Tag: <span>frozen food</span>

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To date worldwide, there have been more than 3 million people infected with COVID-19, over two hundred thousand deaths and millions of others who have been impacted financially, and emotionally. Our frontline workers are tasked with continuing to go to work to provide for our public health needs and safety. During this unprecedented pandemic, frontline workers and healthcare staff are trying to take care for their patients and the general public while also coping with their own physical exhaustion, stress, worry and anxiety. Below are a few tips, strategies and mental health resources for staying emotionally healthy.

PHYSICAL HEALTH:

EAT REGULARLY- With an increased workload, variable work schedules, and psychological fatigue, it is very easy to skip a meal. Sometimes you may be too tired to cook, instead preferring to catch up on your sleep. If you don’t have time or energy to cook, consider meal prepping, buying a healthy takeout meal, or choosing healthy frozen meal options. Although takeout and frozen foods may not be your top choice, it may be a better alternative to skipping meals or eating unhealthy snacks.

GET MOVING!- Even if you can’t go to the gym or participate in a sport with your exercise buddies, consider engaging in a physical activity at home like yoga, stretching, push ups, hand weights or work out videos.

MEDICATIONS- Don’t forget to take your medications if prescribed. Set reminder alarms or stick up post it notes so that you don’t miss any doses.

MENTAL TEMPERATURE CHECK:

Don’t forget to self-assess daily! How are you coping with your stress? Are you feeling more detached or shut down? Are you more irritable or easily annoyed? Have you started to self-isolate, or are not answering calls or texts? Do you feel overwhelmed or a loss of control? Are you crying or feeling down? If you are experiencing any of the above, do not hesitate to talk to someone and get help.

UNPLUG:

Step back and breathe. Depending on job demands, it may be very difficult to stop and hit the reset button. However, being able to unplug temporarily is important to allow both your body and mind to recharge. Try not to constantly talk about work during your breaks or at lunch. When at home fully focus on your family and participate in bonding activities to help rejuvenate your mind and spirit. Consider engaging in meditation, spiritual, or religious activities depending on your beliefs.

BUDDY CHECK IN:

Although you may be coping okay, that is not to say that your fellow coworkers are handling their stressors effectively. Look around you! As you walk through the hallway, pass an open office door, or chat in the staff lounge, look closely. Be on the lookout for any unexpected negative changes in appearance, hygiene, attitude, or mood with your coworkers. Consider doing a quick buddy check, by asking them how they are doing. Even if they may not open up at the time, remind them that help and resources are available.

STAFF RESOURCES:

Employers are encouraged to provide information to their staff on available resources including employee assistance programs, mental health providers and financial support. Consider highlighting available resources through continuous reminders on the company’s webpage, weekly emails, Facebook postings, or informational bulletin boards.

NORMALIZE HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOR:

Although it is important to get help, doing so still has sociological and cultural stigmas attached. Everyone can do their part in normalizing seeking mental health assistance. As a society we don’t think twice when a person talks about going to their medical doctor for a medical issues. However, we all must be mindful in how we respond or comment when a person voices being stressed, overwhelmed or having problems coping. Let’s make sure we aren’t ridiculing, using negative language, gossiping, or minimizing the person’s difficulties. Instead, be that voice of encouragement and empowerment!

REMEMBER THAT ASKING FOR HELP IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS BUT A SIGN OF COURAGE!

RESOURCES:

• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

• The Crisis Text Line: Text TALK to 741741

• NAMI Helpline: 1-800-950-NAMI (1-800-950-6264)

• Disaster Distress Helpline: 1-800-985-5990

• Dial 211- visit 211.org if you need assistance finding food, paying housing bills accessing free childcare or other essential services.

• Military OneSource: Provides materials and information on programs for military parents.

