Heavenly Homemakers

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Does it Save Money to Pack Lunch for School?

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School lunches are very reasonably priced. So does it actually save money to pack lunch for school?

I’ve found that it does! Here’s how.

Our kids’ school lunch costs $3.20. Not bad, except that our picky first grader would only eat a fourth of what was on her tray, mostly the sweet parts and the bread. ;) Meanwhile, our not-so-picky third grader would eat most of his meal and still be hungry. So we decided this year that for the sake of saving money and feeding our kids the nourishment they need, we’d pack and send their lunches to school.

Even when I buy a few pre-packaged convenience food items to save time, I am still saving money every day on their lunches.

How much am I saving?

I calculated that I’m saving an average of $1.40 per lunch, per kid, for much more nourishing meals that I know they like and will eat. I’ll share examples from our not-picky-big-eater kiddo so you can see how packing a very filling lunch still saves money.

Note: I make a big batch of these spinach cupcakes, individually bag them, and freeze them to throw into almost every lunchbox for a treat with added nutrition! I did the math. They cost $0.14 each and they are beautifully full of spinach. :) :) :)

Does it Save Money to Pack Lunch for School?

Here are nine sample lunches I might pack for my kids and their cost breakdown. The most expensive was $2.58. The least expensive is just $1.34. Lots of savings!

1. Meat and cheese sandwich, fruit cup, cheese stick, spinach cupcake (no frosting) = $2.00

2. Cheese and crackers, summer sausage, grapes, spinach cupcake (no frosting), cottage cheese and pineapple = $2.49

3. Pumpkin muffin, cottage cheese and pineapple, clementine, almonds = $1.43

4. Tuna salad with crackers, fruit cup, cheese stick, spinach cupcake (no frosting) = $1.83

5. Chips with cheesy bean dip, grapes, spinach cupcake (no frosting)  = $1.43

6. Leftover pizza slices (with spinach “hidden” on top), clementine, banana = $1.34

7. Bagel with cream cheese “sandwich”, ham, apple = $1.72

8. Bean and cheese quesadillas, carrots, strawberries $1.78

9. On Friday, we do a “Fun Friday” lunchbox which includes a baggie of chips and a yogurt squeezie, plus whatever else I have on hand that I think the kids will enjoy. Cost for the special lunch you see below: $2.58.

What do you pack in your kids’ lunches?

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Our $0.99 Per Plate Costco Meal!

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Check out our $0.99 per plate Costco Meal!

Once again, I’m so happy to share another meal that costs such a small amount to feed an entire family!

The Backstory

Our six-year-old has been trying to lose her two front teeth and she thought eating chicken legs would help!! I wish you could see her beautiful face, but for now, here she is in the yellow dress:

Per her suggestion, the next time we went to Costco, I picked up a package of chicken legs. I have got to remember to buy these more often!! It only cost $8.60 for 30 chicken legs!!!

I marinated and smoked half of the package of chicken for this meal and was amazed that I could make 15 chicken legs for only $4.30. They were incredibly delicious! With baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, and chilled watermelon, we had a feast!

Our $0.99 Per Plate Costco Meal

Total cost for 10 of us (four adults and six littles ages eight and under):

  • Chicken Legs
  • Baked Potatoes
  • Broccoli
  • Watermelon

$9.89

Which breaks down to just $0.99/plate.

Everyone was especially hungry that night so even the littlest babes put away a fairly nice amount of food!

Isn’t it exciting? Even with rising grocery prices, we can still enjoy wonderful, healthy meals for less than $1.00!

More money-saving posts you might like:

Did our girl lose her teeth?

Well yes. But not because of the chicken legs. It was a good try though, huh?!

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Back when I made everything from scratch…

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As I look over my list of recipes shared here, I am cracking up a bit about all I used to make back when I made everything from scratch.

There was (mostly) nothing wrong with what I did. But I will say that my focus was a little more on doing than being. I felt so accomplished when I made all these foods. But what was I missing out on by taking so much time on what wasn’t actually necessary??

Peace. Calm. Joy. Time. Energy. Love.

