Frugality and Time Series: Cooking Like You Have All Day
It's common wisdom that cooking at home will save money and your waistline. It's one of first things you hear in any "how to be more frugal" talk. So readers, why don't we do it? While I do cook the majority of our meals at home, I confess to succumbing to fast food here and there. Why do I do that?
The simple answer is time. We don't cook because we feel like we don't have time. We're frazzled, we're tired, we've had a bad day and the last thing we want to is stand in front of a stove and deal with dinner and dishes. I know. I know this exact feeling. Even people who truly never hit up the drive thru have this feeling at least some of the time!
There's a way around this, of course. It's planning. The majority of the times that I've met my husband at the door with the "we're going out to dinner" glare have been on days when I've failed to plan. Suddenly everybody is hungry and I have a headache and just am not in the mood. Plus everything worth eating is frozen and I don't have any pasta or sauce or...well, you've been there. Before you know it, a pizza is on the way. Or you've loaded up the kids to head out to the golden arches. This is what happens when we don't plan.
We know that dinner happens everyday, so it is something we can plan for. Here's some things that I do that help keep me away from fast food:
1. Make a menu. I do my menus weekly, although some people do them daily or monthly. Having an idea of what you're planning on eating this week is important. I start by seeing what I have, then going from there. I make my menu before I make my grocery list for the week. Having a menu and shopping around it prevents having a pot of boiling water before realizing that you're out of spaghetti.
2. Cut things up right away! I learned this trick from Rachel Ray. When you get home, cut up the veggies and herbs before you put them away. Or have one day where you do a lot of the cutting! Sometimes the only thing between me and Taco Bell is cutting up onions. I'll cut up veggies in front of the TV. Another trick is to buy pre-cut frozen veggies or "meal starter" packs. I get them when they go on 10 for $10 sales. With frozen pre-cut peppers and fridge dough, I can have a pizza in the oven faster than I can dial the pizza place.
3. When you make your menu, look ahead! It's best not to make a complected new recipe on the day that you don't get home until 6 and have to leave at 6:45 for church activities. Save that for the days when you have a lighter schedule, and use other methods on the crazy days.
4. If your life is insane or you just don't feel like cooking? Cook all day- literally! Dust off your crockpot. When people think crockpot, they often think of cheap cuts of meat cooking for hours. That's delicious, and one way to use it, but not the only way. There's crockpot options for everyone, including vegetarians or people on special diets. Get everything ready the night before you use it and store the insert in the fridge.. Nobody wants to be chopping onions at 5:30 AM! If you're prone to forgetting to putting it in the heating element, put the element somewhere you will see it, like in front of your door or at your place at breakfast. Instant delicious dinner waiting for you!
5. If the crockpot is not your thing, that does not mean you can't cook ahead. Some people cook one day a month and fill their freezers. While I've never personally done that, I often double a recipe and put the extra in the freezer for a busy day. I also often mix up casseroles and the like the day before and put them in the fridge, oven ready for when we get home. Knowing that dinner is practically already done can ease up the urge to head out to Chipotle.
6. Keep a reserve of emergency boxed meals. I have a stock of Tuna Helper and Lean Cuisine TV dinners for days when I just can't deal. As a rule, we try to avoid processed and other convenience foods, but they're good to have on hand for every now and then. While Tuna Helper is hardly a winner on the nutrition scale, it's better than a Big Mac Value meal.
7. Think about how much time going out is really saving you. Making a simple meal may take 30 minutes or so. How long does it take you to drive to a restaurant, wait to be seated, get the meal, pay, and get back home? Sometimes it is not the time saver that people think it is.
8. For the days when all of the above fails you- keep a stash of coupons for local pizza and restaurants. You may also check online. I've ordered pizza and gotten a far better deal by ordering online than we would have with the coupons and specials we had in our eating out envelope. We all fall short of perfection. It's okay. Keeping coupons will help keep it from completely derailing your financial plan.
related posts:
- Frugality and Time: A Short Series Frugality gets a bad rap when it comes to how...
- Cheerful Frugality Plans A Meal When it comes to menus, I'm a cheerful sale shopper....