Phone Numbers:

Toll-Free: 1-800-342-9647

En español llame al: 1-800-342-9647

TTY/TTD: Dial 711 and give the toll-free number 1-800-342-9647

• Veterans Crisis Line (VA): Call 800-273-8255 or text 838255

• DoD/VA Suicide Outreach: http://www.suicideoutreach.org

• InTheRooms.com: Live AA/NA online meetings

MENTAL HEALTH SMARTPHONE APPS:

Moving Forward App

Life Armor app

Breathe2Relax app

Headspace (meditation app)

Insight Timer App

Copyright © Felecia D. Sheffield, PhD, HSP,. All Rights Reserved in All Media.

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Source by Felecia Sheffield PhD

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The history of food delivery services traces its inception over sixty years. Since this time food delivery services still have the same basic principle to ensure that members of the community can have a hot, tasty and enjoyable meal.

The first meal delivery services are believed to have been started in wartime London. As a result of the Blitz, many Londoners had lost their homes and their ability to cook for themselves. In response to this need the WVS (Women’s Volunteer Service) produced meals and delivered them to people who had lost practically everything. This caring approach was carried on in various areas of the UK where injured servicemen were provided meals by volunteers in the local vicinity.

After the war the first true food delivery service evolved in Hemel Hempstead in 1947. The recipients were still servicemen who were incapable of cooking their own meals but instead of the vans used to transport meals today, these early services apparently used prams, lined with felt and even straw to ensure that the meal was delivered warm. Understandably this type of service was extremely labour intensive requiring a vast network volunteers, each with good cooking knowledge and skills. Today, the processes involved incorporate mass production principles.

In the UK food delivery services operate in a number of different ways. There are agency led programmes, typically ran in conjunction with local councils to cater for the local population. There are also private services that cater for those people that would like the benefits of food delivery but do not necessarily meet all of the criteria.

In the modern age there are also a number of different ways in which the food is delivered. Some programmes deliver meal that are cooked in a central location and then kept warm as they are delivered. Other programmes cook the food, allow it to cool and then cook the food before delivery in mobile units that both cook and deliver the food. The final type of programme delivers frozen meals that can be heated by the recipient in the microwave or oven.

Today there are a range of different food delivery services out there catering for the elderly, disabled and also those with special dietary requirements. It is this commitment to caring and ensuring people eat well that has been a consistent theme throughout the development of food delivery services.

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Source by Horace Tait

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Since the humble beginnings of the earliest cool box produced by Francis Malley in 1884, cooler boxes have evolved considerably. They now come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, often with specific functions. One thing that most of these have in common is that they are almost all insulated with CFC-free polyurethane foam. This is injected under pressure between the internal and external linings of the ice box. The use of high-compression injection means that all of the polyurethane foam gets into even the tiniest nook and cranny within the hollow casing, ensuring that insulation is uniform and complete.

A particularly interesting innovation is the use of thermoelectric coolers. These truly are cooler boxes that are the best friend of a motorist! These thermoelectric ice boxes hook up to the cigarette lighter in your car and run on your car 12 volt battery. The scientific concept of keeping food cold by using a current of electricity to draw warm air away from the food is known as the Peltier effect. According to the Peltier effect, if you were to reverse the current, you would be able to also keep food hot. That said they are usually used to keep food cool and not hot. There are drawbacks to these thermoelectric ice boxes. Firstly, the cooler boxes are rather smaller than most families would consider appropriate. Secondly, these ice boxes do tend to be a drain on your car’s battery.

The most appropriate size cool box for the average Australian family, who enjoys plenty of outdoor living and alfresco dining, is one with a 50 liter capacity. If, for any reason you don’t need to use all the space in your ice box you should fill the empty spaces in your cooler with small bottles of water that you have previously frozen. The reason for this is that cooler boxes work far more efficiently when they are kept full. Half empty cooler boxes have too much circulating air which will draw the much colder temperatures from the food to attempt to create an even overall temperature within the box. This has the effect of thawing any frozen food you might be storing in your ice box, and warming up any food that is colder than the ambient temperature within the ice box. So, to ensure your food stays as cold as you want it to, always keep your ice box full. In any event, it is best to have ice filling at least half of the box volume.

