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Meal Prep Ideas To Save Time and Money

03.21.2019 by admin // 2 Comments

Meal Prep Ideas: Bowl of Meatballs and Sauce

In 5 Ways You’re Wasting Money And How To Fix It I shared one way to spend less money on food is to meal prep. Here, you can find a bunch of meal prep ideas to help you get started. You can save a lot of money quickly by meal prepping and planning your meals before you go to the grocery store. Meal prep also saves you time and enables you to eat healthier!

Many recipes call for a lot of ingredients and prep time. If you’re busy, that’s a recipe for failure. That is why all of the recipes below have limited ingredients and are perfect for the beginner chef. These meal prep ideas can be made in bulk and portioned out for the week or made in smaller quantities. The meal prep dinner ideas are also very easy to freeze if you prefer eating variety. If you’ve never planned your meals before, check out 8 tips for meal planning.

Here are a few recipes to help you start your meal plan that I’ve found have minimum ingredients, don’t take much prep time, don’t require any “fancy” kitchen tools and are generally pretty healthy. If these recipes take too long to make, check out Trader Joe’s Quick and Easy Dinner Ideas.

Breakfast Meal Prep

Overnight Oats

meal prep ideas for breakfast, overnight oats

Overnight oats are a great breakfast to meal prep. I prefer to make a fresh one the night before but you can also prepare a few mornings at the same time. All you need is rolled oats and your choice of milk as a base. My favorite overnight oats are banana bread overnight oats. This is also a cheap breakfast and costs less than a dollar a meal

Chia Seed Pudding

Chia Seed Pudding recipe, chia seed pudding with blueberries, breakfast meal prep ideas

Chia seed pudding is one of my favorite breakfasts to meal prep in the summer. It is very light and refreshing but rich with protein. One batch usually makes 4-5 breakfasts, depending how much I put in each mason jar. I’ll add the toppings in the morning. My recent favorite toppings for chia pudding are almonds, maple syrup and blueberries. When I don’t have time to grab fresh fruit I like adding frozen raspberries to chia seed pudding.

Lunch Meal Prep

Sweet Potato “Toast” with Avocado

sweet potato toast with avocado, breakfast meal prep ideas

Stuck on healthy ideas for lunch that fill you up? Sweet Potato “Toast” with Avocado is an easy lunch to make ahead and then add a few toppings earlier that day. Slice the sweet potato and bake for 25 minutes ahead of time. Put it in the fridge and when you’re ready to eat it toast it like you normally would a piece of toast in the toaster oven. For toppings you can add sliced avocados, almond butter, almond butter with bananas and more. If you don’t have a toaster at work to warm up the sliced avocado you can also microwave it or eat it cold. This meal is also Whole 30 approved.

Hard Boiled Eggs With Deli Meat

Hard boiled eggs and deli meat are a quick and cheap meal prep idea for lunch. A carton of eggs is usually no more than $3 and deli meat is relatively cheap as well. This is a protein rich lunch that will help fill you up and is great if you work out a lot.

Egg Salad

To make egg salad hard boil eggs and then add mayo or greek yogurt and spices (dry mustard, salt, pepper, paprika) to taste.

Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Hash

sweet potato hash recipe, breakfast meal prep ideas

Sweet Potato and Caramelized Onion Hash is another great lunch prep idea if you’re stick of eating sandwiches for lunch. I usually don’t add the eggs unless I eat this at home. I also have made this and mixed in the salsa chicken below for additional protein. This is good hot and cold!

Dinner Meal Prep

Simple Turkey Chili

Simple Turkey Chili is one of the easiest dinners to meal prep and portion for dinners during the week or freeze for later. I modified this recipe using beef, and homemade tomato sauce (store bought is fine too) instead of the crushed tomatoes. I also buy frozen chopped onions and peppers and add shredded cheese on top. If you buy the frozen veggies, it only takes about 10 minutes of prep and then you can do other things while it simmers. It ends up being $10-15 for 4 servings, assuming you already have the spices.

Chicken and Salsa In the Crockpot

Chicken and Salsa– This is literally two ingredients and you put it in a crockpot for 4 hours on high. I also buy the Trader Joe’s white rice from the freezer which takes about 5 minutes to cook in the microwave. Cost: ~$20 total but you can use only 2 chicken breasts and use the rest for other meals and the rice has 3 packets so this can cover multiple meals. Does need a crock pot but I’m sure this could be made in the oven as well. If you like meal prepping using a crockpot here are more cheap crockpot recipes.

Meatballs and Sauce

Meatballs and Sauce initially does take a bit of time to make but you can make multiple batches at once and freeze it. You then can have the equivalent of a few weeks worth of meals from one afternoon of cooking. I now make 2-4 batches at a time because it’s so good and so easy to freeze and reheat!

For the meatballs, I’ve modified the recipe above to make 2 batches at once- and have 1 lb of pork with the 3 lbs of beef, the last time I did this that made 67 meatballs. I also use panko breadcrumbs and frozen chopped onions.

