If you're like my family and so many I know right now, you're making your paycheck stretch. Outside of cutting back on gas costs, one of the easiest and fastest cutbacks is on the food budget.
Cutback #1: Fewer Trips Through the Drive Through
While the convenience and ease of drive-through snacks and meals make the choice tempting, avoiding restaurants is a fast way to save money. Think about what you spend-even at the cheapest restaurant-for your family to eat out and then compare it with the same meal fixed at home. I find that sometimes it's worth it to drive through, but most of the time it's not. With sit down meals at restaurants, it's even more important to ask yourself whether fixing it yourself is worth the cost. I like to reserve our trips to restaurants for times when we can go out with other couples or families, like on weekends or on Sunday after church.
Cutback #2: Make and Take Your Own Drinks
Whether you spend $5 every day at a coffee shop or $1 at the pop or coffee vending machine at work, you can plan ahead and save $5 or more per week. Think about how much that would save you in a week's time. . . a month's? If you like to splurge by going out with a group of colleagues over drinks, why not make your own in house and enjoy each other's hospitality.
Cutback #3: Beans, Eggs, and Nuts Make Great Proteins
While junk foods often are cheaper and convenient, I opt against the temptation. Instead, I stock up on beans, eggs, and nuts as our family's “convenience” foods. Eggs are great because they're versatile for all meals (from scrambled eggs to quiche) and handy to have around for baking also. Nuts make the perfect snack because they require no preparation. For beans, you have to plan ahead, but they're so simple. You buy bag of pinto beans for $1, rinse and soak them in a bowl for a day or two, then put them in the crock pot on low for several hours. Once the beans are cooked, you can do so much with them. I like to add salsa, garlic, and onions. From there, you might think about your favorite Mexican restaurant for inspiration on how to use them. Our top favorites are bean burritos and nacho dip.
Cutback #4: Grow Your Own
If you have a small patch of land, you can grow your own vegetables and herbs. While this choice requires some preparation and maintenance, the results are worth it. For those of you who have never done this, some vegetables are easier to grow than others, so consult with a local greenhouse about your local climate, soil, and environment. I recommend spinach, onions, beans, peas, and tomatoes for beginners. Fruit trees and bushes can be more complicated, but again, just consult with a greenhouse before investing much; many fruit trees and some shrubs (like blueberries) require two distinct types for pollination in order to produce fruit the next year.
Cutback #5: Can It Yourself
Once you've grown your own vegetables, you can preserve that fresh taste and the wholesome quality of home grown into the winter by canning or freezing. I'm pretty new at this, but I was a cynic until I tried it. Now I can lots of salsa every year because I like the taste and savings so much more than store made. The recipe I use doesn't contain any sugar, but has lots of peppers, so it's very healthy, which is another plus. I use it to supplement chili, beans, and burritos or tacos. Sometimes if I learn someone loves salsa, I give it as a gift. In addition, I also freeze strawberry jam, corn, zucchini puree, and pumpkin. When the kids were babies, purees of fresh vegetables were so much easier and cheaper than jars of baby food. (You just freeze the puree of any vegetable in ice cube trays then once frozen, pop out the cubes into freezer bags for longer storage. Microwave 2-3 cubes at a time and baby's set.)
If you add your savings, you begin to realize that you can make it without a lot of pain by just adjusting a few habits. While gas probably won't be going back down to $1 a gallon in the immediate future, we can usually find other ways to cutback. Sometimes these adjustments are even good for us in the long run.
