The month of July has just started. It is that time of the month again when your long-awaited salary is credited to your bank account. This moment of delight may stay brief because soon you find out the huge bills you need to pay at the beginning of every month. This is especially true in the case of foodies, who never like to account for their expenditures and cutting your food bill then, remains an unavowed challenge.
You have long dreamed of living outside your hometown to fulfill your goals and aspirations. But an independent life outside your hometown demands you to be responsible too. This is because as you are new into the process of what the contemporary millennials call ‘adulting’ and there are several reasons for which you need to learn to become responsible.
The first reason is learning to live an independent life without your parents or guardians to take care of you and the second is taking the responsibility and accountability of your actions. And while living an independent life comes the challenge of taking care of our expenses. Living outside your hometown, even your smallest expenditures need to be taken care of, including your electricity bill, water bill, and especially your food bills. Cutting your food bill can be a major challenge for most but these comprise a major portion of your total monthly expenses.
According to research conducted by Knoema, in 2018, India’s expenditure on food per capita was 372.2 US dollars. This has witnessed a steady rise from 193 US dollars in 2009 to 372.2 US dollars in 2018 at an average annual rate of 7.73%.
This necessarily means that food is a major expenditure for all Indians especially the youths who love to spend thousands every month on either dining out with friends or ordering food online. The trends reveal that since 2009, there has been an evident increase in the expenditure on food per capita of India.
Though most of us love to satiate our tastebuds every once in a while yet these add to our monthly expenditure and the dream of healthy savings every month is put on hold. This is the reason why you must consider cutting your food bill every month.
Still, wondering about cutting your food bill every month? Well, do not worry! We’ve got you covered. Here are 11 things you can do for cutting your food bill every month.
Related: 18 Smart Ways Of Saving Money For Millennials In India
11 Ways of Cutting Your Food Bill
1. Get yourself a roommate
While staying outside your hometown for the first time, you might feel skeptical about getting yourself a roommate due to trust issues or even your ineptness. Yet getting a roommate will help you in many ways. First of all, you will stay confident at all times alongside somebody to be there for you when you are out of your hometown. Secondly, this will also help you in cutting your food bill as this will be shared much-like your rent and other expenses every month.
Related: Types Of Roommates You Will Meet In A PG Or Shared Space
2. Pack your lunch for your workplace
Most millennials today working in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai tend to order food online rather than bringing their lunch from home. This costs them a considerable amount of money, becoming an additional expense in their monthly bills.
Getting yourself lunch from home might remind us of the good old childhood days where our mothers and grandmothers would fondly prepare and pack our afternoon meals. But, packing your lunch for your workplace can help you in cutting your food bill alongside a healthier meal to eat.
3. Start cooking more
Most millennials today do not find enough time to cook at home or even do not cook at all. But this habit can help you save thousands per month.
Want to discover a chef residing within you? Look for easy, quick, and healthy recipes online — there are a lot of them on YouTube and even on social media websites. Take some time to learn these new and exciting recipes. Believe me, you will find a new satisfaction when you will know that you’ve cooked your meals yourself.
And when in time, you would have successfully learned these recipes, you will surely love to share them with your friends and family, cutting your food bill at the same time.
4. Avoid cooking excess
Do you love to cook? Well, that’s great! This will surely help you in cutting your food bill and saving thousands per month. But, brace yourself for the challenge of wasting food and adding an expense to your monthly budget.
Just imagine yourself living alone or a partner and you mistakenly cook or order excess foods especially the perishable ones. What would you do in such a scenario? Definitely, the sanest thing to do would be throwing it away. But this habit of yours is unnoticeably raising your monthly expense. Thus, the best way of avoiding wastage, and cutting your food bill would be to cook or order lesser.
5. Buy in bulk
Does buying in bulk helps you in cutting your food bill and add to your savings every month? Well, it does. We, as kids, have all seen our parents visit grocery stores and buying cartons or bags of essentials every month. However, millennials today are in the habit of going out to shop only when necessary and do not take into account how much they can save when they buy in bulk.
Moreover, some stores and supermarkets even offer additional discounts and points on buying in bulk from them, helping you save more.
6. Start shopping alone
Shopping alone can be hard for some. While for some it may mean carrying all the bags and cartons alone, other mays feel hard to decide on what to buy and what not to buy. But believe me, shopping alone helps you start saving more on groceries and essentials.
Imagine taking your roommates or even kids to a supermarket. You would definitely end up buying some extra stuff, you wouldn’t have previously hoped for. Thus, the best way is to shop alone and shop for only essentials items from the store. You should definitely consider alone for cutting your food bill.
7. Always prepare a list before shopping
Do you always prepare a list before visiting a grocery store? If not, you should always consider preparing a list of items you need to shop for. There might be many enticing offers in the store like buy one get one free, free gifts, and many more but by preparing a list of items, you can stay focused only on the things you need to buy.
In case you do not prepare a list before visiting the store, you will surely end up buying some extra items and might find cutting your food bill hard.
8. Look for coupons and sales
For a healthy saving and cutting your food bill, you should always keep an eye open for coupons and sales. These might be found active on certain days of the week like Wednesdays or Mondays or even during festive months. You must plan your shopping day of the month according to those selected days. Using this as an alternative will ensure healthy savings for you every month.
9. Order food on apps that give cashback
While you simply can’t resist ordering food from your favorite restaurants, you can always lookout for an alternative. These can be some apps that give cashback and discounts. You can even save now and order food on these apps during special occasions and festivals for a nice discount, thus helping you in cutting your food bill and making a healthy saving.
Some of such apps in India include Swiggy, Zomato, PhonePe, Paytm, and a few others to name.
10. Repurposing leftover food
We Indians always find one way or another to repurpose old stuff in innovative ways we call ‘Jugaad’. But this small jugaad of yours can sometimes help you save thousands in a month. The same applies to food too and you will find many innovative ways to repurpose them on the web.
Some will teach you how to repurpose your leftover rice into Mexican Fried Rice and others will help you know how you eat your leftover dinner Chappatis with jam as breakfast in the morning. But overall, repurposing them with a little jugaad will ensure you are cutting your food cost every month.
11. Change your eating habits
Despite your many efforts to save money and ensure that you are cutting your food bill, you sometimes can’t resist dining out or even ordering food online. In such a case, you will need to change your eating habits. You can list out the particular days of the month on which are going to order food or go out to eat and should try cooking at home for the rest of the days. This will easily help you save some money every month. You can even cook meals for the entire month and reward yourself by dining out once or twice a month.
So these were our 11 best ways of cutting your food bill every month. Though living a millennial lifestyle, you might want a luxurious life by eating out or even visiting your favorite restaurants in the city to satiate your tastebuds but believe me, you would feel proud of your savings in the long run and even plan your long-awaited dream holiday with your friends and family abroad!
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Even in the ongoing health crisis, we have continued providing our residents clean, well-maintained, and hygienic homes to reside in. We even serve delicious meals with amazing discounts across our properties to the Colivers, becoming a reason for them to place their trust in us, cutting their monthly food bill at the same time. Visit our website to know more!
