Buying groceries week after week can get extremely expensive! However, you can cut the cost of your grocery bill if you know what to buy and what to cook. Cooking on a budget doesn't mean eating just rice and beans. In fact you can prepare some amazing meals on even the smallest budget! Today's post will give you several tips for cooking on a budget.
7 Tips for Cooking on a Budget
Buy a Whole Chicken
Chicken breasts are significantly more expensive than purchasing a whole chicken. Look for sales on whole chicken and you will be able to stretch your dollar a lot further. Make sure to use all parts of the chicken. To make your money stretch even further, be sure to make chicken stock as well! (Here's a recipe for vegetable stock. To make chicken stock, just add the bones to this recipe.)
Look for Marked Down Meats
When purchasing steaks, pork or ground beef look for meat that has been marked down on clearance. Grocery stores have to sell all meat by the sell by date or throw it away. Stores would prefer not to throw away food so they mark it down low. When you see these clearance sales, stock up and cook it right away or freeze it to be used at a later date.
Use Fillers
You can make your meals stretch further by adding in potatoes, rice, beans, tortillas or whole-grain bread. All of these items can help to fill you up without incorporating a lot of meat.
Buy More Eggs
Eggs are less expensive than buying cereal and provide better nutrients. Eggs are high in protein and you can do so many different things with eggs. You can hard boil eggs for a quick snack on the go or an egg salad sandwich. You can also have a breakfast for dinner night with eggs, toast and some bacon.
Meal Plan
Meal planning is a great way to cook on a budget. Knowing what you will be eating in advance will prevent you from running to the store to pick up items that are not on sale. When you plan your meals in advance you have the opportunity to shop the grocery sales, which can also help save money.
Stock Up
When you find a great price on items your family eats on a regular basis, stock up as much as you can within your budget! Keeping a well stocked pantry means less trips to the store. The less often you have to go grocery shopping, the more money you will be able to save.
Buy the Cheap Cuts of Meat
People tend to avoid buying meats like pork shoulders or a chuck roast because they are a tougher cut of meat. However, both cuts of meat are quite inexpensive and you can make some very tasty stews with these cuts of meat. I suggest cooking these meats in the slow cooker on low for six to eight hours to make them as tender as possible.
What tips do you have for cooking on a budget? Do you have any go-to recipes you can share in the comments?
The following is a tip from Tammi about how to make a roast chicken stretch into many meals! Enjoy!
We have a family of seven. Five boys, my husband and myself. My guys sure know how to pack the food away and now that the 2 oldest are extremely close to becoming teenagers, we are finding that the food bills are going through the roof. Our favorite way to save $ is to purchase a roast chicken from the deli. (I believe we pay $7.99 at Costco?)
The first night we have sliced chicken with a salad and a veggie with a ‘artisan’ type bread while my boys fight over who gets the drumsticks and wings.
Day 2 – strip off as much chicken as possible off of the bones and shred it. We do a couple of different meals with this. Sometimes chicken quesadillas with some chopped onion and peppers, cheese and salsa. It depends on what veggies we have available in the fridge that day. Sometimes we do chicken Caesar wraps with tortillas, romaine lettuce, Caesar dressing, croutons and shredded chicken and chopped tomatoes. After wrapping, we throw them in a hot cast iron pan to sear them and give them that ‘restaurant’ wrap feel and taste.
Day 3 – throw the bones and leftover chicken bits and pieces in a large stock pot along with veggie scraps that I have been saving in the freezer to make chicken broth. Boil for a few hours and add water as needed. By the time you are finished, you will have a lovely chicken broth. Drain the stock through a colander and discard the bones and veggies – but make sure to strip off any more chicken that you can find. Take the remaining stock and split it in half. First we make chicken spaghetti with one half of the stock. (my kids FAVORITE meal!) Here’s how to make chicken spaghetti:
Put half of the stock back in the stock pot and add a few cups of water.
