Eating Cheap

[anotherchance]

I recently started budgeting and paying off debts after years of financial misbehavior, but I still struggle with food budgeting a lot.

I'm single, live alone, and I'm a poor cook. I also have a sweet tooth. I try to cook basic things like tuna fish sandwich, egg sandwich, pasta (in microwave), turkey sandwich, rice, ramen noodles, etc. But I find that I often stop at the grocery or convenience store on the way home to pick up things like cookies, ice cream, or snacks. While I'm there, I often pick up potato chips and sodas too.

I have a problem keeping sweets in the house. I usually eat whatever I buy. These snacks obviously add up fast, but I find I am not satisfied unless I have a little something sweet with dinner. I also realize these are not healthy choices

Any suggestions for very simple to cook cheap things or cheap snacks (healthy and cheap)? I find that food is my hardest expense to control.

[Saule]

I don't suggest that you cut out your sweets and snacks completely - that is almost certain to go nowhere. But you can take control. If you buy a box of cookies, then divide them up as soon as you get home into plastic baggies, and have one each day, after dinner. Put the rest of them in an opaque container - I find that keeps those rascally snacks from calling to you. You can have your treats, you just don;t want to be eating the entire package at a time.

Explore healthier sweets - fresh fruit is sweet, tastes good, and is good for you. Freeze some grapes and eat try those - they are a sweet frozen treat for a reasonable calorie amount, plus the benefit of vitamins and fiber.

In terms of food, I do have some thoughts, but need to head off to church. Most important - what is it that you like to eat - we can help you find recipes for things that you like to eat that will give you better nutrition and variety over what you are eating now. It's easier to become a good cook if you start with foods/dishes that you really like and would like to be able to make at home.

[Contrary Housewife]

How about fruit? Apples and oranges have as much sugar in them as some candy bars, but are obviously better for you. If you can wean yourself off the processed sugar you'll find that the flavor of fruits and sweet vegetables (like tomatoes, carrots and beets) greatly improves once your taste buds adapt.

You also need to get out of the habit of stopping on the way home. You are hungry for dinner and you are buying junk food because your brain wants you to eat, so you are just grabbing whatever looks good at the time.

Maybe if you planned in some snacks for the weekly budget you could break yourself of the habit? There are a number of "100 calorie" packaged products, while not exactly cheap (look for what is on sale this week) will give you portion control and help you avoid eating the entire box of cookies in one night. Knowing that you have portioned snacks at home, will you avoid stopping on the way home for more?

There really aren't a lot of baked goods that are healthful for you, everything has sugar and white flour. However boxed brownie mixes are more or less foolproof and go on sale for less than $1. Oatmeal raisin cookies aren't hard and there is a recipe under the lid of most Quaker oats canisters. (In fact, in general drop cookies are easier to make than rolled ones). Fruit crisps are pretty easy, dump a bag of frozen fruit into a casserole and top with the butter and sugar crumble mixture (many recipes on the web).

[anotherchance]

Saule: Thanks for the reply. I think that's a good idea... try to buy ahead and portion out cookies. I am REALLY bad about eating snacks all at once. I realize I may also have some issues with overeating. Although, I seem to just eat whatever is in front of me... so maybe if I just allow a limited portion, I will just eat that rather than the whole box.

The grapes are a good idea too. As for food I'd like to eat, I was thinking recently about cooking beef at home. As funny as this may sound, I've never cooked beef. I was always afraid to buy it because I thought I might not cook it thoroughly. Of course, I wouldn't try to eat beef every night, but it might be nice to have at home.

I always wanted to cook eggs, and recently started cooking eggs when I learned that you could cook them in the microwave on the internet. It sounds funny but I thought frying eggs would take too much time. Microwave eggs only take about 2 minutes.

One real issue for me is prep/clean-up. I've bought stuff in the past like lettuce with the intention of making a salad, but never did and wound up throwing away the lettuce later. I work two jobs so when I get home, I'm often tired and not focused enough on cooking.

My diet is definitely a mess, but hopefully I can keep making gradual improvements. Just like I'm slowly paying off bills -- I'm doing the Dave Ramsey program which I discovered a few months ago.

[anotherchance]

You also need to get out of the habit of stopping on the way home. You are hungry for dinner and you are buying junk food because your brain wants you to eat, so you are just grabbing whatever looks good at the time.

