Have you ever thought about the current situation where everything is filled with uncertainty? This uncertainty created a situation where we couldn’t consume things as much as we used to. Chicken nuggets for snacks. Instant meals for the midnight meals, food delivery when you don’t want to cook. But do you know? The money that we paid for convenience could have upsell the item by 20-30% their original cost, where we could’ve made it at home with the same amount of time. But could it create that much of an impact? How bad could it be? In the USA alone, an average US adult could spend on average $236.76 per month on takeout or approximately $2,832 a year. Not only that, but it also indirectly impacts the unattended groceries that someone might have had in their fridge. It could lead to creating unnecessary waste, and that waste will just sit in our landfill. Not only can this habit cause a lot of money, but also create a substantial amount of waste in the long run. Have you ever thought of how you can stretch your income with a little bit of effort, but these little habits can save you money in the long run? I’m going to show you some of my tips on how I can stretch my budget to produce more homemade meals without producing more unnecessary waste in the long run.
Adapt Your Meal Prep
Maybe some of you are confused of why you do not prepare your meals instead. While meal prepping is time-efficient and saves a lot of money, one thing people don’t talk about is fatigue. The fatigue of eating the same meal sometimes made people demotivated and go back to consumerism. Instead of preparing a full, rigid meal. You can just prepare the ingredients and cook a variety of dishes. One thing you can do is freeze the ingredients that you cook very often, such as frozen minced garlic, spring onion, chili, etc. You can also freeze your meats such as chicken, beef, lamb, etc., to ensure the freshness of the meat, but don’t forget to portion the meats for every single meal. By doing this, you just reduced your prepping and cooking time by half. This tip can save you time and the fatigue of cooking the same things all over again, but with less time to cook.
Buy Fresh Produce
Why fresh produce? Is it more expensive to buy fresh produce instead of just buying the premade product? That might be true for some of you. But let's take a look at the prices of fresh potatoes. A bag of 10 lbs of potatoes that contains 25-30 potatoes will cost you around $3.97 -$7.50. Instead of buying $3.00-$6.00 for 1-2 lbs of frozen French fries. If you just make 1 lbs of French fries using the fresh potatoes, it would only cost you under $1.00. Not only is this cost-effective, but it is versatile. Not only could you make French fries. You can make mashed potatoes, chips, pommes au gratin, Patatas Bravas, Poutine, and etc. The possibilities are endless!
Use the Entirety of Your Ingredients
Maybe you guys are still thinking, “I cooked my ingredients to the fullest.” You do use it, but not entirely. Remember when you have scrappy leftovers when you cut your vegetables. When you have leftovers of your vegetables, such as the skin and tips of the vegetables, you can make a stock out of them. Just chuck the scraps in and pour a heavy amount of water and appropriate seasonings to your liking. You are good to go; you have a vegetable stock that you can add to soups, risotto, or any liquid-based dishes you have in mind. Not only that, the leftover vegetables from the stock can be composted instead of throwing them out as is. This also applies to meat. You can also make a stock out of meat bones. Just by roasting them and chucking them in a pot of water, and adding seasonings to make a beef or chicken stock.
Creativity is Your Best Friend
Believe me that you actually need creativity to make meals in a hurry. The scrap pieces of dough, leftover chicken, and some chopped vegetables. This can be made into chicken pot pie. Well, maybe you don’t want a pot pie. You can also make a chicken bake for that. If you want a little asian twist, you can also make dumplings or xiaolongbao. From these ingredients, you can make anything as long as creativity is on your side; a hot, delicious meal awaits you.
That is my tips and tricks to produce more and buy less to save some money and invest in my health for the future! I hope you use some of these tips for your busy life. So you can make hot meals in a hurry without making your wallet cry for help!