So, previously we spoke about five ways to save money in your kitchen. We talked about some unusual things that you can do, some controversial things, and some things that you can do while still trying to keep up the health of your family; the healthiness of your food. It’s not easy to do that when you have to cut costs, because often the healthiest things are expensive.
Something that helps a lot is keeping your food simple, and going for the main food groups: the meat, the dairy, the vegetables, fruits, and grains. If you keep it simple, and don’t spend money on all the little extras that are packaged goods, then you definitely can cut costs.
As well, some things are very cheap in bulk, like bulk lentils, bulk dried beans, rice, bulk grains, and even meat, when you can buy it in bulk.
So, it’s definitely possible to eat healthy food and nourish your family while saving money. Today we’re going to talk about five more unusual ways to save money in your kitchen.
The first one I want to mention is what I called inventory – you’re going to take stock of everything that you have in your fridge, freezer, and pantry. This doesn’t have to be a whole detailed process, where you make a complete list. For me, it’s more of a quick check as I think about meals for the week.
Say I’m planning what I’m going to cook this week, and thinking about what I need to buy from the grocery store. First, I’m looking at what I’ve already got. I have a quick check – what meats do I have? Meat is the main part of the meal. Do I have any roasts? What chicken and ground beef? What fish do I have? Tinned fish or frozen fish? Do I have lamb in any form? I check for the things that I would normally make as a meal. I just have a quick glance in all my freezer spots to see what I have – both underneath the fridge and in the separate freezers.
Then I would write those down as the main parts of the meals. Then, if there’s anything extra that I’ve found, like particular vegetables that are frozen, vegetables left over in the fridge, or particular starches, like potatoes and rice, I see what I have there. And, obviously, I check for any dairy that I might need to use up, like ricotta, which I could use in a lasagna.
So, I’ll make a quick inventory. The main part of the meals, as I said, is the meat; the big thing. Or, if you don’t eat meat, then whatever is the main thing that you use to make your meals, maybe tins of lentils or chickpeas. That helps me to know what meals I can make with what I’ve got, and then I just add to that. Immediately I’m thinking, okay, can I use ground beef to make meatballs? Then I’ll need maybe some butternut squash as a vegetable, and some rice. I’ll check to see if I have these things. I have rice, okay. I’ll add butternut squash to my shopping list. Then we’re going to do a roast chicken. Do I have potatoes? Yes, I do. Do I have carrots for roast carrots? No. Add carrots to my list. Do I have fish? I’ve got some hake in the freezer, so I decide I’m going to cook that. Do I have lemons? No, I need to add lemons to my list. I’ll add some sweet potato to go with the fish.
Then it’s very quick and easy to complete those meals, and make my meal plan for the week, or a list of meals, if you don’t like to do a specific meal plan. I prefer to have a list of meals that I can work from, because things change so much every day, and I don’t always know what’s going to be possible, and what I’m going to want to cook.
It also helps so much to know to take those things out of the freezer, and to have them defrosted for the week, so that they’re in the fridge, and ready when I want to cook them. I’ll also cook as many of them as I can towards the beginning of the week. If it’s a Monday, maybe I’ll put something in my crock pot, like a roast chicken or a lamb stew. I’ll put something in the instant pot, like some beef stroganoff or a corned beef roast. I’ll also put something in the steamer, vegetables to cook so that they’re ready for the next day. Then I’m getting ahead with things instead of having to do them at the last minute. Having this inventory of everything in your house before you make a shopping list is very helpful.
So, the next point is total. Take your grocery receipt, or you can look at prices on an online store, or maybe even know them in your head. Jot down what the items are for a couple of meals that you use or you make regularly, and then try to find your most expensive and your cheapest meals. For example, find your two most expensive breakfasts, and your two cheapest breakfasts, and then the same for lunches and dinners. You take the ingredients you can think of, just the main ones, add them up, and see which meals cost the most, and which meals cost the least.
Then, once you’ve done that, you’re going to try and balance things out – whenever you cook an expensive meal, then you’re going to follow it with a cheap meal for that category. So, for example, if for breakfast you’re having egg on toast and bacon, that’ll be quite an expensive meal, but oats porridge is a cheap meal. Then when you have egg, the next day you can have oats to kind of balance it out.
You could try and replace some of your most expensive meals with some of your cheapest meals, or even take out the most expensive meals completely for a season, if you need to. Just try to balance more. Average out the costs, so that the expensive meals are not too often, the cheap meals get their chance, and the ones that are in between are good for regular eating.
Let me think of another example. Having a roast leg of lamb for dinner is a treat, and it’s expensive. Having chicken breasts in the crock pot, with some sauce and pasta is cheap. When I have the one then I’ll try to follow it with the other cheaper one to balance out that cost.
