with combination fresh veggies and frozen veggie skins.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">4. Buy wraps and freeze them to use with leftover savoury mince \/ chilli con-carne \/ beef or chicken stew. Defrost wraps, heat the filling and put about 4 Tbsp filling inside, wrap and place in an oven proof baking dish. Cover with a bit of cheese sauce with extra cheese on the top and bake at 180 deg until the cheese has melted. Serve with sour cream or plain yoghurt mixed with lemon or lime juice and cilantro\/parsley and some smashed avo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">5. Fresh parsley, lettuce, spring onions and coriander can be washed, completely dried (air and moisture are the enemy), wrapped in paper towels, placed in zip lock bags (remove air) and kept in the fridge for a month. Just check every few days and change the paper when necessary. It\u2019s not perfect but it keeps you from throwing away lots of fresh greens.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">6. I alternate meals, one day veg and next day meat.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">7. Porridge is really inexpensive and filling and mostly lower carb.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">8. Repack your fridge at least once a week so you know what\u2019s in it and what state your goods are in. This way you don\u2019t buy stuff you already have and arrange recipes around what you do! Same applies to your grocery \/ pantry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to keep updated with more, you can:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\"> subscribe to our free weekly Jozikids <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/member-registration\/\">newsletter<\/a> for parents in Gauteng<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Like us on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jozikids.co.za\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">facebook<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">Follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/jozikids?igshid=1n8cwedrewul\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">instagram<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Coronavirus pandemic has certainly tightened the reign on our budget. So much has come to a screeching halt, and with the fear of an economic crisis, we&#8217;ve got to exercise caution on all our spend &#8211; including groceries. That&#8217;s when we&#8217;re not blowing it all on toilet paper and the like! Keeping an accurate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":20863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[626,163],"tags":[166,628,629],"class_list":["post-20822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19-kids-families","category-finance","tag-grocery-spend","tag-monthly-budget","tag-monthly-saving"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/252"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jozikids.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}