Need Help! Spending 300 a week on food...

[lgslgs]

Originally Posted by impatient1

Wow, all these replies are so helpful, thanks so much. The ideas about doing it slowly are really good, and what I was thinking, b/c I feel overwhelmed with such a huge immediate change. The thing about spending so much on what I do know how to cook is so true too! Sometimes I spend just as much cooking one meal as I would on going out to eat, or even more. I'll definitely go through the sites you guys listed and get some recipes. Also freezing food is a good idea, I always throw out a lot of leftovers. How long can you keep it when you freeze it? And does it still taste good?

Oh goodness! I can't remember the last time we've thrown out a leftover! Or any food.

You can figure on at least 3 months in the freezer if you freeze it right away. And yes, it tastes great. Part of the trick is to make food for eating, and food for freezing, but get out of the habit of ending up with extras in the fridge. Fridge leftovers can be awfully easy to skip over until they go yucky.

We just don't cook in a way that makes much waste (food, paper, cans, packaging or any of that.) All vegetable peelings go into a little bin in the freezer and once a week we put them in a pot, add water, and make soup stock. The cooked peels get strained out and go into a compost heap. (not practical for everyone, but making soup stock and then trowing out the gunk afterward can be done anywhere.)

I guess part of it is also getting so that you are always cooking stuff that you really like. If some is left over, save it in a way (single serving size) that it packs in a lunch bag - or serve up Freezer Frenzy for lunch on a Saturday night. Let everyone pick their favorite from the freezer portions.

If you freeze a portion in a ziplock box, when it is frozen you can pop it out, move it to a bag, and not tie up your ziplock boxes in the freezer.

As for being overwhelmed, if you just cut your food bill 10% in the next four weeks, you'd have an extra $120 in your pocket. Cut it by a quarter and you'd have $300. If you keep track of how much you are saving, you'll get less overwhelmed quite quickly!

It is such a very good feeling to eat a nice home cooked meal, add up the real cost, and enjoy the feeling of extra money in your pocket.

I used to work as a food engineer. The running joke was that our job was to find new and better ways to sell the consumer water and air. Seriously. It was all about getting the most profit out of the food we were manufacturing. If you could sell someone a cake mix, and have them add their own egg and oil you made money. If you could sell them a can of soup, you made a lot of money. If you could sell them a frozen macaroni and cheese entree or boxed potato mix, you made a lot of money.

Restaurants are no better. If you can dump an extra 10 cents of cooked pasta on the customers plate so they felt like they had a generous meal, you made money. If you served them a hot bread roll (made from refrigerated or frozen by the same folks who supply it to your grocery store aisle) and sprinkle half a teaspoon of parmesan cheese on top, you made money.

For so many people, the food budget is the place where little changes can make big savings FAST - and in a way that you actually get better food in the process. One thing to watch out for though, is the recipes that are "pretend cooking". Those are the ones where you add one can of this, one can of that, one pack of shredded cheese, and one package of something or other else. You may get a tasty meal out of those, but it's just food manufacturers selling you processed food and the "experience" of cooking. You can get really ripped off price wise if you do a lot of that.

This is definitely a topic I'm passionate about (could you tell? ) We have so many dirt cheap, incredible meals here every week that it seems such a shame to see others get sucked into the expense and diminished food quality of commercially prepared food. I honestly believe that food companies don't want people to know how to cook any more - and that they like training people that $5 here and $3 there over and over and over again is somehow "affordable". No wonder it's hard for so many folks to make ends meet these days.

Lynda

[MonkeyMama]

Sorry I didn't read all the posts - short on time - but I just wanted to say we switched from a mostly eat-out lifestyle to a eating in lifestyle when we went down to 1 income to have kids.

What we did is dh and I enjoy cooking somewhat, but nothing elaborate. We love those quick Cooking magazines - and Light & Tasty. I know they just got a new name, but you can look at their website for ideas and to subscribe. In fact, I think I have a free trial I can send if you want to send me a private message with your name and address...