For the sauce (per batch) it’s 1 can crushed tomatoes, 1 small can of tomato paste. Once emptied fill both of these cans with water and add water, 2-3 scoops minced garlic, a bit of olive oil and spices to taste. Cook the garlic first in olive oil, add spices. Add in the water and tomatoes and once reaching a boil simmer for 2-4 hours.

Because you’re making tomato sauce and meatballs in bulk it will save you money. It is also a much healthier sauce than what you would buy at the grocery store. Many tomato sauces have soy and sugar added to it, and frozen meatballs had so many fillers. The homemade version is so much tastier. I’ve found I max out some of the ingredients at 4 batches of meatballs – 1 package of beef broth, 1 package of parsley, 1 fresh grated parmesan, 1 bag chopped onions all covers 4 batches but after that you’ll have to buy more beef broth and parsley.

If you like more variety and prefer not to make large batches of the same thing I have more recipes for breakfasts and dinners on the blog! I’d love to hear if you have any other meal prep ideas for other recipes or what your experience is if you make any of these recipes in the comments!

Categories // Smart Spending Tags // Food, Recipes

5 Ways You’re Wasting Money… And How To Fix It

03.17.2019 by admin // 13 Comments

wasting money, save money, wasting money on travel, wasting money on food, save money on food, save money on travel

As important as it is to increase your income, it’s always important to keep a watchful eye on your spending. As your income increases, it’s easy to have lifestyle creep, or lifestyle inflation, and buying the nicer purse, the nicer vacation and before you know it the more expensive items like a nicer car and nicer house.

What isn’t talked about as often with lifestyle creep is as your income increases the demands of your time also tend to increase. When you get those salary increases at work it’s usually accompanied by increased responsibilities which tend to increase hours and work travel. Or, maybe you don’t have a salary increase but you have responsibilities that increase at home like having kids.

In either scenario, gone are the days where you have a ton of time to shop around and get the best deal, keep a watchful eye on prices and plan trips months in advance. All of a sudden a commitment (wedding, planned travel, birthday) is right around the corner and you’re forced to spend more money because you’ve waited until the last minute. It’s not that you’re buying more expensive things, it’s that you don’t have time to get the best price for the same things you’ve always purchased. Here are ways you’re spending too much money on travel, food, clothing, gifts and transportation and how to fix it.

Save Money On Travel

You know you want to take a vacation somewhere, but aren’t sure where and aren’t sure when. Or, you know you have a trip but may not be sure what your schedule is like around that trip (like, if you have to travel for work) so you hold off on buying the ticket. This pivot from planning ahead to waiting until the last minute recently has cost me close to $200 more per domestic roundtrip flight because I waited to purchase the ticket. Prior to this, I was still purchasing in advance but found out I had to travel and then literally had my work trip flight landing an hour before I was supposed to take off for my vacation flight instead of just flying from my work commitment to vacation.

How to fix it: Work with your team at work to understand deadlines and busy periods so you have a better idea of when you’ll definitely be able to travel and exactly when you’ll have to travel for work. For example, if you meet with a customer once every few months, can you schedule the year in advance and have a quarterly schedule on the calendar? Instead of traveling in person to meet with your entire team face to face can you arrange a video conference? Then, once you know when you’ll be traveling, leverage sites like Google Flights and Hopper to find the best prices and set up price alerts so you don’t forget to book early on.

See Also: 5 Travel Hacks to Save Time and Money

Save Money On Food

It is so easy to come home after a long day of work, open the fridge and realize either nothing appeals to you or the things in your fridge together do not make a complete meal. You’re then forced to: A) Go out to eat or B) order in. Especially when you live in a city surrounded by great food it’s hard to convince yourself to eat what you see in front of you. It’s also easy to wake up and grab breakfast or lunch out instead of making breakfast at home and packing a lunch with you to work. Doing this can cost you thousands of dollars extra a year.

How to Fix This: Meal Prep and planning. Start small as if you try to do everything at once you’ll probably go back to your old habits pretty quickly. Maybe it’ll just be bringing lunch twice a week or planning two dinners a week. Even preparing for a few meals a week and creating a list for those meals (with the exact quantities you need) before you go to the grocery store will save you money. Over time, you can expand this to more meals and then get more organized (for example if one recipe calls for only half a can or a pinch of something have another meal that’s able to use that same ingredient). If there are certain recipes you find you like, print them and put them in a binder or pin them in a board on Pinterest. That way, when you don’t have time to think much about what you should make for the week ahead you can go to that one spot and get ideas. See Meal Prep Ideas to Save Time and Money for recipe ideas.

Save Money On Clothing

How often do you realize that in a few days you have something coming up and you have *nothing* to wear? Then, you have to race to go shopping and are either stuck with something you don’t love or you pay way more than you wanted to or both. You may have been able to save $50-$150 or more if you had just planned earlier!

How to fix it: Learn more about capsule wardrobes and focus on building one so you always have something to wear no matter what comes up. If you’re always invited to multiple weddings a year, have accessories and shoes that will go with any dress.

Save Money Buying Gifts

Does all the gift buying of your household fall on you? It’ll seem like every other day there is a birthday or holiday that approached must faster than you thought it would and you’re racing to the nearest store to get something. Especially if you’re in the city, you’ll pay a lot more than if you just planned ahead.

