Friday, February 6, 2009

Have you cut back?

With the economy on the down swing, have you made any cuts to your budget?

Some of us have! It almost been almost a week since we have been 'out to eat'. This is a major deal for us. When our youngest was a toddler, she one time found her coat and while trying to put it on, she said "Bite Bite"! Meaning it was time to eat and we needed to head to the car.

Now I think I'm as good a cook as the next, but heck this shopping, cooking, and cleaning up is getting OLD.

I plan on cooking chicken tomorrow night and with that done..... it will officially be one full week WITHOUT the family eating out! I know that it has eased the strain on one wallet and bitten into another.....! lol....

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cooking "good" healthy foods at home isn't cheap, goes further than the one night but requires a lot of work. Good for you for sticking to your guns and not going out to eat!

I'm pretty darn cheap. I love finding new ways to use something. Example.... plastic soap container, when I travel I take my own soap but I found its the right size for a small camera to fit into or mp3 player and the ear phones. lol

I use my canning jars (jelly jars) to hold my spices instead of buying a nice spice rack.

Old t-shirts make great rags for dusting. Old socks were well too, they fit right on your hand. I always cut off the buttons of any shirt I throw away or cut up into rags if needed. Take strips of flannel shirts and piece together for a nice flannel scarf (colorful and warm). lol

Old cake pans that have lost their "non stick" stuff or they have just had it. Paint them and use has a small personal serving tray, night-time snack. okay I'm done. Yes I've been working on those items this week.

Hugs!

Jim said...

Martha is right. Eating and cooking healthy stuff is expensive. I sounds like you need to have a couple of sandwich nights in there. Maybe a breakfast night, a deli sandwich night and a burger night.

Angie ^i^ said...

I've become even more thrifty than ever. We've never been much into eating out as my kids and I feel my food taste much better than what we've had at restaurants.

Congratulations on making it a week Ann, that's wonderful!!

Martha, what great suggestions. I may have to use a few of them (especially the button thing.. I never thought of that). One of the things we do here is that we're fond of the foaming hand soaps. I experimented with it and found out that 1/3 soap 2/3 water is the perfect mix for the foaming soap containers. So now I just make my own. Also, if I'm out of the hand soap stuff, body wash works just fine. It's also less expensive than using the normal pump, undiluted, and it's DEFINITELY less expensive than buying the foaming stuff.

Food stretchers...

When I make my Italian Meatloaf, I cut the recipe in half. Half is used in the meatloaf, the other half is made into meatballs (to use at a later date). To save even more money, use half beef and half ground pork or ground turkey. Once you mix it all together, you can't tell the difference. Pork and Turkey also do not shrink as much when cooking AND they are lower in fat, calories and cholesterol.

Oven fried chicken breast (or tenderloins) can be used for a variety of meals. I dip mine in melted butter (shaking off the excess), coat them with bread crumbs (and seasonings if desired), then bake at 350 until they're done. The first night half of them can be eaten straight with a dipping sauce or on a salad. Later in the week (or even further down the road if you freeze them), the other half work nicely in a chicken parmesan.

Stuffed shells. I always freeze half of them (individually on wax paper until solid, then placed in a freezer bag) prior to cooking them. I then freeze half the sauce in a freezer bag. This way, next time we want it, all I have to do is defrost, arrange it in the casserole dish, and bake!

Boiled pork roast... half for my world famous (LOL) scrapple, the other half for pulled pork sandwiches.

Basically, every time I cook a "main course" I try to make it so I can use half at another time. It saves on time, energy, and clean up.

Jim said...

Have you cut back on blogging? That won't save any money! LOL

ittybittyandpretty said...

we are feeling the pinch at every turn of the week. petrol prices keep rising, groceries are so crazy and the thought of going out doesnt even cross our minds anymore. i need to set up my etsy shop and try to get some money on the side to 'play' with. hope it doesnt last too long.

%*_*% rosey

Angie ^i^ said...

ANN IS MIA!!!

Where are you girlie???