"How to feed your family for less" - Page 6

[hollytheteacher]

Originally Posted by momma_unlimited

$50-75 per day means unless you have a pretty large salary, a large portion of it is going to feed you and your husband each day. Like the first 4-5 hours of your day, at least, you are working so you can go eat out.

no we don't have a large salary so you are probably right we are a family of three living on under 60,000 (gross income) and in a some-what high col area.

eta: WE ARE DOING A LOT BETTER! This week i made a pot roast in the crock pot (thanks to you ladies i dusted mine off and put it on the counter)! WE ate that meal for two days! wahoo! We also made baked ziti tonight For lunch I did go to subway, but that is much cheaper than the "usual" places we go. baby steps right?!

[janerose]

Originally Posted by hollytheteacher

no we don't have a large salary so you are probably right we are a family of three living on under 60,000 (gross income) and in a some-what high col area.

eta: WE ARE DOING A LOT BETTER! This week i made a pot roast in the crock pot (thanks to you ladies i dusted mine off and put it on the counter)! WE ate that meal for two days! wahoo! We also made baked ziti tonight For lunch I did go to subway, but that is much cheaper than the "usual" places we go. baby steps right?!

Good for you!

Baby steps is definitely the way to go. Try to change too much all at once is a sure recipe for failure.

My best friend works FT & she's always found it helpful to make stuff on the weekends. She takes a couple hours & makes a big pot of soup or chili, a bunch of brown rice, some hard boiled eggs, muffins or banana bread for quick breakfasts or snacks, sometimes pizza dough, maybe a casserole type dish or lasagna.

[Pinoikoi]

Originally Posted by hollytheteacher

WE ARE DOING A LOT BETTER! This week i made a pot roast in the crock pot (thanks to you ladies i dusted mine off and put it on the counter)! WE ate that meal for two days! wahoo! We also made baked ziti tonight For lunch I did go to subway, but that is much cheaper than the "usual" places we go. baby steps right?!

That's great! When we were trying to pay off our debts, we went to a debt counselor and he said the area in which people fail is they buckle down too much too fast without giving themselves any wiggle room (like a clothing allowance for example), and then two-three months down the road, they might just give it up altogether.. I have found the same is true when it comes to our food..

If I went all beans and rice right away, I would "splurge" on eating out too much.. but allowing myself a FEW "gourmet" level meals cooked at home, I am giving in to that little bit of extravagance without losing sight of my long term goals..

And yes, I know that you can eat frugally and still eat well, but I don't see steak on anyone's frugal list for instance, but it is WAY cheaper to prepare at home once in a great while rather than eat it out once a great while kwim?

[Magpie1972]

That is great! I am glad you have had success.

[Delicateflower]

Originally Posted by Benji'sMom

Your refrigerator is always running.

And that's unavoidable. I'm not going to multiply the risk by adding in appliances, especially not ones I bought at Kmart for $20.

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by Pinoikoi

And yes, I know that you can eat frugally and still eat well, but I don't see steak on anyone's frugal list for instance, but it is WAY cheaper to prepare at home once in a great while rather than eat it out once a great while kwim?

We eat quite frugally and we have plenty of steak at our house. Of course we get a side so we have enough steaks to have everyone in on this thread for dinner, not that I am suggesting! LOL But it would be quite a party!

[llamalluv]

Originally Posted by Benji'sMom

Your refrigerator is always running.

Is yours running?

[Pinoikoi]

Originally Posted by llamalluv

Is yours running?

Yes it runs everyday. So far it has lost 15 lbs.

[Pinoikoi]

Originally Posted by Amys1st

We eat quite frugally and we have plenty of steak at our house. Of course we get a side so we have enough steaks to have everyone in on this thread for dinner, not that I am suggesting! LOL But it would be quite a party!

Sorry- poor example I guess.. but steak (from beef) is pricey for me, but steak from moose, for example.. free (when I can get it).. so all in how you look at it I guess..

[kathirynne]

Originally Posted by amyamanda

...I know some people are more squeamish than others, but I feel our family shares germs all the time anyway and as long as it's just our family at dinner I just put all the salvagable leftovers (off the plates) back in the fridge for reheating the next day.

Or into mumma's lunch box....:

Originally Posted by amyamanda

...I also have my kids "trained" (LOL) to offer anything they don't want to the rest of the family before they abandon it. Usually one kid would love the last two bites of the other kid's...whatever.

We call this "batting cleanup"!

[Amys1st]

The whole refridgerator running reminds me of that old prank call- IS your refrigerator running? Well go catch it! Ok, back to adult hood....


Before we started buying the meat like we do, we too had less steak than we did now! If we were not able to buy the meat for the cost we did, we would not have as much as we do. We are also fortunate we could pay for it all at once too which most people cannot.

You do have to have a treat here and there or spend a bit more but just not all the time.

[llamalluv]

Originally Posted by Magpie1972

That said... my Mom was queen of making meals of nothing. Some of 'em were really, really not good. I remember one time she used spaghetti with a white saice, some veggies and kielbasa. It was so bad. That was over 20 years ago and I can still see it on my plate. Maybe she scarred me for life.

That actually sounds really good. I do something similar with fettucini alfredo, broccoli, and sausage. s

[llamalluv]

Originally Posted by Pinoikoi

Yes it runs everyday. So far it has lost 15 lbs.

[Magpie1972]

Originally Posted by llamalluv

That actually sounds really good. I do something similar with fettucini alfredo, broccoli, and sausage. s

The white sauce was gravy, no alredo to it, and kielbasa was a very distinct flavor. The veggies were carrots and peas of the frozen variety. Trust me... although I appreciated the departure from oatmeal with peanut butter in it... it was not repeatable.

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by Magpie1972

The white sauce was gravy, no alredo to it, and kielbasa was a very distinct flavor. The veggies were carrots and peas of the frozen variety. Trust me... although I appreciated the departure from oatmeal with peanut butter in it... it was not repeatable.

DH makes oatmeal w a heap of peanut butter in it. He loves it, I think if we spread it out, we can seal the driveway myself but to each his own!

[Pinoikoi]

Back on topic..

I have found that one way to feed my family for cheap is to open my own bank account..

Dp LOVES to take the kids to BK or McDs or somewhere that has a playland, and I understand why- it is SNOWY and the kids get restless in the house, but he drops at least $20 each time he goes..

with my own bank account (with the majority of our money in it) I can limit this expenditure..

plus it isn't very healthy, but dp doesn't THINK about that stuff much, he just likes watching his kids have a good time..

Still, we are waiting impatiently for a new playland to open up just a couple of blocks from our house- it is in a coffee shop. I will feel better about THAT than McD's that's for sure.. and in a couple of months we should be back at the outdoor playgrounds!