Prioritizing Frugal Activities
As you know, for the last several weeks, painting has kind of consumed my life. The cabinet project was a doozy, of course, and then I jumped right into the project of painting Lisey's new room.
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All that painting didn't leave a whole lot of extra time for other money-saving efforts, and at times like these, I have to decide what's important to do and what's not.
To a degree, I do this all the time, but during especially busy seasons, prioritizing is even more important.
So, during my painting project, I didn't stay on top of my fridge.
I did very little baking and we've had a number of store-bought loaves of bread (My kids, who used to think store-bought bread was a treat, have changed their minds.)
We ate a lot more cereal breakfasts than usual.
I didn't set foot in a thrift store.
No mending or repurposing happened.
I kept my grocery shopping super simple.
BUT.
I did keep cooking meals (albeit simple ones!), because eating out or getting takeout is crazy-ridiculous for a family of six.
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No matter how busy I get, cooking at home is very nearly at the top of my priority list because the savings are so great.
For the six of us to get fast food or a kind of cheap takeout meal, we usually have to spend $35 or so. And if we eat out somewhere, the damage is even worse.
$35 is a lot of money for a meal, and if we did that a couple of times a week, it would really start to add up.
I can easily feed our family for a week on $140 (that's 21 meals), but that same $140 will only buy us 4 dinner meals if we get takeout.
That is very much not a bargain.
And then when you consider that what I serve at home is almost always more nutritious than what we eat when we're out, the meals at home are an even better deal.
So, I'm curious now...what money-saving activity is at the top of your priority list during busy seasons of life?
Honestly we're all about meals at home. It's just too expensive to each out and I find that someone (we have 3 under 5) truly isn't in the mood at dinner time to eat out and an uncooperative child in a restaurant isn't fair to anyone.
All of our baked goods come from my kitchen-we don't pay for name brand snacks.
Recently we brought a ton of food and drinks to an amusement park that allows that and just bought $15 in food for dinner for the 6 of us.
I would agree cooking meals would be at the top of my list of frugal activities to continue even when I am busy. Another would be stopping once a week to tally up what we have spent and what we have earned and taking out enough for our cash envelopes for the week. This puts bumpers on our spending making sure we are not speeding over spending limits when we get busy.
I actually have a similar post to this coming later this week. A couple weeks ago we got a little girl and boy to foster, on top of a foster son we already had and our birth daughter. It was a full week of driving to doctors, court, visits and meetings, plus it was extra crazy as we had buckets fo rain that week and the kids didn't get to play outside too much. So I didn't go by my use-less-paper-towels rules, and we did buy more prepared foods than normal, including take out pizza once and my husband grabbed fast food a couple times when out driving kids around to places. I did still manage to not succumb to paper plates or cups (although paper towels did get used as plates a couple times for finger foods) and I still found time to earn me some swagbucks.
Yes to using real dishes. I can maybe understand if you're having a picnic or something but I just don't get using paper plates for daily use.
Real plates all the way for me!
'cept for when there's a new baby in the house. I kinda caved a couple of times so far.
Yes! Right before a new baby, I buy 1 bag of paper plates and a box of plastic silverware, some paper napkins, a couple rolls of paper towels, Clorox wipes, and wrinkle releaser spray. Once we run out of those things, I'm usually ready to get back to washing dishes, doing extra laundry, deep cleaning bathrooms, and ironing. Usually. And in the meantime, my family had home-cooked food, clean bathrooms, and clean, presentable (enough) clothing. Totally worth it.
It's getting crazy busy here with school and work cranking up! I bought a couple of Stouffer's meals to have on hand for those nights I can't do a crock pot meal and don't want to order take-out. It's a trade-off of sorts. We went from 6 to 4 so takeout is not as big of an expense as it used to be. But still, not the preferred meal I'd like to serve them. And I can't wait to paint my cabinets, too, so please post all the details!
