If you have any interest at all in reducing your food budget chances are you often find yourself eating leftovers. We certainly have our share of leftovers in the Frugal household. In fact, I’ve found certain foods are even better a day or two later (spaghetti and meatloaf come to mind).  But how long is too long? Do you have to wait for penicillin to start growing on the surface before chunking it?

I posed the question of leftover longevity to Twitter followers last week and received a number of thoughtful responses. One reply from “jessc098“ caught my eye. It referenced a site called StillTasty.com, which allows visitors to search from a list of food choices and receive feedback on how long that particular item will keep refrigerated and frozen. The search results also include a number of tips related to your selection for helping to preserve foods longer.

Here’s an example from StillTasty.com using the previously mentioned meatloaf – a crowd favorite in our house:

Meatloaf – Homemade, Leftovers

Refrigerator: 3-4 days
Freezer: 3-4 months

Tips

• Refrigerate within two hours of cooking
• Refrigerate cooked meatloaf in shallow, airtight containers or wrap tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil or plastic wrap
• Freeze in covered airtight containers or heavy-duty freezer bags, or wrap tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil or freezer wrap.
• Freeze time shown is for best quality only – foods kept constantly frozen at zero degrees will keep safe indefinitely.

Shared with permission from StillTasty.com

There are a couple of ways you can use this information to help shave money off your food budget. One idea is to stockpile ingredients for various dishes when they are on sale, make the dish, freeze it and enjoy it later to realize the cost savings. We frequently do this with things that keep for a couple months in the freezer, and it’s great to simply thaw and reheat a dish on nights when the kids have football practice, or you just don’t feel like cooking a big meal after a long day at work.

Another strategy for reducing your food costs by incorporating leftovers is to plan your meals around recipes that naturally produce a lot of leftovers. In our house, we all eat spaghetti the night it is cooked, I eat it for lunch the next day at work, and we all finish it off the next night. That’s nine servings of spaghetti enjoyed at home with salad and garlic bread for a fraction of what you would pay at a place like Olive Garden.

Leftovers can also be combined with new ingredients to produce new meals. My grandfather had a knack for this and frequently used leftover meats to “beef up” new meals. For instance, spicy smoked sausage sliced the next day and added to a pot of red beans and rice, onion, and Tabasco sauce made an excellent semi-cajun dish we could eat for another couple days.

Frugal living is not only about thriftiness, it is also about reducing waste and using resources wisely. I’m convinced reducing food waste is a great way to help your wallet by stretching out the cost of food purchases across a number of meals. Plan your meals, properly store leftovers for safe keeping, and enjoy maximum savings on your food bill.

As my family finished off meatloaf sandwiches last night for dinner I told them I was proud of us for not eating out. Besides, is there anything better than leftover meatloaf between two pieces of good bread and a cold glass of tea? I digress.

Sulphur Mountain Restaurant courtesy of ahisgett

A couple years ago we ate out every Friday night, and then again on Saturday nights. We also grabbed something out a couple times during the week. We still enjoy the occasional meal out as a break from coming, but now we attempt to make it more of a treat than a routine. For instance, if the kids have a school function and we know we’ll be out anyway, we’ll plan a dinner out to celebrate something (we recently did this to celebrate paying off our family vehicle).

Of course, just because you eat out it doesn’t mean you have to break the bank to do it. When we do eat out, or pick something up to bring home, we like to split meals, skip drinks (order water only), pass on dessert, order a lunch portion for dinner, etc. There are plenty of strategies for surviving a meal out at a restaurant.

These days we’ve scaled back to an average of one meal out per week as a family. Recently, we splurged for a nice steak dinner at a local steakhouse. After dinner I used the opportunity for a teachable lesson for the kids. I told them that our small steak, baked potato and salad cost over $10.00 per adult. That same meal could have easily cost less than $5.00 at home, with Dad grilling steaks on the grill, Mom making her famous loaded baked potatoes, and my kids helping with salads.

Sometimes Mom, Dad, and even the kids, just need a break. So enjoy the occasional meal out. Set aside some of your budget to pay cash for the meal – using plastic guarantees heartburn later on.  Remember to budget enough for a good tip for excellent service (we’re frugal, but we aren’t cheapskates!).

How often does your family eat out? Have you scaled back because of the economy, or simply because you are trying to spend less money?

