[Sharon]

What is your #1 frugal living advice?
I just started college, adding an additional $400 a month in expenses. We are barely scraping by. It’s a household of 2, with 3 cats.

We make around $6k a month and our bills come out to around $4k a month.

We plan on getting rid of our storage unit (saving $170 a month) and downgrading our car insurance (currently $375 a month) but need to find a way to cut our food costs way down.

Hopefully to below $300 a month.

Our downfall is ordering out. We both work crazy hours with exhausting jobs. By the time we get home we are starving and too tired to cook.

So we spend $60-$100 buying every other day eating out.

Any advice in general or advice on low energy meals?

[Shirley]

Eat simply and never cook for one meal. When I was a single mom working and in college I cooked once a week. I threw 2 big pots on the stove and made 5 days worth of food.

If that ran out we ate sandwiches, eggs, oatmeal, cereal or put a pizza in the oven.

We ate a lot of pasta, rice, beans, pork is the cheapest meat.

The most crucial part is to MAKE SURE you have something you can grab even if it’s a sandwich or microwave pizza.

Do not allow yourself an excuse to order in or pick something up. Being super organized helps.

(It gets better :-))

[Falicia]

Batch cooking on days off and then split out individual portions for lunches and dinners. Freeze them. It’s the only way to stay sane.

You can also start with buying family sized frozen meals from the grocery store then pop it in the oven. Usually can get 2 meals out of it.

Implementing both of these ideas makes this whole process of eating out less much less of a chore or a drain.

[Melissa]

It would be cheaper to have some good quality frozen meals on hand than to eat out. Of course you can make some yourself but look for sales at your grocery store.

[Deb]

Meal prep. The both of you take an hour on a day off and prep some meals-

Chop season etc. crockpot is great this time of year as well

[Sara]

Buy some easy to make foods to keep at home. Frozen pizza, frozen breakfast sandwiches, chicken tenders, ect. All stuff you can just throw in the oven or air fryer and make quickly.

It’s not as cheap as cooking from scratch but it is way cheaper than eating out.

If you can, cook double batches of meals on your day off and portion out to freeze.

It’s easy to prep larger quantities and then you’ll have lots of extra meals.

Lastly, when you do eat out, make sure you check for coupons or use their app to save money.

McDonalds app has lots of coupons and you can save a good amount.

[Barbara]

I love doing breakfast for supper once in awhile…easy and cheap to throw together an omelet or French toast or something.

[Kaye]

Make soup on your day off. Make a couple of different soups, always have a pot/leftovers in the fridge and in the freezer too.

Toasted bread/crackers, etc and maybe a simple salad with an only a couple of vegetables to go along.

Bake or roast chicken for a couple of meals. Make tacos, fajitas, chicken soup, chicken and rice.

[Kathe]

When I make soups, when it’s ready, I immediately take out 2 servings for the freezer. I usually make enough for one meal, 2 lunches (it’s just hubs and me) and the 2 servings for another day when my mental bandwidth is low, and I don’t want to cook.

Add a salad, some bread and it’s a new meal.

I do the same with lasagna, any pasta really, chili and casseroles.

[Karen]

Hi! I am really just getting into being frugal, learning a whole lot through the maze of mistakes, good tips and simply learning from others.

I used to eat out a lot. I love seafood!

I noticed that the restaurants I frequent was making a killing off of me.

So, I found this wonderful seafood store. It was cheaper to buy my shrimp and choice of fish. I saved a lot.

I made menus of things I like to eat. I also wisely began to grocery shop.

I use my crock pot for simple meals. Eating at home and even having lunch at home is nice.

I don’t live far from home.

[Holly]

Do meal prep once a week make things you can grab and go or when exhausted just put on a plate and eat Always take a water bottle filled with you anytime you leave your home If you are working a lot of hours you don’t need streaming services or cable (just wifi for school) Say NO to everything that is fun and cost money (free and fun is ok)

[Bonny]

Get an electric steamer. You can steam three baskets of things at a time- so for example, salmon fillets, rice and veggies can all be steamed at once for only 15-20min max.

Super healthy and fresh

[Chris]

Make meals that leftover meat can be used for the next meal. Chilli next day make chilli mac or cincinnati chilli (over spaghetti noodle).

Roast a chicken make chicken noodle soup or chicken rice soup or chicken stir fry with leftovers.

Leftover chicken can be put on a salad, made into chicken salad, or made into a quesadilla.

