Money Saving Idea #1: Frozen Food
I’ve had the nasty habit of going out for lunch and dinner instead of making my own lunch — thus costing me a substantial chunk of money each and every month. One of my goals for 2011, is to turn this trend around by cooking more at home — this not only lets me save more, but eat better along the way.
While I’ll never be a chef, I can follow some simple recipes. One of the recipes I attempted today was for soup: Minestrone Soup with Sausage to be exact. While you can always buy it in a can from Campbells, home made tastes better, and has a lot less sodium and preservatives.
The great part about soup, is you can make it in one batch, and then freeze it — and it’ll taste the same on day 1, and day 100. Makes planning lunch as simple as grab and go.
Looking at the actual cost component of it, it breaks down as follows:
- Total Cost of Ingredients: ~$16.00
- Number of Meals Made: 6
- Cost Per Meal: ~$2.65
Seeing as lunch out cost me about $15/meal, I was able to make 6 lunches, for about the price of one. Doing the math, making my own food in bulk has just saved me about $90 from NOT eating out — plus it actually tastes great and is healthier.
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Ohhh, *homemade* frozen food! I have to admit, when I first read the title, I thought this post was going to be about stocking up on frozen foods and I was getting prepared to kick your butt!
This is a great tip though. I make soups too, but I also make chillis and pasta sauces… mmm, now I’m hungry…
Nice work! I gotta admit, my favorite in bulk meal is roast. I’ll make a giant roast with potatoes and carrots in the crock pot, and I’ve got delicious leftovers for the next week. And it’s true – it does taste as good on day one as it does on day seven! Keep up the good work!
You can freeze almost everything! It’s great. I just look up on google how to freeze ____ (whatever is going to go bad in my fridge) & do it up. Then I never waste money
The minestrone looks awesome. It’s so perfect on cold days!
Where in Canada do you live? I’m on the west coast.. it’s fun to find other Canadian PF bloggers!
-Daisy
thanks for the comment! I’m out in Vancouver, how about you?
same! In the vancouver area, anyway.
This is a simple and very effective plan. My only problem is that I train really hard. I end up finding myself spending lots of money on protein shakes and quick meals. I need to improve on this.
$15 to eat out for lunch? Where do you eat? Earls or Cactus Club?
Yum, that ministrone soup does look so good.
I want to definitely take advantage of this idea, the main thing is that there is sufficient freezer space.
I hate spending money on lunch and work. I take that money I could have wasted and use it for something I love instead- traveling! Which is a moot point because I’m not exactly saving money since I’m traveling…. but still.
aaaactually, yes some days. But most days, even Subway, rounds out around 12 bucks… then a drink mid-day or a snack, you’re at 15$.
Yeah, at my work, everyone goes out for lunch. Even if you manage about $10 for a curry, salad, sushi or a burger…that’s $50 a week! (/faints).
My favourite sub is probably meatball, so at least when I do go to Subway very rarely it’s cheap – $4.90 for a six inch. Sometimes you need a footlong to cut it, though.
I usually have a couple of different lunch dishes throughout the week (a, I eat a lot and b, I do get bored. and c, our fridge is pretty small). I’m not a big fan of sandwiches, so I often do chili, curries, pastas, etc.
Your freezer looks strikingly similar to my own! Were you here taking pictures?
Tha’d be creepy…! haha!
we spend too many bugs for lunch just because we are lazy to cook. by cooking ourselves we can save lot of money.i cook thrice a week and store them in my freezer.
That’s my goal… the first week back I’ve been fairly successful, haven’t eaten out in a week!
This looks great, I’ll have to give this a try when there’s more room in my freezer.