The following guest post is from Mike.  Mike writes at The Oblivious Investor, where he reminds readers to ignore the day-to-day craziness in the market and focus instead on getting the investing basics right. Subscribe to his blog for daily updates.

“Eating less meat is another of those triple plays–something you can do that is good for your health, good for the environment, and good for your wallet.” -Amy Dacyczyn in The Complete Tightwad Gazette

I’ve been vegetarian for a little over a year now, and I love it. However, I’m not here to condemn or criticize people who eat meat. (How could I? My wife loves a good steak.) And I’m not trying to convince everybody to immediately go vegetarian.

Instead, I simply want to suggest that the meat eaters among us try eating less meat. As Amy says, it can be good for your health, good for the environment, and good for your wallet. And as you’ll see below, it’s not as hard as you might think.

It’s good for your body.

While cutting meat from your diet certainly isn’t a cure-all, it does have its benefits:

• Vegetarians have been shown to have lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and prostate and colon cancer. [source]
• The average American consumes about 110 grams of protein per day, roughly twice the recommended amount. Cutting back on meat can bring you more in line with the recommended about. [source]

It’s good for the planet.

• Producing a pound of animal protein requires about 100 times as much water as producing a pound of grain protein. [source]
• Producing a pound of beef puts out as much carbon dioxide as driving a typical car for 70 miles. [source]
• Producing a pound of beef creates 11 times as much greenhouse gas emissions as a pound of chicken and 100 times more than a pound of carrots. [source]

If you want to protect the environment, every little bit of meat you cut from your diet helps!

It’s good for your wallet.

The following prices are from our local market, though prices will of course vary depending upon where you live, where you shop, whether you buy organic, etc.

• Cost of a pound of T-Bone steak: $6
• Cost of a pound of chicken: $3
• Cost of a pound of ground beef: $2
• Cost of a pound of beans: $0.80

And guess what? Beans are delicious.

It’s not as hard as you might think

I hear two common concerns when talking with people about cutting back on meat:

1. How will I make sure I get enough calories and protein? (Or, “I’ve tried going vegetarian before, and after about a week my energy level plummeted, and I felt like I was going to pass out.”)
2. Most of my dinners are based around meat. What am I going to cook for my family?

To the first question: It’s essential that you maintain a proper level of protein in your diet. If you switch to eating salad for every meal, of course you’ll feel light headed all day long. There’s practically no protein and very few calories in a typical salad. (And who wants to eat salad all day anyway? Not me!)

If you only cut back slightly on the meat in your diet, lack of protein shouldn’t be a problem. If you decide to go completely vegetarian, the trick is to eat plenty of beans, whole grains, dairy, or eggs.

As to the “what will I make for dinner?” question, my answer is that Google Reader is your friend. Subscribe to a handful of vegetarian food blogs, and you’ll get meal suggestions in your Reader everyday. Surely one of them will look good.

And with that in mind, here are a few easy-to-make, inexpensive, delicious, healthy vegetarian meals (and blogs) to get you started. (Click on the pictures to see the recipes.)

Tomato Basil Cream Pasta from Vegan Yum Yum

Roman Beans and Polenta from WheatFreeMeatFree

Spinach and Vegan Ricotta Spaghetti from Vegalicious

Give any of them a try, and I think you’ll agree that meatless dinners don’t have to be seen as a sacrifice.

All signs now point to the United States being entrenched in a deep recession. It may be some time before things turn around, and because of that Americans will likely suffer serious side effects from the extended recession. Financial effects of recession are fairly well known. and include things such as job losses, and increases in foreclosures and bankruptcies. But not all of the side effects of recession involve finances.

Food Budgets Tightening

One of the first places families look to cut their budgets is food. After all, some could argue that food and categories such as utilities, both budget categories billed based on consumption, are a couple of only a handful of budget categories we can control from month to month. Monthly housing costs are fairly stable. Your car payment doesn’t change from month to month. Unfortunately, the effect of reducing a food budget often means poorer food choices, ultimately leading to declining health.

A diet of Ramen noodles and 2 for $1.00 generic macaroni and cheese will certainly help keep your wallet fat. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help your waistline stay trim. A quick survey of most coupon offerings reveals most manufacturers provide coupons for prepackaged or convenience food items. I know this because when shopping with coupons it is impossible to use them anywhere around the perimeter of the store (where healthier foods such as produce, meats and dairy items are typically found.

