Easing into Frugality Part One

When starting down the path of frugality the internet can be an invaluable tool, but it’s easy to become overwhelmed by all the information that’s available. It can be helpful to remember that frugality isn’t an all or nothing concept. There are some simple solutions that you can implement easily to help save your family money right away, but for the more involved frugal activities it may be better to break things into steps. This, of course, will be different for everyone as every family is at a different place in their frugal journey. I’d like to begin this blog with a series of simple and frugal ideas that even a beginner can use.

Save $ Strategy: Cooking at Home

How does this work?: The household food budget is one area that you have a lot of control over. If you’ve never stopped to think about how much $ gets spent on eating out, it can be pretty surprising. Here are some things that you can do:

Create a meal plan. Try it for one week and see how it goes. Come up with seven dinners that you’d like to make and assign them to one night that week. Or maybe do six meals and reserve one night for eating up leftovers. Now add on simple breakfasts and lunches. Post this plan on the refrigerator for all to see and use this plan to make your grocery list. You can take it a step further and use coupons to save you $ at the store. It’s really as simple as that, but there are some pitfalls to watch out for.

Oh no, there’s a game/recital/scout meeting tonight and we don’t have time to cook dinner!!

Frugal Solution 1: Stop at the grocery store and pick up a rotisserie chicken, frozen veggies and a bag of salad. Throw a quick meal together at home that is more nutritious and cheaper than take out or fast food.
Frugal Solution 2: Freeze dinners ahead of time and defrost overnight in the fridge. Whenever I make dishes such as spaghetti sauce, chili or sloppy joes I double or triple the recipe and freeze the extra portions for later. If you plan ahead and pull these out of the freezer the night before then by dinner time all that needs to be done is to warm it up and serve.

Frugal Solution 3: Use your slow cooker to make a meal that’s ready by the time you walk in the door. The added benefit of slow cookers is that you can use cheaper/tougher cuts of meat because the long cooking time makes everything nice and tender. There are a ton of great slow cooker recipes available online and it’s easy to feed your family spaghetti and meatballs, pulled pork, roasted chicken, stew, pot roast…

I just don’t feel like cooking tonight!!

Frugal Solution 1: Buy frozen dinners, pot pies, frozen pizza at the grocery store when they're on sale. They may not be the most frugal purchases in your cart, but they’re certainly cheaper than going/ordering out.
Frugal Solution 2: Keep the ingredients on hand for a very simple meal that your husband or older children can cook on their own (depending on skill level). How about breakfast for dinner night with pancakes or an omelet?

It’s boring to eat at home all the time!!!

Frugal Solution 1: If the weather’s nice how about a picnic at the park?
Frugal Solution 2: Theme night. Make one night a week or month a theme night and cook and decorate to match. You could go ethnic with a Chinese, Japanese, Indian, or Italian theme and have the kids help you decorate accordingly using items that you have on hand. Or you could choose a different family member each month and have them create a menu of their favorite foods. You can use this as a chance to learn about different cultures as a family.
Frugal Solution 3: Invite friends and family over.
Frugal Solution 4: How about starting a supper club with your neighbors/friends/family? Every month you could gather at a different member’s house who is then responsible for the main dish and everyone else brings a dish to pass.

In Part 2 of this series, I'll talk about how recycling can save you money and benefit the planet.