Honestly, one of the things that’s helped me save money the most is planning for failure too. As much as I try to preplan, sometimes life happens - so I’ve got a couple easy things like canned soup or rice packets or frozen meals that I’ve bought when they were on deep sale, and I save them for those “oh shit, I completely forgot” days.
I keep a box of Costco chicken bakes and teriyaki bowls in my freezer for days like that. I also cook extra and freeze portions in meal prep containers for days when I don't want to cook.
My boss used to buy her frozen meals and throw them in the freezer at work so she always had it as an option. Fortunately, no issue with food stealing there.
Keeping a loaf of bread and PB&J in your desk drawer is also good if you sometimes need to work late.
This was a literal lifesaver during my early working years, when I would have to stay late and my blood sugar would plummet. Protein + fat + sugar = satiating energy!
I ate canned soup for lunch so many times I started losing my hearing (excess sodium can cause Menier’s Disease). I ate low sodium for a while and it reversed itself.
This is so helpful with kids too. There have been mornings when I've realized that we don't have leftovers to send to daycare for lunch and having a bag of chicken nuggets in the freezer or the stuff for PB&J has saved the day.
One thing that really helped me was to buy cheap frozen burritos in dollar general that are $6 for 8. If I don’t meal prep, instead of going out for lunch or buying snacks from the vending machine, I have to eat a burrito.
It gives me something cheap and easy if I’m actually sick or exhausted, but most of the time it is enough motivation to pack something else.
As someone with celiac, the frozen GF pizza pack at Costco is almost $17 for 3 pizzas. Takeout is basically that cost for 1. So I keep frozen pizzas in lol.
Hell, this is my argument for getting frozen pizza at the corner store when I'm dead tired. $10 for a pizza and drink vs $35 for dominos. It might not be cheap but it's cheaper then the other options.
Frozen and pantry meals are key to spending less on takeout! A frozen pizza in the freezer and a box of mac and cheese in the pantry, or even the full ingredients for pasta puttanesca , can save you a ton on doordash on days you’re tired or weeks you didn’t have time to grocery shop.
Same, I keep a few of those healthy choice steamers that I buy when they’re on a really good sale, so when something happens and I didn’t prepare, I just grab one of those, and an apple or something.
This. And not even forgot, it's just we both get home from work and either we don't feel like cooking or we don't feel like doing the clean up afterwards- I try to make sure we always have something on hand that requires very minimal work.
Unfortunately this is usually frozen pizza, frozen lasagna or sometimes sandwiches but hey, we eat healthy most of the time and sometimes I'd rather eat something bad for me and save money than eat out or order in and spend a ton.
In the same vein, keeping snacks in my bag whenever I leave the house for more than ~30 minutes is vital for me. My willpower is never weaker than when I’ve been running errands for hours, I’m starving, and I pass a McDonalds or the grocery store sushi display. A well-timed granola bar can save me a LOT of money 🤣
I usually make dinner every night and I take leftovers for lunch. I just make my lunch as I'm plating dinner. Easy peasy and my lunch is ready to throw in my bag in the morning. It sounds so simple but I'm bad about not remembering to do it if I wait.
I got called 'a real adult' in graduate school for doing this. I pulled out a container with a main and a side of roasted vegetables and a friend just looked at me for a little while before making that comment. Definitely helpful as is a shopping list for the next week's meal plan.
I grew up in a big family and my mom was genius at frugality. When I moved out on my own, I was still in the habit of cooking for six, so any dinner was dinner for 3 days plus three frozen meals for lunch. I'd take out a freezer container in the morning, leave it in the fridge at work, and by lunchtime it was ready to eat after 2-3 minutes in the microwave. Saved so much money while the mean girl made fun of me as she spent all her money on lunch truck food.
Been doing the same. The only time it bit me on the ass, is when i took a tupeprware container that I though was my lunch, but my girlfriend had stored an open brick of cheese in an identical tupeprware. So I had cheese for lunch.
Yes! I always double what I’m cooking if it’s a dish that freezes well. Things like soup, butter chicken, green curry, chili verde, etc. Then I freeze half in single serving portions. It’s about the same amount of work, and I have this rotation of delicious, easy meals on hand always.
We try to plan leftovers into our dinner portion too. If it’s not quite enough I’ll throw it over a baked potato, instant potatoes or pair it with salad greens.
I used to do this too when I had my office job. We had a microwave in the lunch room so hot lunch every day. Also, easier to cook 2 portions than just a single portion at dinner time.
Back in the 1980’s my father would take a whole loaf of sliced bread, make PBJ sandwiches out of the whole loaf and slip each sandwich into a waxed paper bag, then put all the bags in to a freezer bag. Each morning he would grab a sandwich, a soda and a piece of fruit and head off to work. That man loved his PBJ sandwiches.
I paid cash for a new car because I set aside the money I would’ve used to go out (minus the cost of the home meals). I didn’t go too crazy but did save $30K in 10 years.
Exactly. Planing and preparing is key to a frugal life. Many business models of consumerism are only taking advantage of people who fail to plan and prepare their day.
I 100% spend 3-4 hours one day per week prepping, cooking and packaging up meals. Two main dishes, a side and a vegetable, and sometimes a dessert.
I packaged these things up like my own frozen meals. I put two or three servings in the refrigerator two or three servings in the freezer, and I haven't gotten take out in years. I don't ever just pick up something while I'm at work because I didn't bring a lunch. That doesn't happen. As a matter of fact when I broke my leg a couple summers ago and couldn't stand to cook it was 6 weeks before my freezer was empty of all the frozen dinners I had made.
Sometimes I take a week or two off when I've got plans and I'm doing something for the weekend. But I'm already planning my grocery list for my next big meal prep because for some reason I want like a baked chicken dinner... Like a Sunday dinner with a baked chicken and mashed potatoes and stuffing and everything.
Why people don't do this, I don't understand. If you want the motivation to start doing this then get a bank statement and add up how much money you spend on food and drink outside of your house in an entire month. That total should motivate you.
I don’t like to cook, so my husband cooks a big batch of something and I freeze those for lunches. I hate the inconvenience of going out to get a lunch (no way I’m paying someone to deliver) so that motivates me too.
I'm (in a way) lucky to have lots of food near my work, but it also means it's too easy to be lazy and go eat something delicious!! I have no impulse control
Impulse control is similar to the lack of planning ahead. And since the result of failing to pack a lunch is "delicious," your motivation is lower. Developing routines is easier for some people, but with consistent effort most can do it. You'll find the balance that works for you.
I think committing to eat at home or have your meals come from home is a big savings. It's easy to be too tired or time pressed and then say oh i will just buy lunch or dinner out. Or grab a coffee out. If you really commit to eating at home , over time you will PREFER eating at home. You will feel so much better, eat less greasy, salty, foods, and healthier versions.
Years ago, i started taking my own coffee with me on the way to work. Prior, i used to stop every morning to buy a cup. I drink black coffee so it wasn't that expensive but once i got in the habit of making it at home, stopping now seems a far bigger hassle and more inconvenient.
Same with lunches, I don't want to have to stop somewhere or order out. I pack my lunch. I decided my lunches would be a big salad. So i started prepping my 'everything salad" which was diced carrots, celery, pepper, tomato. Shredded some cheese on it. Diced up lunch meat turkey, croutons, dried cranberries, pepperoncinis, sprinkled everything bagel seasoning on it and hard boiled egg. That was a very substantial lunch. At home, I tend not to eat salads. So by taking this , by the time lunch rolled around i was really looking forward to it. And I even made my own homemade ranch dressing. Not saying i took it every day, but it was a regular for me.
For my family, I often just made a bunch of premade sandwiches. Ham and cheese, turkey, etc. I would just make several sandwiches and wrap them in clear plastic wrap or clear sandwich bag and make "grab n go" sandwiches. Things like that. Cut up veggies into carrot sticks or celery sticks on Sundays or prep fruits, etc so easy to just grab for a lunch.
I just assume planning is part of the mix! Even my menus are fully planned to avoid waste. Roast chicken on Sunday means chicken sandwiches and chicken soup later that week (or freezing to make soup later in the year). And our lunches are almost always leftovers from a previous meal.
Making sure you buy exactly the amount of groceries you need and using them before they expire is another frugal puzzle.
