Need Some Help Saving Money and Not Eating out

[tryingfornumber7]

I need some motivation and great, quick easy recipes for dinner and sometimes lunch. We're going to DW next month in exactly one month and I desperately need/want to save more money. We usually always eat out for dinner and I'm trying to save money for our trip so I'm looking for quick and easy meals for 6 people and also ways to deter myself from eating out. It's there, it's quick but it winds up being very costly. Thanks!

 

[msmama]

Spaghetti - even cheaper if you make your own sauce, but I bought a lb of spaghetti for .88 and a jar of sauce for $1 this week (even if you have bigger kids and need to of each that's still under $5).

Buy a whole chicken and cook it in the crockpot (with a little chicken broth if needed). Shred and you'll have chicken for many meals. Add BBQ sauce and have sandwiches, make chicken and rice (add a can of cream of something soup and some milk), quesadillas. You can spend a little bit more and go lazy (which is what I often do) and buy a large pack (or 2) of boneless skinless chicken breasts. That still has to be cheaper than eating out every night!

Sandwiches.
Pancakes and sausage (buy the pancakes that just need water added).
If you have a grill can you put DH in charge of grilling one meal a week.

I sometimes find the hardest part of "meals" to be the sides, so I often just have raw cut up fruits and veggies then just have to worry about the "main" part of the meal.

I don't know where you're eating out, but maybe prepared foods would be your friend (Stouffers lasagna). It may not be the healthiest but probably healthier than eating out every meal.

 

[brennicksmom]

One of our new favorite and easy meals:
Sweet and spicy chicken
chicken breast tenderloins, cover with Kickin Chicken (spicy), then coat with brown sugar. Wrap in a piece of bacon. Bake about 45 min. Easy peasy. I use pre-cooked bacon to make it faster. I have made it with and without the bacon, it is better with is, it adds a bit of smoky flavor.

crock pot chili or spaghetti ( when I buy ground beef or turkey I pre brown in and freeze, makes mealtime faster )

When I grill I will do a big SAMS pack of chicken breasts, a few pork tenderloins, a few beef roasts, and whatever else sounds good. Then I freeze in meal size containers. When I need a meal I put it in a corningware type dish with just a bit of apple juice/liquid, warm it in oven or microwave and add a vegetable and it's ready.

French bread: pizza, ham and provel, reubans-Cook for about 10 min in oven, and quick prep time for each of those.

I am trying to get us to eat at home more too. I'm glad you started this thread for more ideas.

Tonight is French bread pizzas for us.

 

[tryingfornumber7]

thank you! Those sound like wonderful ideas!

 

[Jeff_G]

Set a monthly budget for dining out, at the beginning of the month pull that out in cash and put it into an envelope. When the cash is gone thats it no more dining out.

 

[CluelessDisFan]

It's a bad habit, that you just have to break. I have the same struggle. I notice it's kind of like an addiction, because I'll have a week that's really good (when I prepare to cook dinner all week) then I break it once and fall right back in to the habit of going out.

I love cost co, for quick dinners. Easy frozen Chinese, can taste as good as the carry-out Chinese I get. You don't have to lower your standards and make only cheap dinners either. Because if you're use to good food, and you start buying cheap food at the grocery store, you get tired of that, and fast! Even if I spend $17 for 2 ribeyes at the butcher, that's half the price of what I pay for ribeye at a restaurant. So buy and make food similar to what you're use to eating at a restaurant, and you'll still be saving money. When you find you can make it even better, you'll see your savings. Yes, you could try to cut your grocery bill but you'll go right back to eating out, and back to spending more again.

 

[Bamagirl43]

Dried beans. I've heard it said that beans are the poor man's protein, but poor or not I just love them. Just about any kind is good. Throw in the crockpot with some spices and stock or water. You can add meat like chicken or sausage if you like. Serve with a bread and salad. So delicious and very inexpensive.

 

[Marionnette]

I need some motivation and great, quick easy recipes for dinner and sometimes lunch. We're going to DW next month in exactly one month and I desperately need/want to save more money. We usually always eat out for dinner and I'm trying to save money for our trip so I'm looking for quick and easy meals for 6 people and also ways to deter myself from eating out. It's there, it's quick but it winds up being very costly. Thanks!