I became known as the mom who made all her food from scratch. I found that the title stung just a little. I didn’t want to be known for that. I wanted to be known for how I loved and cared for people. Thank God He continues to show me better ways and lean me more toward focusing on what is more important.

Is it ok to make everything from scratch?

Of course, if that is what God has called you to do. If food allergies make it necessary for your family. If you serve people because of it. There are all kinds of good and healthy reasons to make food from scratch.

But I don’t believe that I had healthy reasons. I think my reasons were prideful, and that’s the truth. Here’s part of a former “make it from scratch” list that now has me in shock:

You really should click on some of those and see what goes into making these. Some aren’t hard, and I actually might make some of them again, someday. But Tater Tots?? No. (They weren’t worth the effort.) Whole Wheat Hamburger Buns and Whole Wheat Hot Dog Buns? No. (They weren’t that good, ha.) And Homemade Peanut Butter Captain Crunch?? Why did I actually try that one?

What we miss

Our older boys talk about our homemade tortilla days. Now those were worth making and I hope I can make them again someday!

These Pretzels are amazing and I WILL make them again when my hands aren’t so full.

We love this Ranch Dressing and it isn’t even hard to make. But I can’t keep up with it right now. Maybe again in a few years.

This Peanut Butter!!! Wow it is hard to beat!

It’ll be interesting to see, won’t it? What God will do a few years from now. What He has planned. What will matter and what will go by the wayside.

How grateful I am that we can all grow and change and that God stays the same while He grows and changes us!

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What to Add to Meat to Make it Stretch

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Looking for more ways to save money? Here are some ideas for what to add to meat to make it stretch.

I recently shared How to Save Money on Meat. These ideas have been working very well for me lately and I’ve been saving quite a bit on our grocery budget!

With these in mind, I’ve been considering more ways I can save.

What to Add to Meat to Make it Stretch

I had mentioned that we’re eating less beef. When we do eat beef, I’ve found that I can use much less ground or shredded beef in a recipe if I add any of these to the meat:

  1. Rice
  2. Beans
  3. Corn
  4. Tomatoes
  5. Extra veggies

Now, most of these are a no-brainer. We’ve been taught these tricks forever, right? Right. But I still feel like it’s worth a mention as I share a few specific ways we can stretch our ground beef (and shredded beef too!)

Recently I cooked three pounds of meat for tacos. I then put only about two cups of cooked meat into a bowl with a can of black beans, a can of corn, and a can of rotel. This was a delicious combination in our tacos that night, leaving all kinds of cooked meat left over for me to use in several meals in the future.

I used to employ these tricks a lot when our first set of kids was younger. Now that we have more mouths to feed, I’m implementing them again. And note this: while we are currently feeding a lot of small children again and I can get away with stretching meat because they are little, we are also still feeding at least 4 adults at every meal. These meat-stretching ideas are working just as well for the Bigs as they are for the Littles. No one is complaining about “mom holding back on meat.” Why? Because no one has noticed!

Make Meat Secondary

Typically, we think of meat as our main dish, then our carbs, veggies, and fruit as side dishes. But what if we change our thinking just a little bit and serve meat as a “side dish.” Or as an “add-in.”

I’m not willing to compromise our health and add a bunch of fillers or empty carbs to our diets in an effort to fill us but not nourish us. I’m simply looking for ways to stretch our meat into providing more meals! So adding nourishing add-ins like beans, rice, corn, and extra veggies to our meals really makes sense!

And don’t forget what I learned when I did the math here: Fruits and vegetables are actually not expensive. We can eat a lot of them and easily! stay within budget!!

Bonus

I’m finding that these meat-saving tricks are also simplifying my kitchen life. How? Well, I don’t have to cook as much meat. This means that I don’t have to plan ahead as much. It’s easier and faster to open a can of beans than to thaw and cook meat, right? Like, much easier and faster!

Keep sharing the ways you are saving too. I learn so much from you!

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How to Save Money on Coffee

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It’s a necessity, right? I mean, I thank God for it every morning as I sip my steamy mug and talk with Him. Sooooo good, and my time with Him is rich. Here’s how to save money on coffee.