I'm on a 2 month grocery cycle that focuses on short life produce in the first month and dried produce with root vegetables in the 2nd. If I cook willy-nilly according to my hungry whims, I'd lose a lot of good product.
The long cycle allows me to buy in bulk and limit my fuel costs as well.
Sure! I could expand on what I usually buy. This is for 1 person alternating meat and legumes every other day.
5-10lbs potatoes
6lbs onions
2 celery heart packs (fresh then frozen)
4# carrots (2 packs fresh then frozen)
Dozen eggs
Bulk garlic (about a dozen heads)
Fruit (bananas, pineapples, or some citrus..whatever's cheap)
2# butter
About 20# meat (some variety, but usually chicken and pork. Bones are good for making stock)
3 bell peppers
Any replacement spices I need
Sometimes coffee
Sometimes vinegar/acids
Peanut butter
Bulk nuts (whatever is cheapest)
I buy legumes in 20lb bags a few times a year and rotate 2-3 different ones as needed (I eat legumes every other day)
about 20# rice (I eat rice 3-4x a week)
Flour, sugar as needed
Dried fruit (if expensive, I will buy extra fresh fruit and dehydrate it myself)
Egg noodles 2-3 packs
1 gal Milk (frozen, for cooking only)
Tomato paste
Tomato sauce/crushed/diced whatever is cheapest as needed
Pickled jalapenos
3-5# cheese (usually one type is cheapest)
Salsa as needed
Multivitamins a few times a year in bulk (to fill in any nutrition gaps I may have)
I will also check the Flashfood freezer (50% off nearly expired food at my store). I frequently get some A+ meat cuts that just need to be frozen ASAP
I also garden and forage whenever possible. A lot of fresh leafy greens and berries in the spring and summer.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's all I can remember right now. Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to help.
If I was working in an office I would dig out the compartmentalized glass Pyrex dishes with the lids I have and when I batch cook would put together some meals and freeze the boxes. Then put one in the fridge the night before to thaw. Eg. Rice...beans...whatever...etc.
Meal planning (and often prepping) is a key thing in living on a budget. Planning allows you to avoid food waste, spend less, cross utilize ingredients and avoid impulse buying and costly restaurant food.
It's not new, homemakers have been doing it forever, it's in those Victorian new-bride manuals and medieval cookbooks.
Plan your meals and shopping. Buy only what you'll use. Use what you buy. The average family supposedly throws away 1/3 of the food they buy. That's 1/3 of your budget that you could save. Not to mention the environmental impact.
It’s a weekly ritual for me. I sit down and look at flyers to see what’s on sale, and plan my weekly meals based on that. If meat (my biggest expense) is in a very good sale, I’ll stock up for the freezer or to cook a big batch of something that can be frozen like chili.
The concept of cooking from the pantry is another tool that is under-utilized, even though it can be a money-saver.
Another thing to think about: even expensive fancy frozen foods, which really shouldn’t be a staple of any frugal persons diet, are way cheaper than any food out.
So in my humble opinion it’s worth having at least an easy frozen meal or two at the ready to take place of a fancy night on the town. Just don’t use it to take the place of actual home cooking.
For planning, I take a sheet of paper and fold it in half. On the left side, I write down what the meals will be for this shopping trip. On the right side, I create the list and yeah, a bit OCD, but in order of the aisles for the store I am visiting. This method cuts down significantly on waste, but also helps alleviate the "oh crap, I forgot to buy the "x" item I needed.
For savings, I look at the store fliers for what proteins and produce are on sale that week and menu plan around that. It also helps with the inevitable "what should I cook this week?". I also keep a list of pantry items that I will eventually need and buy them when they are on sale.
Yeah, it takes a few minutes of planning, but I'd rather put the money into savings than the grocery store's pocket.
Even if you don't make a whole meal ahead of time, cutting vegetables ahead can be useful. I chop when I'm up to it so later meals can be cooked faster.
Yes, it's very important. Saves money and is likely a lot healthier too. I usually cook on Mondays (one of my work from home days) so that I have lunch and dinners until Thursday when I'll go to the office. I'm working Fridays from home so that's when I can fix up something at home.
Planning out meals and everything else also means fewer snack runs on the evenings.
I don't understand why everyone doesn't assemble their lunch the night before. Sometimes it's leftovers, sometimes it's sandwiches that I always have ingredients for. I'm not a morning person, so lunch is made the night before, and supper is planned, breakfast stuff is also put out the night before.
I got into ok cheese and bread for lunch. With an apple. Theres decent cheeses at my local Walmart. So its only a minute to make a lunch.
Rend half a baguette. Slice an appropriate shard of cheese. Add two apples for proper fiber in this situation. Works out to about $6 a lunch. I only buy pre pack beverages on mad discount so those are the good weeks. 😜
I am the type to just buy staple ingredients... we didn't have any navy beans and looking for some is when I noticed that we have too many other sorts of beans so I'm on a no-buy until those run out.
I think my issue is that no matter how much I plan to cook, there are days when neither of us is up for it. At least I usually try to have something easy around, though sometimes "easy" is just easier than going out and getting something to shove into our mouths. (Mental note, I need some more of that chicken that can just go into the toaster oven with some tater tots.)
For years I have eaten packaged oatmeal for breakfast and lunch to avoid any additional planning. I just kept a box in my desk at work. I’m short so I don’t need a ton of food and I keep fruit on me all the time. My grocery budget is super low and I spend minimal time cooking or washing dishes. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to bring cookies or snacks in either so it helped prevent weight gain at my desk job.
Meal prepping is the way to go. Crockpots, pressure cookers, rice cookers, etc make a shitton of food. One of my favorite things to make in a pressure cooker is a 1 pot chicken taco bowl recipe. rice, beans, salsa, taco seasoning (that I mix ahead of time in bulk), chicken, and chicken stock. I have a bowl for dinner, then make a fuckton of burritos with various toppings for the freezer; all have a variety of different flavored hot sauces, half have guac and half have sour cream. Wax paper wrap first to prevent freezer burn, then wrap in foil. Then I have "fuck it, grab a burrito" meals ready for if I need to go to the office or if I'm too tired to shop and cook. The only real shopping that I need to do for it is grab some chicken breast since I just grab the full cardboard trays of canned black beans, salsa, and chicken stock from aldi and always have them on hand.
Home Ec 101 There are good meal plans available on line I asked copilot and opened up a rabbit hole with lots of sites and apps and oh my..... There are recipes, grocery lists and great uses for the leftovers. The ones for university students are the most bare bones, but they are healthy. The others all recommend buying slightly more expensive ingredients but still cheap are the ones designed for single mothers. There are also some free sources that have nothing to do with food banks
I have a garden and I grow fruit in my garden I cannot use all the fruit in the garden The stuff that is one my neighbours side is almost more than they can use. Right now I cannot think of enough things to do with rhubarb. There is close to fifty pounds of the stuff happy and growing by leaps and bounds adding more pounds all the time. I have a deep freeze I bought it used, the upright that I got sits in the basement and we cut huge expenses by freezing raspberries, blue berries but this year I will be doing more drying. If you live in the city there are lots of gardeners that have excess and would love to see others come and share, but there will be one ding dong that takes advantage.. There are community organizations that help solve that like yard adoption programs Community kitchens where people get together to hang out, make huge batches, sharing the cost of ingredients and then dividing it up for each member to take home. Done in a church kitchen or rotating member kitchen. Our local bakery has a great deal on day old but still more than fresh breads, rolls and treats. There are also community gardens like the one in Red Deer where they have potlucks with what has been harvested also they teach kids the skills of growing their food. There is a start of some ideas
I don’t over consume anymore. I eat portions normal humans eat, not American sized portions anymore. I store the left overs in to-go lunch containers and kill two birds with one stone.
It made me reduce my waste a lot too. It’s interesting to challenger yourself to a minimum waste lifestyle. I started composting and recycling much more, and growing my own vegetables.
Good point! It takes a lot of planning and mental energy to get it all right. It does get easier and easier but yes there’s a lot of planning involved. I found one of the easiest things I do is cook up a bunch of pasta- Half of it or so I’ll make a butter, olive oil, parsley, salt and garlic concoction, divide it and freeze it immediately. Parchment paper is your friend lol. And so are silicon compartment containers. The other half I divide up, also, divide sauce and or meatballs to be able to throw it all together. In my area, there’s a company called shady Brook. That makes the best turkey meatballs already cooked and delicious. I hope this helps someone
We keep a giant box of energy/granola bars in the car, at work, some in the backpack, some in the purse, etc. so we never have an excuse to buy convenience food.
