Save Money By Eating Out Less
credit: Indy Charlie
You’ve got to eat, right? But you don’t have to eat out. If you’re trying to save some money, try recording exactly how much money you spend on food for a week – including snacks, gum and drinks while you’re out. Chances are you’ll be shocked by how much this adds up to. To save a few dollars on food, try these eat-at-home tips:
- Stock the kitchen cupboards with long-life ingredients that you can use to cook meals. These items include dried pasta, rice, flour, tins of vegetables and beans, and cooking necessities like olive oil and herbs. If you don’t have what you need to make a meal, you’ve got no chance.
- Stock your freezer with useful ingredients, too – frozen meat and vegetables, for example. Look for special discounts in the supermarket and bulk buy. Make sure you clearly label the useful life of the foods you freeze, and check regularly to use them while they’re still good – throwing food away is a big dent on the budget.
- Double-up when you cook. Make extra portions of home cooked meals that you can freeze and eat in the future, or that you can refrigerate for the next day. This might save you from eating out when you’re at work, or dropping into a fast food restaurant on the drive home.
- Keep a list of favorite recipes. If you’re not an enthusiastic cook, then the lack of inspiration about what to cook can be the first stumbling block. Make a list of recipes you cook that are quick and easy and you’ll be able to come back to it again and again.
Tags: Budgeting | Finances | lifehacks | Saving Money | savings
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 4:00 am and is filed under Saving Money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
