How Not to Eat Your Retirement

September 27, 2016

“I am eating my retirement.”  This was my friend’s reaction finding out that she was spending about $1,000 a month eating out by organizing transactions in her online account. She told me that she wants to eat at home but struggles to grocery shop and meal plan. I told her that with a few online tools and kitchen gadgets, we can come up with a plan to get her to eat at home more.

If your cooking skills involve menus as opposed to recipes, use online tools to create recipes. If you are fine buying the food but need help with organizing recipes online, tools like Big Oven can help. If you need help coming up with recipes, tools like Emeals will deliver recipes for all types of cooking and food preferences. If you struggle with recipes and food shopping, websites like Blue Apron not only provide the food and recipes. You can also make enough so part of your dinner can be the next day’s lunch.

Slow cookers are awesome for making easy healthy, meals. Crockpot.com has a ton of recipes on their website. You can prep, freeze and dump the ingredients in the night before, turn on the Crockpot and come home to a great meal.

Indoor grills are a lifesaver. I can cook delicious grilled chicken, turkey burgers and fish in a few minutes. It is also almost fool proof. You simply turn on the grill, spray oil, sprinkle a few spices, slap the chicken on the grill and in about 10 minutes, you have restaurant quality chicken breasts. Many are no stick so the cleanup is a breeze.

Spices can make or break a meal. If you are not sure what spices to use, websites like Cooksmart offer great guides to picking spices. Check out your local spice store (mine is Penzey) for blended spices and even guidance on what to choose.

Are you eating your retirement? Thankfully, saving money on food doesn’t have to cost a lot of time anymore. In this day and age, technology, a few kitchen tools and spices can make planning and cooking meals at home easy.

Eating Out Can Take a Big Bite Out of the Budget

November 26, 2013

I took a call last week from a frazzled father of two young kids who was stressing over his budget. He made good money but was living paycheck to paycheck and still coming up short some months, which meant charging some things on his credit card.  After reviewing his monthly expenses, what jumped out was the fact that his family was spending over $500 a month on eating out,  and many of these meals ended up on his Visa card.  His wife worked part-time and felt like between working and dealing with the kids, she had no time to make dinner, so they’d head out to a restaurant at least four times a week.  Not only is this expensive, but eating out is usually not good for our health either.  Continue reading “Eating Out Can Take a Big Bite Out of the Budget”