Convenience foods can ruin anyone’s grocery budget. When my husband and I were first married, I shudder to think how many of my own grocery dollars were wasted on foods like these. We would load our cart with tons of convenience foods… and these were for the nights that we were “saving money” by dining in.
Now you will find very few convenience foods in our home and as I become more familiar with the kitchen, I am beginning to discover all of the things that I am able to make myself.
But, let’s face it, convenience foods are called convenience foods for a reason. They are wonderful to have on hand for the times in your life where you don’t feel like cooking and they are great when mommy isn’t home.
There are things that I have been trying to do to keep convenient food in our house without going over our grocery budget. Here are a few of the things that we have tried in our house:
1. I try to individually wrap items for our family. Items like homemade granola bars, homemade fruit & cereal bars, muffins (any variety will do), and even slices of homemade breads can be wrapped in single-serving portions. These are great to throw into lunch boxes or for a quick snack as you are walking out the door. And if you have big eaters in your family, like I do in mine, then it also can help with portion control.
2. I try to take snacks for the kids in my purse, but just wrapping them in a small piece of foil or plastic wrap offers no protection from the destruction that can occur with my purse. It is easy to smash snacks when you are dragging one kid with one arm and have a little one slung on the same hip as your purse. In such cases, it is nice to have small containers that can fit inside your purse. Our dollar store has a set of four of five for $1 which fit perfectly for these kind of occasions. I like to put our snacks in these or make up a batch of trail mix for the kids for when they get hungry while we are out and about. These are helpful for when the grocery stores have not been so helpful and have put lots of goodies by the cash register for your children to throw tantrums over.
3. I try to make time to make snacks for our family. Since we have been going way over on our grocery budget, I am making even more of an effort to do this. My commitment to scheduling a baking day is working out well for us and it puts an emphasis on staying home with the family, spending time with my children in the kitchen, and staying out of the stores. You will probably find me baking on Black Friday- this will not only help our budget, but it will also help us to be home on one of the craziest days of the year.
4. Preparation is a necessity if you want to attempt making your own “convenient” food. For example, a well-stocked freezer or items that can be throw into a slow cooker can be awfully convenient when you don’t feel like cooking.
5. And then, there are just those times where having convenience foods around could still do your budget some justice. For example, we have all been down and out with colds and tonight would be a great night for some good ol’ Spaghetti-O’s (or equally convenient food). This convenient food would still be cheaper than grabbing some junk food at the drive thru. Giving myself permission to take a night off could come from grabbing one or two items for these kinds of nights.
Sound Off: Do you buy convenience foods? How do you make food “convenient” in your home?
Last weekend I baked. It was the first in a long while. All I made were a couple bread, cut them into slices and then in to individual zip locks (which we bought in mass at BJs) and it got eaten up! It was a great breakfast quickie, which seems to be the meal we need convenience on! Loved this post, it’s given me more great ideas!
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Great Ideas!
I love doing that kind of thing!
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I’m interested in hearing if keeping up with convenience foods will help you get back in-line with your budget. I imagine it will take you at least one full budget month to figure that out.
Prices here keep going up, and couponing opportunities for healthy foods are few and far between. I am making more and more of our favorite snack type foods. Right now it’s really just a matter of me learning how to manage my “downtime” better so I can squeeze in those baking sessions. I’m expecting our second child, so being pregnant and managing the fiesty little 20-month-old girl who is such a joy but such a pistol, really takes a lot of me.
Jenn
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I keep convenience foods on hand. It’s cheaper than a psychiatrist, which is where I’d be if I had to make each and every thing that the kids eat! ;0)
I do need to get a little more on track with this though.
For us, fruit is the ultimate convenience food, and we keep a lot of that on hand.
Blessings,
K
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Amy,
When you individually wrap your bread and muffins, do you use saran wrap or baggies. I know it a silly question, but not sure how the slices keep best. Also, do you refrigerate them or if not, about how long do they keep on the shelf? The recipes sound yummy! DD13 and I are going to give some a try on black friday. Thanks so much!
Sheila
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Shelia-
When I know we will eat the treats right away I just wrap them individually in plastic wrap. If I am prepping them for the freezer though, I still wrap them in the plastic wrap and then stick all of the treats inside of a freezer bag. You can reuse the freezer bag too since nothing is really even touching it.
My treats will usually last a week in the house, but for some things (like banana bread) we are able to eat that a lot faster. I have rarely had a treat go bad in this house
I have big eaters.
Enjoy your black Friday baking with the kiddos- let us know how it goes!
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The best thing I do is to package leftovers in lunch-sized portions. I NEVER allow myself to package them in larger quantities, or that larger quantity will become a meal. This helps with weight and portion control and convenience, as my husband just grabs a container on his way out the door and has a healthy, no-more-cost lunch!
I don’t do much baking these days, because it is too much of a temptation for me. If I bake, I have a specific plan in place for the food, either a potluck or a gift, or I make only enough for us to eat at one meal.
My grandmother has a great plan for this. She also has a big weakness for freshly-baked goods. She would make cookie dough, bake only as many as the people present would need, and then freeze the rest in a roll wrapped in wax paper. She had cookie dough available in a snap, and it was homemade!
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These were great ideas Amy. I do get convenience foods at times and keep them on hand for traveling or whenever.
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I do this a lot too. I believe that at 22 and a mom of one 5 year old already (young I know) my mom was really helpful in teaching me a thing or two about being frugal. For convenient snacks and treats homemade banana bread, granola bars, rice krispie treats, muffins, cookies, trail mix and chex party mix are not strangers in my cupboards. Nor is hot air popcorn already popped, sprinkled with popcorn seasoning and ready to go into a lunch box. When I do by snack foods, like say a jumbo bag of tortilla chips I also portion these out in ziplock baggies in about 100 calorie portions. For dinner there is almost always something on hand to make a quick meal. On the weekends, I cook, season or prep the meat I will use for the week and freeze or refrigerate depending on the day I'll use it. I pre-wash, cut, portion and store all the produce I can so it is ready to toss into a meal during the week or it can be grabbed and eaten right out of the crisper as a snack. Since I am either in college or working full-time and my hubby works full-time this has really saved us from ordering takeout or purchasing convenience foods.
For starches such as rice, pasta and couscous, I cook more than I need for the meal and refrigerate the rest so I can toss it in to another meal. I do admit that I tend to buy one convenience meal a week, something my mother never did. It's usually a pizza on sale even though I know how to make it from scratch but it's money well spent because I usually cook it the same day I do all of my food prep and it gives me time out of the kitchen.
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