Home-cooked meals is a biggie for us as well. We actually eat out a bit more at this time of the year because the kids have earned free kid meal coupons by reading library books--it's a nice treat for 4 of us to eat out for the price of 2 adults (and we usually order water, not beverages, for further savings). I agree that sometimes you need to trade off your frugal activities--painting your cabinets is a great example of a time when you just can't do it all.
If for whatever reason my stove is inaccessible or I'm pressed for serious time then it's sandwiches for dinner. Take out for us means one Little Caesar's Pizza or a rotisserie chicken from the local wholesale club (about $5 and enough for a few meals.)
There's also a great benefit to the non winter months as you can cook on a grill.
As for me, well when the chips are down I'm lucky that I have family nearby who are willing to help me out. Case in point, we are swapping out our hot water heater soon. I could take my wife to a hotel for the night but instead we'll be showering and washing up at my family's house during the downtime.
Using my slow cooker!! I can use up leftovers, buy less expensive cuts of meat, have a nutritious meal on the table AND get everything I want to do done!!
We have many food intolerances, so cooking our food at home is always priority number one. I tend to let other things slide like cleaning the house when we get really busy.
I'm getting ready to start back to work after a year and a half break. Hubby and I are newish foster parents with 4 new kids plus hubby's 2 sons.
I'm doing everything I can think of to make dinner quick and easy for us.
For the most part it's freezer meals or partial meals. I've got 10 lbs of cooked ground beef, 9 lbs of cut up cooked chicken breast, a lasagna, 8 quarts of chili and 2 dozen calzones. Our go to meals on a busy night is tacos or spaghetti. I always have what I need for those 2 meals on hand.
Eating out for our family of 8 is ridiculous. Teenagers eat a lot! It's usually saved for someone's birthday dinner at our favorite Chinese place.
At the moment I'm on my way to having 4 dozen breakfast burritos in the freezer for a good grab & go breakfast.
Hi Kristen,
I'm curious what types of meals you were able to prepare when your kitchen was (essentially) in your living room? I have a hard time pulling dinner together some nights and quick/easy/simple ideas would be really great.
This post was a bit of a swift kick in the pants for me... as I just finished up an intense nursing program for the last year, my husband and I slid into eating out several times a week since I often had tests, clinicals and papers due. Thank goodness there is only 2 of us! Now that I am out of school it is easy to maintain that level of eating out without any real justification. Time to reorient a bit. 🙂
So much agreeing with you on the home-cooking. I think it is the number one way to save money if one is on a tight bugdet. It surely adds up to almost unbelievable amounts if you have a family of six, but even if your are single, like me, it really makes a difference. Having just started a new job, I let a little loose of my brown-bagging-custom during the last two weeks and found that one easily spends too much money on work-lunch. I did not even go to the take-away but bought some prepared foods at the little grocery store next door and found myself astounded at the prices. For example a ready made salad is around 2 bucks. But if I buy a fresh salad, tomatoes and whatever I like and take it home, prepare some of it every morning and take it to work, those two bucks produce enough salad to last for the whole week. Together with a sandwich it makes a nutritious lunch at an unbeatable price. So I crunched the numbers and woefully returned to taking 5 minutes in the morning - because that is really just how long it takes - an brown-bagging my lunch.
Food is the biggest for me. I don't have to budget but I can't stand the money spent on outside food and drinks which are not great quality. I brew my tea, soak and cook dry beans, and pack all my lunches. One iced tea which costs me pennies to make at home is $3 outside.
We normally have a garden, but the last two season's we missed it due to small kids and just being busy. But with the spike in groceries, we decided we MUST make the effort to get our fall garden up this year and freeze and can like crazy...even with a new baby due to arrive in December. $20 for seeds and a few plants will save us $30-40 at the grocery store a week, we eat a lot of fresh veggies and fruit. Living in South Texas has it's benefits when it comes to gardening.
Last year my garden produced over $1000 of vegetables and berries, after expenses (I weigh everything we harvest and then price it at the grocery store)---and we live on an ordinary lot in Alaska, so small space and short season. It took 2 hours a day of labor during June and July, but my husband and I split the tasks and feel like it was good sweat equity and good for the kids. (The kids had their own little plots and if I used their lettuce or carrots in food, they donated half the value to the family and I paid them for the other half of what it would have cost us. I want them to contribute to the family but also be able to earn money...)
