Time/Money Balance Ideas for the Busy Individual/Family

Unless you are one of the very few people in this world, you have to balance your limited time and limited budget. If I had unlimited time it would be easy to save money. I would have a garden, and make most of all my food from scratch. But I do not have unlimited time and I cannot keep a garden alive (I’ve tried). I have a job and two active teenagers. My Husband also has a job. The fastest way to feed the family would be take out and fast food, but I do not have the budget for that, and it just isn’t healthy.

Feeding a busy family healthy meals can be time consuming and expensive. Over time, my Husband and I have come up with time and money saving tips that I would like to share. I will note, that these are the tips that have helped us over the years, and may not work for your particular situation. I do hope that these tips, even if the specific tip doesn’t work for you, will give you ideas for what will.

General

1. Left overs are the cheapest meal available to you. All you need is to heat it up and it is already paid for. Whether left overs are from home cooking or a restaurant, eat them heated it up, or re-imagine them in another dish. Left over protein (steak, chicken, etc) can be re-used in quesadillas, quiche, mini breakfast fritattas. The best quesadillas I ever made were with left over steak, onions, and mushrooms from a japanese habachi restuarant.

2. Your freezer is your friend. The last of the holiday hams are on sale for $20 off? Chicken legs and thighs on sale? Buy it and freeze. Can’t eat the entire lasagna you made? Cut into single servings, and freeze to be eaten in a few weeks. Making meatballs for a soup or spaghetti, make extra and freeze them for later.

3. If you are going to eat out, try to stick to breakfast or lunch. Dinner is the most expensive meal to dine out for.

4. Bring your lunch to work. Left overs or pre-prepping your lunch to take to work will save you quite a lot of time and money during work hours. You will also me in control over what goes into it.

Planning

1. Make a meal plan. Look at your schedule, who has what, when and where. What will you have time to cook? On days you have time to make more food, cook big, and plan to eat left overs.

2. Check your grocery store flyer for sales while meal planning. What is on sale? Utilize what you have in your pantry, fridge, and freezer. If possible plan meals with similar fresh ingredients. One recipe may call for 1/2 and onion; find a recipe that you utilize the rest of it. Left over veggies can be added to pasta sauce at the end of the week to make it stretch further to feed a larger hungry family or cooked into mini breakfast fritattas for breakfast the following week.

3. Utilize a slow cooker. Nothing beats coming in the door after work, and dinner is done.

4. Make a grocery list. You may want to write your planned meals on the back. I cannot tell you the number of times, my Husband and I are in the store and we ask ourselves what we need a specific item for. This will also allow you to to possibly substitute while shopping based on availability or what looks better in the produce section. The list should include your staple items. I always try to make sure to have onions, shallots, garlic, lemons, limes, jalapenos, and green onions. Onions and jalapenos can be thrown into many things, especially with ground meats or with box meals. For someone who is a “wuss” when it comes to spicy food, I do put jalapenos into a lot of dishes. We love garlic. Lemons and limes can be used to add fresh hit of acids to chicken, fish, or veggies or used in mixed drinks.

5. I try not to use too many boxes (Mac & Cheese, Hamburger Helper, Zaterains, etc.). Most have a lot of extra ingredients and high salt levels. I try to only use 1 a week. If you are using boxes, add fresh ingredients to them. Hamburger Helper has suggestions on the back; serving with shredded lettuce or fresh diced tomatoes on the burger or taco adds freshness. I like to add frozen peas to dirty rice boxes; one dish meals have fewer dishes to clean. I add fresh broccoli to Mac and Cheese.

6. Plan to have left overs either to be used that week or later from the freezer. Make extra. Roast two chickens instead of one, strip the meat and freeze it for any dish that calls for cooked chicken. Casseroles make extra for us; and technically lasanga is a casserole. Extra pulled pork can be frozen for later.

Grocery Shopping

1.Never under any circumstances go to the grocery store hungry. Always eat before you go. If you are hungry, everything looks good and you will spend more money and buy things that will either go to waste or you won’t eat.

2. Stick to the list. If you see something that looks interesting, look at your meals for the week. Ask yourself a couple of questions. Can I incorporate this into my lunches or meals? When will I use this? Is it worth the price?

3. Pre-prepped produce is a great time saver, but it has an added cost. I rarely buy the pre-prepped fruit or veggies. For less, you can get a great deal more fruit if you buy the whole pineapple, watermelon, or cantulope. Buy the whole fruit and prep it yourself. Freeze what you will not be able to eat. The frozen food can be used in kids drinks, popsicles, smoothies, sangrias, made into jams or jellies, or just eaten frozen in the hot summer months. It is cheaper to buy the whole veggies as well. Either freeze them or utilize as I mentioned in the planning section.

4. Store brand. Do not be afraid of trying the store brand. For most things I really can’t tell the difference. If you can, then next time go with the name brand, but if you cannot tell the difference why pay more?

5. Go for the more inexpensive cuts of meat. Example is chicken thighs. I prefer dark meat chicken anyway. Cheaper, harder to over cook, and I think it tastes better.

Meal Prep

1.Do all of your cooking prep ahead of time. I have found that prep is the longest part of cooking. Chopping onions, garlic, etc. takes time. Most weeknights during my busy seasons it is time I do not have. I will do all of my weeknight prep on the weekend. The veggies will be grouped by recipe and based on when they are used. If carrots, onions, and celery are put in at the same time, then they can be put in the same container. Slicing and prepping of meat, not seasoning though. This also allows you to use the partial peppers or onions.

2. If you have a casserole on the menu, assemble during prep.

3. This is when I make any breakfast breads or mini frittatas for the week.