I'm on a tight budget. Yes I am! One area where I tend to overspend is food. I really like trying new recipes and buying all natural and organic foods, and it can add up! I go through phases where all I eat are salads, or chicken, or sandwiches, or whatever sounds good that week. I get tired of things pretty quickly and I'm not very good at eating leftovers for very long. One way I've tried to save money is to cook a meal big enough for dinner, leftovers for work, and for several frozen portions. It's so convenient to grab a frozen container of lasagna or beans and rice when I'm heading out the door in the morning. Plus, I don't like the taste of frozen meals that you buy at the store, and what I make is much healthier.
Some of the things that I've made that froze well:
- Penne with sauce and Italian sausage (any kind of pasta mixed with sauce works well)
- Crock-pot barbecue chicken
- Black beans and rice
- Lentil Soup with smoked sausage
- Red beans, ground turkey and rice
- Mini Spinach Frittatas
- Cupcake quiches
- Mini meat loafs
- Taco meat
- chopped onions (to add to recipes)
- chopped ham (to add to omelets and other recipes)
- Brown Bag burritos
- Re-fried beans (I never use a whole can for a meal)
- tuna and noodles
What kinds of things do you do to save money on food?
Could you send me your recipes for the cupcake quiches and crockpot bbq chicken? They sound so good and easy! I'm always looking for simple but delicious meals like those.
ReplyDeleteJust message me on FB unless you have my email!
We joined a local CSA and it has saved us TONS of money - plus it's good, fresh, organic produce. We also buy our milk from a dairy and get our meat by purchasing a whole cow yearly - I buy chicken at Costco, haven't found a good source yet.
ReplyDeleteI try to bulk shop as much as I can and with our family size that's easy. You can also share with others in your neighborhood. We do a lot of cooking for each other so that we don't get sick of one specific thing.
Oh and coupons, coupons, coupons!
Hey M!
ReplyDeleteI'll work on getting those recipes to ya, I don't have facebook at work. :) If you see this and have a second, you can send me your e-mail address at suchsimplejoy at gmail dot com. :)
Suzanna