Need Some Help Saving Money and Not Eating out

[tryingfornumber7]

Getting a crock pot asap! Thanks. also went to the store today and stocked up on about 2 weeks worth of quick easy dinners thanks to so many lovely people who gave me their recipes on here! Thank you all so much! Anxious to try out this new not eating out Was very good the past 2 days Except lunch lol. I am trying.

 

[kaytieeldr]

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.

$16.88 soft a five quart slow cooker at Walmart. Unlike Goodwill, you know it works.

 

[rosiebean]

Getting a crock pot asap! Thanks. also went to the store today and stocked up on about 2 weeks worth of quick easy dinners thanks to so many lovely people who gave me their recipes on here! Thank you all so much! Anxious to try out this new not eating out Was very good the past 2 days Except lunch lol. I am trying.

I am very bad at eating out at lunch. I pack the kids' lunches every day, but find it hard to bring home lunch in myself.

But...about a year ago, I decided to try an experiment when we were saving for a Christmas week vacation with my husband's extended family. I told myself that if I could afford to spend $12 for lunch, I could afford to put another $12 into savings.

So for the past year, I take out a weekly sum from the bank to spend on discretionary items. For every 'splurge' item I buy (which includes lunch out on regular work days), I put the same amount in an envelope. Buying milk when we run out or giving the kids money for school things comes out of the weekly cash too, but those don't have to see their equal put into the savings envelope. At the end of the week, any money I have left over goes toward the next week's spending. And the money in the envelope gets deposited into savings.


The Christmas week vacation ended up being canceled, but I've continued to save equal to what I spend on unnecessary items. I've cut down on 'splurge' spending by a lot. I think twice (and more) before buying things I don't need. I've saved a nice chunk since last year, and have cut down my eating out at lunch by a ton.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Lots of great meal ideas here. We too suffer from spending WAY WAY WAY too much money eating out. But I'm struggling with HOW to eat at home when we are never home?

I'm done teaching at 3pm. Which puts me home around 4pm most days. Once I get my kids from afterschool care, sometimes they don't even step foot in the house before 8:30pm. They are 9 and 5 so eating that late isn't an option. We are shuttling almost every night between one or two of the following hockey, soccer, dance and tutoring.

So how can we "eat at home" when we're not home? I hate to make the kids eat sandwiches/deli meats since that is what they have for lunch all week. But dinner often is ate in the back seat of my car between one event and another.

I know a crock pot could help on the nights we get home earlier....but what about the days they never come home?

HELP!

 

[KKB]

To go home before you pick them up?
You could use the crock pot & fix a quick dinner, then create a little container of hot food for them & hand it to them when you pick them up.

How many days a week is it that they don't even come home?

Take them with you to the grocery store & let them pick things--even lunchables are cheaper than eating out, but still are a little different than a sandwich.

We like GoPicnics--they are $5!! at Target but I got them on sale for $3 this week & often order them online--I pay $2.50-3 each online, ordering enough to get free s/h. They are fairly healthy if your kiddos will eat them. (I NEVER pay $5...) Again, cheaper & healthier than fast food.

At that age we only allowed one activity per season...that simplified our lives considerably & we maintained that for the most part through middle school. (we did add youth group in middle school). High school has shot that completely out the window & it is a RARE night we eat together.

Just a suggestion--is there a way to streamline your children's schedule? (perhaps there isn't..but always worth a look)

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Lots of great meal ideas here. We too suffer from spending WAY WAY WAY too much money eating out. But I'm struggling with HOW to eat at home when we are never home?

I'm done teaching at 3pm. Which puts me home around 4pm most days. Once I get my kids from afterschool care, sometimes they don't even step foot in the house before 8:30pm. They are 9 and 5 so eating that late isn't an option. We are shuttling almost every night between one or two of the following hockey, soccer, dance and tutoring.

So how can we "eat at home" when we're not home? I hate to make the kids eat sandwiches/deli meats since that is what they have for lunch all week. But dinner often is ate in the back seat of my car between one event and another.

I know a crock pot could help on the nights we get home earlier....but what about the days they never come home?

HELP!

Personally I would limit their activities. My kids are only allowed one activity per season. And no traveling teams until you are older.

If that's not an option I would use the crock pot, try to run home before getting them and pack tupperware with a hot meal for them.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

yeah, limiting isn't happening. I know for some our schedule is crazy and they would never do it. Believe it or not they would love to do a few more activities each, but without cloning myself, it ain't happening. LOL

 

[disney212]

When my kids were in marching band (between school, jobs and band) we had lot of dinners in the car but I cooked most of them (full time job too so I completely understand). We did a lot of wraps in the sumner and thermos meals in the winter. I would make them in the morning and take them to work with me. My kids loved chicken wraps (made with leftover chicken) I would put ranch dressing) in a small container so they could dip them and they would not be soggy (I have access to a fridge and microwave at work so I would put them in there while I was working, a wrap some veggies to dip and fruit and they had a full meal. They also liked 'fried rice' also using leftovers. I would make it in advance, put in a Tupperware container, take it to work, heat it up and put it into a thermos for each of them and it would stay hot for hours. I did the thermos meals using spaghetti and meatballs, mac-n-cheese, lots of stuff. It also worked for hot sandwich fillings. Good luck.