Perhaps you read about the day I spent $7 on a coffee. It was tasty and fun, and then it made me do some calculating. I couldn’t help myself. :)

Turns out, at home I spend about $1.00 to brew an entire pot of high-quality coffee. How?

I recently spent $10.48 on this bag of coffee at Sam’s. I didn’t take the time to measure each scoop to see how many pots of coffee this one bag would make, but I’m making a conservative estimate that it gives us at least 10 pots of coffee. Likely more! But to keep it simple, let’s say 10+ pots, which means that one pot full of coffee costs $1.00.

A dollar.

For an entire pot. This, without having to buy a “cheaper coffee variety” that doesn’t taste as good (sorry Folgers).

We use big mugs at our house. :) :) So one pot fills 4 mugs. $0.25 for a cup of coffee!

Now, we all add a little something to our cup of coffee. I just add half&half. Matt and the big boys add a shot of creamer. So should we then estimate that our cup of coffee costs a total of $0.35-$0.45??

How to Save Money on Coffee

Well, it seems that the best way to save money on coffee is to make it at home. It’s crazy cheap!!!! And oh so good.

To make it even more fun for our teen/adult sons and their friends who come over, we keep a variety of creamers (just don’t read the ingredient list and all is well) and sometimes a can of whipped cream for them to spray on top. Even with those splurges, the savings are huge compared to buying at a coffee shop.

Ever tried making this Chocolate Whipped Cream and scooping some into your coffee? Oh, it’s good! Here are more fun homemade coffee additions you might want to try.

What do you like to put in your coffee at home?

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How to Save Money on Meat

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Want to save money on meat? Here’s what I’m figuring out!

How to Save Money on Meat

1. Look for meat mark-downs.

We’ve been doing this all along right? But now it seems more important than ever! I avoid marked-down meat if the color looks “off.” But otherwise, I’ve found that waiting for meat to be marked down for quick sale has saved me all kinds of money!

When I bring it home, I freeze it right away or cook it to eat that night.

Recently, I found pork roasts marked down to $1.79/pound! I bought two and put them into the freezer for a night we host a large crowd. This is a GREAT price per pound of meat. My $13 roasts will either feed my big family several meals or it will feed Matt’s entire soccer team during pre-season. :)

2. Eat less beef.

This one is tough for me as I’m a beef-loving girl! But in my neck of the woods, pork and chicken are significantly less expensive per pound compared to beef. Quality ground beef is over $6.00/pound while chicken legs can be found under $2.00/pound. The pork roast I mentioned above was marked down to $1.79/pound. I got pork chops that same day for $1.59/pound – while there sat the beef for $7.00/pound. Long live the cow.

3. Eat less meat overall.

This one is also tough for me. The men in our family do love their meat too. However, I’ve been skipping meat in some meals lately, and no one has noticed or said anything. I’ve been able to get away with making burritos with just black beans, rice, salsa, and corn (skipping the meat) and an entire meal based on these bean and cheese quesadillas. We’re all satisfied and our grocery budget has been saved.

4. Buy directly from farmers.

We’ve done this for years, buying a quarter to a half a cow at a time. We’ll likely do this again in the future, as it does save money on high-quality meat. But for now, I’m finding that buying discounted meat at the store is saving me more overall since we have so many mouths to feed.

5. Buy chicken from Costco or Sam’s.

The last time I priced boneless chicken thighs at our local grocery store, they were over $7.00/pound – ouch! But when I picked up a big package of boneless thights at Costco, I got them for just over $3.00/pound – much better! I also got some marked down at Sam’s, which was a fun find!

Have you found some ways to save money on meat?

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Least Expensive Burrito Recipe

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Is this the least expensive burrito recipe? Or is it a nifty trick teaching us how to use leftovers creatively? Hmmm….

I’ll give you a recipe. But I’m also going to give you a license. A license to use up what you have and stir it into a mixture and slap it into a tortilla. Roll it up and call it a burrito. It works deliciously every time!

