One of the great pitfalls of frugal grocery shopping and stockpiling can be an unorganized pantry. Unfortunately, a pantry that suffers from disorganization can wind up costing your money instead of saving it. Here are three ways why it pays to take the time to organize your food.
The biggest cost to your food budget can be food that expires or goes stale before you can use it. When this is the case, it doesn’t matter that you only spent 50 cents on a jar of pasta sauce if you never use it. One recent study suggests that Americans throw away 25 percent of their food. If you spend just $800 a month on food (not hard to do today with rising prices), then that means you have thrown away $200 a year in unused food!
Want some more motivation to organize that pantry? Have you ever found a great deal on something, let’s say mayo, and stocked up? Then you get home and discover that you already four jars of mayo at the back of your pantry? Depending on their expiration dates, you may get to use them or they may expire before you can consume them. Either way, you’ve spent money that you didn’t need to spend. You could have waited until the next deal and saved that money for something else.
And finally, you could shave your annual grocery bill just by utilizing things that are already in your pantry. When your pantry is well organized, you can take a look at your shelves and try some different meals, based on what you have. The pantry can inspire you. I have personally found that when my panty is organized then it makes it less tempting to eat out. I can take a look at the stock and whip up something in 30 minutes or less, such as a pasta bake with tomato soup, a quick veggie fried rice, etc.
Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, technology in the Computing Blog, and creating a home in the Home Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.
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