If you normally eat out for EVERY meal, then going cold turkey is going to be rough on not only you, but the entire family. Each of you is accustomed to being able to eat whatever you feel like ordering and that's going to stop when you actually sit down to the family table and eat what's placed in front of you! Then there's the shopping, prepping and clean up. It's going to be a BIG adjustment!

I suggest that you start with just a couple of meals for the first week. Do something easy and that everyone likes. Don't be afraid to use convenience foods at the start. You can cook from scratch once your kitchen skills improve.

Buy a jar of alfredo sauce, pre-cooked chicken strips, a box of pasta (penne is a good one) and a bag of frozen vegetables and voila! you have pasta prima vera with grilled chicken for a lot less than what you would pay for it at a restaurant. And all you have to do is boil the pasta and microwave the rest of the stuff. Add a salad and crusty bread and you have a meal.

Campbells makes a line of skillet sauces that you can use to make an easy meal. If your family likes Asian flavors, try the toasted sesame with garlic and ginger. Grab a bag of frozen Asian-style mixed veggies, a bag of frozen, cooked and deveined shrimp and a box of Minute Rice. Follow the direction on the packages for preparation and you have a very quick dinner. If seafood is a no-no in your house (my husband hates it), then substitute cooked chicken strips for the shrimp.

Finally, if the family members are old enough, get them involved in the meal planning, prep, and clean up. It will make your life easier. Face it, this is their Disney vacation, too! They should have some skin in the game as well.

Add another meal at home the second week but don't repeat any of the meals that you made the first week. This is where it gets tricky, because now you have to find 3 new meals to make! One of them should include all fresh ingredients, even if those ingredients have been chopped for you already. It will take more time to do the fresh meal from scratch, so save it for a day when you're not rushing around (maybe a Saturday or Sunday?).

Continue adding another home-cooked meal every week, repeating the meals from week #1 in week #3 and adding 2 new dinners that are either all fresh ingredients or at least 3/4 fresh ingredients. Eventually, you will get the point where you have a variety of menus in your repertoire and a feel for the amount of time it takes to prepare each of them. At some point after Disney, invest in a crock pot if you don't have one and begin to add crock pot recipes to your personal cookbook.

 

[sunshinehighway]

If time is a concern, you could cook a few meals at once and freeze them. That way you can just heat it up.
Example:

Make a big pot of sauce, meatballs, sausage, chicken. You can freeze some of that for pasta, make a quick lasagna, thrown some peppers in with the chicken to have over rice or pasta, you can use the sauce of pizza.

If you cut down on the prep time for dinner during the week it makes things so much easier when you are busy.

 

[Iowajes]

We really like these things, and all (even the potatoes, if you have 2-3 of them) are enough for a meal.

We never eat out dinner, but my nemesis is eating out lunch. However, I find that if I make one of these on Sunday, and portion it out into containers, I will take it and eat the same thing all week.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/ultimate-twice-baked-potatoes/

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/mexicali-pie/ (substitute ground beef for soy crumbles)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/addictive-sweet-potato-burritos/

My husband will also fry chicken and add buffalo wing sauce and serve with french fries. Or fry chicken and serve with white gravy (mmmm!) and serve with french fries and green beans.

Spaghetti with meat sauce is a lot easier than spaghetti with meatballs, so we like that too. Good with a side of garlic bread.

 

[Marionnette]

I want to add that cooking can be extremely frustrating if you don't have the right tools.

It might sound like I'm talking down to you, but many people who don't cook don't have a well-supplied kitchen. Do you have things like:

• mixing bowls
• measuring cups and spoons
• sharp knives and a cutting board
• good quality skillets and saucepans - with matching lids
• casserole and/or baking dishes
• oven mitts and potholders
• a vegetable peeler
• box grater or microplane
• food processor
• cookie sheets
• citrus juicer
• garlic press
• pasta strainer
• a variety of spices (not just salt & pepper)
• flour and sugar, baking soda, etc
• cooking utensils (slotted spoon, pancake turner, whisk, wooden spoons)

Those things can make a cook's life easier and without them, you're going to get frustrated. Not only that, but it's going to blow the budget if you have to go out and buy a new kitchen gadget or spice every time you want to make a recipe.

