I think that really many families can spend much less adapting our habits, it's just a matter of proposing it to us. I know that when you are used to a certain lifestyle, it is difficult to give up certain purchases, but sometimes it is necessary.
We fathers and moms have many issues to deal with, and most revolve around children and home management. Now the economic situation for many families is difficult and it seems that it makes little sense to pretend to manage the money in those cases, since they have very fair budgets. But we all suffer the crisis at any given time, we consider the possibility of cutting expenses.
How can you spend less on a house with children? part of the savings is focused on 'buying and cooking'. If we dare to review our customs carefully, we will realize that it is possible to exercise responsible consumption decisions to spend less.
We are going to give you some ideas.
As a starting point we can think that by spending less we will not have a worse quality of life, and that our children will not stop being happy, it is a good teaching that we all learn to avoid really expendable objects
The time of purchase
- It is a good idea make a list of the products we need, even if we take the children to shop with us. In the latter case we can let them help us complete the annotations, and even choose a special product (such as yogurt with flavors or soda). This will prevent us from spending so much and also that the children know the limit, really the decision to buy or not objects that the little ones insistently ask is from the parents not from the children.
When the situation is complicated by taking the children, we can look for options: to make the purchase only one of the parents, leave them an hour at the house of grandparents or friends, use the play centers of the shopping centers (it is an option that to me I am not satisfied, but they are there to provide a service).
- Make weekly or biweekly purchase of everything we will need, and avoid making small purchases in the middle (if the white rice is finished and we have not noted it, we can spend a few days without making paella and cook another day of pasta, resort to the soup with semolina, or use the brown rice that still we had not dared to open).
When the purchase is biweekly, it will only be for packaging, since fresh products can be purchased at least once a week.
- Buy packaged food, hygiene and drugstore products in supermarkets looking for different offers, and fruit and vegetables in the market or neighborhood stores. Access to seasonal vegetables and fruits lowers the price of this part of the purchase, they are also better and healthier.
Meat and fish I prefer to buy them also in the market, the quality / price ratio is very adequate. Although I have to choose between the supermarket and the neighborhood store, I choose the first price (making sure that the product offers guarantees)
Almost always less is spent when we pay in cash, because we have a budget to adjust to.
To buy more fresh and basic products and less elaborated or packaged.
Find the offers of hygiene products or household cleaning, although in food we want something more quality. Also interesting resort to 'white marks' although not all offer acceptable quality.
Really when we free ourselves from consumer habits we are exercising our decision-making capacity, and this is very educational for children.
In the kitchen
The one we know as 'traditional cuisine'In addition to being simpler to prepare, it is more economical: mostly basic products such as vegetables, pasta, rice or legumes are used. And even if we work we can leave it prepared the day before and cool it in the fridge when it is already cooked.
'Do it yourself'It is also possible to prepare snacks and desserts for children with our own less: it is healthier, cheaper and does not give much satisfaction to verify that we are capable.
Children who are accustomed to industrial pastries often protest when their parents offer homemade custards, snacks or muffins, but in the end everyone appreciates the effort and (especially) the taste of what has been done at home.
Cooking tips: the bottom of casseroles and pans should be somewhat larger (never smaller) than fire, by covering the containers we can save some energy, and it takes less time to prepare the dishes. In vitroceramics we can extinguish the fire a little before finishing the cooking because they keep the heat, and we will not forget with any type of 'fire' to reduce after the first boil.
Do not open the oven door more than necessary.
Homemade food is healthier and cheaper for everyone, and today many adults bring homemade lunch or a container with their food to work
Food preservation
Make sure that the closet that we use as a pantry is far from heat sources so that the conserves do not deteriorate.
Keep the thermostat from the refrigerator between 3 and 7ºC and the freezer between 18 and 15ºC, these gestures reduce electricity consumption.
Fresh foods (fruits and vegetables) should be covered even inside the refrigerator, I use cotton cloths, so they last longer and do not get wet. Meat that is not going to be consumed immediately freezes, and fish too, of course.
When we cook to spare freeze what we haven't eaten: in the fridge we neglect and spend more than two days ... it doesn't work anymore.
When we store dishes that we have prepared, we must let them cool before putting them in the refrigerator.
Also remember that the use of the washing machine also helps us to save: we all know tricks like filling the drum, rationing the soap or using short programs
What else you can think of to save buying and cooking?
Images | Images | (kitchen) Zak Greant, (market) gerry.scappaticci, (refrigerator) Toms Bauģis En Peques y Más | Visiting the market with children is fun, and it also becomes an opportunity to develop basic skills, economic crisis, what do we say to children?