You must know your way around gardening! I also live in Alaska, and nothing I planted started growing until this past week when we got those first few days of rain this summer. Any recommendations as to where I can learn more about gardening up here?
I live in the Interior. If you live from Fairbanks north, read the gardening columnist in the Daily News Miner. If you live in Anchorage, read the Jeff Lowenfels column in the Anchorage paper. In southeast, I have not a clue. The book by Ann Roberts, called the Alaska Gardening Guide covers all three parts of the state; in Anchorage, Lenore Hedla's book The Alaska Gardener's handbook is the best. And Cooperative Extension is a really good resource, not just the Master Gardener class in each region, but their publications. Some are available on line, 99% are free.
I've found gardening to be a great help. I live in a small town in the mountains. This summer I've been sharing produce with friends. We all share extras and I give to friends who don't have a garden. I've also been teaching a friend of mind how to can. So yes...gardening...frugal, fun and educational
Definitely cooking meals every day and baking bread. That´s my first frugal priority!
My husband and I try to come up with fun and free things to do as a family on the weekends. For instance - yesterday was a five mile family bike ride. Saturday night was movie night with a fun movie we borrowed from our local library. It takes some of the stress out of planning and doing activities with your kids when you don't have to pay a dime!
I'm about to find out just how expensive eating out is. We are having our hardwoods refinished on the entire first level, hence leaving us w/o a kitchen for 6 days.
Yikes. This will be expensive if I don't plan before it happens. We'll have a grill, and a fridge, so I'll have to think of meals to supplement eating out.
I agree that eating 'in' is much more nutritious. Let's hope I can do this without breaking the bank or adding needless fat to my waistline. :)!
A crock pot can be plugged in in any room. Then you could have a meal ready at the end of a long day of remodeling, without much effort.
A big one for me is not only cooking at home, but packing my lunch to take to uni every day. For breakfast and dinner I can usually rustle something up at home, but if I don't pack lunch I usually end up having to buy something and a good quality meal can cost up to $20!
Usually busyness works in my favour, since when I am busy it's just too much of a hassle to leave the house. Which means I make do with what's in the pantry, I put off any shopping trips and basically don't spend any money. But that's a lot easier when you're only looking after one person!
No one mentions this here, but I try and be frugal with my time when I get super busy. The last few weeks here have been sooooo intensely crazy, and I have had to turn down going out to see family, friends, and any commitments offered to me. I have also had to re-evaluate what I am truly committed to, in general - and cut out a lot of unnecessary activities. I feel like I have to crack down on my playtime now and get some things accomplished - or it will make the upcoming months more stressful and harder in general. Yes, its no fun at the moment. However seeing serious progress in a short period and getting the dumb things taken care of has made the mental clutter more manageable (I hope I'm making sense!)
We also take time on the weekend and try to plan a few meals during the week. While we are not perfect at this, and do tend to have a pizza night here and there - it helps tremendously to know what we are going to eat on a Monday night (from home).
I never skip cooking either, no matter how busy I am. Because it saves a *lot* of money, but also because homemade food tastes much better and is that much more satisfying.
When I am super busy and super stressed out, eating well feels that much more important to keep up with the rest of life 🙂
So far August has been an incredibly busy month for me, too. Like many others commenting here, I prioritize eating at home rather than spending a lot of money eating out. Last week when I pulled another container of minestrone soup from the freezer, I thanked myself for taking the time to make a huge batch of soup and freeze it last spring. I didn't really want to at the time, but now I'm so glad I did!
Great post Kristen! I totally concur - eating out is expensive for a family and cooking at home is quite possibly the best frugal tip out there. We all have those weeks (wow do we ever) and I loved reading this!
The crockpot can be a BFF.