This is what makes this recipe the “least expensive.” You’re using up leftovers that you’ve already prepared. You’re cleaning out your fridge and avoiding waste. You’re saving time and having fun and the best part is that you’re making something your family will love!

As an added bonus, you can make as many of these as you need and freeze them to warm them up as needed! My older kids love having these in the freezer so that they can pull some out for an easy lunch or a late night second-dinner. :)

Here’s the kind-of recipe. Later, I’ll give more of an actual recipe for those who would prefer more specifics!

Least Expensive Burritos – the Use Up Leftovers Recipe Version

  1. First, make a meal in which you offer cooked meat, rice, beans, salsa, cheese, corn, olives, tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream.
  2. Let everyone build a burrito bowl, a burrito, or a taco dip to eat with chips.
  3. After your meal, stir all of your leftovers into a dish.
  4. Use this mixture to make burritos for an easy-to-grab meal.

See how great this is? How easy? It’s how I make frozen burritos every time we have a burrito bar at our house!

Least Expensive Burrito (Actual) RecipeYum

5.0 from 1 reviews
Least Expensive Burrito Recipe
 
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Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can corn, drained
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 1 cup salsa
  • 2 cups leftover cooked chicken or beef (optional)
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • 12 soft tortillas
Instructions
  1. Mix together all burrito filling ingredients.
  2. Scoop mixture into tortillas and roll up.
  3. Serve right away or freeze and warm up later.

 

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Easy Recipes and Tips to Help Keep Food Costs Down

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With grocery prices going up, we can still keep food costs down. Here’s how!

For my own sake and for yours, I decided to do some digging. I wanted to put together a thorough list of recipes and meal/snack ideas to help us all keep our food costs down.

First, do not despair

Media wants us to panic. I feel that we really have no need to worry! Sure, grocery prices are up and may still climb. But we can make this work!

Next, some ways to save big bucks:

Here are some of my initial ideas for saving some money on groceries. None of these will likely work for everyone, but maybe you can find one or two that work for you.

  1. Garden if you can. Or purchase from a gardening friend.
  2. Raise your own meat and eggs if you can. This is a no-go for most of us, but perhaps you know some local farmers you can buy from.
  3. Take advantage of any and all offers of free or inexpensive food you might have available to you. We often have friends with extra garden produce to give away. We also have friends with fruit trees and they tell us to come “have at it!”
  4. Make food from scratch if you can. See lots of great and easy recipe ideas below!
  5. Avoid processed food if you can. Packaged convenience foods can really deplete our grocery budgets. Consider other easy-to-make meals (recipes below).
  6. Buy and eat “in season” produce. The prices of fresh fruits and vegetables are still very reasonable and one of the best ways to get nourishment! Don’t buy into the lie that fruits and veggies are too expensive.
  7. Frozen fruits and vegetables are very reasonable in cost! Take advantage of this as a way to keep buying and eating healthy foods.
  8. Don’t let food go to waste. If produce is going bad, freeze it to use in broth (veggies) or smoothies (fruit). Save leftovers and be creative in how you use them up.
  9. Take advantage of “loss leaders” at grocery stores. Our local stores are still offering great sale-priced items to get us into the stores, and I bet yours are too! Take advantage of these and stock up when you find a great sale.
  10. Look for items that have been marked down. I almost always check the meat section at our grocery stores to see what might be close to expiring and therefore marked down. I save a lot of money this way and have freezer space to keep the meat good until we need it.

Easy Recipes to Help Keep Food Costs Down

I’ve noticed that the cost of prepared baked goods has gone up. Instead of buying them, I’ve been making inexpensive recipes like this for my family:

Muffins

Easy-to-Make Breakfast Breads and Bars

Cereal prices seem much higher than normal, so consider these fun ideas:

Homemade Cereal – Easier than you think!

Inexpensive Meal Ideas:

Meals you can make instead of buy:

These meals are not necessarily the cheapest to make compared to those listed above. But these are less expensive to make from scratch compared to buying them premade or compared to eating out.

Grocery Shopping Tips:

If you’re looking to save money, here are some foods you want to stock up on and some foods you might want to avoid.