Thanks, Contrary Housewife. I have to admit, if I'm being completely honest, that I sometimes just eat the snacks and don't bother making dinner. You might be right... maybe I am just hungry so I go for the fast snacks. After I eat the snacks, I often find I no longer am hungry for "real food" for dinner! It's a horrible habit, I know!

I am definitely going to buy some fruit. One thing I can use to my benefit is my own laziness. Once I get home for the night, there is no way I would go back to a store to buy snacks. I will just eat whatever is there, so if fruit is there, that's what I'll eat.

I guess the only good news is that food is really my only major expense as far as wasted money. I rarely spend frivolous money on entertainment, shopping, etc. But I would definitely like to get to the point where I don't feel I need to stop by the store every night, because once I'm there I usually spend extra cash and have nothing to show for it (except for extra pounds!).

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I will think about the homemade cookies too.

[ruby3]

I usually eat fruit with plain yogurt for my after dinner snack. I absolutely hated plain yogurt for the longest time and now I crave it!

Also pasta with jarred sauce is excellent for a cheap meal and it is on sale often so you can stock up when prices are low.

[Josephhgoins]

I got into that same bad habit as well. I would stop by the store and pick up a can of pringles and pint of Ben & Jerry's and eat those after dinner every evening. You can imagine how quickly the pounds we adding on.

Sounds silly, but what finally worked for me was I stopped keeping money with me at work. I would pack my lunch or keep enough mmoney on me just for my lunch and leave everything else at home.

It cut pretty much all of the impluse buying out when I had to run home and get money and then go back out to the store.

FYI, I sometimes buy or bake a pound cake and slice it and then freeze it. I pop out the slices when I want something sweet and defrost in the microwave. I then fry them in a little butter and serve with Pancake Syrup. I don't think this is healthy, but its quick, easy and does the job.

I found a new way to make Ramen that I think is healthier than the packaged mix. While the noodles are cooking I heat a couple of tablspoons of chilli oil and garlic oil and then dress the noodles with it. Makes them so tasty with none of the sodium.

To make the chilli oil or garlic oil simply put chillies or garlic in a bottle and then fill with Vegatable oil and put in the fridge for a few weeks.

Good luck breaking youy habits!

[shoiji]

I would try eating fresh or dried fruit until you get used to not eating all the processed junk food you are eating. They will only make you more hungry. It does take a while to get used to this but in the long run will be better for you. Even cottage cheese with fruit or honey can help you with that sugar craving. Plus it will be healthier for you.

A little sweets now and then is fine but they really should not be considered food. And for me that is really easy to do.

There are lots of things you can cook in the microwave if that is what you find easiest.

I do understand you being very busy and cooking seeming more like a chore. Try buying frozen fruits and vegetables. Healthy broths and soups. You can eat things like soup and sandwiches. May be more filling than just a sandwich.

Beans are healthy and very easy to make. Try filling up on more fruits and vegetables to help fight off hunger.

Try cooking in a crockpot. You can make lots of servings in one recipe that can easily be put in individual containers and frozen for another day and time. Basically you just need to dump ingredients in the crockpot, cover, and let cook away.

If you do buy processed foods, take the time to look at the ingredients. The more ingredients where you can actually pronounce them the better. Also remember to stock up on these items when on sale.

Also, remember to take vitamins if you don't already. Sounds like you are burning the candle at both ends. The healthier you eat the better off you will be especially if you are working two jobs.

[MyMelody]

Since you work 2 jobs, you need to shop for main-dish options that will balance price with convenience. I don't mean that you should buy exclusively processed, individually packaged, microwave-only stuff, but be mindful and realistic about the time and energy levels you actually have for food prep and choose accordingly. You may also find that it's helpful to make one huge batch of a recipe on a weekend (such as soup when it gets cooler, tuna salad, chicken spaghetti, crockpot bbq beef for sandwiches, etc) and freeze it in individual portions for quick meals throughout the week.

[Saule]

It's important that you make eating nutritious things much easier, and junk food much harder - you need to get into good habits now, it will really help you stay healthy a you get older (and it gets a whole lot harder as you get older, believe me).

Working two jobs makes it tougher - no doubt. But if you ever have some slack time, see if you can take a cooking basics class at your local community colleges or adult education classes at a high school. Even if you don't like all the things they make, it will give you good skills that will make it much easier for you to tackle the things that you do like.

