I think one of the most common misconceptions about couponers is that all we eat is processed food. One of my goals for 2012, is to debunk the myth. People who use coupons, do in fact Eat.Real.Food. We don’t all park our fannies at McDonalds nor do we eat Hamburger Helper 5 nights a week just because we were able to pick up a couple of boxes for free.
Since I began couponing heavily we hardly eat out at restaurants anymore. Not that we did a whole lot before, but we eat out even less now. I have a seriously hard time paying $50 for 4 people to eat a meal which will be consumed in 1 hour. I’d much rather buy a light fixture or underwear than spend money at a restaurant. Unless of course I’m using a gift card someone has given me… to let’s say Panera. Then that is a whole different story all together.
This is why each night around dinner time here on One Hundred Dollars a Month you’ll find a recipe. A recipe from a real, honest to goodness meal I made using items from my stockpile. As we get into the gardening season you’ll start to see more and more seasonal recipes. I’ll give you pointers as to how to forage for food and how to preserve it once you bring it home.
Sure, it’s true I bring home a lot of free food periodically. But I don’t actually eat all of it. I donate. I share. I do not clear shelves but instead pre-order groceries I know will be on sale and have coupons for. Saving money on food is not rocket science. Buy when the prices are low and live off your stockpile when the prices are high. Grow a garden in the summer and live off your bounty all year long. It really is that simple.
Here is a recap of the recipes/meals I made over the last few weeks:
Breakfast
Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
Lunch/Dinner
Layered Chicken and Black Bean Enchilada
Dessert
Chocolate Chip Ice Cream sandwiches
Snacks
I’m curious.
How often does YOUR family go out to eat?
Desi says
Eating out what is that? I do have a goal this year of going on a date with my husband once a month and so we may eat out more often. But going on a date does not have to mean going to a restaurant… if I can convince my husband of that. I would like to go bowling and maybe even roller skating. Thanks for the recipes!
Heather says
Rarely…which is a lot different then before I couponed. We were those families, of just 2 adults, who eat out of take out containers, to go boxes, bags, wrappers, etc too many nights and it got out of hand. Seriously, we would crave a real home cooked meal. This isn’t to say that we didn’t know how to cook, or BBQ, or even heat up something at home, but our lives were different and our priorties were different. Fast forward to now…I am like you…food is expensive out and I’d much rather make my money work for us/me elsewhere. We don’t have a garden, but we don’t eat Hamburger Helper each night either…I cook, we BBQ, we plan. Key is planning. Then again, we do eat off of gift cards and restaurant.com deals or the occassional splurge, but we’d rather be at home now with my money safe in the bank any day. We realize that it doesn’t help the economy that we are not spending at a restaurant again like we did, but we are helping ourselves, which is the most important thing to us. (Longwinded…sorry.) PS. Love your recipes…have made a few of the dishes over the past year and loved them…keep them comin’! 🙂
nancy says
i eat out every friday lunch with my co-workers. with my family, it isn’t very often. i’d say once/month we go to a sit-down restaurant (we use this to lure our college girl to join us). other than that, we eat from scratch meals at home.
You Can Call Me Jane says
Sometimes I do get the urge to not cook and to eat out, so about once a month, we feed the kids and then once they’re in bed, Jamey runs out and gets take out (usually Thai or Indian- both family-run businesses). We find we spend less when we do take out and, of course, there is no need to tip. Kids’ options at restuarants are so expensive and almost double our bill. And they don’t like Thai anyway:-).
I think it’s amazing that you’re posting a recipe every day. You go!