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Lunch or Dinner on the Cheap Using Intentional leftovers
We all know that a great way to save money is to stop eating out or having meals delivered. Sometimes, it can be difficult to not eat out at lunch time because you didn't plan in advance for a good lunch. You end up eating greasy fast food, that costs a fortune and your budget is busted. But, there is an easy way to get prepared. The best way is to do so is to make leftovers on purpose. Otherwise known as intentional leftovers.
Most of us have leftovers of some kind at least a couple of times a week. Most leftovers come from recipes that make more serves than are needed for a meal. For example, with five of us eating in our house, I end up with one serve left most nights. I could adjust my recipes to make just five serves, but instead I stick to the six serves and plan for those intentional leftovers, which become free lunches or dinners sometime in the future.
If you have tacos for dinner, right before you sit down at the table to eat, quickly prepare your intentional leftovers in a plastic sealable container. Put a taco shell in a ziplock bag and sit it on top and freeze. Then when it's time for lunch, grab the container and off you go. It will thaw during the morning, then you simply crumble the taco shell into your taco base so it'll still be crunchy. Keep a bottle of Tabasco in your drawer at work so you can add some hot sauce.
Perhaps you've made a lasagne that cuts into eight serves, but there's only three of you in the family. You'll eat three serves (with a salad and garlic bread to round it out for a complete meal), put three serves into a container for a freezer meal dinner on another night and you'll have two serves to pack and use as either lunches or single serve freezer meals.
The five serves you put into the freezer will essentially be free meals, because you've already paid for the ingredients to make the lasagne in that week's meal plan and grocery shopping.
Another easy way to have intentional leftovers is to cook extra food on a regular basis. You can do this without busting the budget by stretching those meals. The addition of extra vegetables (zucchini, carrot, grated potato) or rolled oats or rice or breadcrumbs, depending on what you're making, can double the number of serves while only increasing the cost by about 10%. If you do this just a couple of times a week, and put the extra serves in the freezer, you'll always have something to take for lunch or for a quick freezer meal dinner, or even a fun mufti meal over the weekend.
Buy plenty of fruit and veggies like apples, oranges, strawberries and carrots. They're the perfect fast foods and need little preparation. Also buy salad veggies that you can toss into a container and keep in the fridge. With the main course, a salad and some fruit, you'll be very well fed. Of course, that assumes you remember to take the food!
They say it takes 21 days to make a habit, therefore, you'll need to work extra hard the next 21 days to make this happen. Start with cooking extra and freezing lunches; then make it a routine that when you are making your breakfast, to put your lunch in a bag, pulling components that you prepared during dinner the night before from the freezer and fridge, and then hang it on the front door so you won't forget it when you leave in the morning.
Then, at lunch you can heat frozen items in the microwave. They'll be safe all day until lunch outside of the fridge. If you don't have access to a microwave then you'll need to heat the items in the morning at home, and put in containers that stay warm all day. You'll have a healthy lunch each day without the added sodium, grease, preservatives. You'll feel better, and probably even lose weight.
Finally, you'll save a boatload of money by eating leftovers for lunch, or as a freezer meal dinner. Almost everyone in the family can eat leftovers of some kind for lunch but if only the parents do that could save more than $20.00 per day on food costs, per day. That's $100.00 a week that can be used on something else like saving for a new home or a family holiday or paying down the credit card bill faster.
Sometimes leftovers are accidental, but planning for them, and using them for free meals, will save you a bundle every single week with very little extra work - a win-win all round.
Most of us have leftovers of some kind at least a couple of times a week. Most leftovers come from recipes that make more serves than are needed for a meal. For example, with five of us eating in our house, I end up with one serve left most nights. I could adjust my recipes to make just five serves, but instead I stick to the six serves and plan for those intentional leftovers, which become free lunches or dinners sometime in the future.
If you have tacos for dinner, right before you sit down at the table to eat, quickly prepare your intentional leftovers in a plastic sealable container. Put a taco shell in a ziplock bag and sit it on top and freeze. Then when it's time for lunch, grab the container and off you go. It will thaw during the morning, then you simply crumble the taco shell into your taco base so it'll still be crunchy. Keep a bottle of Tabasco in your drawer at work so you can add some hot sauce.
Perhaps you've made a lasagne that cuts into eight serves, but there's only three of you in the family. You'll eat three serves (with a salad and garlic bread to round it out for a complete meal), put three serves into a container for a freezer meal dinner on another night and you'll have two serves to pack and use as either lunches or single serve freezer meals.
The five serves you put into the freezer will essentially be free meals, because you've already paid for the ingredients to make the lasagne in that week's meal plan and grocery shopping.
Another easy way to have intentional leftovers is to cook extra food on a regular basis. You can do this without busting the budget by stretching those meals. The addition of extra vegetables (zucchini, carrot, grated potato) or rolled oats or rice or breadcrumbs, depending on what you're making, can double the number of serves while only increasing the cost by about 10%. If you do this just a couple of times a week, and put the extra serves in the freezer, you'll always have something to take for lunch or for a quick freezer meal dinner, or even a fun mufti meal over the weekend.
Buy plenty of fruit and veggies like apples, oranges, strawberries and carrots. They're the perfect fast foods and need little preparation. Also buy salad veggies that you can toss into a container and keep in the fridge. With the main course, a salad and some fruit, you'll be very well fed. Of course, that assumes you remember to take the food!
They say it takes 21 days to make a habit, therefore, you'll need to work extra hard the next 21 days to make this happen. Start with cooking extra and freezing lunches; then make it a routine that when you are making your breakfast, to put your lunch in a bag, pulling components that you prepared during dinner the night before from the freezer and fridge, and then hang it on the front door so you won't forget it when you leave in the morning.
Then, at lunch you can heat frozen items in the microwave. They'll be safe all day until lunch outside of the fridge. If you don't have access to a microwave then you'll need to heat the items in the morning at home, and put in containers that stay warm all day. You'll have a healthy lunch each day without the added sodium, grease, preservatives. You'll feel better, and probably even lose weight.
Finally, you'll save a boatload of money by eating leftovers for lunch, or as a freezer meal dinner. Almost everyone in the family can eat leftovers of some kind for lunch but if only the parents do that could save more than $20.00 per day on food costs, per day. That's $100.00 a week that can be used on something else like saving for a new home or a family holiday or paying down the credit card bill faster.
Sometimes leftovers are accidental, but planning for them, and using them for free meals, will save you a bundle every single week with very little extra work - a win-win all round.