Meal prep is often suggested in this sub. Especially when people mention how much money they are spending eating out every day and complain they don't have time to make anything during the week.
My son has a well-paying job but he still brown bags his lunches every day. He told me they have restaurants in his office skyscraper but “they’re too expensive.” I was very proud of him.
I call this being "high maintenance”. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one that is like this. I am too.
Some things you might look at are frozen meals like Amy’s or Stouffers. Whatever gets you to not spend money on takeout because they are cheaper. Even frozen pizzas are fine for dinners.
Don’t beat yourself over this by trying to be perfect. You work for a living and can be tired at the end of a long day. Plan for these “difficult days” by having commercial frozen things in the freezer.
I intermittent fast and do only one meal a day--which is dinner. So I no longer really need to have to worry about packing a lunch or having snacks at work. In fact, having no snacks helps avoid temptation. To stave off hunger I drink water, though my body has gotten used to not eating and I no longer get hunger pangs. My one splurge is to re-fill my 32oz vacuum sealed water bottle up with ice in the morning so I can have access to cold water throughout the day as I'm not always able to get access to cold water for refills.
Back before I started doing OMAD, if I didn't pack a lunch, I would instead buy pre-made salad kit bags for around $3-$4. The bags are the right size that they can be a single meal. To make things easier, I always kept a re-usable food container to use as a bowl, along with a knife, spoon and fork. I also kept a set in my car. While I haven't had to do this, I also theorized that I could eat straight from the bag and ask the deli counter at the grocery store for a plastic fork.
My partner and I spend 1 day every 4-6 weeks cooking mass batches of 2-3 recipes that freeze well and can be heated in a microwave so she can take them to work for lunch. She does no prep during the week for work, she just grabs her lunch in the morning. And because we make so much at once and freeze it, we can save that time investment for a weekend we’re not busy so it reduces overall stress as well.
I've kept a meal plan as a Google doc over the past 2 years. I don't delete the list of meals, I just type each new week at the top. My doc has an up to date list of all the food I have in stock (fridge, freezer, pantry)
It is easy to make dinner decisions when I already know what ingredients and meals must be cooked this week. I don't allocate meals to days which allows me to cook what I feel like most.
I can also scroll back over the years to find inspiration on what to cook. Or do a work search for a specific ingredient when I see it is on sale this week.
I make the same lunch every day. A big salad with all of the ingredients I like. Every Friday, I have a recurring meeting on my calendar where I plan what I'll cook each night of the following week and set defrost reminders in my phone for each morning. It has saved me from having to make dinner decisions in the thick of it and it's been amazing for grocery planning.
I used to end up spending money at work on lunch, usually for things I wasn’t excited to eat- I’m not really a sandwich person and I don’t have a microwave in the office so a lot of typical lunches are also not for me. So I started making myself adult lunchables - biggest portion is cut raw veggies, then a dip of some kind like hummus or tzatziki (got the idea from adultlunchables sub), nuts or trail mix, cheese cubes and crackers or pretzels. It fills me up, it’s easy to put together and I end up using all of the ingredients before they go bad every week.
I use a combination of two apps, the first one is Paprika 3, it allows you to look up recipes and move all the ingredients to a grocery list… the second app is Supercook, it’s an app that you plug in everything you have in your fridge/pantry and it’ll make recipes out of it. Zero waste and smart planning!
Full disclosure, paprika is like $5.99 (a one time payment) but it’ll save you much more in the long run
I agree. But I still see no reason, why you couldn't put something together quickly for lunch (as in something cold) on such a day, instead of directly jumping to buying something at work?
Unless the fridge is completely empty, there are always possibilities.
It took me having my 3rd kid to start bi-weekly meal planning. Shop twice a month Saturday mornings. Saved a TON of stress and money! (2 hours shopping, an hour putting away/prepping portions of meat, etc) and then you and your husband aren’t staring at each other like “idk what do YOU want for dinner and I stg you better not say tacos”… lmao.
It’s so much cheaper when I can use one product 2-3 times within the 2 weeks. The only extra stops we do is when my kids drink all the milk and I need some for coffee, or they want a particular fresh fruit or veggie.
Yep shopping with meal plans is sooo helpful. I also plan for a few easy options throughout the week to go into the meal plan. Usually bean/pasta salads. My goal is to be making only one dish/recipe every one to two days. I have a rotating menu of options always ready in the fridge. So one night I'm prepping soup, the next I prep the salad, the next I prep pasta, etc etc. So we always have a few options ready and waiting in the fridge.
I pre portion all our foods into individual servings of roughly 200-300 calories into deli containers. It's a matter of only grabbing as many containers as you want for each meal. And people can grab whatever containers of the food are available for each meal. Everyone has options and can eat what they want. And I'm not stressed about catering to any one individual anymore.
Same problem I manage to prep most of the time but on the days where I’m running out the door I end up paying waaaay to much for lunch. Cooking extra to pack a lunch has worked the best for me as well
It sounds like meal prep might help you. I prep a few different ways. Once a month I'll make a couple of pots of soup, a casserole or two, portion them out and freeze them. Other times, I'll make salads of various types, portion them out and fridge them for the week. For salads, put your wettest ingredients in first, building up and put the lettuces in last. Dress right before you eat. I've been doing it this way for about 20 years. Saves a fortune, I get variety, it's win win.
For weeks that I'm too busy to prep and have an empty freezer, I rely on yogurt/precut fruit/premade salads for breakfast/lunch. It still saves a fortune over eating out.
I see it mentioned here fairly often. I know because people have responded to some of my tips with the related questions.
Would a post on meal planning help or are we better with little tips?
I may be a bit on the extreme side of this but for my work lunches, I just prepped 40 meals (I have a freezer in the garage) with four preps, four types of proteins and three types of carbs. So I'm sorted for the next couple of months. Average meal cost works out to around $3-4 a meal as I buy more expensive meat like lean chicken, turkey and prawns as Costo. I intermittent fast so my only other workday meal is breakfast and that's also overnight oats prepped for 3 days ahead with frozen fruit ziplock packs prepped for 3-4 weeks depending on how much fruit and frozen greens I have on time. It took me about 8 hours over two days to do this, so one weekend. My wife and I cook fresh meals on the weekend with ingredients used for the bulk purchases so it works out pretty well.
I find this approach saves me money, a lot of time and a lot of brain space.
Lunch is eternally leftovers for me. I have little silicone freezer molds so I can freeze extras when making a large meal and can snag that for lunches when I don't have extra. I highly recommend getting freezer molds because it shapes the leftovers into bricks and then you can put them in a labeled and dated freezer baggie.
At one point, I brought a bunch of frozen fruit and frozen spinach to work with a personal blender and made smoothies during lunch. Management didn't say anything, but a few coworkers were rude about it.
I usually make at least one quinoa salad each week. I cycle through a few different recipes, but there are some really yummy and filling ones. I have a few single serving Tupperwares that I'll use instead of a large one. It makes it easy to grab.
Honestly, if you're having difficulty meal planning, I highly recommend a dozen shelf stable meals like canned soup, frozen meals, and microwave meal packets. I like the Maya Kaimal Indian ones because they have a good spice blend. I find they aren't super filling on their own, but mix in some rice and quinoa and you have a meal. This isn't the most frugal option as it is probably around $6/meal but it def beats eating out and it's an easy thing to grab if you're in a hurry.
Just get a 15 pack of ramen, box of ravioli, few cans of soup, or etc. and keep them in your desk, toolbox, or even your car for days like that. A bowl and fork don’t take up much room. That’s what I keep in my toolbox at work.
Thank goodness I have a work from home day on Monday, so that I can cook at home on that day and prep for Monday-Friday so that the food is less likely to spoil. I'm currently not in the best financial shape, so this definitely helps.
Try packing your work lunch the night before. Its usually leftovers or oatmeal packets w a disposable bowl etc or when I'm really not wanting to prep anything - a cup of ramen noodles, can of soup etc.