Funny story I have about the tv one. When I was a senior in high school my Global Studies teacher was trying to convince some kids that they actually did have time to do their homework the night before (over half the class hadn't done it).He the proceeded to poll the class about how much tv we had watched. We all said none, or 30 mins. My cousin, who was one of the kids who didn't finish his homework, said, 4 hours. Our teacher asked him what he thought about the rest of us saying we didn't watch much tv the night before. He said "I think they're liars". Now when certain people say to me "I limit my kids screen time" in my head I hear my moody cousins voice say "I think they're liars"
1. try to eat dinner at home (instead of takeout which would be really easy, ok, probably takeout one night a week but there's only 3 of us)
2. take lunch to work as many days of the week as possible. Buying lunch could easily be $10 or more
3. do my own house cleaning. That will cost me $100+ for each visit. I would love to have a house cleaner even if it were only every two weeks but I keep thinking about the money
4.I try to stay away from the grocery store. If I go in for only one item, I usually end up buying twenty. My secretary had this tip: if you really need to go to the grocery store for 1-2 items, don't take a cart. You can only carry a few things in your arms so you end up buying less.
Baby sitting and a frugal date night is at the top of my priority list when life gets crazy. For me, cooking at home always takes a hit when life gets crazy. I save money and sanity by making time to go out with my spouse. I fork over cold hard cash for the babysitter and make up for it with free (or very cheap) activities like playing tennis, taking walks, going for a drive, or a picnic for two. We also enjoy some great free museums.
Food has been pretty well covered so here's my other one: cleaning supplies.
Homemade cleaning supplies are so darn cheap compared to purchased that it isn't even funny. Homemade laundry detergent is 90% cheaper than store-bought. Homemade window cleaning liquid saves even more.
I try to always cook at home with what we have. Before I go shopping I check to se what we´ve got and what I need to buy to get several meals. For example if i buy cream I can make 3 different meals. I always shop with my list but I´m always looking out for special offers on our regularly used items.
I always "brownbag it" for lunch and for dinner, I work evenings and this makes a big differens for our economy. If I don´t have readymade food for work it´s really easy for me to whip together an omelett in the morning. In my locker at work I always keep some swedish crispbread and some biscuits, my lifesavers if I forget my food. My employer always offers free fresh fruit, thats really nice and free to 🙂
I am soooo with on on cooking/eating in vs take out/eating out. The savings are so great and you said it, so much better for you it isn't even funny!
I agree with cooking at home. When I get really busy (such as when I was working almost full time & going to school) I find myself putting off grocery shopping as long as possible which means I'm forced to eat of the pantry & freezer. I also have given up paper towels almost entirely (it's been months since I last used one & the last roll I had opened lasted me over a year) as I invested in five dozen fabric "paper" towels that are made out of diaper fabric & came from a shop on Etsy. Making my own laundry detergent. I made five gallons of a liquid concentrate almost two years ago & I'm just now starting to think about making more. The ingredients for one five gallon batch cost less than $2. I also use plain white vinegar for the majority of my cleaning. I do buy mouthwash at Dollar tree to use in the toilet as it's cheap, works just as well as any expensive toilet bowl cleaner, is antibacterial because of the alcohol content & the bonus is that if you pour some in after having flushed the toilet it acts as a very mild air freshner. I also make a point of buying the kinds or brands of things I like, which doesn't sound frugal but it's not very frugal to buy a brand x yogurt just because it's cheap & then not only not eat it because you don't care for it but go out & buy the kind you like to eat & enjoy.
Wow, Kristin! You are superSavvy when it comes to making that many meals for a family of six!!! Could you please give me a sample menu of what you make and or buy with $140? I'm not that savvy when it comes down to making quick, easy, nutritious, and budget friendly meals. I really would appreciate your thoughts and tips!!!
Cooking meals at home is always a priority, whether or not we eat them at home or on the go just depends on what our lives are like at the moment. My kids are the same way about store bought food. Store bread, store yogurt and even paper napkins are viewed as novel!
I think it can be very comforting to be in the kitchen cooking and to eat homecooked foods when life gets crazy. Cooking good food for my family is one of my top 3 priorities in my life.