Certainly, cooler boxes have come a long ways since their more humble beginnings. Now the choices are so varied the average customer would have a hard time trying to decide the best ice box for their needs. This is where the combo cool box comes into its own. It is a product that consists of a 45 liter cooler box, along with a 5 quart “flip lid” cool box and also an insulated box with just a 1.15 liter capacity. All are insulated with CFC-free polyurethane foam. The 45 liter cooler box is 64cm long, 37cm in height and 34cm wide. As a starting set, this set of three is ideal, allowing you to use each size ice box and find out first-hand what the best size cool box is for you.

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Source by Alan Rich

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There is, understandably, food waste in any kitchen whether it is peelings and cutoffs or unused extras. Wasted food means wasted money and in the case of expired leftovers, a potential mess with odours. Either way, wasted food is unfavourable.

Fruit and vegetable peels and seeds are packed with fibre and nutrients, so removing them from our diet is counterproductive. There are many dishes that require one to peel the fruit or vegetable to get a certain desired texture but in some cases you can avoid that. For instance, when making tomato sauce a quality immersion blender can liquefy skins and seeds, creating a smooth and thick wholesome sauce. When making jams and preserves where the fruit is to be peeled, consider using a blender to process the fruit into a smooth paste and save those wholesome nutrients.

We have a steam-juicer for making wines, jellies or syrup and use that left over pulp to make fruit leather. Our dogs absolutely love blackberry and apple pulp leather and we use it for training in place of expensive dog treats.

Juicing is another example where waste (in this case pulp) is produced. That left over pulp is either compostable, or can be feed for chickens; if you have these options definitely utilize them. Otherwise, the pulp can be dehydrated and blended into a powder. Store in a sealed jar in the cupboard as you would for spices and herbs. The fruit powder can then be utilized in smoothies or salad dressings.

Owning a compact food dehydrator is also handy for processing garden harvests. Actually, anyone with a kitchen could benefit from owning one as it so easy to dehydrate any leftover cooked vegetables or fruits. Various veggie powders can be combined to make flavourful additions to soups, stews, casseroles and more. Dehydrated tomato or green pepper powders help thicken enchilada and tomato sauces. Add to homemade pasta and tortilla wrappers or sprinkle a mix of fruit and vegetable powders on your dog’s food for additional nutrition. In the past we dehydrated leftovers, soups and even refried beans for backpacking.

Get creative; you never know when these powdered foods can come in handy. We made a batch of chicken lasagna recently, freezing several portions for later. Upon the first try of that recipe we found it was quite watery. So when we took out the next frozen meal of chicken lasagna, we decided that the solution was to put a layer of tomato powder in the bottom of the casserole dish before laying the still frozen lasagna on top of it – resulting in a thick tomato sauce base after it had baked.

Check out the Brummets’ cookbook: From One Small Garden, with over 300 delicious, nutritious recipes! Available at:

AMAZON USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08T7YRHPN

OR AMAZON CANADA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08T7YRHPN

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Source by Lillian Brummet

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So you have a mature pair of discus fish that have shown an interest in each other but there not laying any eggs.

The most important factor in discus breeding in the water quality, make sure it is soft, acidic and clean. If you have this water, your most likely stressing over why there isn’t hundreds of eggs in the tank. If you have discus ready to lay eggs there are a few ways in which you can give them a helping hand.

The first way you can tempt them to lay is to feed a rich diet of frozen bloodworms for about a week. Feed it everyday as well as their other meal. This should condition the female and get her ready to breed. Other foods that are good for breeding discus are white worm, adult brine shrimp and chopped up crab sticks or prawns. Make sure you buy frozen food as there is less chance of disease.