Also, you could try to remove one ingredient. When you’re adding up the cost of a meal, if you see that one thing brings up the cost quite a bit, and it’s not necessary, you can remove it. For example, when we make meatballs and rice, often we’ll add kidney beans in it because it tastes good. Now, if we were doing this to stretch the meal, that’s great, but if we don’t need to stretch the meal, and it’s just an extra thing for taste, then we could take that out.
So, the point is to be aware of what the total cost of each meal is in your mind, and be aware of which meals are more expensive, and which ones are cheaper. This helps when you’re trying to hit a lower grocery budget for the week.
The next idea is that you can try to mix something into your meal to make it cost less, but still be hearty and satisfying. Say you were making something with ground beef, like a bolognese, then you could use less mince and add lentils. Then it still tastes good and it stretches it so that there’s enough, but it would cost less than using more meat. The same could go for a soup. You can add barley to bulk it up. You can add more vegetables and potatoes to a stew and a little less meat. It’s usually going to be the meat that has to be a bit less, but it doesn’t have to be too much less. In our family, we love the meat, and we believe that it’s very nourishing. We need to have enough, but we don’t need to have extra.
So, if I try to decrease my meat just a little bit, instead of four packs of lamb pieces, I’m going to use three. Instead of three packs of ground beef, I’m going to use two and then just use the lentils or something to bulk it up. You can use whatever works to make it be hearty and taste good, but cost less.
Then there’s the tip that I’m sure you’ve heard before, which is to have a breakfast for dinner. Choose a night when you’ve had a hearty lunch and you just want to do something relaxed for dinner. Everybody can make their own style of eggs, and you can have bacon, sausages, and maybe beans to bulk it up – anything that you like to have for breakfast. Do that for dinner. You can even do a frittata or a quiche, but using something like eggs and less meat, maybe just the bacon or the sausages on the side as a dinner meal.
Another possible breakfast for dinner idea is a yogurt bar. You could use whatever you prefer – just plain Greek yogurt, or flavored yogurt, and then some granola and various toppings like berries, a few nuts, maybe ground up nuts, or seeds- anything that you like to have in your yogurt. Maybe some crushed fruit, a berry sauce, which you can make by cooking down some berries. All of these things make it delicious.
And, number five, look at your groceries for the week, or look at your grocery receipt and maybe think about one thing that you buy regularly that you could do without. This would usually be something that’s not part of your meals, and not a vital part of your week’s nutrition.
For me, that would be something like dried fruit, like dried mango or dates, or snack bars, as I mentioned before. Find something that’s extra, that you could do without, and then take that out of your diet. In my case, I could easily replace that with some nuts or some fresh fruit that we already have.
And, sometimes snacking just isn’t necessary. See if there’s anything that you feel that you could take out. Just look for one thing at a time, so it’s not overwhelming, something that you could just stop buying.
Maybe you could make something at home with ingredients you’ve already got, to replace other snacks. For example, you could make muffins or crackers. Those are very easy to make in bulk, and it could be a fun project for the kids.
Also, if you find that your children are complaining that they don’t like the changes, or they don’t like eating only meat and vegetables, if they say your meals are too simple – obviously you’re going to want high nutrition and you’re going to want to give them treats now and then – but if in general, they’re complaining, maybe you could get them to do a little project. This can be either as a homeschool project or an afterschool project. They can choose any meal they like, and research it on the internet, or they can look through recipe books, and they can find something using ingredients that they really like, and then they can look at what it costs. You can give them a budget, or see who can come up with the cheapest meal, and then they have to work it out using all the ingredients from the recipe. They have to figure out what it’s going to cost for your family size to make that meal.
Because it’s using things that they like, something they want to eat, they’ll be on board with it. Then you can include that in your weekly meal plan. Because it’s the thing that they’ve chosen, hopefully they’ll love it.
So, again, tell them this is the budget, or you’re going for this kind of cost. Tell them it’s for your family, whether you have a family of four or whatever it might be. Tell them you choose your favorite kind of food. You choose a recipe. You see what the ingredients are, then you see what it’s going to cost to make that. And if it fits within the budget, then we’ll make it.
We want to keep being creative in finding ways to save money in our kitchens without compromising on health for our families. We still want good quality food, good quality meat, organic foods where we can, vegetables, and anything that’s going to be high in nutrition. Like I said last time, then your family will be satisfied and fulfilled, and they’ll have the nutrition they need so that they don’t want snacks all the time – things that are going to cost extra.
So, I hope that you find lots of ways to save money in your kitchen. Remember, every little bit counts. But remember to still have fun, and to still have some good treats now and then.
Thanks for joining me. I’ll see you next time.
