Frugal Meals
Tips on Making Frugal Meals
Frugal Meals. There are many ways to eat frugally, both at home and while
dining out.
Find Tips on:
Buying Food and Groceries
Creating Frugal Meals
Dining Out
Dinner Parties
Dining Out While Travelling
Buying Food
Buying food frugally is essential in creating meals. Check out
our Tips of Buying
Food Frugally
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Creating meals can be easy with a few tips and recipes. It isn't how much
you spend on the meal but how you use the ingredients that you purchase. Here
are a few tips.
- Don't always choose meat as the main part of your dish
- Find frugal recipes for new ideas
- Choose pasta more
- Try eggs for dinner - add a couple of vegetables and
cheese to scrambled eggs or omelet
- Eat leftovers for lunch
- Use only fruits and vegetables that are in season
- Freeze leftovers for meals later in the week
- Subsidize the meal with homemade bread
- Add soup to your meal
- Try popcorn for snacks
- French toast for breakfast goes a long way
Get your family involved. Ask them what they like and don't like. Give
them an opportunity to "vote" on the meals you try out. They will be more
excited about it if you involved them in the process of creating your frugal
meals.
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Dining out can be really expensive, but it doesn't have to be. With a bit of
planning you can enjoy lovely meals at a lower cost!
Dine out less each month. By cutting out a few of your dining out experiences
- even just once more per
week - you will notice a difference in your savings.
Do your research for local area restaurants. Try to stay away from the
chain restaurants as they are usually more expensive then local or family run
restaurants. Local family run restaurants are usually less expensive.
Order from the appetizer menu - usually the portions are huge
(especially in North America) - Sometimes I choose a quesadilla or salad as my
main meal.
Only order side items for your main course.
Split a meal. My husband and I have similar tastes - so we will
usually share something - even if it is just a sandwich in a shop where we know
the portions are large.
Go during happy hour or early bird specials times. My In-Laws LOVE
taking advantage of that.
Try restaurants that have just opened up. Usually their prices are a
little lower to attract business.
Choose water as your drink - ice water not bottled. Soft drinks or Pop
as we call it, are quite expensive in restaurants, avoid the cost by drinking
water with lemon.
Go out for lunch instead of dinner. Many restaurants have the same or
similar menus but for a lower price at lunch.
Choose the lunch or dinner specials - but make sure they are specials
- and not features - so they are a bargain.
Take leftovers home and have them for lunch.
Go out for coffee and dessert instead of a whole meal.
Find discount coupons for restaurants. Use the Entertainment Book for
your area, or other internet sites for promotions for your favorite restaurants.
Take advantage of special days. i.e. children eat for free on
Tuesdays.
Whatever you do though, don't skip out on the tip - TIP according to
your service. Plan your tip into the cost of your meal.
Plan out a splurge night for a special occasion - remember to live life not
skimp out on it!
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Creating frugal meals for dinner parties requires some imagination and
creativity.
Potluck Party
The traditional Potluck party is where each guest brings a dish. As the
host/hostess, you can assign a dish to each guest, or sometimes the best parties
come from letting the guests bring what they want. You may end up with lots of
side dishes, but sometimes it ends up more colorful that way.
Set a Theme
Like a Hawaiian Luau, Mexican Fiesta or a Spanish Paella. These types of foods
may be cheaper, and it will put a fun spin on the party.
Make it Brunch instead of Dinner
Brunch foods can be less expensive and most people don't drink alcohol at
brunch.
Have a Barbeque
It is possible to reduce your costs by having a BBQ, you can choose burgers
instead of steaks. Also you can buy them in bulk easily.
Make it a Buffet Style Meal
Less expensive to prepare buffet style foods than sit down dinner foods.
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Having frugal meals while travelling can be easy. Check out some great ideas
from our
Frugal Travel Tips Page.
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Learn More about Frugal Living
To learn more about more about this type of money management and frugality see the articles below.
More will be added regularly, so come back and check them out. To be up to date
on the additions and changes to the Frugal Living section of Transform Your
Money.com and the rest of the site. Join our
newsletter or add us to your RSS, social bookmarks, Google, Yahoo or MSN (on
the left hand side of this page).
These articles
will outline how to live frugally day to day,
tips on
saving money, living frugally as a family, the benefits of living
frugally, having awesome holidays while still living frugally, and my story of
living frugally.
Best
Ways to Save Money
Tips on how to save money with Food, Utilities, Finances, Entertainment -
updated regularly - You can also submit your own if you don't see one of your
favorites.
Frugal Food
Tips of buying food frugally.
Active Frugal
Lifestyle
Tips for having and active and healthy lifestyle frugally.
Frugal Travel
Tips for travelling frugally.
Have a Frugal
Holiday Season
Check out how to have a happy holiday season frugally.
Spending
Plan
Frustrated with how to make a budget? Create a spending plan instead.
Frugal Meals are
part of Frugal Living
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