As more and more Americans look for ways to save money on groceries I imagine we will see a steady rise in obesity rates, already high relative to the rest of the world. I’m one to talk. I’ve been guilty of slashing the food budget and eating cheap things at each meal like cereals, boxed noodles and rices, etc. and have seen my own waistline expand.

After discussing things with my wife we have agreed that we should continue to spend a little more for quality foods and look for other places to sacrifice. Being the frugal person I am, I still look for deals, even on high-quality food items, and use a couple strategies to keep costs down.

Ways to Save Money on Healthy Foods

Shake produce before placing in bags. Most produce is sold by the pound, and grocery stores typically give them a good soaking fairly often to keep them moist and fresh. They water absorbed also adds a bit to their weight, and can add up if you pick up a couple pounds of fruits and veggies. Shake off any excess water before placing in the produce bags to be sure your savings don’t evaporate on the ride home.

Shop for deli meats late in the day. Often deals can be found just before the deli closes on shaved turkey and other meats nearing the “sell by” date.  Deli meats are typically of a higher quality because they are not packaged in sodium and other preservatives. Be sure to check out the meat case while you are at it. Many time we pick up a pork tenderloin or whole chicken marked “manager’s special” which is perfectly good if eaten or frozen that day or the next.

Declare a “Meatless Monday.” I was raised on meat and potatoes, so this concept seemed a little strange at first. But replacing meat with other proteins such as beans and lentils one meal a week is a great way to reduce your food budget and your intake of saturated fats. My family also eats breakfast for dinner a couple times a month, including eggs, turkey sausage and fruits.

Eliminate “empty-calorie” foods from your grocery list. When trying to save money on groceries, or lose weight, it is a good idea to remove empty-calorie foods such as chips, candies, cookies and soft drinks. They really add little to no nutritional value to your diet.  I guess this means I’ll have to give up Little Debbie snack cakes.

Take up square foot gardening. You may not yield enough to feed the entire block, but we were able to enjoy great summer salads last year complete with freshly-picked cucumbers and tomatoes. This year we are adding to our square foot garden and plan to grow even more tomato plants–hopefully they will yield enough tomatoes to can a batch or two of homemade salsa.

I’m interested to hear from readers. What strategies have you employed to help keep the costs of eating healthy down?

 
 photo by destinelee

There is no shortage of places to go out to eat in our country.  I’m continually amazed at how much food is incorporated into all forms of entertainment. You can’t go anywhere without a hotdog stand, a concession stand, or even a full-blown restaurant stuck inside a discount store.  We recently took our kids to a popular indoor play place (think of a gym for kids with inflatable equipment), but didn’t think to eat before we went.  Like all kids, it only took about twenty minutes of play and the scent of pepperoni pizza wafting through the building before they were begging for a snack.

Snack Savings

I think our lunch cost us about $12.00 that day.  It consisted of two pieces of thin-crust pizza for each of us, and three small drinks (my wife and I usually share, but kids and germs don’t mix well so they get their own cup).  We could have bought an entire pizza with all the toppings we wanted from our local Kroger grocery store, baked it ourselves, and had drinks at home for less!  Lesson learned.  When planning activities away from home it is a good idea to eat a small meal before leaving, else the activity is bound to cost significantly more with food purchases.  I recently wrote about the decision to sneak food into movie theaters instead of buying from the concession stand.  Assuming you simply ate a meal or snack at home you could easily survive a two-hour movie without buying a $5.00 tub of popcorn and a $3.00 drink.

Healthier Food Choices

Things made at home are typically much better for you than food purchased on the road.  Even the choices are significantly better.  It’s rare to find a grilled chicken salad on the menu at eateries tucked away inside amusement parks.  Most menus here resemble fast food restaurants where the most popular items are hamburgers, french fries and hotdogs.  Eating at home saves both dollars and calories.

An Annual Exception

I can easily live with this rule but for one major exception–the fair.  When the state fair comes to a city close to us once a year, part of the experience is fair food.  I’ve often joked that if a place opened and only sold “fair food” they would rake in money!  Funnel cakes, corn dogs, fried candy bars, turkey legs and homemade ice cream are all part of the experience at the fair, and we budget a stomach-ache-inducing binge into our entertainment budget just this once.  After all, what’s the point of living frugal if you can’t have the occasional treat?

How do you avoid food expenses while visiting entertainment venues?  Eat before you go, pack a picnic, or just budget in the food costs?