Alright, we're slowly recovering here at the house. I'm feeling about 95%, Mike is getting there, at about 75%, and the boys are each doing significantly better. While I have a few minute reprieve from entertaining the children (Thank you, Word World!!), I'm going to try and crank out the budget post.
As many of you have gathered, money is tight for us. Mike works about 80 hours a week, but is salaried for 40, and that salary is very difficult to raise a family of 5 on. His schedule makes it very hard for me to find work, as the cost of child care in our area is just outrageous. I was working for awhile, but found that most of my money was going to pay for child care for the boys, and it was adding major stress into our lives.
That was about 2 years ago. While I've always been a stingy shopper (I don't like spending money), I found a whole new meaning to the phrase "on a budget" when I was no longer working. Now, trying to stretch that budget to buy the higher priced, fresh fruit and veggies and good cuts of meat (as opposed to the cheaper, convenience food that's loaded with fat and calories and salt and other fillers) has been pretty difficult. Some tricks that I've found that work for us:
1) Beans, beans, beans. Not only are they good for you, but they're yummy! I try to make at least one to two bean dishes a week. I buy them from the bulk dried section of the store, which is MUCH cheaper. If you can't find bulk dried beans, get the little $2 bags of them, rehydrate them, and save some for later. Beans, once rehydrated, can be frozen in some of the cooking water you used to rehydrate them for up to 3 months. SUPER cost saver - yes, a can of beans is only around $1, but you can get at least 3 cans worth of beans out of one bag!!
2) Try "slow" cooking. What does that mean? Make as much as you can from scratch. I know some of us don't have that much time, but really, all it takes is a little prep work and a good crock pot. For example, if I have a free day on the weekend, I'll make a lasagna - from scratch, it's less that $10 and MUCH better than the $20 Stouffer's version - and I'll make two for the price of one store-bought lasagna. They freeze great, and then I have one for another night when I DON'T have time to prep. Why a crock pot, you may ask? One night of a roasted chicken or roast beef/pork/whatever you want to eat in a crockpot can make dishes for the whole week! All it takes is 5 extra minutes in the morning to set it up before you leave.
3) Play the sales. I'm not a big coupon fan, but I do it, most of the time. Usually an extra 30 minutes of coupon clipping can save me about 30% on my grocery bill. It takes time, but it's worth it when every penny counts. I find out what roast is on sale, and base my meals for the week around that sale item. Then, I match up my coupons to the menu list. I'm sure I could save more if I only bought the items that were on sale AND I had a coupon for, but usually those items are the convenience foods, which I'm trying to avoid.
4) Don't overbuy. I know that sounds like basic, common sense, but while we were sick this weekend, I cleaned out our pantry. (I know, I'm a dork!) Want to know what I found? I found at least 10 half-eaten boxes of cereals and snack foods that were going bad (or had already gone bad). I obviously was overbuying things for lunches and snacks - and we were overeating!! It was easy to snack at our house, because we had a grocery store behind the pantry door. I've found that I can buy higher-quality, fresh snacks and dried fruits if I DON'T overbuy. Yes, I suppose in the long run I'm purchasing less food for my $$, but I'm also not wasting any, AND we're not eating it just because it's there and we have the munchies.
Now that it's all written out, it just seems so common sense. However, so many of us just buy the sale items, or think that bigger is better, and then when we try to buy the healthier items, we freak out. "We can't do this!" we think. "It's too expensive to eat healthy!"
I'm proud to say that I've managed to feed our family for the past two weeks on $100, with only shopping at Whole Foods. (I know that we were sick this weekend, but I'm just postponing those meals, and bought enough for the following week yesterday, so that doesn't really come into play for our budget - I'm not fudging the details on you guys!!).
Here are some of the recipes that I'm using this next week:
Homemade Veggie Lasagna:
6 whole wheat lasagna noodles
1 15 oz part skim ricotta cheese
1 8 oz block of mozzarella cheese, shredded (buy a block, it's cheaper. Just a hint, though - mozzarella is soft, so stick it into the freezer for 30 minutes before you try to shred it)
1 jar of store-bought spaghetti sauce (I do cheat for this one, but you can do it yourself if you have a good recipe!!)
2 cups of any chopped veggie that's on sale (this week, I did zucchini, onion, and tomatoes)
Boil pasta until slightly softened. If you're using regular noodles (not whole wheat), you don't have to boil them first. Just skip this step
Pour 1/3 of the spaghetti sauce into an 11x7 inch baking dish. Layer 3 noodles on top. In a small bowl, mix 1/3 of the spaghetti sauce with the entire tub of ricotta cheese. Spread this mixture over the noodles in the baking dish. Cover with all of the veggies, and half of the mozzarella cheese. Layer with 3 more noodles, and then the rest of the spaghetti sauce.
Bake at 375 degrees, covered, for 50-55 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese on top, and then bake for another 10 minutes, uncovered. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.
Serves 6 - 8, and costs lest than $10 for the entire meal!
In order to save space, and give proper credits for the next recipe, follow this link to find another favourite:
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas (about $10 to make, if you use leafy greens that are on sale and bulk beans)
Bean and Beef Chili
1/2 lb ground beef (I used 95% lean, grass fed)
2 cloves garlic
1 cup black beans
1 cup red kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups beef broth, low sodium
2 cups water
1/2 small white onion
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp chili powder (more or less, to taste)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
Brown ground beef, along with the garlic cloves (pressed through a garlic press).
After meat is browned, add all ingredients in a large crock pot. Cook on low for 8-10 hours. Makes about 12 servings. Costs less than $10, unless you have to buy spices new.
Last but not least, when it comes to budget, don't forget the easiest ones of all:
1) Pork roast: Slice an onion into wedges. Layer it on the bottom of a crock pot. Add 1/2 of a peel of an orange (not the orange, not OJ, just the peel). Lay a high-quality pork roast on top of the peel and onion. Add 1 cup of water. Sprinkle with nutmeg and allspice. Cook on low heat for 6 -8 hours. Add water as necessary. (leftovers: pork bbq, pork fajitas)
2) Roasted chicken: Same thing - cut up an onion, stuff it inside of the cavity of a whole roasting chicken. Lay it in a crockpot, and sprinkle with oregano, lemon zest (peel works best, just like the pork roast), thyme, and a bay leaf. Roast for 4-5 hours, on low heat. (leftovers: soup, pasta salad, chicken salads)
3) Roast beef: high-quality beef roast, can of diced tomatoes, and 1 cup of strongly brewed coffee. Add rosemary and a bay leaf. Just before finished (about 30 minutes left), add cut up carrots, onions, and celery. Leftovers make great shepherd's pie, fajitas, salads, and sandwiches.
Whew. That was long. Sorry!
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