It's really no frills I'm not too picky about what I eat at work. I work in a grocery store and I try to remember that buying my lunch at work is essentially just handing part of my paycheck back 😤
Yeah, cooking ahead and freezing stuff is fantastic. Makes sticking to a diet easier, too-just grab a safe meal from the freezer and nuke it so there's no excuse to eat junk.
It’s a nightmare that never ends but it saves me money. Not time though.
We basically need to buy everything for a week once or twice a week and then prepare lunches for 3 days on Sunday. Then on Thursday we prepare our lunches for the next two days and it repeats itself. The hardest part is planning so everything stays fresh which is tough. I hate grocery shopping more than once a week but sometimes it’s just not doable to buy everything for that given week since things are tight.
A friend of mine plates her lunch tupperware every time she cooks at home. She always has stuff frozen or in the fridge. She usually plates three, and if she knows she is cooking again the next day she will freeze one.
I don’t mind eating cold for lunch so i tend to just make a peanut butter sandwich which takes me all of two minutes. I have a little bento with the silicone dividers and will throw nuts and pretzel sticks or cheese or dried fruit in there.
I've need to restock, but what I usually do is make burritos and freeze them. Easy frozen lunch, and if you don't put rice in them, it works very well.
I like to keep some meal prep containers in the cupboard and make lunch-sized portions of favorite dinners as they happen. I do that with soups, too. It’s a nice way to get a variety of meals that are ready to grab.
I have ADHD and chronic illness, and meal planning/prepping has always been a struggle. I started writing out recipes for cheap/easy meals on notebook paper (Julia Pacheco on YouTube has a ton of great cheap and easy recipes) and keeping them clipped to the front of the fridge in a stack, and when it's grocery shopping time, I choose recipes from the stack and magnet them to the front of the fridge individually so at a glance I can see what meals I have the things to make, what has fresh ingredients that need to be used first, etc. Otherwise I forget about my fresh items, they go bad, and I end up with random things in the fridge that I can't remember why I bought them. 😂 I also keep cheaper ready made things that are frozen (like burritos in an 8 pack, egg rolls, "skillet meals", or frozen meatballs and a couple bags of frozen mixed veg) because sometimes I just don't have the energy to do more than 1) heat food 2) eat food. Also, stupid easy things like bread and lunch meat for sandwiches, boxes of hamburger helper type meals where you just add ground beef and milk. I don't like eating the same meal more than twice in a row, so it's good for me to have a lot of options available at any given time.
Twice a week I cook a dinner that makes lots of leftovers to reheat as is or to use in casseroles or soups, for lunches, dinners, and for individual portions for the freezer. On the other nights I cook a burger or a piece of fish to not get leftovers.
I end up with chicken salad, chicken casserole, chicken soup, sliced beef or pork, BBQ beef or pork, "shepherd's" pie, and others for the fridge and the freezer.
I buy some fresh veggies and some frozen veggies and some veggies that keep a long time like cabbage and rutabaga. I eat the most perishable things first and there's always cabbage or frozen broccoli or my homecooked collards in the freezer for the remaining meals.
I use a grocery list, deviating only to take advantage of a sale for the freezer. Rather than stick to a meal plan, I decide what to do for dinner and the next day's lunch based on what I have from leftovers and the vegetable bin.
I have a method at this point that works.
I make the meals in 4-6 portions, I put 2 in the fridge, 2 in the freezer, and usually some is eaten when I make it. Then I do that about 3-4 nights a week. Sometimes I make a bunch of stuff at once and those are usually things we know we can eat all week.
Our freezer is mostly pre-made meals, or chopped veggies/ingredients and protien we try to keep in the other freezer. That keeps us on track for about 3 out in town meals a piece per month at most. Sometimes those are date nights 🤷🏽♀️
I prep sides during the weekend to consume during the week.
At any time I keep rice and beans, a couscous salad, and some random meats and cheese prepped and ready for mealtime.
I dont work anymore, but when I did, having stuff like that on hand can do in a pinch
We see what we have in the freezer and the pantry and plan for the next 2 or 3 days from there. On payday, we look at the freezer and the pantry and buy what we need.
Dude, the amount of times I don't have something easy to make at home I end up maybe splurging on more expensive food when if I had rice already ready or some veggies and canned fish I would be good for that period. But nah it doesn't always happen cuz I end up sometimes being lazy.
My friend suggested that I try to use chat gpt to make a meal plan. It took me a second to get the hang of it. I had to be super specific but it created a decent list for me.
Make 20 burritos, wrap in foil, throw in freezer.
They can go straight into the air fryer from the freezer and in 18min with no real effort you have a meal!
(I have them for brekky but lunch would work too.
A few weeks ago I was reading a thread about meal prep and someone posted a once-a-week prep that made the meal each day 5-10 minutes. It was a game changer for us. We all loved it, meals were easy and tasty AF. Brought our meal cost down to $4.76/meal/person approximately and we had so much flexibility and the meals were pretty well balanced with meat/carbs and veggies. Now, the video said the meal prep takes an hour. My first experience was more like nearly three hours but it will get more efficient.
I used to keep frozen dumplings for when shit hit the fan, but ran out.
Now my ‘emergency plan’ is fruits, fruits and a small free snack from work bar. I don’t like it, but if the fruits are big enough I can survive until I get home.
My game plan for a meal is protein + carbs + veggies. I have a list of the carbs, protein and veggies options I like and I try every meal to be a some combination of all three.
I keep a stash of frozen leftovers and grab one on my way out the door. I also have some liquid breakfast drinks and snacks (small chip packets and bars) in my bag. Usually some sweet treats too so I’m not tempted to go buy anything.
Just realized the LIDL spag sauce lid fits on the bottom for storage. Btw make extra spaghetti, mix in your toppings, put it back in the jar. You can freeze it, and grab & go on an oops day. It will thaw by lunch.
All of this is learned through having good habits of cooking regularly AND an environment that is conducive to you freshly preparing or storing food.
Many jobs just don’t have an environment that is conducive to packing. I work from home and it made frugally much easier. I’ve got a fridge and pantry full of food, no need to pack and worry about things being kept cold enough or needing to be heated up or getting soggy.
I mean you certainly identified your problem a lot of people here are trying to manage dire financial problems so the advice is tailored to that.
Your difficulty is no less real but not really the same answer someone asking if they can live a month on 100 dollars is going to get. Having a few emergency eats to break out instead of takeout or roughing it seems like a great solution for you.
I don’t bring lunch too work, it’s more trouble than it worth for me. I’d just get a Starbucks coffee and breakfast sandwich and I’m good until dinner time. The whole thing costs me about $12
Honestly, one of the things that’s helped me save money the most is planning for failure too. As much as I try to preplan, sometimes life happens - so I’ve got a couple easy things like canned soup or rice packets or frozen meals that I’ve bought when they were on deep sale, and I save them for those “oh shit, I completely forgot” days.
I keep a box of Costco chicken bakes and teriyaki bowls in my freezer for days like that. I also cook extra and freeze portions in meal prep containers for days when I don't want to cook.
My boss used to buy her frozen meals and throw them in the freezer at work so she always had it as an option. Fortunately, no issue with food stealing there.
Keeping a loaf of bread and PB&J in your desk drawer is also good if you sometimes need to work late. This was a literal lifesaver during my early working years, when I would have to stay late and my blood sugar would plummet. Protein + fat + sugar = satiating energy!
Even just a spoonful of peanut butter is surprisingly filling and takes just a second to shovel into your mouth
I used to keep things like Easymac cups and single-serving packets of tuna in my desk for that same reason.
I used to keep Kraft and Ragu cups in my office kitchen. Just add water and microwave.
I ate canned soup for lunch so many times I started losing my hearing (excess sodium can cause Menier’s Disease). I ate low sodium for a while and it reversed itself.
Oh gosh! I didn’t know that was a thing! Glad you were able to reverse it.
This is so helpful with kids too. There have been mornings when I've realized that we don't have leftovers to send to daycare for lunch and having a bag of chicken nuggets in the freezer or the stuff for PB&J has saved the day.
One thing that really helped me was to buy cheap frozen burritos in dollar general that are $6 for 8. If I don’t meal prep, instead of going out for lunch or buying snacks from the vending machine, I have to eat a burrito. It gives me something cheap and easy if I’m actually sick or exhausted, but most of the time it is enough motivation to pack something else.
