#dietonabudget

[onabudgetdiet]

How to get the most bang for your buck

So your on a tight budget and your also very busy (o and did I mention trying to eat healthy as well??) Sounds like a lose/lose situation. WRONG! Well you can have your low fat cake and eat it too! When it comes to stretching meals there are two main components that come to mind: a. Small amount of prep b. have meal expanders handy A. By a small amount of prep, I mean look at your schedule, see what days are going to be the toughest to make food (you know the 12 hr work day doesn't make most people want to go home and prepare a 4 course meal...if for you it does, then no need to read further! Jk :) Tip 1. When you have 5 minutes, look at your planner and see what days you are especially busy?? Tip 2. Think buying in bulk. A family of 5 could plow through a pack of chicken in one meal, so make sure you buy plenty of your protein of choice to make it at once. To save money, buy the protein when it is cheap and put it in the freezer. Take it out a night or 2 before cooking it to de-thaw Tip 3. KISS (keep it simple you know what) There are a lot of recipes that are healthy and only require spices and a few veggie, so have a few go tos. Tip 4. Portion out your food when you are done cooking. You know you won't have much time to make food for the next couple nights (or the money to buy lots of protein!) so before you sit down to eat or prepare the rest of dinner, put part of your cooked protein in the fridge. B. Have some meal expanders around. Tip 1. Think cheap! Whole grains such as whole wheat pasta, brown rice, quinoa, and couscous. These are all very inexpensive/serving. Also, frozen veggies are very inexpensive and take only minutes to cook on the stove or in the microwave. Or go nuts and add both! By adding these meal expanders to your protein, you can really stretch a dollar and save a lot of time. Also there is nothing wrong with fresh, if you office had a catering event and you could take home part of a garden salad, just go ahead and add your protein :) Tip 2. Combine left over protein with another meal. This may or may not be time consuming depending on what you make, but it at least takes the protein cooking time out of the equation. You could make a chili in the crock pot and add left over cubed pork. So as an example, you come home late from work, look in the fridge and see grilled chicken...now what? Well it takes 15-20 minutes to make quinoa, so you start that right away, then put the chicken in the microwave or on a skillet to heat up and take some frozen veggies, put them in a bowl with water, and stick em in the microwave for a couple minutes. Once the quinoa is done cooking, you can put it all together, douce it with your favorite spices, or hot sauce. And BOOM! In 15-20 minutes your have a healthy, fast and pretty cheap meal. So skip the fast food, because your can get much healthier, filling, and cheaper options by following these tricks!

[onabudgetdiet]

prepping for the holidays (hint hint…start now!!!)

So I kind of went MIA for a bit, but no worries I've kept up my couponing and retail busting ways.  

With the holidays quickly approaching, I figured this would be a good time to start thinking about how to keep costs low, yet relatives' impressions high.

Tip #1: Plan your meals ahead of time (duh)…based on what you already have.

Here is the kicker; just because it looks good on pinterest doesn't mean you have to make that exact version.  Start by going through your pantry, freezer, and other areas of stockpiling.  Remember there are so many different versions of pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and stuffing that one can make.  For example, if you have almond extract instead of vanilla extract use that instead in your holiday desserts. This will minimize your costs immediately because people always forget to take in to consideration how much pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, honey, pumpkin pure, evaporated milk, and butter costs!  Individually it's cheap, but as a whole it can drive the cost.

Tip #2 Start your holiday shopping searches now!

The more time you give yourself, the more chances that your coupons and store savings match up.  Many of your more expensive items (MEAT) can be frozen through the holidays, so look for deals under $1/lb, this is where you can save upwards of $30-$40, of course it depends how much meat you need.  There are a few cycles of store circulars that you can slowly take advantage of.  If you need 30 items for holiday cooking, look and see what you can buy low each week.  Eventually you may have to pay full price the week of the holiday, but again, this will help minimize costs overall.

Tip #3 Take advantage of your friends and relatives :)

People always want to know what can they bring???  You can ask for the more expensive items, such as a bottle of wine, flowers, or a specialty meal that they love to make.  This way you can be cheap, without appearing cheap.  If you asked someone to bring the turkey, that one might be a bit much, but any of the others can be budget busters, that you can pawn onto your guests.

Tip #4 DIY

Instead of heading out to the craft store to pay way to much money for holiday decorations, see what you already have in your home, could borrow from a friend, or DIY.  Perhaps your are hosting your neighbors, and they have nice table covers, or extra holiday decorations.  For place cards, use your creativity on the computer.  There are so many website you can get ideas from (well mainly pinterest), and it saves you money.  

Tip #5 Get your family involved

Why hire help when you have your family!  Depending on the age of your kids, you can have them do chores to prep for people coming over, whether it is cleaning, cooking, or setting up the table(s).  

Now you can have a lovely holiday meal and time with the people you care about being around, and not breaking the bank!  These tips are also great to utilize for entertaining in general, it just happens to be near the holidays now :)

Holiday recipe (healthy remix): swap the regular bacon with turkey bacon, but all other ingredients are used during the holiday time, so it should be easy to make with left overs.

http://shrinkingkitchen.com/best-ever-holiday-stuffing/