CrankySpice
Unwashed.
So, one of the ways I'm trying to kid myself that I'll be able to afford college for my kids is by cutting back on my food budget. It is, by far, one of my highest cost areas, and those costs can soar when you factor in take-out meals, morning coffee from the coffee shop, or restaurant meals.
So my biggest food expenditure is usually on things I get for convenience--pizza, Mickey Ds, a breakfast sandwich on my way to work--so I'm trying to figure ways I can wean myself from those habits but still have food on the fl when I need it. I've decided on cooking big amounts of something and freezing it for later use. Now, I know Fuzzy will be alllllllll about the idea of batch cooking, and I hope some other folks will, too.
Being a person who works in finance, I tend to usually try to figure out my per-meal or per-serving costs. Which can come in handy when you're trying to decide if something is worthwhile to bother to cook at home.
It isn't unusual for me to go to the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru and get a breakfast sandwich and some coffee. Toss in a juice, and we're talking $5, right there. The coffee I can get for free at work; the juice, I can bring in with me. Those are easy. But the breakfast sandwich--I don't have the time to make one every morning. So this is what I did.
I bought:
2 packages of frozen bagels (1 doz total): $1.09 each
1 dozen eggs: $2.39
package of cheese slices(16 slices): $2.09
package of pre-cooked bacon(16 slices): $2.89
I fired up the broiler on my oven and heated up my biggest frypan. Scrambled up 10 of the eggs with a little water; melted a couple of tablespoons of butter in the microwave; split the bagels in one package and put them on a cookie sheet, brushed each one with melted butter and popped them under the broiler. Nuked 6 slices of bacon in the microwave; made 3 mini-omelettes at a time in the frypan (with a splash of butter. I just poured in a little egg, let it set, poured in a little more; let it set; little more, then my first omelette was ready to fold and remove...repeat). took the bagels out, topped them with an omelette, slice of cheese, slice of bacon (broken in half) topped them with the other half of the bagel, then wrapped the sandwiches in saran. Repeated the process with the other pack of bagels. I had 1 dozen breakfast sandwiches in less than thirty minutes. The cost per sandwich (not figuring in butter (maybe 3 tablespoons) and energy costs) was 66 cents each. Breakfast sandwiches cost about $2.39; so I just "saved" $20 on breakfast sandwiches.
Note: this doesn't work if you have 2 hungry teenage boys lurking about in the kitchen who pretty much eat all the sandwiches as they come out of the oven. I'll need to make them some night when they aren't here.
Anyway--would love to see some other ideas from folks on saving money and eating like you want to!
So my biggest food expenditure is usually on things I get for convenience--pizza, Mickey Ds, a breakfast sandwich on my way to work--so I'm trying to figure ways I can wean myself from those habits but still have food on the fl when I need it. I've decided on cooking big amounts of something and freezing it for later use. Now, I know Fuzzy will be alllllllll about the idea of batch cooking, and I hope some other folks will, too.
Being a person who works in finance, I tend to usually try to figure out my per-meal or per-serving costs. Which can come in handy when you're trying to decide if something is worthwhile to bother to cook at home.
It isn't unusual for me to go to the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru and get a breakfast sandwich and some coffee. Toss in a juice, and we're talking $5, right there. The coffee I can get for free at work; the juice, I can bring in with me. Those are easy. But the breakfast sandwich--I don't have the time to make one every morning. So this is what I did.
I bought:
2 packages of frozen bagels (1 doz total): $1.09 each
1 dozen eggs: $2.39
package of cheese slices(16 slices): $2.09
package of pre-cooked bacon(16 slices): $2.89
I fired up the broiler on my oven and heated up my biggest frypan. Scrambled up 10 of the eggs with a little water; melted a couple of tablespoons of butter in the microwave; split the bagels in one package and put them on a cookie sheet, brushed each one with melted butter and popped them under the broiler. Nuked 6 slices of bacon in the microwave; made 3 mini-omelettes at a time in the frypan (with a splash of butter. I just poured in a little egg, let it set, poured in a little more; let it set; little more, then my first omelette was ready to fold and remove...repeat). took the bagels out, topped them with an omelette, slice of cheese, slice of bacon (broken in half) topped them with the other half of the bagel, then wrapped the sandwiches in saran. Repeated the process with the other pack of bagels. I had 1 dozen breakfast sandwiches in less than thirty minutes. The cost per sandwich (not figuring in butter (maybe 3 tablespoons) and energy costs) was 66 cents each. Breakfast sandwiches cost about $2.39; so I just "saved" $20 on breakfast sandwiches.
Note: this doesn't work if you have 2 hungry teenage boys lurking about in the kitchen who pretty much eat all the sandwiches as they come out of the oven. I'll need to make them some night when they aren't here.
Anyway--would love to see some other ideas from folks on saving money and eating like you want to!