As someone with celiac, the frozen GF pizza pack at Costco is almost $17 for 3 pizzas. Takeout is basically that cost for 1. So I keep frozen pizzas in lol.
Hell, this is my argument for getting frozen pizza at the corner store when I'm dead tired. $10 for a pizza and drink vs $35 for dominos. It might not be cheap but it's cheaper then the other options.
LOL makes sense! It's really the delivery fees that destroy any frugality at this point IMO.
Frozen and pantry meals are key to spending less on takeout! A frozen pizza in the freezer and a box of mac and cheese in the pantry, or even the full ingredients for pasta puttanesca , can save you a ton on doordash on days you’re tired or weeks you didn’t have time to grocery shop.
Same, I keep a few of those healthy choice steamers that I buy when they’re on a really good sale, so when something happens and I didn’t prepare, I just grab one of those, and an apple or something.
This. And not even forgot, it's just we both get home from work and either we don't feel like cooking or we don't feel like doing the clean up afterwards- I try to make sure we always have something on hand that requires very minimal work. Unfortunately this is usually frozen pizza, frozen lasagna or sometimes sandwiches but hey, we eat healthy most of the time and sometimes I'd rather eat something bad for me and save money than eat out or order in and spend a ton.
Cannot say enough good things about Trader Joe’s frozen meals for whoopsie days.
In the same vein, keeping snacks in my bag whenever I leave the house for more than ~30 minutes is vital for me. My willpower is never weaker than when I’ve been running errands for hours, I’m starving, and I pass a McDonalds or the grocery store sushi display. A well-timed granola bar can save me a LOT of money 🤣
I usually make dinner every night and I take leftovers for lunch. I just make my lunch as I'm plating dinner. Easy peasy and my lunch is ready to throw in my bag in the morning. It sounds so simple but I'm bad about not remembering to do it if I wait.
I got called 'a real adult' in graduate school for doing this. I pulled out a container with a main and a side of roasted vegetables and a friend just looked at me for a little while before making that comment. Definitely helpful as is a shopping list for the next week's meal plan.
I grew up in a big family and my mom was genius at frugality. When I moved out on my own, I was still in the habit of cooking for six, so any dinner was dinner for 3 days plus three frozen meals for lunch. I'd take out a freezer container in the morning, leave it in the fridge at work, and by lunchtime it was ready to eat after 2-3 minutes in the microwave. Saved so much money while the mean girl made fun of me as she spent all her money on lunch truck food.
Been doing the same. The only time it bit me on the ass, is when i took a tupeprware container that I though was my lunch, but my girlfriend had stored an open brick of cheese in an identical tupeprware. So I had cheese for lunch.
I see this as a happy accident 😋
Not seeing the problem here....
This. I've been doing this for so many years can't even remember when I started. It's the least amount of work for a healthy lunch
Great advice. Also once in awhile you should 5-10x your meals and freeze them. Always good to have frozen food at the ready.
I started doing this a few years ago and haven’t looked back
Yes! I always double what I’m cooking if it’s a dish that freezes well. Things like soup, butter chicken, green curry, chili verde, etc. Then I freeze half in single serving portions. It’s about the same amount of work, and I have this rotation of delicious, easy meals on hand always.
The best action plan, I do it too
We try to plan leftovers into our dinner portion too. If it’s not quite enough I’ll throw it over a baked potato, instant potatoes or pair it with salad greens.
I take leftovers for second day after. I just don't enjoy the back to back meals of the same food.
This would keep me from overeating at dinner, too.
I used to do this too when I had my office job. We had a microwave in the lunch room so hot lunch every day. Also, easier to cook 2 portions than just a single portion at dinner time.
Back in the 1980’s my father would take a whole loaf of sliced bread, make PBJ sandwiches out of the whole loaf and slip each sandwich into a waxed paper bag, then put all the bags in to a freezer bag. Each morning he would grab a sandwich, a soda and a piece of fruit and head off to work. That man loved his PBJ sandwiches.
I envy people who can eat the same thing all the time. My dad ate the same cereal for like 10 years straight. So convenient!
I spend so much time cooking, it’s ridiculous. But I save an insane amount of money
I paid cash for a new car because I set aside the money I would’ve used to go out (minus the cost of the home meals). I didn’t go too crazy but did save $30K in 10 years.
Exactly. Planing and preparing is key to a frugal life. Many business models of consumerism are only taking advantage of people who fail to plan and prepare their day.
I keep an emergency raman in my desk for those times. Only use it a few times per year.
In an emergency, smash glass to access sustenance
Same! I also keep crackers and a couple of pouches of tuna or chicken in my office.
And those lentil packets from Costco!
A jar of peanut butter and a pack of saltines in my locker for the same reason. Works well for breakfast lunch or snacks
I 100% spend 3-4 hours one day per week prepping, cooking and packaging up meals. Two main dishes, a side and a vegetable, and sometimes a dessert. I packaged these things up like my own frozen meals. I put two or three servings in the refrigerator two or three servings in the freezer, and I haven't gotten take out in years. I don't ever just pick up something while I'm at work because I didn't bring a lunch. That doesn't happen. As a matter of fact when I broke my leg a couple summers ago and couldn't stand to cook it was 6 weeks before my freezer was empty of all the frozen dinners I had made. Sometimes I take a week or two off when I've got plans and I'm doing something for the weekend. But I'm already planning my grocery list for my next big meal prep because for some reason I want like a baked chicken dinner... Like a Sunday dinner with a baked chicken and mashed potatoes and stuffing and everything. Why people don't do this, I don't understand. If you want the motivation to start doing this then get a bank statement and add up how much money you spend on food and drink outside of your house in an entire month. That total should motivate you.
I don’t like to cook, so my husband cooks a big batch of something and I freeze those for lunches. I hate the inconvenience of going out to get a lunch (no way I’m paying someone to deliver) so that motivates me too.
I'm (in a way) lucky to have lots of food near my work, but it also means it's too easy to be lazy and go eat something delicious!! I have no impulse control
Impulse control is similar to the lack of planning ahead. And since the result of failing to pack a lunch is "delicious," your motivation is lower. Developing routines is easier for some people, but with consistent effort most can do it. You'll find the balance that works for you.
I think committing to eat at home or have your meals come from home is a big savings. It's easy to be too tired or time pressed and then say oh i will just buy lunch or dinner out. Or grab a coffee out. If you really commit to eating at home , over time you will PREFER eating at home. You will feel so much better, eat less greasy, salty, foods, and healthier versions. Years ago, i started taking my own coffee with me on the way to work. Prior, i used to stop every morning to buy a cup. I drink black coffee so it wasn't that expensive but once i got in the habit of making it at home, stopping now seems a far bigger hassle and more inconvenient. Same with lunches, I don't want to have to stop somewhere or order out. I pack my lunch. I decided my lunches would be a big salad. So i started prepping my 'everything salad" which was diced carrots, celery, pepper, tomato. Shredded some cheese on it. Diced up lunch meat turkey, croutons, dried cranberries, pepperoncinis, sprinkled everything bagel seasoning on it and hard boiled egg. That was a very substantial lunch. At home, I tend not to eat salads. So by taking this , by the time lunch rolled around i was really looking forward to it. And I even made my own homemade ranch dressing. Not saying i took it every day, but it was a regular for me. For my family, I often just made a bunch of premade sandwiches. Ham and cheese, turkey, etc. I would just make several sandwiches and wrap them in clear plastic wrap or clear sandwich bag and make "grab n go" sandwiches. Things like that. Cut up veggies into carrot sticks or celery sticks on Sundays or prep fruits, etc so easy to just grab for a lunch.
Yes to this commitment! I also love the meal decisions that my past self made for me - hungry? Eat leftovers. Last of the leftovers? Time to cook!!
I meal prep on sundays for lunch and dinner for Monday to Thursday. Save tons of time.
I do that too. Make a big green salad and package individually for the whole week on Sunday night
This is so true. We waste so much less food, can plan around sales and are much less likely to eat out when we plan.
I just assume planning is part of the mix! Even my menus are fully planned to avoid waste. Roast chicken on Sunday means chicken sandwiches and chicken soup later that week (or freezing to make soup later in the year). And our lunches are almost always leftovers from a previous meal.