That said, when things get really crazy, I start buying things that I usually make (hummus, granola, bread) and turn to preparing simple foods rather than "cooking". This summer we've been living on fruits and veggies (the less prep, the better) and grilled meats (my husband takes care of that) because I've been sick all summer and my kids have also had to pitch in a lot, so meals are simpler now than they've ever been.
Hi Kristen, DIY projects are at the top of my list (eating at home is a given...lol). I just reupholstered 2 of my couches. I figured I saved over $1,000 on that project that took 30 hours. Here's my tutorial: http://eveofreduction.com/how-to-reupholster-a-couch-part-3-blind-tacking/
Whoa, that's a HUGE project to undertake. I bet you're glad it's over!
Definitely cooking. Living in a city where a 2-3 topping pizza costs upwards of $20 and won't feed all four of us, and getting lunch for one adult for $10 feels like a steal, cooking at home from scratch is a necessity.
The other thing is staying on top of the dishes (no disposable plates or cups) and keeping the living room picked up so I don't feel like we have to go out somewhere just to get away from the mess. Planning to take the kids to the we-have-a-pass-zoo, and taking the time to pack lunches, etc., is much different (and easier on the budget!) than just "ugh, I have to get out of this chaotic house, let's go to the mall" and then end up spending money on lunch, coffee, unnecessary purchases. Having a clean living room in which they can entertain themselves whilst I'm taking care of a project or packing lunches for the day is a huge help.
Although cost is a factor preparing homemade meals is a priority for me in many ways. We are currently into our second week camping/caravaning around Dorset and I choose to cook rather than eat out 90% of the time. So far we've enjoyed slow cooked lasagne (I rarely travel without a crockpot) and chicken fajitas (cooked on my amazing buy from Aldi - a Teppanyaki grill!). We have had a couple of meals out. Our bill is approximately £40 for us four. Yesterday I tracked down an Aldi in Weymouth and spent just short of £50 and got food for 3 days plus lots of treats/beers etc ... Well we are on holiday!
We don't eat out much with the family, mostly because the children are still at the stage where I can't guarantee no one will throw something. This makes restaurant eating stressful. The upside is not having to cook or do dishes -- which is not a negligible upside -- but weighed against the possibility of a complete tantrum/meltdown, it's a limited upside.
But because we're not eating a lot of restaurant meals of convenience (or take out -- oh, sometimes I miss living somewhere that I could get sushi delivered!) I feel free to eat at very nice restaurants when my husband and I got out without the kids. 🙂
In general, my frugal behavior consists of setting our recurring expenses at a lower percentage of income than we could. Getting the big things right frees up a lot of cash for smaller things. We can eat out a lot for what we saved by moving to a cheaper (and lower tax) state.
I totally agree. Eating out is not fun with 7 kids (youngest 1 and 3), and cooking is an area where it's so easy to save money. Even buying some "convenience" food like the ALDI stir fry mixes or pizza for those occasional nights saves a ton of money.
Just wanted to cheer you up. You did do repurposing in a major way. You redid your kitchen cabinets! You could have chose to buy new ones but you chose to make to old ones work.
We eat leftovers. I know it sounds simple but it saves lots of money. I end up preparing dinner 3 to 4 times a week. We eat the leftovers the rest of the time or something very simple like grilled cheese sandwiches and a bowl of soup (sometimes homemade from freezer and sometimes from a wholesale store). I have a couple of money saving ideas and regards to "fast food" at home. When you make tacos double the ingredients. Then, at the end of the meal make a pan of enchiladas with the ingredients. Yes, toss it all in. tomatoes, onions, olives, beans, cheese, and meat. Whatever is left it will all taste good together. Save this meal for a day or two later or freeze it for one of those nights you know you are going to be too exhausted to cook. I also do something similar with turkey dinner leftovers. I pour the gravy and veg into a casserole dish. Next comes the diced turkey meat, mashed potatoes and last but not least the stuffing. Bake it all till it is heated through and the stuffing is nice and crispy on top.
Never make one lasagna always make two or more. You already have the mess out, do yourself a favor and make one for the future.
always always cooking meals at home