Tacos then have a taco salad or walking tacos. Smothered chicken over rice and next day have a the chicken on a hamburger bun.

Make a roast then make a soup with leftovers. I try to use up all the leftover to have less waste.

You can also reeze some leftovers and have at another time.

[Loretta]

Baby steps… perhaps buy premade items from Costco or freezer food options first (ie: frozen lasagna or Costco chicken), then slowly transition to easy cooking meals.

[Lisa]

Batch cook on weekends and freeze. Get a bunch of different meals, soups frozen. Then you just threw and heat in microwave. Keep commercially frozen things ready to go in freezer.

Stock up on canned soup.

[Ann]

When you cook cook extra and put in fridge cooked potatoes, rice, etc . Food processor and crockpot are helpful. Ex- chop or slice vegetables, saute in butter in a large saucepan, add bullion and you have hearty soup

It might be expensive but stock your fridge with staples chicken, vegetables, potatoes rice bread so you always have food –

And get your roommate to help prep and clean.

We didnt have takeout when I was in college and it worked somehow

[Veronica]

Can you do all the cooking on weekends and eat leftovers during the week?

[Jackie]

I like to make mini meat loaves. Cook, then freeze individually. Thaw, heat, add a microwave baked potato and some plain frozen vegetables. You have a complete meal in 15 minutes.

I also make, precook and freeze meatballs, open a jar of sauce and cook some pasta.

Fritattas are easy, cheap and fast.

Pinterest is my go to for fast budget recipes.

[Allison]

My go to when I didn’t feel like cooking is chicken Cesar salad. I use the frozen great value chicken nuggets from Wal Mart. I think they are delicious.

Microwave in no time.

Throw on top of lettuce which I always have on hand.

A little Parmesan cheese, dressing, and, voila, dinner.

[Kathy]

Make a menu!! That way you can prep & not have to walk in the door with no clue what to make. Start with a week & move up to 10 days.

Frozen pizza is fine!

Add some cheese & veggies for some crunch.

[Joanne]

When you cook, cook extra and put it in the freezer for those days when you’re too tired to cook.

If you don’t have any time to cook, get frozen food instead of carry out.

[Lynn]

The crockpot is your friend. Use it on your busiest days. Soups, stews, chili.

Take turns cooking so one person isn’t doing it all.
Plan!

I make a meal plan list every week, planning for leftovers or easy meals on my busy days and bigger meals on my chill days.

I make enough to get leftovers 1-2 times a week.

Dinner can be a fried egg and toast, sandwich and canned soup, etc. Just plan ahead.

I’m feeding three teens and I’m a single mom. We don’t eat out. Hardly ever.

And it’s because I meal plan so I’m not tempted.

[Bridget]

Do you have an instapot? Crockpot, air fryer? Meal prep. Big batch of chili, soup, spaghetti,goulash. Then freeze what is left over into freezer bags.

You can lay them flat for easier storage.

If a big pot of chili makes 6 dinners freeze the other 2 meals in 2 person batches. Or get the containers to meal prep individual meals.

Then plan out a menu of 3 diners for a week then alternate what you each for lunch and dinner for each meal. Then the 2nd week 3 different dinners.

The more batches of big dinners you can make the more variety.

Then have frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, easy things you can just heat up if you get tired of the dinners.

Can also do breakfast this way too. Good luck

[Carl]

Meal prep. You HAVE to stop eating/ordering out. Make friends with simple, cheap meals. Bump up your Ramen Game. Find your local food pantry.

If you are going to a campus, find their food pantry.

[Heather]

Crock pot meals, sloppy joes, chili, tacos. Think of things you can cook with minimal effort and eat for a couple of days.

Crock pot meals are great because it’s like 5 minutes in the morning and done when you walk in the door.

[Christine]

Meal prep in stages. Cook a crockpot full of chicken start in the morning on low put in the fridge, next day take meat off the bones and save the broth for another meal.

Use the chicken to make a batch of chicken enchiladas and freeze.

Use the broth and bones adding all vegetable scraps/trimmings back in the crockpot for soup stock with a slash of cider vinegar to help pull the nutrients from the bones.

While the bones and veggie scraps are simmering overnight soak some red beans.

After straining the broth start the beans cooking in the broth adding onions/garlic/celery/green peppers.

Let that cook in the crockpot until beans are done, season as needed.

See if one of you can volunteer at a food distribution in exchange for food.

BioLife doing plasma is a good side hustle if you can do it

[Author]

Posts