How Do We Do It?

So after I posted what we bought this week for food I started wondering to myself "How do we do it?" I mean how do we eat on $50 or less a week and how have we been doing it successfully for over 2 years!??? I realized there are some things I do that I think might contribute to helping in this area. Over the next few weeks whenever I recognize something I am doing that seems to help I will share it with you all.

So the 1st thing I recognize that I do is I keep my eye on portion sizes. Now I don't weigh our plates or anything but I realize I am always the one to dish up the food. Whether it is breakfast, lunch or dinner I am usually the one making it and I am the one determining what everyone is eating and how much. I fill the glasses of milk, the bowls of cereal and scoop out the casserole to be put on the plate.

When my husband and I were first married I would always give him more food than myself becasue I knew he ate more than me. Over time I started to notice that Ryan really loves seconds. It doesn't matter how much is on his plate the 1st time, he wants to go back for seconds. This was frustating at first because it seemd a 6 serving dish could quickly turn into only 3. So since I am the one that usually puts our plates together I started giving him the same amount of food as I gave myself or less even to see what would happen. Sure enough, Ryan still went back for seconds but he never noticed that he was actually eating less and over the course of a year he actually lost 15 pounds... kind of funny huh?

Another great example of portion size is when we have pizza. For the longest time I would always cut our Friday night pizza into 8 pieces. I would start Ryan out with 2 pieces and he would always go back for a 3rd. I tried cutting our pizza into 10 pieces and the same thing happened. I now cut my pizza into 12 pieces and you know what? Ryan always has 3 pieces, but seems to be just as satisfied and I get 2 meals out of my pizza instead of just 1. We eat it for dinner on Friday and then usually leftovers for lunch on Saturday or Sunday.

As for our toddler I notice that I usually give him to much food so then what he doesn't eat ends up getting thrown away. What I started doing here was giving him a little portion and then if he likes what we are having I just give him more. If he doesn't like it then that is less food I have wasted.

Now what is funny is that my toddler, nor my husband, have any idea that I do this. They have no clue that I play this little portion size game with them:)

Anyway all that to say watching your portion sizes is probably a good way to make your food last longer. Most meals I make serve us both dinner and lunch the next day.

I have some other practical ideas brewing that I plan to keep on sharing. If you have any tip that you think help stretch out your food for the week be sure to share them in the comment section or feel free to email me.