Last week you learned what a grocery freeze is and why you need one. You picked your date and made your inventory. Now you’re ready to dive in deeper and be successful! These grocery freeze tips will help you stretch your food to last the whole month. They will also give you small tips that will make you more successful and less-likely to give up. If you’re ready to rock your grocery freeze let’s get to the tips!

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Stretch Your Food

A grocery freeze will force you to stretch you’re your food, especially meats. For example, I turned 5 lbs. of ground beef into 6 meals. I mixed up and froze meatballs and baby meatloaves which gave us 3 freezer meals. Then I browned the remaining 2 lbs. and made stuffed peppers, soup, and homemade Hamburger Helper from it. This brings us to the second tip:

Learn to DIY

Your convenient meals will be the first to go during a grocery freeze. Learning how to make your own bread, tortillas, and seasonings will be imperative for success. For example, when we didn’t have any spaghetti sauce or even tomato sauce, I made my own with jarred tomatoes that I pureed and seasoned. Little DIY’s can make all the difference.

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Save Freezer Meals

Make the meals that you can’t freeze earlier in the month while your excitement is still high. As the month wears on, start utilizing your freezer meals.

Substitutes

Remember to come up with creative substitutes instead of buying missing ingredients. If you run out of milk used condensed milk and water. Don’t have any bread crumbs? Smash up some crackers for your recipe.

 

Utilize Soup

Soup is one of the best meal-stretchers around. Above when I told you that I made soup from the ground beef? That soup was made from the excess rice and ground beef mixture that the peppers were stuffed with. Instead of having leftovers we had an entire extra meal.

Let Nothing Go to Waste

Leftovers can be turned into new meals to stretch food further during the month. Dice leftover pork chops to throw into fried rice. Toss leftover spaghetti noodles with butter and vegetables for an easy pasta dinner.

Transform Produce

If you have fresh produce that is starting to wilt or go bad, transform it. You can learn to can it, add it to freezer meals, or cook it up store it in the fridge to be a side dish. You can also freeze it to add to recipes later.

 

Temper Your Caffeine Fix

Coffee is a staple to my existence but sometimes during a grocery freeze, I run out. Crazy, I know. Since I’m not ready to give up my daily caffeine, I have found other ways to keep it coming. If you know that you do not have a lot of coffee for the month, make a half of a pot to stretch it further. You can also substitute with tea (iced or hot) that contains caffeine to get you through the month.

 

There you have it! Now you have the grocery freeze tips you need to rock your grocery freeze. Do you have any tips that you use to stretch your groceries further? I’d love to hear about them in the comments! If you missed Why You Need a Grocery Freeze you can check it out now to rein in your grocery budget and prevent food waste.

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Do you feel like your grocery budget is out of control? If you are spending hundreds each month on groceries and still having to run out weekly for ingredients then something has to change. It can be hard to get your spending on track and reign in your food budget. In the post Creating Your Future: January 2017 Goals I mentioned that this month we are doing a grocery freeze this month. It is a huge part of my finance goals because of how much money it saves my family. Keep reading to find out what it is and why you need a grocery freeze to get your budget under control.

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What is a Grocery Freeze?

A grocery freeze is a specialized no-spend challenge. For an entire month you don’t spend one penny on food of any kind. It helps you reset your grocery budget and also prevents food waste. When I do it, I don’t spend any money at all on food. I don’t buy coffees, slip through a drive-thru, and no popping by the store for milk. If you want to adjust it, you can make exceptions for basics like milk, eggs, and bread. The perk of not allowing exceptions is that it forces you to get creative with your meals and, in some cases, learn alternative ways to prepare them.

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Why Do You Need a Grocery Freeze?

I don’t quite know how it happens but we always end up with things in our pantry and freezer that keep getting shoved aside each month. Canned goods sit unused and vegetables in steam packs never get eaten. A grocery freeze is the way to fix that. It forces you to use up those lonely items because you simply don’t have anything else. It can also force you to eat more vegetables is you run out of meat to prepare. (I admit that in all my years of doing grocery freezes, I have only run out of meat once.)

Grocery Freeze Steps

Now that you know why you need a grocery freeze, it’s time to get started. These easy steps will walk you through the basics. It may seem intuitive but without preparation you can stumble (or give up) when you hit road blocks. I want you to be successful reigning in your grocery budget.

Step 1

Pick you month. Don’t pick a month too far away. The closer the date is the better. That will keep you from padding your pantry with extra items before the freeze.

Step 2

Start on the first of the month and create an inventory of everything in your freezer, fridge, and pantry. If you need help, I’ve got tips and a free printable for your at You Can’t Meal Plan without Knowing What You Have.

Step 3

Take a look at your list and come up with a meal plan.

Step 4

Make and freeze the meals you can in batches. If it’s not easy on you then you will be more likely to give up as the month goes on.

 

Are you ready to get your grocery budget under control and your spending back on track? Now you know why you need a grocery freeze to make it happen. Clean out your inventory and stop wasting food (and money) each month. I like to do these twice a year. Doing one in January sets the tone for my grocery budget the rest of the year. A second grocery freeze during the summer resets my pantry/freezer before the new school year. Come back next week for Grocery Freeze Tips to be successful and stretch your groceries.

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