Add a few handfuls of spaghetti to the stock and boil for about 10-15 minutes. What is nice about this casserole is that you do not have to drain the spaghetti and you get a wonderful chicken flavor that soaks right into the pasta.
Add 2 cans of cream of mushroom (or any cream soup you happen to have around), some chopped onion, peppers and shredded cheese on top.
Bake in a preheated 400’C oven with the lid on for 25 minutes or so and then 10 minutes with the lid off and the broiler on.
I guess the trick to this is to not make the chicken the star of the meal, just a side-kick. It’s cost effective, it saves loads of time and it’s easy. Love our deli chicken meal stretcher!
I recently discovered that using cruise control can save a lot of money in gas! I’ve started using it whenever possible. I live rural, with a lot of highway driving, so it’s very easy to implement and it has saved us in fuel consumption. It’s hard to say how much this can save a person, depending on how often you use it, and the make/model of your vehicle, use of air conditioning etc…. This CNN article states that there is an average fuel savings of 7% while using cruise control: http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/09/pf/gas_myths/
This frugal tip was brought to you by Leah who submitted her tip for the Best Frugal Tip giveaway. The contest is still accepting entries through the end of July 12, 2013.
Pizza. So many ways to enjoy it. Homemade, frozen or delivery. Cheese, Hawaiian or meat lovers. If you love pizza as much as we do, you’ll want to read on for some tips to help you save on delivery pizza if you’re trying to stick to a budget. Actually, these tips can apply to any take-out restaurant!
Get Social
Find your favourite pizza delivery places on Facebook and Twitter. Follow them for updates on specials they will have throughout the year. Quite often, they’ll offer subscriber-only deals that aren’t available anywhere else but on Facebook or Twitter.
Sign up for Emails
This is most likely my favourite way to save on pizza! Head over to the websites of each pizza delivery place that you enjoy and sign up for their email newsletters. Often times, you’ll get an email within a couple of days of signing up with a great offer. Or you’ll receive regular updates on specials they’re running.
Junk Mail can be Good
Don’t disregard those junk mail flyers! Before you recycle them, take a look to see if there are any coupons or specials that interest you. We’ve been “sucked in” a few times by offers we couldn’t refuse!
Look for Coupon Codes
If you order pizza online, be sure to do a search for a coupon code. Search “pizza” on Retail Me Not. Or, as I mentioned above, take a look at the recent posts on Facebook or Twitter for any coupon codes that may be available.
Peruse Daily Deal Sites
Following daily deal sites like Goupon, WagJag or Living Social may be a great way to snag a discounted gift card to a local pizza delivery place. Once again, sign up for the emails sent out by daily deal sites if you don’t want to miss a great deal!
Look for Deals on the actual Website
Perhaps obvious, but this tip is worth noting! Make sure to look for deals on the actual pizza delivery website. As an example, Pizza Hut has a Deals tab that features an offer for a medium 3 topping pizza for only $10. Then, right on the homepage, Pizza Pizza has a couple of combo deals that sound tasty.
I’m not sure about you, but I really want some pizza right now!
How do you save on pizza delivery? Do you prefer delivery, homemade or frozen pizza?
Here are Lorraine’s suggestions for healthy meals in a hurry:
1) Make homemade vegetable soup with a beef bone for the broth and then add bags of frozen vegetables such as carrots, green peas, yellow and green beans, broccoli and cauliflower and cut up some onion, cabbage and celery. Make a big batch and freeze portions for later use. (In the fall, I freeze vegetables such as leek, zucchini, celery, peppers, shallots, broccoli, cauliflower) Add a can of crushed tomatoes with either quinoa, brown rice, wild rice, pasta and different types of legumes and there you have it, a meal in a bowl that is quick to heat up and very healthy. You can also make cream soups with almond beverage and chicken broth using a variety of frozen vegetables and once cooked, blend the mixture together for another quick meal.