- Cheerful Frugality Packs The Freezer We did it! One long day of shopping/chopping + 6...
- The Single Gal and Food Welcome to my series about Frugality and the Single Gal....
- Fix, Freeze, Feast Have you ever been searching for something, but didn't really...
10 Responses to “Frugality and Time Series: Cooking Like You Have All Day”
February 10th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
In the limited time we have, trade-offs between, a little extra t.v. and cooking at home is not uncommon. I just bring my laptop to the kitchen table. Outside of cutting up vegetables, most of the time in cooking is just waiting. Since I would be surfing the web or chatting anyway, its no big deal to cook at the same time.
February 10th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Also #1 on savings with home cooked meals. Don’t throw out left overs. Be creative or eat repeated meals. But putting food in the trash is like flushing money. Silly, wasteful and ruins a good day. Make a left over stew pot in your freezer. Use that bit of meat in a salad. Can the rice be in a stir fry tomorrow. Look and figure out how to get the most out of what you have already cooked.
February 11th, 2009 at 5:57 am
Ditto making menus! Also, when I see I am pretty stocked up on staples, I make menus based off what I have. For examnple: If I see I have 7 cans of tuna, I will check to see if I have pasta and frozen veggies to throw together a tuna casserole. I also had a ridiculous # of cans of beans so I bought 3 boxes of cornbread for 99-cents and we had a big pot of mixed beans soup with cornbread…yummo! I have been doing this for the last two weeks and have used up a lot of overstock and saved quite a bit on meals
February 11th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Ditto on using your pantry. Not only does it make shopping easier, but when you buy bulk you save money and your sanity. There’s a lot of peace of mind when you know you have food stored that can be used in numerous ways.
However, our family is large enough we’ve been developing a pantry list so that we know when we’re getting too low in an item. So, I would recommend going through the pantry once a week when you do the menu/grocery list and update the inventory. Otherwise, we’ve found we have the illusion of having enough when we barely have enough to get us through the week. (Our goal is to have 3 months of food stored up so that if we were cut off from a store we could live off what we have… right now we’re lucky if we last a week or two.)
February 11th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
i’ve always thought veggies stayed good longer if you didn’t cut them till you used them. who am i to question rachael ray?
February 11th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
One thing I always try to do is buy “you bake” pizza’s with coupons and stash them in the freezer,they feeze nicely. When you want a night off you do have to get them out in time to thaw and rise a while, but what a deal. Pizza for $6.99!
February 12th, 2009 at 8:45 am
There are some great tips here! I like to have a set time when I start dinner, so at 4:30 (for example), I stop what I’m doing and start cooking. Also, I love to play praise music while I cook. Then my daughter and I can sing along and dance and have a good time. =) It definitely puts us in a good mood for when my husband gets home!
~Kate
“Which Proverbs 14:1 Woman?”
http://proverbs14-1.blogspot.com
February 15th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Another option that keeps forever in the pantry is pasta and a jar (or more, depending on the size of your family) of commercial spaghetti sauce. Emergency dinner in 20 minutes at less than a dollar per person.
February 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Oh i am so with you on menu planning. I do that every Saturday before I grocery shop. I make my grocery list as I am putting my menu together.
I completely agree with chopping the veggies ahead of time but can’t say that I do it religiously. Thanks for the reminder, I need to stay on top of that
i’ve started a new blog event called Thrifty Thursdays if you are interested in blogging along! http://amandascookin.blogspot.com/2009/02/gauging-interest-thrifty-thursday.html
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:38 pm
On nights when I haven’t planned ahead and the moments are ticking away, I tend to draft hubby and kids and set them to chopping, rinsing, peeling and measuring. I remind them that if they don’t, they’ll probably be eating around 9 p.m. or later, if at all; that usually helps spur them to action.
I also tend to take a look at the Desperation Dinners website. Yes, they use a lot of prepackaged foods for speed’s sake, but if you have people helping you with the prep work, you don’t have to use the prepackaged versions. For instance, you can turn a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast into a boneless skinless fillet in a minute or two–then use the leftover bones (with a bit of meat on) to make a small pot of homemade chicken broth. Strain, add carrots and pasta and you’ve got a first course.
Leave a Comment