Buy This:

  • Fruit that is in season and/or on sale
  • Chicken legs
  • Whole chicken
  • Boneless chicken thighs or breasts
  • Ground turkey or chicken
  • Ingredients for homemade baking: flour, sugar, honey, spices, oil, baking powder, salt
  • Oats
  • Rice
  • Potatoes
  • Pasta
  • Pasta sauce

Avoid This:

  • Fruit that is out of season
  • Ground beef (buy this when it’s on sale to use sparingly as it is significantly more than ground turkey)
  • Cheese and cream cheese (we eat a lot of cheese, but I’ve been trying to use it less in our meals overall to save a few bucks)
  • Premade baked goods (with the exception of bread and buns which are still reasonably priced)
  • Frozen meals

What are your go-to meals that are money savers?

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Big Family Food: How to Use Produce Before it Goes Bad

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Here are some suggestions for how to use produce before it goes bad!

Obviously, my biggest tip is: EAT IT.

Great post. See ya next time.

But I actually have a few other tips too, simply because I realized that as I regularly buy my big family such a large amount of fresh produce, I also have a system for how we eat it all up to avoid anything going bad. If only everything could be turned into banana bread like over-ripe bananas!

First, a look at my produce selections

I frequently buy a large quantity of fresh fruits and veggies each time I go to the store. My hauls look something like:

Typically, I load my carts with:

  • Berries
  • Apples
  • Bananas
  • Clementines
  • Pears
  • Grapes
  • Mixed Greens
  • Nectarines
  • Kiwi
  • Carrots
  • Broccoli
  • Potatoes
  • Onions
  • Cucumbers
  • Whatever is in season and for sale at a good price

How to Use Produce Before it Goes Bad

We usually go through what you see in each of those pictures in about a week or a week and a half. Here’s my system to eat it before it goes bad:

  1. We eat the berries first. These are the most sensitive and tend to go bad quickly. We try to eat all of our berries within just two days, and usually, it’s not a problem because we love berries! If they do begin to go bad, I freeze them for smoothies so that they don’t go to waste.
  2. We start on the grapes next. They’ve stayed good in the fridge while we’ve worked our way through the berries. If they begin to get squishy, I freeze them for smoothies.
  3. Mixed greens get eaten within a week, otherwise they get slimy. We go through two pounds every week by eating them in these smoothies and these. So they almost never have a chance to go bad at our house.
  4. We’ve been eating on the bananas all along, but we never feel urgency to eat them quickly because we love over-ripe bananas in smoothies and muffins. Sometimes I buy extras just so we’ll have enough to use in these recipes. ;)
  5. Clementines are also being served all throughout the week after the berries are finished off. We find that they taste best if eaten within one week, but sometimes they last longer. If they start to get hard (or mushy), I peel and freeze them for smoothies like this.
  6.  Meanwhile, the pears, kiwi, and nectarines have ripened and are ready to eat. We start slicing these to put on our plates at every meal. If we can’t get through all the nectarines before they turn mushy, I slice and freeze them for smoothies.
  7. The potatoes, broccoli, carrots, onions, and cucumbers have kept just fine, so we just use these as needed without much worry.
  8. The apples are usually just fine too, although we have found that if we haven’t eaten them in a few days, they stay crispier if we refrigerate them. If we do happen to have any grainy apples, I blend them and make Applesauce Bread.

What do we do when the produce has run out and we haven’t made it back to the store?

We open cans of fruit (in 100% juice) like pears, peaches, and pineapple. This gets us through until we can make a run to the store.

What about other veggies?

We keep frozen green beans and peas in the freezer at all times. That way, if I’m out of fresh vegetables, I can quickly steam something from the freezer.

What do you do to keep produce from going bad?

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Clean Out the Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry: What to Make

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Is it time to clean out your fridge, freezer, and pantry? Here are some ideas for what to make!

I super love to grocery shop. Scratch that. I love to have a grocery store in my own house. I’m not actually such a huge fan of going into the store and buying all the food. After all, one cart is usually not big enough for my family anymore. And the new self-checkout at Walmart with a heaping cart of groceries? IT IS JUST TOO MUCH.