2) Make casseroles such as chili’s, cabbage rolls, macaroni, tomatoes and cheese, Italian spaghetti sauce. You can buy frozen vegetables that are identified for spaghetti sauces (Arctic Gardens brand). You can also use frozen vegetables to prepare a stir fry with the left-over meat that you cooked in the slow cooker.
3) Buy a slow cooker and start a roast of beef or pork or chicken before leaving for work. You can add a couple of potatoes, carrots, rutabaga in the pot and once you arrive home, the meal is ready. Make enough to freeze for other future meals.
4) For desserts, eat fresh or frozen fruit with plain yogurt and a bit of maple syrup or honey. Make batches of healthy muffins.
5) For breakfasts, boil eggs while you are getting ready and have a muffin and a piece of fruit. Make smoothies with field berries, bananas, pineapple, plain yogurt and vanilla almond or rice beverage.
6) Grab a bag of spring mix vegetables, wash these thoroughly and add nuts, boiled eggs, left-over chicken or ham and have this with a whole grain bun. Quick, easy and healthy.
7) Some nights when we are tired, we make oatmeal with fresh fruit and whole grain toast and sip on a great cup of green tea.
8) We buy bagged coleslaw, broccoli slaw, shredded carrots and add those to the spring mix for a quick and healthy salad. We will sometimes add kidney beans or chick peas to our salad and grab a bagel, bun or muffin to eat with the salad.
Note: you can boil eggs ahead of time and keep them refrigerated or pickle them with vinegar. We always keep cheese on hand for a quick snack. We also buy vegetable juice and sip on it for extra vegetables when we don’t have time to cook.
We typically eat five to eight servings of vegetables and fruit per day; drink plenty of water and use lemon juice from real lemons and olive oil or balsamic vinegar in our salads instead of the prepared salad dressings.
I hope that these suggestions will help in making life simpler and healthier. It is also a frugal way to stretch the food budget by using for instance a roast one night and making use of the remaining meat in either a salad or a stew or stir fry. We also have soup, salad and sandwiches such as ham, lettuce and tomato, grilled cheese, chicken salad sandwiches, hummus, cucumber, lettuce and tomato sandwiches, roast beef sandwiches with chutney, all natural ham or wieners on occasion or fried egg sandwich with sweet onion (fry the egg in oils such as canola, grapeseed oil, sunflower oil, almond oil or any other first cold pressed oil that is unsaturated and healthy.
Being generous doesn't have to break the bank. If you're on a tight budget, there are still some great ways to give to individuals or organizations. Here are some creative ways to give on a budget:
Purge for a cause
When you're purging your home of excess stuff, consider donating it to a local second hand store that uses the profits to give back to the community or an organization that you would love to support. We recently donated one of our couches to Gleaners who will then use the profits to help support their food and medical aid operations.
Give your time
Time is one thing most of us can find (at least a little bit of spare time) in our lives. Maybe you know of a family that is struggling. If they'll have it, spend a couple of hours cleaning their home so they have one less thing to worry about. Often the gift of time is more appreciated than monetary gifts.
Gather your friends
Don't have $100 to donate to that cause you'd love to support? Why not donate $10 then round up nine of your friends to donate $10 as well?
Donate stockpile items
I think I can safely assume that if you're a regular reader at Simply Frugal, you most likely have a stockpile that you've been building with coupons. Food banks and women's/men's shelters will gladly take your excess food and toiletries! Normally I only recommend taking advantage of the coupon deals that you will personally use (so you don't go over budget), but you may want to consider purchasing items with coupons with the intent of donating them. For example, you may not have any pets, but you know your local animal shelter would love the pet food you got for pennies using coupons.
Say Yes at the checkout
I'm sure you've run into this before. The cashier is scanning your groceries, then asks if you'd like to donate $1 to such and such charity. Next time you're asked, say yes! (If you feel as though you can support that particular charity.) You could make a point of doing so once a month. Local charities or fundraisers often place donation jars at the check out. Throw in your spare change, if may only be $0.50, but all that spare change can really add up.
What are your favorite ways to give on a limited budget?
