As our community faces the same budget crunches the rest of the nation is experiencing, we are becoming more budget conscious. We look for things we can do without and then we do without them. Those are the simple decisions.

There are some things we cannot do without — food, for example. Balancing the budget and eating a balanced diet can still go together hand in hand. A few tricks make all the difference in saving money.

Our lifestyles have become very hectic and most Americans opt regularly for convenience foods and fast foods — in some cases eating out every night. Planning ahead for meals is not part of our lifestyle. We arrive home hungry and don’t have time to make a home-cooked meal. It is certainly simpler at the end of a long day to stop for takeout or use convenience foods you can heat and eat.

Besides the hit that such eating makes to our pocket books (which is much more than most of us realize), such foods are often high in fat, salt and sugar. Eating at home is a big money saver and best of all well-planned and executed home-cooking tastes best.

Too often, in an effort to reduce expenditures, people resort to cutting back on nutrition. There are ways to cut corners without cutting nutrition when making meals at home. Many people eat very well while saving hundreds of dollars every year on food by following a few simple tactics to juggle food dollars.

The short list is:

• Plan meals ahead, instead of at the last minute.

• Make a food budget and stick to it.

• Use a shopping list, compare prices and check the labels.

Begin by keeping track of what you do spend on food for a person for a week. Keep track of items you purchased that you may not have received a receipt for. Include fast food purchases.

Add the costs of all the items together and multiply that by the number of people in your family. That will give you your current weekly food budget. Multiply by four to get your family’s monthly budget.

Now you can set about cutting costs.

Do the math

Use the weekly food budget you prepared by checking your costs. Go through your cupboard to see what staples you have on hand. These are the things you use all the time and can be stored in the cupboard without going bad. Examples include flour, peanut butter, canned soups and meats, rice, spices, pastas, jarred spaghetti sauce, canned and dry milk.

Estimate how much you will need this month to replenish these supplies and subtract that from your food budget.

Take the remainder of the monthly budget and divide it by four to figure weekly purchases of perishable items.

Plan menus

Planning menus does not need to be a drawn-out process. The ideal way is to sit down with a calendar and write down the menus for each day. If that is too much for your busy schedule, at least make a list of potential meals. Keep the list by the shopping list and plan from it.

Think about what your family likes to eat and what is good for them. Check recipes to make sure you don’t forget a critical ingredient. Check the ads to see what is on sale that week and plan a meal to include these specials.

Plan for leftovers. Make extra a couple of times a week and you will have handy additions for lunches or a quick dinner another night. Think ahead for busy days.

Shopping list

Keep a shopping list readily available on the fridge, by the phone or on a small clipboard inside a cupboard door. Write items you need on it as you think of them so you don’t forget later.

As you put together your shopping list, check your pantry to see what staples you need. If you are inclined to store food, this will help you keep your quantities up and avoid over-purchasing items you already have plenty of. You can stock up on the staples as they come on sale.

Check grocery ads for sale prices and produce specials. Clipping coupons can be useful if you find some that are for foods your purchase all the time and know you like. Otherwise you can probably do as well by purchasing the store brands or generic brands of items.

Shopping strategy

One key is to plan your grocery store visit systematically by listing items under departments. If you are prepared, you can get in and get out. The longer you stay, the more you will spend.

As you prowl the aisles looking for your purchases, look up and down. The most expensive products are usually at eye level with less expensive items above or below that.

Which brings us to another tip: shop alone. You are far less likely to come home with a cart full of non-necessities if you don’t have the distraction of other people helping you make choices.

Never shop when you are hungry. Pay attention to what you are getting. Read nutrition labels. You may find that you are getting less value for a lower-priced product. For example, if a product contains very high proportions for sugar, you may do well to look for something lower in sugar and higher in nutrients. You can also read the list of ingredients, which must be listed by weight from most to least. If the first item on the list is sugar, the food has more sugar than any other ingredient.

Compare prices. The store brand items are often equivalent to a national brand item. Check labels for ingredients if you are in doubt. The only difference is often price. The store brands don’t have to spend as much on advertising to get you to purchase their brand, which may have been packaged by the same folks that package the name brands.

If in doubt, purchase a name brand and a store brand and test them on your kids. Don’t let them see the packaging, just dish up the foods for them to taste and see if they can tell the difference.

Check the unit price on the packaging. If you have two packages of different sizes for the same item, check the package side for the number of servings in the package. Many grocers put unit pricing on the shelf front showing the price per unit. Provided you can store larger quantities than you need, you may find that purchasing the larger container is the better option, although don’t assume that it is always the case.

Judicious flexibility

Sometimes you get to the store and find an unadvertised special that is too good to pass up. Perhaps the store was overstocked on an item and they need to make room on the shelves in a hurry. They may also have perishable items like meat, milk or produce that needs to be sold quickly.

Substitute such items for something on your planned menu and use them up quickly before they spoil.

You can enjoy the delights of home-cooked meals and good eating by planning ahead and taking the time to cook meals for your family and at the same time, control your food budget.