Another way to encourage your discus to breed is by doing a 25% water change but drop the temperature by a couple of degrees of the water going in. This imitates there natural habitat and can trigger spawning. This is a little trick I use on all my young pairs when trying to get them to spawn. Make sure all the pH and hardness is the same making only the temperature different.

The third trick in getting your discus to breed is by separating them for a couple of days before reintroducing them. To do this you can add a tank divider or move the male to another aquarium. Make sure the female gets plenty to eat when the male is away. When you reintroduce the discus just keep a close watch over the next 24 hours as males have known to be aggressive towards the female. They should start the courtship over the next couple of days and hopefully lay eggs after.

There are more ways to encourage your discus to breed as well as many more tips on breeding and caring for discus fish on my site www.discus-fish-secrets.com

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Source by Rob Mellor

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The bulk of carbohydrate foods consumed today are highly refined and processed. Most of it is simple sugar, but not just table sugar; corn syrup, sweet drinks and different types of candy. Usually, the nutrients and fiber have also been stripped away. Not all carbohydrates are bad for you, but the following are classed as being the worst of the worst…

1. Pastries. While pastries serve as a tasty treat; cakes, muffins, donuts, and even bagels can cause significant blood sugar issues. These refined carbohydrates can cause a sudden spike. As the blood sugar in our body rises, the pancreas starts to make insulin to help the cells absorb the blood sugar. However, when we consume an excessive amount of refined carbs, we can become insensitive to insulin and it can become less effective at lowering blood sugar levels leading to Type 2 diabetes.

It is best to avoid pastries as they are super high in sugar. If you miss your favorite sweet treat, once in a while enjoy a treat made at home using stevia and this should help curb any craving! You can also make a low-sugar chocolate “milkshake” using full-fat unsweetened coconut milk, raw cacao powder, and a half of a frozen banana. This may do just the trick to satisfy your sweet tooth craving.

2. Bread. Bread, especially white bread can cause a spike and then a crash in blood sugar. Bread is also notorious for containing high fructose corn syrup which can increase your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. It is best to avoid bread and choose healthier options like gluten-free wraps made with cassava or almond flour. You can also use lettuce leaves in place of bread when making sandwiches to help prevent blood sugar imbalances.

3. Packaged Snacks. Packaged snacks tend to be very high in refined carbohydrates. Foods like crackers, cookies, and even granola bars contain loads of added sugar. Instead of choosing packaged snacks, choose whole foods like nuts, seeds, a half of an avocado, paired with a piece of fresh fruit.

4. Frozen Meals. Not only are frozen meals known for containing excessive amounts of salt, but they are also made with refined carbs like white pasta or white rice. Skip the freezer meals, and do your best to make as much of your food as you can! This way, you know exactly what goes into what you are eating.

5. Cereal. Breakfast cereal often contains high levels of added sugar. Instead of cereal, choose a whole grain option like rolled oats paired with a healthy fat such as almond butter to help stabilize your blood sugar.

Refined carbs can be detrimental to our overall health and can make balancing blood sugar levels challenging. Instead of refined options, try adding in some of the healthy swaps instead. You would be surprised at how much better you feel both physically and mentally with stabilized blood sugar!

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Source by Beverleigh H Piepers

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There is not any one magic food recipe that will guarantee conception, but what you eat can increase your chance for conceiving. One thing you have to do is start eating healthy. Start by eating less meat and more vegetables. You should be eating a lot of green vegetables. If you are not big on vegetables, you can chop them up real small and add them to your meatloaf and you probably won’t even taste them.

Things to Eat Or Drink to Help Bring Fertility Back

It is good for you to drink plenty of green tea and Vitamin C too. Studies have shown that women who make these a part of their diet are more likely to become pregnant. Trans fat is something that you want to avoid whether you are trying to get pregnant or not. Trans fat is found in all kinds of foods. Here is a list of the top seven Trans fat foods.