 

[mom2alix]

See if you have Schwann's available. They're not super cheap, but they have convenient, easy frozen foods that are better and cheaper than eating out and they deliver to the house! Just made their shrimp scampi last night. The shrimp comes frozen with the scampi sauce encrusting it, just toss in the skillet and sauté. I can cook the scampi in the time it takes the angel hair pasta to cook, so it's super fast. Just add a salad and garlic bread and you have dinner.


The crock pot is also your friend. I have potato soup going right now. Start with chicken broth and a brick of cream cheese on high for about an hour. Whisk that to make the soup base. Add some bacon bits, a dash of white pepper and a bag of frozen hash browns and cook on low until dinner. Super easy and my kids would lick their bowls if I let them. Lol

Another favorite is butter beef. 3 lbs stew meat or beef tips, 1 stick of butter, and 1 pkg onion soup mix. Cook on low all day. Serve over egg noodles. Depending on how it turns out, I sometimes add some beef broth or gravy at the end.

 

[Iowajes]

For me, it is all about eating leftovers.
We cook usually 3 dinners a week. That provides 5 week-day lunches and dinner for all 7 nights. On weekends we might go out to eat once or else we make lunches from whatever is in the pantry, or have sandwiches or salads.

That way cooking always happens on days we have time for it (almost always Saturday and Sunday and then one day during the week).

I've met people who won't reheat food. They would never make it on my plan!

 

[Marionnette]

yeah, limiting isn't happening. I know for some our schedule is crazy and they would never do it. Believe it or not they would love to do a few more activities each, but without cloning myself, it ain't happening. LOL

Well then, you just have to learn to live with your children eating whatever you can feed them in the car as you run them from one activity to the next. Some families thrive on that kind of life and it sounds like yours is one of them.

Get some wide-mouth insulated containers and fill them will whatever you made in the crockpot. Let the kids chow down on that as you take them all over town.

 

[rosiebean]

yeah, limiting isn't happening. I know for some our schedule is crazy and they would never do it. Believe it or not they would love to do a few more activities each, but without cloning myself, it ain't happening. LOL

In this case, wide mouth thermoses and a cooler with ice packs (combined with a freezer and crock pot) is your friend!

Lots of things can be quickly made and put into a thermos for a warm meal:

1. Chili. We make a huge pot of chili on weekends and freeze at least two containers for quick meals. I'll take the chili out of the freezer and put it into the fridge the night before we eat it...it's usually defrosted by the time I get home from work, so I just heat it on the stove. You can do the same, but but individual servings in thermos bottles. Throw a sandwich baggie of cheese into a small baggie with an ice pack, and add a bag of tortillas (scoopable). The kids can scoop out the chili with the chips and sprinkle with cheese.

2. If you have time between getting home from work and leaving to pick up kids, it's also easy to make a Chinese-style dumpling soup. We pan-fry a mixture of meat and veggie gyoza while simmering store-bought chicken broth with a veggie (like frozen peas and carrots), add the gyoza to a thermos, and add the hot chicken broth. My kids love this.

3. I will use the weekend to cook meat to freeze for quick meals. With frozen roasted chicken, I will add it (defrosted in the fridge from the night before) to a little broth with frozen veggies and thicken with cornstarch to make a kind of chicken pot pie base. While I cook the base, I bake frozen biscuits. I just add the biscuits to the pan with the base at home to serve up, but you could put the chicken/veggie/broth base into a thermos and serve the biscuit separately.

4. Anything in a crockpot...beef stew, meatballs, chicken with a can of cream of mushroom soup...can be added to the thermos.

My kids like cold meals. I know some don't, but if yours does't mind them, you could try:

1. Cold stir fried noodles. We stir fry whole wheat noodles (spaghetti or fettuccine) with thinly cut carrots, cabbage, peas, corn, frozen soy beans...whatever we have on hand...with a mixture of soy sauce and a little sesame oil. Sometimes we add tofu or meat. My kids love this cold.

2. Cold quesadilas (spelling is not right, I know!). My kids dip them in a salsa, sour cream dip that we make by mixing at a ratio of 2:1 salsa to sour cream.

3. Cold chicken with potato salad and fruit. I'll do oven-bbq chicken (wings, legs) and will make extra for the kids lunch. They love cold chicken with potato salad and fruit salad. Maybe it's genetic...my mother used to roast a chicken before a routine 10-hour trip we used to make (overnight) and we'd eat cold chicken from the cooler with various salads in the van. But this is something you could do and stick in a cooler and give to your kids as you drive them around.

Just a few ideas. I think the key for you is that you need to be ok with your kids eating in your car! Someone once asked me if I was one of 'those moms' who would not let their kids eat in the car, and I just until my stomach hurt!