Blue Apron (and their ilk) | Bread Freezing | Other Frugal Blogs (it's a Q&A post!)
Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
Hey Kristen! I've never done Julep, but I did try a nearly free trial of Hello Fresh, the produce meal box. Have you ever considered trying one of those? I'd be interested in hearing your opinion of them.
-Danielle
I've come across some similar things on the web (like Blue Apron), and at first, I thought it seemed like a reasonable idea...you get to cook a meal, but you don't have to plan anything or even shop for ingredients.
And I thought $10 for a meal sounded like a good price.
Then I realized the charge was per person.
For my family, each meal would run us $60.
<thud>
We can practically eat at a sit-down restaurant for $60. And I could make many, many dinners for $60, even if I buy local meats.
On average, I spend about $21-$25/day, and that feeds the six of us for three meals.
That means each meal is really costing us around $7-$10, and each serving runs about $1 to $1.50.
I'm sure breakfast is less expensive than dinner, but even if dinner used up $15 of my daily spending, that's still only a little over $2 per person.
At that rate, a meal delivery service would cost me 5 times what I currently spend.
Maybe this would work out well for small families who mainly subsist on restaurant meals and who really want to spend a little time cooking a few nights a week.
But me? If I'm going to spend $60 on dinner, I would really like to not be cooking. 😉
Kristen,
How do you make fresh bread ahead of time / what do you do when the recipe makes more than you need? My favorite recipe makes two loaves, but at the current time, my family can only eat one before it dries out. I don't want to half my recipe - what can I do to preserve my dough so I can bake it when we run out? How can I make my recipe the night (or several nights) before (when my kids are in bed), and keep it fresh to bake for dinner during the week?
Michelle
The freezer is your friend! Finished homemade bread freezes very well, so make a big batch and freeze whatever you don't need right away. That's what I do all the time.
You can freeze unbaked dough, but it takes a fairly long time to thaw and then once it thaws, it needs time to rise, so I don't find that to be a super efficient way to bake.
If you want to keep fresh dough around for baking during the week, you could try the popular no-knead artisan bread, which you can store in the fridge and bake throughout the week.
I was hoping you could share other blogs that are somewhat like yours? I follow the minimalist mom as well and both of you are such an amazing inspiration! I would like to find other inspiring people to learn and grow. Thank you! 🙂
Martina
Hmm. There are a LOT of money-saving blogs out there, but a great proportion of them are deal/couponing blogs (I'm assuming that's not what you're looking for!)
Give these ones a try:
Katy buys almost nothing new, and her blog obviously focuses on not consuming stuff.
MoneySavingMom (the no deals version)
I like the Money Saving Mom blog except for the deals (which feel like a lot of clutter to me). I recently discovered the link above which gives you her blog minus all the deals. Perfect.
Ruth does blog about coupons to a degree, but mostly her blog is about saving money in a variety of other ways (DIY, cooking, etc.)
I bet my readers will have some good suggestions for you too!
____________________________
You know the drill: the floor is now yours.
Got thoughts about meal delivery services? Or some good blog reads to suggest? Share in the comments!
Those are really good questions and great answers (many that I've asked myself too)! I do have to say regarding the bread that I've come to love my Bosch. I used to make bread by hand and then in a Zojirushi bread maker, but with the Bosch (which I bought off Craigslist at a great deal), I found you can make 6 loaves at a time with minimal effort. And something about the hook kneading the bread, the texture turns out much better. As far as blogs, one that my husband and I really like (I think because we can resonate with their lifestyle/frugal values) is Frugalwoods. But like you said, there are so many great resources out there!
I had no clue there was a no deals version of the MSM!! That is awesome and totally made my Monday am. 🙂
I know! I felt the same way when I found that. Woo!
I have a frugal cooking blog, too - but I didn't know, either, about MSM! As a matter of fact, I had stopped looking at it, so thanks for the tip!
My recommendation for blogs is to patrol the comments area here because so many like minded people comment here and have blogs of their own.