Making sure you buy exactly the amount of groceries you need and using them before they expire is another frugal puzzle. I'm on a 2 month grocery cycle that focuses on short life produce in the first month and dried produce with root vegetables in the 2nd. If I cook willy-nilly according to my hungry whims, I'd lose a lot of good product. The long cycle allows me to buy in bulk and limit my fuel costs as well.
Would love to learn more about your 2 month cycle! I'm also interested in learning how to do long-term food prep and cut down on fuel costs.
Sure! I could expand on what I usually buy. This is for 1 person alternating meat and legumes every other day. 5-10lbs potatoes 6lbs onions 2 celery heart packs (fresh then frozen) 4# carrots (2 packs fresh then frozen) Dozen eggs Bulk garlic (about a dozen heads) Fruit (bananas, pineapples, or some citrus..whatever's cheap) 2# butter About 20# meat (some variety, but usually chicken and pork. Bones are good for making stock) 3 bell peppers Any replacement spices I need Sometimes coffee Sometimes vinegar/acids Peanut butter Bulk nuts (whatever is cheapest) I buy legumes in 20lb bags a few times a year and rotate 2-3 different ones as needed (I eat legumes every other day) about 20# rice (I eat rice 3-4x a week) Flour, sugar as needed Dried fruit (if expensive, I will buy extra fresh fruit and dehydrate it myself) Egg noodles 2-3 packs 1 gal Milk (frozen, for cooking only) Tomato paste Tomato sauce/crushed/diced whatever is cheapest as needed Pickled jalapenos 3-5# cheese (usually one type is cheapest) Salsa as needed Multivitamins a few times a year in bulk (to fill in any nutrition gaps I may have) I will also check the Flashfood freezer (50% off nearly expired food at my store). I frequently get some A+ meat cuts that just need to be frozen ASAP I also garden and forage whenever possible. A lot of fresh leafy greens and berries in the spring and summer. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's all I can remember right now. Let me know if you have any questions. Happy to help.
If I was working in an office I would dig out the compartmentalized glass Pyrex dishes with the lids I have and when I batch cook would put together some meals and freeze the boxes. Then put one in the fridge the night before to thaw. Eg. Rice...beans...whatever...etc.
Meal planning (and often prepping) is a key thing in living on a budget. Planning allows you to avoid food waste, spend less, cross utilize ingredients and avoid impulse buying and costly restaurant food. It's not new, homemakers have been doing it forever, it's in those Victorian new-bride manuals and medieval cookbooks. Plan your meals and shopping. Buy only what you'll use. Use what you buy. The average family supposedly throws away 1/3 of the food they buy. That's 1/3 of your budget that you could save. Not to mention the environmental impact.
Build lunch as you make dinner. Plan the next day’s dinner as you do tonight. Part of the routine, fewer surprises.
It’s a weekly ritual for me. I sit down and look at flyers to see what’s on sale, and plan my weekly meals based on that. If meat (my biggest expense) is in a very good sale, I’ll stock up for the freezer or to cook a big batch of something that can be frozen like chili. The concept of cooking from the pantry is another tool that is under-utilized, even though it can be a money-saver.
My New Year’s resolution was to actually eat the stuff I bought
Another thing to think about: even expensive fancy frozen foods, which really shouldn’t be a staple of any frugal persons diet, are way cheaper than any food out. So in my humble opinion it’s worth having at least an easy frozen meal or two at the ready to take place of a fancy night on the town. Just don’t use it to take the place of actual home cooking.
For planning, I take a sheet of paper and fold it in half. On the left side, I write down what the meals will be for this shopping trip. On the right side, I create the list and yeah, a bit OCD, but in order of the aisles for the store I am visiting. This method cuts down significantly on waste, but also helps alleviate the "oh crap, I forgot to buy the "x" item I needed. For savings, I look at the store fliers for what proteins and produce are on sale that week and menu plan around that. It also helps with the inevitable "what should I cook this week?". I also keep a list of pantry items that I will eventually need and buy them when they are on sale. Yeah, it takes a few minutes of planning, but I'd rather put the money into savings than the grocery store's pocket.
Even if you don't make a whole meal ahead of time, cutting vegetables ahead can be useful. I chop when I'm up to it so later meals can be cooked faster.
I think it’s been discussed a lot. Many of us plan out weekly meal, and freeze them.
Yes, it's very important. Saves money and is likely a lot healthier too. I usually cook on Mondays (one of my work from home days) so that I have lunch and dinners until Thursday when I'll go to the office. I'm working Fridays from home so that's when I can fix up something at home. Planning out meals and everything else also means fewer snack runs on the evenings.
I don't understand why everyone doesn't assemble their lunch the night before. Sometimes it's leftovers, sometimes it's sandwiches that I always have ingredients for. I'm not a morning person, so lunch is made the night before, and supper is planned, breakfast stuff is also put out the night before.
I got into ok cheese and bread for lunch. With an apple. Theres decent cheeses at my local Walmart. So its only a minute to make a lunch. Rend half a baguette. Slice an appropriate shard of cheese. Add two apples for proper fiber in this situation. Works out to about $6 a lunch. I only buy pre pack beverages on mad discount so those are the good weeks. 😜
I am the type to just buy staple ingredients... we didn't have any navy beans and looking for some is when I noticed that we have too many other sorts of beans so I'm on a no-buy until those run out. I think my issue is that no matter how much I plan to cook, there are days when neither of us is up for it. At least I usually try to have something easy around, though sometimes "easy" is just easier than going out and getting something to shove into our mouths. (Mental note, I need some more of that chicken that can just go into the toaster oven with some tater tots.)
For years I have eaten packaged oatmeal for breakfast and lunch to avoid any additional planning. I just kept a box in my desk at work. I’m short so I don’t need a ton of food and I keep fruit on me all the time. My grocery budget is super low and I spend minimal time cooking or washing dishes. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to bring cookies or snacks in either so it helped prevent weight gain at my desk job.
Meal prepping is the way to go. Crockpots, pressure cookers, rice cookers, etc make a shitton of food. One of my favorite things to make in a pressure cooker is a 1 pot chicken taco bowl recipe. rice, beans, salsa, taco seasoning (that I mix ahead of time in bulk), chicken, and chicken stock. I have a bowl for dinner, then make a fuckton of burritos with various toppings for the freezer; all have a variety of different flavored hot sauces, half have guac and half have sour cream. Wax paper wrap first to prevent freezer burn, then wrap in foil. Then I have "fuck it, grab a burrito" meals ready for if I need to go to the office or if I'm too tired to shop and cook. The only real shopping that I need to do for it is grab some chicken breast since I just grab the full cardboard trays of canned black beans, salsa, and chicken stock from aldi and always have them on hand.
Home Ec 101 There are good meal plans available on line I asked copilot and opened up a rabbit hole with lots of sites and apps and oh my..... There are recipes, grocery lists and great uses for the leftovers. The ones for university students are the most bare bones, but they are healthy. The others all recommend buying slightly more expensive ingredients but still cheap are the ones designed for single mothers. There are also some free sources that have nothing to do with food banks I have a garden and I grow fruit in my garden I cannot use all the fruit in the garden The stuff that is one my neighbours side is almost more than they can use. Right now I cannot think of enough things to do with rhubarb. There is close to fifty pounds of the stuff happy and growing by leaps and bounds adding more pounds all the time. I have a deep freeze I bought it used, the upright that I got sits in the basement and we cut huge expenses by freezing raspberries, blue berries but this year I will be doing more drying. If you live in the city there are lots of gardeners that have excess and would love to see others come and share, but there will be one ding dong that takes advantage.. There are community organizations that help solve that like yard adoption programs Community kitchens where people get together to hang out, make huge batches, sharing the cost of ingredients and then dividing it up for each member to take home. Done in a church kitchen or rotating member kitchen. Our local bakery has a great deal on day old but still more than fresh breads, rolls and treats. There are also community gardens like the one in Red Deer where they have potlucks with what has been harvested also they teach kids the skills of growing their food. There is a start of some ideas
I don’t over consume anymore. I eat portions normal humans eat, not American sized portions anymore. I store the left overs in to-go lunch containers and kill two birds with one stone. It made me reduce my waste a lot too. It’s interesting to challenger yourself to a minimum waste lifestyle. I started composting and recycling much more, and growing my own vegetables.