Anyway, they have lots of great QUICK and CHEAP meals in there. My husband and I cook about 5 nights a week, sandwhiches and leftovers for lunch. Breakfast we just have the granola bars and cereal. Snacks = fruit.

My husband looks through the mags and makes a shopping list every week of what is needed - just planning ahead for the week. We skip as much junk food and prepackaged items as possible. Overall this worked pretty well and our grocery bill (+ diapers & tioletries, etc.) is about $500/month.

We are trying to cut that down now and so we have been clipping coupons like crazy, planning meals around deals and coupons, and using what we have on hand to plan meals as well, etc. We'll see how this month goes but I think it may be $450 or so for the whole month and we have stocked up on a lot of stuff on sale. I think by changing our strategy we can pretty easily save $100/month. We have been buying a lot more fresh fruits and vegetables which has helpes - means less junky snacks.

Oh here's the website for the cooking mags: http://www.bestsimplerecipes.com/default.aspx

I have so many friends who want to cook in more and do not know where to begin. YEs you can find recipes free online, etc., but I find these little magazines priceless, it will help you get started. I Am always sending them out to friends who need a little help to get started. "Simple & Delicious" is great to get started & "Light &TAsty" (may have changed the name?) is great for light/healthier meals. The healthier meals tend to be less pricey as well - just an added benefit. Plus they have really cute things for the holidays, etc., why I had the subscription before I cooked regularly - LOL. It just made the move to regular cooking easier.

I think when you first start cooking you will be stocking up on spices and such. It is so weird how much spice, etc. we have amassed over the years. But we use them all of the time. So the first few months you will be outputting a little more money but if you stick with it, you will build up a good cooking arsenal.

[lgslgs]

Originally Posted by MonkeyMama

We love those quick Cooking magazines - and Light & Tasty. I know they just got a new name, but you can look at their website for ideas and to subscribe.

Those two are great! My Mom gave me several old copies of hers. They're done by the same folks that do Taste of Home.

I like their website that you posted. Did you see where you can search for recipes by how long they take to cook?

Lynda

[rduell]

Do they have a new name? I didn't realize that. I love the Quick Cooking magazine! I have lots of back issues. I haven't seen any of the new ones though.

[lgslgs]

Oh - one other thing.

All of the Taste of Home family of magazines have free newsletters and menu planners that you can sign up for on their web site. They send about an e-mail with dozen recipes each week or so.

They sure know how to motivate people to want to cook up a meal.

Lynda

[MonkeyMama]

Originally Posted by lgslgs

Those two are great! My Mom gave me several old copies of hers. They're done by the same folks that do Taste of Home.

I like their website that you posted. Did you see where you can search for recipes by how long they take to cook?

Lynda

YEs - can you do a search by cost too? I know in the mags they always have different sections - how fast, how few ingredients, cheaper meals, etc. If I just picked out the cheap meal sections I Could eat pretty good.

I just wanted to say I making some eyeball cookies this week for halloween - I love all the cute stuff they come up with. I am sure I can find a lot of this stuff free online as well, but I just find the vast amount of resources online overwhelming. It is funny how forward my hubby and I look forward to the mags - new recipes to try. But I know many people who just assume we slave in the kitchen all the time. Hardly. LOL. The menu planning and grocery shopping is a lot more overwhelming to me. That is the truly hard part of eating in more if you ask me. You don't have to slave int he kitchen to eat well.

[lgslgs]

Originally Posted by MonkeyMama

I just wanted to say I making some eyeball cookies this week for halloween - I love all the cute stuff they come up with.

You ought to love this! Look what they had at Pillbury's site.

They also have a couple of newletters you can sign up for. I love getting the e-mail recipe newletters that have the pretty food photos. Heck - I just love this whole cooking business (she says as she rushes off to pull two loaves of soughdough bread out of the oven. )

Lynda