There are a few things that you need to be comfortable with when making food last longer, while saving money. The most important thing is to be prepared to eat the same food for at least 2-3 nights straight or every other night. When cooking in bulk, you have to make sure you like the food you're making, A LOT! You can only store your food in the refrigerator for so long before it goes bad or doesn't taste the same as it once did. You can always freeze certain meals too, but I'm not a fan of how food tastes after it's been cooked THEN frozen. To me it's not as good, in my opinion. Another thing is that you should only buy what is on sale which will dictate your dinners for the week. Meal planning and buying food that is on sale in bulk is ESSENTIAL if you want to save any money at all. With the price of food going up, I also suggest you get a budget together, clip coupons and get on apps like Ibotta and FetchRewards to receive money/gift cards back for your purchases. PLEASE, DON'T LEAVE MONEY ON THE TABLE!
THE FIRST DISH that I love making and can eat all the time is somewhat like a goulash. It contains ground beef or ground turkey, stewed tomatoes (with onions, celery and green peppers), and noodles. I put a half a pound of ground beef into the crockpot along with a 35oz can of stewed tomatoes. I usually throw in a little bit of spaghetti sauce to give it some thickness, but you don't have to. I let it cook on high for 6 hours and when it's almost done, I'll throw some noodles in a pot and cook them. When those are done, I'll strain and put the noodles in the crockpot with the sauce and mix it in AND dinner is done!
The cost of this dinner comes in at about $8.00 and lasts us (2 adults) about 2 days, maybe 3.
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| Simple Goulash Ingredients |
THE SECOND DISH that I love making and can eat all the time is chili. You can make chili all different kinds of ways depending on what your family likes but this is how I do it to be cost effective. I usually put in 3 cans of different colored beans (I use light kidney beans, chili beans, and cannellini beans), along with either ground beef or ground turkey. I throw in a 35oz can of stewed tomatoes and a 35oz can of diced tomatoes (with garlic and onions) and a packet of chili powder. I cook it on high for 6 hours in the crockpot and DONE! With this recipe you can do sooo many things with it. You can eat it with cheese on top and chips to dip, put it in a burrito or two, or put it in tacos and add lettuce and tomatoes to it. That is what we usually do but if we are not in the mood for any of the above the next day, I'll make pasta and throw the chili in with it.
The cost of this dinner comes in at about $10.00 (without the extras like the burritos, taco shells, cheese, lettuce or tomato) and lasts us about 2 days.
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| Chili Ingredients minus the Chili Beans & Cannellini Beans Ran out of them! Time to stock up! |
What are some cheap and delicious meals that YOU make?
Stac
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