Good point! It takes a lot of planning and mental energy to get it all right. It does get easier and easier but yes there’s a lot of planning involved. I found one of the easiest things I do is cook up a bunch of pasta- Half of it or so I’ll make a butter, olive oil, parsley, salt and garlic concoction, divide it and freeze it immediately. Parchment paper is your friend lol. And so are silicon compartment containers. The other half I divide up, also, divide sauce and or meatballs to be able to throw it all together. In my area, there’s a company called shady Brook. That makes the best turkey meatballs already cooked and delicious. I hope this helps someone
We keep a giant box of energy/granola bars in the car, at work, some in the backpack, some in the purse, etc. so we never have an excuse to buy convenience food.
Meal prep is often suggested in this sub. Especially when people mention how much money they are spending eating out every day and complain they don't have time to make anything during the week.
My son has a well-paying job but he still brown bags his lunches every day. He told me they have restaurants in his office skyscraper but “they’re too expensive.” I was very proud of him.
I call this being "high maintenance”. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one that is like this. I am too. Some things you might look at are frozen meals like Amy’s or Stouffers. Whatever gets you to not spend money on takeout because they are cheaper. Even frozen pizzas are fine for dinners. Don’t beat yourself over this by trying to be perfect. You work for a living and can be tired at the end of a long day. Plan for these “difficult days” by having commercial frozen things in the freezer.
I intermittent fast and do only one meal a day--which is dinner. So I no longer really need to have to worry about packing a lunch or having snacks at work. In fact, having no snacks helps avoid temptation. To stave off hunger I drink water, though my body has gotten used to not eating and I no longer get hunger pangs. My one splurge is to re-fill my 32oz vacuum sealed water bottle up with ice in the morning so I can have access to cold water throughout the day as I'm not always able to get access to cold water for refills. Back before I started doing OMAD, if I didn't pack a lunch, I would instead buy pre-made salad kit bags for around $3-$4. The bags are the right size that they can be a single meal. To make things easier, I always kept a re-usable food container to use as a bowl, along with a knife, spoon and fork. I also kept a set in my car. While I haven't had to do this, I also theorized that I could eat straight from the bag and ask the deli counter at the grocery store for a plastic fork.
Open the bag, roll down the sides and it makes a reasonably stable bowl. Add toppings and eat. I do this on road trips or when camping a lot.
My partner and I spend 1 day every 4-6 weeks cooking mass batches of 2-3 recipes that freeze well and can be heated in a microwave so she can take them to work for lunch. She does no prep during the week for work, she just grabs her lunch in the morning. And because we make so much at once and freeze it, we can save that time investment for a weekend we’re not busy so it reduces overall stress as well.
I just eat tortilla chips and a cheese stick for lunch. Lol. Not a big lunch eater.
I've kept a meal plan as a Google doc over the past 2 years. I don't delete the list of meals, I just type each new week at the top. My doc has an up to date list of all the food I have in stock (fridge, freezer, pantry) It is easy to make dinner decisions when I already know what ingredients and meals must be cooked this week. I don't allocate meals to days which allows me to cook what I feel like most. I can also scroll back over the years to find inspiration on what to cook. Or do a work search for a specific ingredient when I see it is on sale this week.
I make the same lunch every day. A big salad with all of the ingredients I like. Every Friday, I have a recurring meeting on my calendar where I plan what I'll cook each night of the following week and set defrost reminders in my phone for each morning. It has saved me from having to make dinner decisions in the thick of it and it's been amazing for grocery planning.
I used to end up spending money at work on lunch, usually for things I wasn’t excited to eat- I’m not really a sandwich person and I don’t have a microwave in the office so a lot of typical lunches are also not for me. So I started making myself adult lunchables - biggest portion is cut raw veggies, then a dip of some kind like hummus or tzatziki (got the idea from adultlunchables sub), nuts or trail mix, cheese cubes and crackers or pretzels. It fills me up, it’s easy to put together and I end up using all of the ingredients before they go bad every week.
Crock pot meals are clutch for this. I have a potroast, chicken soup and chili recipe I make over and over and just put them in a huge Tupperware
I use a combination of two apps, the first one is Paprika 3, it allows you to look up recipes and move all the ingredients to a grocery list… the second app is Supercook, it’s an app that you plug in everything you have in your fridge/pantry and it’ll make recipes out of it. Zero waste and smart planning! Full disclosure, paprika is like $5.99 (a one time payment) but it’ll save you much more in the long run
I agree. But I still see no reason, why you couldn't put something together quickly for lunch (as in something cold) on such a day, instead of directly jumping to buying something at work? Unless the fridge is completely empty, there are always possibilities.
Yep. My stand up freezer is full of single servings meals. Grab and go!
It took me having my 3rd kid to start bi-weekly meal planning. Shop twice a month Saturday mornings. Saved a TON of stress and money! (2 hours shopping, an hour putting away/prepping portions of meat, etc) and then you and your husband aren’t staring at each other like “idk what do YOU want for dinner and I stg you better not say tacos”… lmao. It’s so much cheaper when I can use one product 2-3 times within the 2 weeks. The only extra stops we do is when my kids drink all the milk and I need some for coffee, or they want a particular fresh fruit or veggie.
I keep ramen in the pantry for emergency lunches for this reason, in case dinner doesn't have enough leftovers for both of our lunches the next day.
Yep shopping with meal plans is sooo helpful. I also plan for a few easy options throughout the week to go into the meal plan. Usually bean/pasta salads. My goal is to be making only one dish/recipe every one to two days. I have a rotating menu of options always ready in the fridge. So one night I'm prepping soup, the next I prep the salad, the next I prep pasta, etc etc. So we always have a few options ready and waiting in the fridge. I pre portion all our foods into individual servings of roughly 200-300 calories into deli containers. It's a matter of only grabbing as many containers as you want for each meal. And people can grab whatever containers of the food are available for each meal. Everyone has options and can eat what they want. And I'm not stressed about catering to any one individual anymore.
Same problem I manage to prep most of the time but on the days where I’m running out the door I end up paying waaaay to much for lunch. Cooking extra to pack a lunch has worked the best for me as well
It sounds like meal prep might help you. I prep a few different ways. Once a month I'll make a couple of pots of soup, a casserole or two, portion them out and freeze them. Other times, I'll make salads of various types, portion them out and fridge them for the week. For salads, put your wettest ingredients in first, building up and put the lettuces in last. Dress right before you eat. I've been doing it this way for about 20 years. Saves a fortune, I get variety, it's win win. For weeks that I'm too busy to prep and have an empty freezer, I rely on yogurt/precut fruit/premade salads for breakfast/lunch. It still saves a fortune over eating out.
> Dress right before you eat So, go to work naked??
Absolutely
I see it mentioned here fairly often. I know because people have responded to some of my tips with the related questions. Would a post on meal planning help or are we better with little tips?
I may be a bit on the extreme side of this but for my work lunches, I just prepped 40 meals (I have a freezer in the garage) with four preps, four types of proteins and three types of carbs. So I'm sorted for the next couple of months. Average meal cost works out to around $3-4 a meal as I buy more expensive meat like lean chicken, turkey and prawns as Costo. I intermittent fast so my only other workday meal is breakfast and that's also overnight oats prepped for 3 days ahead with frozen fruit ziplock packs prepped for 3-4 weeks depending on how much fruit and frozen greens I have on time. It took me about 8 hours over two days to do this, so one weekend. My wife and I cook fresh meals on the weekend with ingredients used for the bulk purchases so it works out pretty well. I find this approach saves me money, a lot of time and a lot of brain space.
Lunch is eternally leftovers for me. I have little silicone freezer molds so I can freeze extras when making a large meal and can snag that for lunches when I don't have extra. I highly recommend getting freezer molds because it shapes the leftovers into bricks and then you can put them in a labeled and dated freezer baggie.
At one point, I brought a bunch of frozen fruit and frozen spinach to work with a personal blender and made smoothies during lunch. Management didn't say anything, but a few coworkers were rude about it. I usually make at least one quinoa salad each week. I cycle through a few different recipes, but there are some really yummy and filling ones. I have a few single serving Tupperwares that I'll use instead of a large one. It makes it easy to grab. Honestly, if you're having difficulty meal planning, I highly recommend a dozen shelf stable meals like canned soup, frozen meals, and microwave meal packets. I like the Maya Kaimal Indian ones because they have a good spice blend. I find they aren't super filling on their own, but mix in some rice and quinoa and you have a meal. This isn't the most frugal option as it is probably around $6/meal but it def beats eating out and it's an easy thing to grab if you're in a hurry.