1. Margarine – is loaded with trans fats and saturated fats, both of which can lead to heart disease. Look for soft-tub margarine because it is less likely to have trans fat.

2. Packaged foods – Cake mixes and other mixes have several grams of trans fat per serving. Look for reduced fat mixes.

3. Soups – Ramen noodles contain high levels of trans fat. See if you can find fat free or reduced fat soups.

4. Fast Food – Fries, chicken, and other foods are deep-fried in partially hydrogenated oil.

5. Frozen Food – Those delicious frozen pies, pot pies, pizzas, and waffles hs trans fat. In frozen foods, baked is always heart-healthier than breaded.

6. Baked Goods – More trans fat are used in baked products than any other foods.

7. Cookies and cakes from your local grocery have plenty of trans fat in them.

If you and your partner are really trying to get pregnant you should consider the importance of a healthy diet. Making small changes in what you eat and drink can make the difference between conceiving or not being able to conceive.

You don’t have to drastically change your diet to improve your chances of fertility, but one easy thing you can do is to drink more water. Drinking at least eight glasses of water daily will help to increase your fertility levels. Also, you should be eating high-fiber low-fat foods. This will improve your hormonal balance which will help your chances to conceive.

Add Color to Your Diet

You should eat more brightly colored fruits and vegetables. These foods are nutrient rich and have plenty of vitamin B and folic acid. These foods are essential for healthy sperm and ovaries. Fruits and vegetables also have plenty of vitamin C and iron. Both enhance the quality of sperm and improve the immune system. It is a good idea to include plenty of fruits in your diet.

Wholesome Grain Foods

Another food that you need to include for a healthy fertility diet are nutrient rich whole grains. These include brown rice, corn, whole wheat bread, millet, pasta, and oats. Whole grain foods are rich in vitamins E and B which are essential for the production of healthy eggs, hormone balance, and sperm.

Eat lots of Nuts!

Nuts contain natural plant proteins. Nuts and whole grains also contain vitamin B6 and folic acid which raise your fertility levels. Here are six of the healthiest nuts to eat.

1. Walnuts are a great source of healthy omega-3 essential fatty acids which have been found to protect the heart, promote better cognitive function, and provide anti-inflammatory benefits for asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema and psoriasis.

2. Almonds contain almost 25 percent of your needed daily value for the important nutrient magnesium plus is rich in potassium, manganese, copper, the antioxidants vitamin E and selenium, and calcium.

3. Cashews are a lot lower in fat than most nuts, and 65 percent of this fat is unsaturated fatty acids. 90 percent is folic acids, which is a heart healthy fat found in olive oil.

4. Pecans are a great source of over 19 vitamins and minerals including vitamins E and A, copper, manganese, potassium, zinc, folic acid and calcium.

5. Brazil Nuts are very nutrient-rich and contain protein, copper, niacin, magnesium, fiber, vitamin E and Selenium. Selenium is a powerful antioxidant that works to neutralize dangerous free radicals. Studeis have shown that high amounts of selenium in Brazil nuts could help to prevent breast cancer.

6. Macadamia Nuts are high in protein, fiber, healthy monounsaturated fats, potassium and magnesium.

Fish in your diet

Omega 3 which is mostly found in fish oil helps fertility as it linked to healthy hormone function. Good sources of iron and selenium are seafood, meat and poultry.

A good well balanced fertility diet should include five servings of fruit and vegetables, two or three servings of protein and dairy products, and five to six servings of grains. This diet will ensure you have all the vitamins and minerals your body needs. Try to eat smaller meals because three full meals can cause constipation, bloating and pre-menstrual syndrome troubles. These are the Things to Eat Or Drink to Help Bring Fertility Back.