With beef, there are a couple of things that I suggest. Since prep is not your favorite things, let's do it easy and buy a bag of frozen meatballs and a bag or box of frozen hamburger patties.

Frozen meatballs of course go really well with spaghetti and jarred pasta. But you can also throw in a couple into ramen soup to make a more complete entree soup, especially if you throw in a handful of frozen veggies. Or fresh, if you happen to have some, but keeping a couple of bags of frozen veggies in your freezer is a great idea. You can also make a meatball sandwich, this one happens to be my favorite, Divine Meatball Sandwiches Recipe - Food.com - 59289 .There are just the two of us, so I use hoagie rolls and mix up oh about 1/3 of the spread. Or you can just put the meatballs on a roll, pour on spaghetti sauce, sprinkle with shredded cheese and heat up in the oven.

You can also make a minestrone type soup - buy some canned or boxed low-sodium chicken broth, pour some into a saucepan, throw in a good handful of frozen Italian-style veggies and a handful of broken spaghetti and a few meatballs, heat to a boil, reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes - a hearty soup, much much better than what you can get from a can.

If you want ramen soup, use the low sodium broth instead of the packet that's in the package - throw that out, the salt in it will kill you, I swear.

The hamburgers you can throw on a griddle or in a skillet frozen. Or perhaps you have a George Foreman type of grill - a lot of people like those. You can do your burgers on those, grill sandwiches, also grill veggie slices.

I also like to thaw the hamburgers and use them as ground meat when I just need a little ground meat for a recipe. For example, to add to plain spaghetti sauce to make a meat sauce. Or to add to soups.

On the lettuce - see if you can spend a little time by cleaning the lettuce - take the leaves off, wash and dry - a salad spinner is nice for this, not expensive at Walmart - then put in a plastic container lined with paper towel. Then, when you want a salad, your greens are ready. If that seems like too much, buy the bagged ready salad mixes - they cost more, but less than your buying a head of lettuce and then throwing it out.

Are you willing to eat leftovers (not everyone is, but I love them because I will then take them to work for lunch the next day) - if so, we can give you some easy pot roast recipes. You can freeze leftovers, just remember to use them up in a reasonable amount of time.

I love potatoes and we go through a lot of fresh ones, but if you don't, but a box of plain potato flakes - don't get the flavored kind, they all have too many preservatives and way too much salt. Making mashed potatoes from the potato flakes is pretty fool-proof. Also, you can cook most veggies in the microwave. You can nuke a whole potato, then stuff it with leftover pot roast, some cheese and have a great stuffed potato meal. Take a cup or so of your frozen veggies, put in a microwave safe container, add a little water, cover and zap in the microwave for a minute or two for veggies - you can add a pat of butter -just a little! -if you like.

[LynnLC]

Do you have a crockpot? You can throw in some chicken etc. with a can of soup and presto magic you arrive home to a hot meal...Easy peasy.

[Imarachne]

Losing weight or cutting back is hard--just look at some movie stars with all their resources and money and they struggle too. Being conscience of what we eat is helpful. Good luck--I struggle too.

[Luckybustert]

If I bring sweets and cookies into the house, I also can't control myself....so the solution that works for me is to just not buy them. Snacks like celery and peanut butter, apples and cheese, fresh fruit, an avocado, even popcorn, are better choices for me.

You may also want to consider having a snack that includes protein - it's filling, and doesn't leave you ravenous for more like the highly processed snack foods do.

[mndtrp]

Have a friend or family member come over and help you become more comfortable with cooking. I would suggest creating large batches of soups, sauces, and taco meat like meals, and then freezing in portions large enough for a meal or two. Take the serving out of the freezer, put in the fridge, and when you get home from work you can heat up some soup or some tacos.

For snacks, I would try the celery or apples with peanut butter, tortillas with honey, fresh fruit. I'm guessing your single, so getting through a head of lettuce before it goes bad takes some diligence. I pretty much gave up on it until I got a roommate, and now a wife.

[anotherchance]

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I am overwhelmed at the great response to my question and all the good ideas on here.

It's definitely embarrassing how little I know about cooking considering my age, but I hope to improve this area of my life.

I think that's a good point that has been made -- certain foods do seem to just make you crave more. I am also going to try some of the "weekend cooking" when I do weekend housecleaning.