Thursday, April 28, 2011

Saving $$ on Groceries: Portion Control

I've been starting to analyze how I can save money in various areas of my life. I feel like I'm pretty comfortable with my budget, but if I get laid off, I'm going to need to make some changes in order to make ends meet. One area I tend to have problems with is portion control.

For example, I might buy ingredients for soup and think, "This will be dinner all week!" But then, I actually serve it up and somehow it only adds up to three servings. Or, more likely, I buy some sort of snack food. Caramel rice cakes come to mind, along with hummus and crackers. Ideally, these snacks could work for three or four days at work. But more often than not, I grab the bag and polish them off in one sitting. Maybe two for the hummus.

I'm sure you see where I'm going. If I actually worked on not overeating, I would save a significant amount of money each month. And I'd lose weight. Clearly, a win/win. Obviously, this is a willpower issue, but I am determined to work on this not only for my health, but for my wallet. Maybe remembering how much more I'll spend if I overeat will be another motivation to stick to correct portions.

So, I am back on the Weight Watchers bandwagon (I have to cancel on June 7th, so I'd like to get to my goal by then). I am counting points and portions in order to make sure I don't overeat. Hopefully, this will result in saving money on my grocery bill, since all those foods will last me longer. I really think this can make a difference if I stick with it and change some of my bad habits. Wish me luck!

5 comments:

  1. I'm on Weight Watchers right now, and I feel like every Wednesday (my weigh-in day), I start over. Haha. It works on the weeks I follow it diligently! I'm only doing the online plan...

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I was on Weight Watchers last year I noticed that my food dollars were definitely stretching further - but I just didn't like counting points. I didn't find that it was sustainable over the long haul. Before I got sick, I started a new portion control plan and it was working really well...but then I didn't eat for almost 7 days while I was in and out of the hospital and now I'm down almost 8 pounds! And I spent NO money for all those days....

    So the solution to weight and money problems seems to be a major digestive illness....hmmm...something about this doesn't seem right....LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. My grocery budget where my budget gets blown. My BF is a picky eater. For example, I will buy bread for the week, it won't get eaten and we waste money throwing it away.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BTW - Love your blog and added it to my blog roll.

    ReplyDelete
  5. good for you...wish I could be so diligent

    ReplyDelete