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Source by Summer Madison

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The other day, I received an email from someone who asked if buying frozen meals like lean cuisine or smart ones at the grocery store would yield the same weight loss results as the Nutrisystem diet. She perceived that the frozen meals were cheaper, even though she suspected that they weren’t going to yield as drastic results. Still, she hoped that she could get some at least some weight loss from the grocery store and asked my opinion on this. I’ll tell you what I told her in the following article.

The Basic Weight Loss Equation And Why Nutrisystem Takes This Further: Everyone knows this, but it bears repeating. You will lose weight if you repeatedly take in less calories than you are burning. This equation has been around since the beginning of time and it’s very simple. Yet, it’s simplicity doesn’t ensure that we’re any more successful with it. As a population, we are fatter today than ever – so perhaps this isn’t so simple after all.

Nutrisystem takes this a bit further by putting ketosis into the equation. Basically, carbs and proteins also come into play. In this way, this diet sort of takes what works from both low calorie and high protein diets. The foods are designed to be low in calories and carbohydrates, but low in protein. This sounds pretty basic too, but it actually does make your body burn fat much faster. The reason for this is that you are no longer giving it the carbs that it is used to burning. So instead, it must rely on your fat stores.

Any diet that we are comparing to Nutrisystem then should also be able to put your body in ketosis if you are going to have similar results. Therefore, I’m going to be looking at lean cuisine in terms of nutrition, calories, fiber, and carbohydrates. For the sake of comparing apples to apples, I’m going to compare two similar foods – nutrisystem’s and lean cuisine’s pizza – which are both popular items.

Lean Cuisine Pizza Nutrition Information: This product has 320 calories, and 80 of them are from fat. In total, it contains 9 grams of fat. There are 17 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber. The most troublesome thing to me here is the carbohydrates contained. There are a whopping 42. I find it very doubtful that you will get in ketosis with even a few of these meals daily. And, if you limited yourself to one, you’d still need to be very careful throughout the remainder of the day, especially if you are preparing the foods yourself.

Nutrisystem Pizza Nutritional Information: This item has only 250 calories, with 70 of them coming from fat. There are 8 fat grams. There is 11 grams of protein. But, there are only 28 grams of carbs. This is 14 less and this can make a big difference over time. You are also saving 70 calories which can add up also.

Another thing to consider with Nutrisystem is that you won’t need to be careful or conscious of what you eat for the rest of the day. They balance the meals out for you so that you’re eating no more than about 1200 calories per day and taking in a low enough amount of carbs and a high enough amount of protein so that you will get in ketosis. They provide the foods for you (three meals, a snack, and a dessert.) The dinner options (like the pizza) are the highest in calories and carbs. But the lunch and breakfasts are light on both of these. The whole thing is designed to give you the nutrients that you need while making sure that you approach both equations correctly.

Testing A Diet’s Effectiveness: If you’re still not sure which way you want to go, you can get ketone strips at most drug stores. These will tell you if you are in are or approaching ketosis. You can do this after a week or so on the lean cuisine meals to see what happens. I suspect that those extra carbs and calories would add up after a week though, but see for yourself. I can tell you from experience that a week of this diet will very likely put you in this place so long as you follow the instructions.

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Source by Ava Alderman

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As a food lover you want to enjoy good tasting foods at home. Ordering out for pizza is a very popular tradition in the United States, Canada and many other countries, but recently frozen has become very popular. Frozen foods have come a long way and many people can no longer tell the difference between the taste of delivery, and home-cooked pizzas. When cooking for your own pizza a lot can go wrong, so in this article we give you tips to get the perfect tasting home cooked pizza.

Official Cooking Directions for DiGiorno

There are a few different methods for cooking your pizza at home, but in this section we will give you the companies instructions, just like you would find on the packaging

Preparation – The first thing you must do is prepare your food. The pizza must be removed from the box, and also taken out of the plastic wrapping. Remember to remove the cardboard as well. It should be noted that the pizza should be cooked from frozen; it should not be thawed.

