Delicious meals all the time on a Budget

We all want a delicious and home-cooked meal every night, right? Let’s be real, who has the time or energy for that these days. Between work, kids, and life, our days are always busy. I know what you’re thinking, that’s impossible. Cooking from home must be more expensive? I’m here to show you that it doesn’t have to be. We’ll go over how it’s possible to have dinner on the table every night with little work while doing so on a budget and simultaneously keeping the kitchen clean! Sound too good to be true? Well, read on to find out!

Id like to start out with the going to the grocery store first because I find doing little bit of work before hand makes all the difference. First thing to do is to write down general idea of what you already have in pantry, fridge and freezer. I have a list of 50 dinners that I rotate through (link to list of mine) and I alternate the chicken, beef and pork during the week and a pasta or fancy dinner for the weekend then on whatever day you do the grocery store that’s your leftover day. Once you have the meals you want to have picked out write them on a mini dry erase board that will go on the fridge, I do meals on the fridge 1-2 weeks at a time. Then check your list you made earlier to see what you have and what you dont have. From here make your grocery list and write it out in order of how you’d walk through the store this will help you stay on track. Then I always do a good clean on the inside of the fridge, pantry and kitchen. And right before heading out I will always look for coupons (links that I use apps, websites ext) Now your ready to go shopping have fun!

Back from the store now time to take couple hours one day and make those meals Ill usually make enough meals to last 1-2 weeks from one day of food prep and to me that’s worth it. I use freezer containers and I stack all of the same meal in one spot to keep it all organized in the freezer if it helps to write on them what they are then by all means. Once all the cooking is done ill clean the kitchen again and call it a day.

So its Monday and you’ve had a long day but everyone’s hungry check your list of options to choose from and heat up whichever you’d like. Ill use a dish spray for the container to soak once its empty while we enjoy dinner. After dinner you may have one or two things that cant go in dishwasher but other then that dinner done and clean kitchen. I love my dishwasher and will use it as much as I can. Start that when you go to bed and you start the next day ready to go! Now you can eat what you want when you want, its easy to keep up with and your not eating out as much. You’ll save money by predominantly sticking to your 50 meals list because you can stock up on common used items. More info on saving money at the grocery store (link other post).