How to fix it: Even if you can’t plan far ahead, if you can at least make the Amazon Prime shipping window you should be able to find plenty of good deals. If there are certain event you always have to buy gifts for (for example newborns or 1 year old birthdays) buy a bunch of stuffed animals and bows when a store is having a sale. You know you’ll need it at some point and can then just pick a gift from your stash.

Save Money On Transportation In The City

In most cities there are a lot of options available to spend little on transportation. Options like walking, biking, public bus and public train. But, most take longer and when you’re running late or don’t feel like looking up public transportation routes it’s very easy to click a button in an app now and order an Uber / Lyft. Even when a trip is only $10, it can add up very quickly, especially if you’re visiting a city and going to many places the same day.

How to Fix It: Plan your day so you can at least group things together. Know how long alternate transportation like walking or the train will take and make sure to leave your house / hotel on time. Look into the time difference between walking or driving. It’ll be easier to walk or take the train when it doesn’t take much longer. If by car it takes 10 minutes and by train it takes 40 minutes, a better option may be to use Uber Pool and only add a few more minutes to your trip verse 30.

What are tricks you’ve learned to save money on travel, food, clothing, presents and transportation? When you’re running short on time, where do you tend to waste money?

Categories // Smart Spending Tags // Saving Money Tips

Should You Hire a Cleaning Service

02.24.2019 by admin // Leave a Comment

Should you hire a cleaning service? Person vacuuming glitter

We tend to think about money in terms of dollars, but your time should have a dollar amount attached to it as well. Cleaning your house takes time. At what point is it cheaper to hire someone to clean your house so you can spend that time doing other things? Or, perhaps you don’t enjoy cleaning and would rather spend that time doing something more enjoyable. A cleaning service may seem expensive at first glance. Ask yourself these six questions to determine if hiring someone to clean your house is worth the money.

Things to Consider Before You Hire A Cleaning Service

  1. How big is your apartment / condo / house?
  2. Do you rent or own?
  3. Do you have roommates / live with a significant other?
  4. How much do you value your time?
  5. How often does your house need to be cleaned?
  6. Can you afford to hire a cleaning service?

Size of Your Living Space

Consider how big your living space is. When I lived in my one bedroom condo I had a small kitchen, small living room, small bedroom and small bathroom, all hardwood floors. Since it was a small space with little furniture it was very manageable to clean quickly and wasn’t worth paying someone to come for less than 20 min of work. When I lived in a 5 bedroom house with 4 roommates, large dining room, large kitchen, etc the space absolutely would have made it worth it; however, since we all had recently graduated we felt it was a luxury we couldn’t afford.

Do You Rent or Own Your House?

When you rent it doesn’t matter as much if things stay in perfect condition, but when you own you want your home to stay nice. Plus, when you rent you tend to move around more frequently and in between tenants a rental will usually get a deep clean. When you own and you’ve lived in the same house for 5 years it’s up to you to plan the deep cleans.

How Many People And Pets Do You Live With?

Things tend to get less dirty when you live alone. Additionally, when you live with a significant other or with roommates you need to figure out who is responsible for cleaning what, how often, etc. If it’s going to disproportionally fall on one person for whatever reason (there is always one person that’s cleaner than the other, one person has more time, one person hates cleaning more than the other, etc) sometimes the solution is to hire someone to do it for you.

What Is The Dollar Value of Your Free Time?

When I was right out of college, the issue was money. But, as I grew in my career I had more money but way less time. While I work in business, I usually log back online at night for work and also work on the weekends. My free time is far more valuable today than it used to be as there is far less of it.

When our cleaners come, 3 people spend a little over an hour cleaning our house. It ends up being about $40 per person per hour and they do a great job. If I had to do it, if I focused and cleaned non-stop it would take me at least 4 hours to do the job they do, probably more. Consider, how often do you have this much time available? What would you have to give up to clean yourself / what would you do with that time if you hired someone to do it for you? Or, maybe you’re like me and you hate cleaning so it looks more like 30 minutes, break, 30 minutes, another break, and it never really gets done.

How Often Does Your House Need To Be Cleaned?

Do you have kids or pets? Bad allergies? Bad winter tracking a bunch of salt in? It really depends on how dirty your house gets and also your tolerance for a little dirt. When living with roommates it was clear that “clean” had different meanings to different people. Sometimes cleaners charge a bit more if they come less frequently but the longer you go in between the cheaper it does end up being overall.

Can You Afford A Cleaning Service?

It’s not just about money, but also time. If you are spending more than you earn every month you should look at where else you can cut back before you consider spending more money. But, if money is tight and you’d be using this time instead to grow your own business or are working hard to get that next job / promotion / extra income it may be worth it. If you can afford it, it’s really just down to personal preference. There are also opportunities to look for deals such as on Groupon or see if your neighbors want to join in and ask for a neighborhood discount. At the end of the day $1 is $1 and you always have the choice of where you want to spend, save or invest that $1.

Categories // Smart Spending

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