By Renee Martinez
My children eat like horses. I mean technically, only 3 of them consume real food right now, which makes the idea of future consumption downright scary. If you can relate to this, then read on. I’ve offered you a few helpful tips.
For Saturday and sometimes Sunday breakfasts, we go through an insane amount of food. For example we might have scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, pancakes and some fruit. These are not big guys I’m talking about. My oldest is very slim and the rest are average build. My oldest boy will have 2 sunny-side up eggs, 2 or 3 medium-size pancakes, 2 or 3 sausages and a banana or an apple with some orange juice. Come to think of it, this is pretty much what each one (except the baby) will have on any given Saturday or Sunday morning. So that’s nearly a dozen eggs and pancakes and a package of sausage. Plus fruit and juice. Do your boys eat like this?
I’m starting to worry about my food bills! I spend about $125 per week on food and frankly, sometimes it doesn’t seem to get me much.
One thing I do that I think helps, is plan my meals. I plan each meal and this helps me to only buy the items I need. At my local grocery store, if you go early, you can catch the mark-downs on meats. I have a thing for buying the prepared meats (things like feta/spinach burgers or almond-crusted chicken) at a discount price. These are items I am perfectly capable of making on my own, but when the price is reduced, I am willing to buy them and freeze. This way, I can just whip something up easily when I want that’s also healthy. I’m also a bug fan of buying bulk-size packages for things like tallapia or ground turkey or beef. Then I can divide into smaller packages and freeze. Sometimes I add spices so that it’ll be easier to prepare when I’m ready.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that given the choice, my children could graze all day long (and so could I). So I really try to stick with 3 meals and 2 snacks. Otherwise someone is whining to me that they are starving (or I’ll start picking) and honestly, I just don’t want to hear it.
Coupons. I’m not a huge coupon person. I’m conscious of prices and certainly use coupons when I have them, but I don’t get the local paper anymore, so I don’t have access to as many coupons. Here’s a few links to coupons for you:
- Great target coupons
- Free Samples or Trials at Walmart (I’ve never tried this, but you might find it useful)
- Very helpful article with links
- This could be an interesting way to get free things.
About the Author: Renee Martinez consults and speaks professionally on social media marketing, integrated marketing communications, public relations and branding. She is the president of Ruby Marketing Communications (www.rubymarcom.com), a boutique marketing communications company that specializes in providing branding, social media strategy and integration, and creative services. Her blog (www.lisac95.sg-host.com), provides resources on everything marketing and social media for her active audience.
Renee has contributed as a featured monthly columnist in the monthly jewelry industry publication, JCK on matters related to internet marketing as well as in InStore Magazine as a featured blogger where she writes about developing effective marketing strategies for the jewelry industry using social media. She is the founder of: Social Media Biz Summit (www.socialmediabizsummit.com), the first large-scale SM conference to come to Buffalo, NY; #jewelrychat, a weekly twitter chat for the jewelry industry and www.RaisingBoysWorld.com. Renee teaches social marketing courses at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY for the business school as well as offers small group social media marketing training and educational seminars for businesses in Western New York and beyond.
Renee has dabbled in internet marketing arena since the early 90′s and is not ashamed to call herself a “marketing geek”. From chatting in AOL, “sharing” music on Napster, and teaching HTML classes before it was considered “cool” to developing comprehensive social media strategies, effective public relations campaigns and managing online communities (most recently Chevy Girls Buffalo).
She enjoys being able to help people find their voice online and to create buzz about their product or service that will give them the results they desire.
Renee can be found on Twitter (@reneemmartinez) and Facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/RubyMarCom).