I like "theprudenthomemaker.com" and "blissfulanddomestic.com" websites.
I used to find it really easy to be critical of services like Blue Apron (so much waste! So expensive! Etc etc etc),until I saw the difference it made in a very good friend of ours.
It's just him and his new wife, no kids. He used to eat out, I kid you not, every. single. meal. He never learned how to cook at home, and he didn't want to "waste" money and food experimenting and learning how. They bought a house and suddenly the constant restaurant expenses came under scrutiny. They decided to give Blue Apron a try.
They were pretty rigid with it in the beginning, but started to branch out at the grocery store to try and recreate the meals they knew they liked from Blue Apron. The fact that they knew what it would likely taste like (and they liked that taste!) was a sort of security blanket for them. Then they started subbing different proteins, etc. you see whee this is going.
I think they get it maybe twice a week now, so they can get new ideas, but the rest is now them. They are comfortable at a grocery store! They aren't eating out for every meal anymore!
I'm definitely not a spokesperson for BA (we don't even live in an area where it's available) but the whole experience has taught me, if nothing else, that there is a reason services like this can exist and even thrive.
What Kate said! For people just learning how to get around in the kitchen, and at a certain level of income (!), something like Blue Apron makes a lot of sense. I fit neither of those categories myself, but I can see those services bridging the gap and letting people ease into more eating-in.
Of course, the more people you have to feed at one time, the less practical that shindig looks.
I thought Blue Apron wouldn't really be a good fit for me. After all, I am pretty good at planning meals, and budgeting for groceries and I enjoy cooking my own meals. But a friend of mine subscribes and once you buy a certain number of boxes, you get some to gift to others (Blue Apron's way of drumming up new business). So I was on the receiving end a free box. Due to a mistake on my part, I got two more boxes for the price of one. (PS, Blue Apron credited me a box because I made a bonehead mistake. Good customer service!) Anyway, my experiment forced me to try out some new foods and new techniques and everything I have made has been good - some of it has been so good I thought, did I really make that? Haha. So instead of cancelling immediately after my freebie, I kept the subscription - although I don't buy it every week. Because it's just me, a box of Blue Apron feeds me dinner (and several lunches) for an entire week. I find their serving sizes are pretty big -especially for the vegetarian meals. It does cost more than I usually spend on groceries so I only splurge once every couple of months. But my experience with Blue Apron has been so good I look at it as a treat.
Although I totally understand how not cooking would be the real treat if you have a large family and are spending all that money!
Oh wow...that's a GREAT deal for a week's worth of meals!
Yes. Paying $10 instead of $2 for a meal isn't so bad if there's just you, or you and one other person. But when there are 6+ people, it really adds up.
I think these things tend to be geared toward smaller families...one that I saw only went up to 4 people, in fact!
These are some really good points. I have a single friend who subscribed to a different service. She doesn't really cook, and it was difficult for her to come up with well balanced meals.
Nearly every day she regaled me with the fantastic food she was eating, and it was a huge step up for her from microwaved stuff. She lost weight, had more energy all due, I'm sure to the better diet.
Because she doesn't cook and her options (eating out, grabbing drive through, frozen food) she spent her money on were more expensive than "frugal" people, she was saving money, even at close to $100.00 a week.
Now, I would have a hard time spending that much on groceries, but for her, it was relative pricing.
One of my favorite websites is Living On A Dime http://www.livingonadime.com. In addition to many money saving ideas, she also has practical advice for living with good morals, plus lots of great recipes.
Thanks for the nice shout out!
I agree about The Prudent Homemaker. Her absolute focus on every single penny mixed with creativity is a very enjoyable read. She makes me feel a little less crazy about my own extreme frugality!
I agree about the Prudent Homemaker, Katy. She's amazing with what she does with so little. I love reading her blog and especially the comments from readers about how they've saved money. She's got a really humble way of encouraging to her readers, too. BTW, I LOVE you blog and especially your sense of humor.