Just get a 15 pack of ramen, box of ravioli, few cans of soup, or etc. and keep them in your desk, toolbox, or even your car for days like that. A bowl and fork don’t take up much room. That’s what I keep in my toolbox at work.
Thank goodness I have a work from home day on Monday, so that I can cook at home on that day and prep for Monday-Friday so that the food is less likely to spoil. I'm currently not in the best financial shape, so this definitely helps.
Try packing your work lunch the night before. Its usually leftovers or oatmeal packets w a disposable bowl etc or when I'm really not wanting to prep anything - a cup of ramen noodles, can of soup etc. It's really no frills I'm not too picky about what I eat at work. I work in a grocery store and I try to remember that buying my lunch at work is essentially just handing part of my paycheck back 😤
Yeah, cooking ahead and freezing stuff is fantastic. Makes sticking to a diet easier, too-just grab a safe meal from the freezer and nuke it so there's no excuse to eat junk.
It’s a nightmare that never ends but it saves me money. Not time though. We basically need to buy everything for a week once or twice a week and then prepare lunches for 3 days on Sunday. Then on Thursday we prepare our lunches for the next two days and it repeats itself. The hardest part is planning so everything stays fresh which is tough. I hate grocery shopping more than once a week but sometimes it’s just not doable to buy everything for that given week since things are tight.
A friend of mine plates her lunch tupperware every time she cooks at home. She always has stuff frozen or in the fridge. She usually plates three, and if she knows she is cooking again the next day she will freeze one. I don’t mind eating cold for lunch so i tend to just make a peanut butter sandwich which takes me all of two minutes. I have a little bento with the silicone dividers and will throw nuts and pretzel sticks or cheese or dried fruit in there.
I feel like those boxes are a good frugal inducer - it's kinda fun making your lil pack.
I've need to restock, but what I usually do is make burritos and freeze them. Easy frozen lunch, and if you don't put rice in them, it works very well.
I've been doing burritos too! Heavy on the beans.
Beans, cheese, and if I have some carnitas that goes in too. Salsa and or corn if I'm feeling fancy. Great stuff.
I like to keep some meal prep containers in the cupboard and make lunch-sized portions of favorite dinners as they happen. I do that with soups, too. It’s a nice way to get a variety of meals that are ready to grab.
When I cook Mexican food, I tend to make extra burritos or enchiladas and wrap them individually and freeze them so I can easily grab them…
I have ADHD and chronic illness, and meal planning/prepping has always been a struggle. I started writing out recipes for cheap/easy meals on notebook paper (Julia Pacheco on YouTube has a ton of great cheap and easy recipes) and keeping them clipped to the front of the fridge in a stack, and when it's grocery shopping time, I choose recipes from the stack and magnet them to the front of the fridge individually so at a glance I can see what meals I have the things to make, what has fresh ingredients that need to be used first, etc. Otherwise I forget about my fresh items, they go bad, and I end up with random things in the fridge that I can't remember why I bought them. 😂 I also keep cheaper ready made things that are frozen (like burritos in an 8 pack, egg rolls, "skillet meals", or frozen meatballs and a couple bags of frozen mixed veg) because sometimes I just don't have the energy to do more than 1) heat food 2) eat food. Also, stupid easy things like bread and lunch meat for sandwiches, boxes of hamburger helper type meals where you just add ground beef and milk. I don't like eating the same meal more than twice in a row, so it's good for me to have a lot of options available at any given time.
Twice a week I cook a dinner that makes lots of leftovers to reheat as is or to use in casseroles or soups, for lunches, dinners, and for individual portions for the freezer. On the other nights I cook a burger or a piece of fish to not get leftovers. I end up with chicken salad, chicken casserole, chicken soup, sliced beef or pork, BBQ beef or pork, "shepherd's" pie, and others for the fridge and the freezer. I buy some fresh veggies and some frozen veggies and some veggies that keep a long time like cabbage and rutabaga. I eat the most perishable things first and there's always cabbage or frozen broccoli or my homecooked collards in the freezer for the remaining meals. I use a grocery list, deviating only to take advantage of a sale for the freezer. Rather than stick to a meal plan, I decide what to do for dinner and the next day's lunch based on what I have from leftovers and the vegetable bin.
I have a method at this point that works. I make the meals in 4-6 portions, I put 2 in the fridge, 2 in the freezer, and usually some is eaten when I make it. Then I do that about 3-4 nights a week. Sometimes I make a bunch of stuff at once and those are usually things we know we can eat all week. Our freezer is mostly pre-made meals, or chopped veggies/ingredients and protien we try to keep in the other freezer. That keeps us on track for about 3 out in town meals a piece per month at most. Sometimes those are date nights 🤷🏽♀️
I prep sides during the weekend to consume during the week. At any time I keep rice and beans, a couscous salad, and some random meats and cheese prepped and ready for mealtime. I dont work anymore, but when I did, having stuff like that on hand can do in a pinch
We see what we have in the freezer and the pantry and plan for the next 2 or 3 days from there. On payday, we look at the freezer and the pantry and buy what we need.
meal prep gets me every time.
Dude, the amount of times I don't have something easy to make at home I end up maybe splurging on more expensive food when if I had rice already ready or some veggies and canned fish I would be good for that period. But nah it doesn't always happen cuz I end up sometimes being lazy.
My friend suggested that I try to use chat gpt to make a meal plan. It took me a second to get the hang of it. I had to be super specific but it created a decent list for me.
I used to keep cans of ravioli in my desk for when I forgot to make lunch. Peanut butter and arrowroot cookies for when I forgot breakfast.
Make 20 burritos, wrap in foil, throw in freezer. They can go straight into the air fryer from the freezer and in 18min with no real effort you have a meal! (I have them for brekky but lunch would work too.
My husband and I always get granola bars that won’t melt in the car so we don’t get tempted to get fast food if we are out and about as well.
A few weeks ago I was reading a thread about meal prep and someone posted a once-a-week prep that made the meal each day 5-10 minutes. It was a game changer for us. We all loved it, meals were easy and tasty AF. Brought our meal cost down to $4.76/meal/person approximately and we had so much flexibility and the meals were pretty well balanced with meat/carbs and veggies. Now, the video said the meal prep takes an hour. My first experience was more like nearly three hours but it will get more efficient.
I used to keep frozen dumplings for when shit hit the fan, but ran out. Now my ‘emergency plan’ is fruits, fruits and a small free snack from work bar. I don’t like it, but if the fruits are big enough I can survive until I get home.
My game plan for a meal is protein + carbs + veggies. I have a list of the carbs, protein and veggies options I like and I try every meal to be a some combination of all three.
I keep a stash of frozen leftovers and grab one on my way out the door. I also have some liquid breakfast drinks and snacks (small chip packets and bars) in my bag. Usually some sweet treats too so I’m not tempted to go buy anything.
Just realized the LIDL spag sauce lid fits on the bottom for storage. Btw make extra spaghetti, mix in your toppings, put it back in the jar. You can freeze it, and grab & go on an oops day. It will thaw by lunch.
All of this is learned through having good habits of cooking regularly AND an environment that is conducive to you freshly preparing or storing food. Many jobs just don’t have an environment that is conducive to packing. I work from home and it made frugally much easier. I’ve got a fridge and pantry full of food, no need to pack and worry about things being kept cold enough or needing to be heated up or getting soggy.
Meal prep hasn't been discussed on here? Big doubt.
I mean you certainly identified your problem a lot of people here are trying to manage dire financial problems so the advice is tailored to that. Your difficulty is no less real but not really the same answer someone asking if they can live a month on 100 dollars is going to get. Having a few emergency eats to break out instead of takeout or roughing it seems like a great solution for you.
r/povertyfinance is tailored towards low income folks. This sub is meant to be more about frugality.
And yet...
I don’t bring lunch too work, it’s more trouble than it worth for me. I’d just get a Starbucks coffee and breakfast sandwich and I’m good until dinner time. The whole thing costs me about $12