 

[lakelandgal70]

We are trying to cut back and eat all meals at home too. I like to make healthy casseroles that we can eat on for 3-4 nights. Lasagna, chicken enchiladas stuff like that. Pinterest has tons of recipes too.

 

[sheetz]

It's probably best to choose a few dishes that are your family's favorites and learn how to perfect them. Pretty much anything you cook at home is going to be substantially cheaper than going out.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Your slow cooker is your friend, especially as the weather starts getting cooler. I really like this website for new recipes, but there are a ton available on the Internet.

 

[Iowajes]

Not only that, but it's going to blow the budget if you have to go out and buy a new kitchen gadget or spice every time you want to make a recipe.

When we first started cooking a lot, we stayed away from Indian, Chinese, Thai recipes because they needed so many spices- a meal could end up being VERY expensive. Now that we eat almost everything at home, we have pretty much anything we need. But it is good advice in the beginning to not use recipes that need 20 different spices you don't already have on hand. They can really add up!

 

[marmalade]

What are some of your families favorite dishes when you go out? Are you eating out every night at fast food type places or more sit down places? Those are things you need to look at before you try to start a menu plan at home. I could give you tons of recipes, but if your family won't eat it, that's no help.

 

[ellone]

Tacos - relatively easy to chop up vegetables for toppings and the meat cooks quick.

Slow cooker - I get a chunk of beef and brown it and then cook it with onions, rosemary, and a tablespoon of whiskey. At the end I make gravy from the water the meat was in all day. Serve it with oven roasted potatoes and carrots.

 

[scrapquitler]

You don't have to lower your standards and make only cheap dinners either. Because if you're use to good food, and you start buying cheap food at the grocery store, you get tired of that, and fast! Even if I spend $17 for 2 ribeyes at the butcher, that's half the price of what I pay for ribeye at a restaurant. So buy and make food similar to what you're use to eating at a restaurant, and you'll still be saving money. When you find you can make it even better, you'll see your savings. Yes, you could try to cut your grocery bill but you'll go right back to eating out, and back to spending more again.

I totally agree with this. I think the key to avoiding the "we are eating out because I'm unprepared/don't have time to cook" is to plan ahead, and as much as possible, cook ahead of time. Spend some time on the weekend prepping as much as you can (prepare meals and put them in a ziplock bag, then refrigerate or freeze them so that in the morning you can throw it all in the crock pot, or have it already in a disposable pan that you can just shove in teh oven when you get home. Cut up lots of veggies/fruit and other ingredients for salads and munchie platters so the sides won't trip you up during meal prep on a busy night. Marinate some meats ahead of time so you can just throw them on the grill. Plan breakfast for dinner once a week, plan sandwiches/soup once a week, cook something on Sunday that you can use leftovers during a busy weekday.

But as the above poster said, if you are eating out a lot, have the same 'type' of meals that you are used to, just at home. Don't go from steak in the restaurant to ramen noodles at home, you'll just be miserable -- instead have that steak marinating in the fridge, throw it on the grill and nuke some baked potatoes while you toss a salad.

 

[tryingfornumber7]

thanks so much for the awesome suggestions everyone. Yes we do eat out a lot of fast food, unfortunately. Trying to curb that for both health and my pocket Love the idea of breakfast for dinner! My kids LOVE eggs and pancakes and bacon. Unfortunately I lent my slow cooker to my friend and never got it back because she broke it so no help there.

 

[Southernmiss]

If I have a meat set out in the morning, I can get dinner on the table in under 30 minutes with sautéing the meat in a pan with a little butter or oil, cooking a rice or pasta or potatoes then microwave frozen vegetables or have a green salad. That's a complete meal.

The key for me is to have an idea when I get up in the morning. Dinner preparation goes so much easier.

Last night was busy and we wound up ordering pizza at 9:00 simply because I wasn't home to cook. But the kid's band got 20% of the profits--fundraising night. So not all bad.

Today, I took the chicken breasts I thawed yesterday and put it in the slow cooker and sprinkled them with Italian seasonings and garlic powder, salt and pepper. I then threw in 2 bags of frozen Normandy style vegetables (broccoli, carrots, cauliflower) and set it to cook for 7 hours. Tonight, I'll go home and make brown rice, check the chicken and vegetables for seasoning and call it dinner. Pretty healthy and easy!