A recent United States Bureau of Labor Statistics study reveals that 44% of our food dollars are spent on meals made outside of the home! Not only are these meals generally less nutritious, but they’re usually much more expensive than meals made at home. Consequently, we can save a tremendous amount of money simply by replacing these meals with home cooked ones.
Yet with today’s hectic lifestyles its no wonder that we have to rely on meals made outside the home. Between dealing with pressures of work, taking the kids to a multitude of activities, and keeping up with the other challenges of life, the thought of dinner doesn’t usually come up until its actually time for dinner.
The result – convenient but expensive trips to the local fast food place, meals at the local restaurant, or orders from the trusty standby take-out menus located in the kitchen drawer.
Even in our fast-paced, pressured filled lives, however, there are ways to save money by cutting down on food made away from home.
The first money saving step is to plan ahead. On Sunday afternoon or evening take a look at your schedule. See which days are going to be especially hectic – what day do you have a late night meeting or which day do the kids have a late evening soccer game.
Its on these nights that you want to take a few of these simple steps to create quick convenient dinners without resorting to expensive take-out or restaurant meals:
Use a Slow-Cooker: Slow cookers allow you to spend 10 to 20 minutes preparing ingredients in the morning or night before. You then place all of your ingredients in the slow-cooker. When you get home from a hectic day at the office you’ll have a delicious meal ready and waiting for you.
Enjoy a Smorgasbord Night: Don’t throw away those left-overs. Place them in the fridge or freezer. On an especially hectic day let your family enjoy all of the left-overs on a “left-over night”. Your kids will love it, picking and choosing from amongst their favorites. Its quick, convenient and helps you save money.
Serve Breakfast for Dinner: Breakfast can make a cheap and quick dinner. Oatmeal takes only minutes to cook in the microwave. Add brown sugar, raisins, and cut bananas and it becomes a delicious meal. English muffins and bread take only a few minutes to toast.
Eggs can be fried quickly. Add left-over meat and vegetables from previous meals and you can make a quick but tasty omelette. Pancakes can also serve as quick treats. Better yet, you can cook up a large batch of pancakes ahead of time, place them in freezer bags, and use them when you need them.
Use Your Own Frozen Meals: In addition to pancakes, a whole variety of meals can be cooked ahead of time, placed in your freezer, and then heated and served on hectic weeknights. Soup, for example, can be made in large batches, divided into smaller portions and frozen. When you need a quick meal, simply take a frozen portion out of the freezer and place into the microwave for an instant meal.
Become a Twenty Minute Meal Expert: Many complete dinners can be made from scratch in twenty to thirty minutes. This is less time than it takes to travel to your local fast food place. Many cookbooks like Robin Miller’s Quick Fix Meals and the Six O’Clock Scramble can provide you with a multitude of easy dinner recipes. Experiment and develop a small group of five or six quick meal recipes that your family enjoys. You can rely on these recipes again and again when time is short and your family is hungry.
By taking simple steps you can help prevent the urge to reach for the take-out menu or the urge to take a trip to the local restaurant after a crazy day. In the process, you’ll save hundreds of dollars a year and provide your family with more nutritious and healthy alternatives.
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Nice post there. I really liked it. I would say that you can even opt to eat fruit salads cooked at home to avoid taking the way to the hotels.
I am making the effort (again) to avoid lunches out- I can eat homemade lunch all week for less than one restaurant meal. Today I brought leftover bean soup and cornbread. I need to get back into the habit of making larger amounts, freezing leftovers in smaller containers and just taking it to the office. I cooked “real” meals (more or less) the past two nights for my family- I am thinking we need to look at what is in the freezer and fridge and eat what we have. thanks for this blog(came over from Get Rich slowly)