Here’s a picture of the final time I shopped and bagged my own groceries before finding some different/better options!

My current favorite ways to buy groceries are:

I said something about having a grocery store in my house?

What I mean is, I try, if possible, to have just about every common grocery item in my house at all times. This means I can make just about any meal or snack food we need or want without having to run out to the store. I can just go to my store room and grab what we need. Or I can look around my food storage and plan meals and snacks based on what we have.

I don’t take it for granted that I can do this. I am incredibly thankful for storage space, extra fridge and freezers, and the financial ability to stock up regularly.

I almost never let our food supply get depleted as this actually costs more money and takes more work in the long run. Every few months though, I feel like I should challenge myself to use up some of the forgotten and neglected food that has been stuffed into the back of our pantry and freezers.

You know what I’m talking about, right? Those random half-packages of pasta. The meat that was on sale and sounded good at the time but is now almost freezer-burned. The jars of peaches we canned two summers ago and are somehow saving for a rainy day?? Just eat ’em already, right?

If you need some motivation to clear out some of your hidden and neglected food, I thought I’d share what I did recently in an effort to use up some miscellaneous groceries that I didn’t want to go bad.

Clean Out the Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry: What to Make

1. Creative Casserole

Listen, you may never make a casserole like this again, so hopefully, your family doesn’t love it so much that they ask you to duplicate it every week. But when cleaning out the fridge, if you take some kind of pasta or rice, some kind of meat, and some kind of sauce and mix it together, it’ll probably taste pretty good. And you can call it “Creative Casserole.” These are truly a favorite around here.

If you have a half tub of cottage cheese or sour cream in the fridge to stir in, that’ll probably be good too. Shredded cheese? Yes, please.

And just like that, you’ve used up a few neglected food items, saved some money, and fed your family a tasty meal!

2. Trail Mix

If you have any assortment of nuts and dried fruit, you can dump them all into a bag or bowl and voila. You have trail mix. It’s a great snack for everyone to enjoy – even for breakfast!

3. Omelets, Breakfast Casseroles, or Scrambles

And speaking of breakfast, or even lunch or dinner – why not grab out the tidbits of this veggie and that meat to scramble with eggs? Or if you’re feeling fancy, make omelets! If you have frozen meats, cheeses, and veggies to use up, omelets or scrambles are a fun way to use them up! Or stir them into a Breakfast Casserole like this.

4. Saucy Meat in the Crockpot

This is one of my favorite ways to use up two items: Sauce and Meat.

You can hardly go wrong, and you should trust me on this because I am the queen of grabbing the tail end of three different kinds of sauces from my fridge, pouring them all on a roast or package of chicken, and slow cooking it in my crockpot. It always turns out good – no matter what combination of sauce I use.

Then the shelves on the door of my fridge that hold our sauces become less cluttered. The meat in my freezer has been put to good use. And my family has a great meal!

5. Smoothies

I often have several bags of frozen fruit in my freezers, and using them up really frees up space! I’ve found that you really can’t go wrong by throwing any combination of fruits into a blender for a smoothie. So go ahead. Dump in the oranges with the grapes with the blueberries with the bananas. It’ll be great and your freezer will be less cluttered!

6. Stir-Fry

Collect all of the miscellaneous fresh vegetables in your fridge that have started to shrivel up: broccoli, carrots, squash, mushrooms, sweet peppers, etc. Rinse them, chop them, and make your family a delicious stir-fry side dish. Bonus points if you chop up some leftover cooked meat like steak, roast, or chicken to stir in to make this a main dish!

7. Pie, Crisp, or Cobbler

If you had great intentions during a fall harvest and froze fruit like apples, peaches, or berries – dig them out now and make a special dessert! Since it IS fruit and it MIGHT be topped with oats, you could MAYBE even make it for a special breakfast. :) Here’s my cobbler recipe. Here’s my fruit pie recipe. Here’s my fruit crisp recipe. Use them with any fruit you have!

 

What other great ideas do you have to share?!

 

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