Owlhaven and GoGingham are other good blogs for thrifty people.
After I had my daughter, my mother in law bought us a couple weeks of frozen ready made meals from a fancy place in town. It really helped us when we really couldn't think of healthy meals when we were just trying to get some sleep. I've looked into it since and, like you, I find it would be really expensive for us.
They do have an option to buy the meal from the store though and I think it was only like $20, so it would be ok for us to have one or two on hand for those days when we'd like to spoil ourselves a little. They really were yummy.
I really like the blog....Joyfully Thriving....very down to earth and gives lots of nice advice on how she saves money.
I find that my homemade bread freezes very well. Sometimes I freeze the loaf whole and other times, I slice it ahead of time.
Yes definitely slice it ahead of time so you can take out however many slices you need. It thaws in a jiffy.
I think a service like Blue Apron would be a fantastic gift for a newly widowed person, who might not want to "go to the trouble" of cooking for one. Friends could pitch in to buy maybe 4-6 month's worth, preferably adding invitations for dinner also.
It just occurred to me that the folk who have people in their lives desperate to give them presents could leverage that impulse into either some ready-made meals or a Blue Apron sort of thing. It would be better to receive this sort of thing than to get a thoroughly unneeded tchotcke or kitchen gadget...
Totally! Consumable gifts are lovely because you don't keep them forever.
I also love The Prudent Homemaker - gorgeous photography and so inspiring. Budget Bytes has tasty, easy, and inexpensive recipes - she details the cost of all the ingredients and lists the cost per serving. Mr. Money Mustache has been helpful. Finally I'm really liking Six Figures Under - a young family working their way out of student loans.
I do not recommend Katy's non-consumerist blog and I don't find that it sends the same message as this blog. I enjoyed it for a couple of posts, and I enjoy that she rarely buys new. But that's where it ends - photos of her home actually make me have anxiety, as it looks cluttered and very much like a hodge-podge from garage sales. Sometimes I worry she's a borderline hoarder.
This blog for me symbolizes non-consumerism, because the author is minimalist in her consumption. Being minimalist in one's consumption leads to a calm life with a calm home and calm interior design. It's also a soft print on our plant. Katy is a huge consumer, even if it is of things from Goodwill, garage sales, and the curb. Katy shops as a habit (at thrift stores). Again, for me part of not being a consumer and not taking more than what I need from the environment around me, involves not treating shopping and acquiring things as a hobby.
Hmmm...are you maybe thinking that she brings home all the stuff she shows in her Goodwill, Badwill, Questionablewill posts? Those are just for entertainment value (she's really not buying all of those Mrs. Butterworths! Ha.)
I think all of us have different home styles...some of us like a more spare look (that'd be me!) but I know some people actually feel physically uncomfortable in a space that is really minimalist. Like it doesn't feel comfortable to them unless there is more...stuff around. I'm the opposite, in that if my home has too much stuff in it, I just can't feel relaxed. I don't necessarily think one style is better than the other, though. They're just different.
And if one does prefer a less sparse home, it is wise to purchase the furnishings and decorations used, you know? Goodwills and thrift stores usually have more than enough stock to go around.
Wow! I can't agree with your evaluation of Kay. It's fine that Katy's blog (Non-consumer advocate) isn't your cup of tea, different strokes for different folks, for sure. But I must defend Katy. She is not a huge consumer. Yes, she does spend time shopping at Goodwill for fun, but also b/c she doesn't buy new things. She's also much more self-disclosing about what she buys and spends than the Frugal Girl (again, neither good nor bad, just a different style).
I buy the things my family needs when I shop at Goodwill, and I most definitely am *not* buying all the weird things I feature in my Goodwill, Badwill, Questionable-will blog posts. Those are for entertainment value only and for "entertainment value only."
Not a hoarder, thanks.
A hoarder hates to get rid of things, and I know you love to clean clutter out!
That's right!
"Crap out of the house, money in!"