Cooking Heat – The oven should be heated to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. A tip that I use is to start preheating the oven right away, then get the pizza and prepare it. The oven temperature is the same for one pizza or two

Cooking Time – The pizza should be cooked for 12-18 minutes for one pizza, or 16-22 minutes for two pizzas. If you cook two pizzas remember to rotate the location in the oven at the half way mark.

Save Money on DiGiorno

A good way to save money is to buy the pizza when it is on sale. Another good way is to use DiGiorno pizza coupons. These are available online on occasion so keep your eyes open for coupons that you can print off and redeem.

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Source by Jeremy Rupke

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To this day I can still remember my first big grocery bill after we were married. It was about $200 and I cried on the way home. I didn’t get anything fancy-just the basics. We were poor newlywed students and food expenses were a necessary evil that I could not get around.

Buying groceries was my responsibility in the marriage and I was determined to live within our meager budget. I dove right into the challenge and years later found myself teaching community classes on “couponing” (“yes”, I had to tell my sisters, “couponing is a word”).

I no longer spend hours finding, printing, cutting and organizing coupons but there are some invaluable shopping principles I learned from those studies that I will never change. My favorite one is buying more to save more.

The simple idea behind the strategy is to buy more of something when it is on sale so you do not have to pay full price for it later when you need it. Applying this principle will look different in everyone’s home. Take some time to consider the following questions to be able to maximize your savings.

*How much room do you have for food storage?

This may seem like an obvious question but this has landed me in jeopardy more than once when it comes to frozen foods. I have become much more organized (and creative!) with my freezer space out of necessity. Although this is obviously not the answer for everyone, we invested in a deep freezer as a result of one of the best sales I have ever seen on cheese and meat. I convinced my husband that after a few additional sales like that one we would pay for the freezer with the amount of money we saved.

*How much of this item will we use?

No matter how good of a sale it is, it’s never a good deal if the food goes to waste. Make sure you do not buy more than you can use. Consider the expiration date and your schedule and meal rotations. I always try to make meals where the bulk of my ingredients are things I already have stored so that nothing is wasted or forgotten, but that’s a whole other principle.

*How good is the sale?

This is something you will get better at knowing over time. The worst feeling is when you stock up on a favorite item because it’s on a great sale, only to find out the next week that the same item is being sold at a significantly better price at a neighboring store. You will become familiar with prices in your area and start to know what is a good price for different items. Also, don’t be afraid to ask people! I have talked to my butcher at my grocery store several times about prices. I don’t know of a grocery store where they pay their employees commissions on sales so they will honestly tell you whether you should wait for a better sale or when an upcoming discount can be expected. Be kind and friendly to employees- they have a wealth of knowledge!

*How often is it on sale?

This question is one of my favorites because it’s such a game changer. Sales go in rotation. Not only can you expect certain items to be discounted around certain times, you can plan your food storage around them! For example, my grocery store has meat sales on a two week rotation. This means that I only need to buy enough chicken to last my family two weeks before I know it will be on sale again. It also gives me a reason to never have to buy chicken at its full price in between those sale prices because I can simply pull it out of my freezer.

Another sale rotation that is extremely helpful to be aware of and watch for are seasonal sales. For example, barbeque sauce is usually marked at its lowest around the Fourth Of July and nutrition and health bars are normally at their lowest in January for everyone’s New Years’ resolutions. Oftentimes these items do not expire for over a year so if you have the space, buy enough to last your family that long.

Once your stock piles reach a successful rotation you will find that you are shopping completely differently. It’s not unusual for me to come home from the store with 25 boxes of cereal, 10 bags of cheese and then only a handful of other basics like bread, milk and bananas. I don’t need to buy every ingredient on my list for meals that week because I have already stocked up on them when they were on sale. As a result, I can make the same tasty meals at a much lower price for my family. Buying more to save money is all about timing your larger purchases with their sale prices and ironically you will soon find that buying more can indeed help you spend less.

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Source by Emily Perkes