Saving Money & Wasting Less
Lesson 3: Food
Saving money on food
Dining out is a wonderful thing to do from time to time, but if you're dining out instead of cooking several times a week, or if you're buying lunch every day, you're spending far more money than you need to. If you're dining out regularly on junk food, you may not be spending a fortune now because it is so cheap, but you'll probably pay for it later - on health costs.
Instead of dining out, why not turn meals at home into 'occasions'? Do you dine at the table with the table nicely set for each meal? Do you use napkins? Candles? Does everyone in the family eat at the same time and place? It's only my opinion I suppose, but I think if you're eating like a slob in front of a television or computer, you're missing out on one of life's joys - the joy of eating well. It really doesn't take much effort to set a table and keep it looking nice for every meal.
The recommended book Back to Basics, Readers Digest, has a great deal of information on food, including recipes, that will be sure to save you a lot of money, and improve your diet at the same time. There are sections on baking, bottling, storing, curing and pickling, and even brewing your own beer for a fraction of the cost of buying it.
Breakfast
Breakfast cereals are expensive, and often highly processed and full of sugar. They're fine now and again, but if you have packaged cereal every day, you are spending a lot of money on a product that may not be terribly good for you. Some are better than others, of course, but there are many cheap, quick and easy alternatives for breakfast (see Breakfast recipes). Here are a few ideas:
- Pancakes.
A basic pancake batter takes a minute to make and about five minutes to cook. Fillings can be as simple as a squeeze of lemon juice over a sprinkling of sugar, or as creative and intricate as you like and have time for. See (4) for recipes.
- Home-made muesli.
There are many muesli recipes, which you can mix up and store in a big jar, and you will save a lot of money by making your own. The basic ingredients are usually rolled oats, chopped nuts and dried fruits in whatever proportions you like, and you can add oat bran, psyllium husks (extra fibre), wheatgerm or coconut.
Alternatively, make it in the bowl by mixing 3 tbsp rolled oats and 3 tbsp boiling water, then adding your choice of sliced or chopped fresh fruit, chopped or flaked nuts or other additions as above. If you like it sweet, add sugar or honey, or use condensed milk. It only takes a minute to make.
- 'Train smash'
Heat canned chopped tomatoes in a flat frying pan or skillet with a little water. Add chopped garlic if you like it. When the tomatoes are hot, swirl one beaten egg per person into the mixture, but don't stir too much, and try to keep the eggs separate. Sprinkle a little grated cheese on the top. When the eggs are cooked and cheese is melted, divide the mixture and serve on toast.
- Omelettes (see ref (4) for recipes).
- Poached egg on toast.
I like this with spinach. Chop a few leaves and cook in the same water the egg is poaching in. Drain the spinach and serve on hot toast with the poached egg on top, and a few drops of Worcester sauce.
- Bruschettas.
You need crusty bread, cut about 1 cm (1/2 in) thick. Brush or sprinkle a little olive oil on both sides. Cut a garlic clove in two and rub into both sides of the bread. Toast both sides. Roasted capsicum is an especially good topping for this, but any savoury topping is fine.
- Freshly baked damper, corn bread or other non-yeast breads.
These take about 5-10 minutes to mix and another 25-30 minutes to bake. I often get up ten minutes earlier, make the mixture and pop it into the oven before I shower and dress. By the time I'm dressed and ready for breakfast, the bread is baked. And there is nothing in the world nicer for breakfast. (See Quick breads) for some recipes.
Lunch
You can save a fortune by packing a lunch most days to take to work or school. It doesn't need to take long to do, and most days you can make it the night before and grab it out of the refrigerator on the way out to work.
Simple ideas for a packed lunch include:
- Sandwiches of all descriptions.
- A lunch box packed with salad, fruit and crackers.
- A thermos of soup.
- Yoghurt and fruit.
- Home made pie or quiche.
- Leftovers from dinner the night before (especially if you have a wide-mouthed thermos, or access to a microwave oven at work/school).
- Lebanese bread roll-ups.
For lots of lunch box ideas, see (Brown Bag Lunches).
Dinner
Many people these days do not cook. Some have never learned, some have forgotten, and others say they just don't have time to cook. Even those who do cook often depend too heavily on processed food, or really only assemble food. They open a packet and pop the contents in the microwave and call that cooking.Cooking from unprocessed, natural foods, is not only cheaper, it's very quick and simple to make a nourishing meal. In the time it takes to dial a pizza and wait for it to be delivered, you could make a much healthier home-cooked meal instead.
It pays to plan ahead. If you have at least one good recipe book, spend some time during the week (half an hour should be enough), and plan the following week's evening meals. Look for recipes that are quick and simple to make. Make a shopping list from the ingredients list.
If this all seems too daunting, perhaps because you've never cooked before, or you don't have time to go recipe hunting, you could try Saving Dinner a website created and hosted by Leanne Ely, the author of 'Saving Dinner', (Ballantine). For a very reasonable price (about eight cents a day) you can subscribe to one of the saving dinner lists, and you will receive by weekly email, quick and easy recipes, preparation instructions, a shopping list, and vegetarian alternatives, for the following week.
There are standard subscriptions, vegetarian, low-carb, Southern Hemisphere recipes (seasons reversed), and if you're really serious about saving money, there is a Frugal recipes subscription. There are free samples to download and try out for a week before you subscribe.
Testimonials from many people say they save a lot of money (even with the standard recipes), and eat more healthily than they ever have before, and the preparation instructions are simple enough for a child to follow.
If you really don't have time or are too tired to cook in the evenings, consider investing in a slow cooker (crock pot). You can chop ingredients the night before (or in the morning), and then turn on the crock pot as you head off for work. When you get home you are greeted with the aromas of a delicious, home-cooked hot meal, ready to eat. See the website on Crockpot recipes for recipes, or you can adapt any recipe for casserole, stew or soup. A slow cooker does use more energy than conventional forms of cooking (because of the length of cooking time), but you will save money because you will cut down on the number of times you eat out , and because you can use the cheapest cuts of meat (which are often the tastiest when slow cooked).
If your usual forms of protein are chicken, steak, lamb and fish, you could save a lot of money by replacing these with other forms of protein for some meals. Legumes are a particularly good protein source, and can be bought dried, in bulk and very cheaply. They do need soaking but are excellent value and can be made into many delicious meals, especially in a crock pot.
Tip
If you have a stainless steel thermos flask, preferably one with a wide mouth, you can save money and energy by soaking beans and lentils in boiling water in the thermos overnight. This dramatically cuts the cooking time. Lentils and mung beans soaked in a thermos barely need cooking at all!Also consider cheaper cuts of meat, and offal. If you look for it, you should be able to find rabbit. Even the toughest cuts of meat are easily rendered not only tender, but also unbelievably tasty, by slow cooking.
Try things you've never tried before, such as smoked eel. Be adventurous! (There are also some delicious and unusual recipes on the Slow Food website.)
Print this page
Latest Articles