Theres few things better than a delicious meal. Its even more satisfying when you’ve made that meal yourself for cheap! If you’re on a budget, or trying to save money, one of the biggest unnecessary expenses you can cut is eating out or ordering delivery but finding the time to cook can be a challenge, so here are our top tips for delicious meals that won’t break the bank!
- Master Your Favorite Ordered Meal – Think of what you most love to eat out or order delivery, and search for a clone recipe online. Guaranteed if its from a chain restaurant, theres someone who has made a full recipe for it and posted it online. Boost your cooking confidence by mastering this meal before moving to new things!
- Buy Non-Perishable Ingredients In Bulk – Things like rice and pasta are staples in many of the most popular dishes, and they have an extremely long shelf life. Try to buy these kinds of dry ingredients in larger quantities as the cost tends to drop the larger the package you buy. A Costco or Sams membership can easily pay for itself if you start buying bulk items like this regularly.
- Buy ‘Ugly’ Veggies and Fruit – Many supermarkets have a section for discount produce, and there are entire stores in some areas with less-than-perfect items. These taste the same, and we promise you won’t know the difference once its cooked so don’t be afraid to pick these up!
- Go With Store-Brand Over Name Brand – Believe it or not, most store-brand items are made by name-brand companies, sometimes in the exact same facility! Theres a number of reasons why companies do this, but whats most important is that whats in the box is almost identical (and truly identical in some cases) and with a blind taste-test you won’t know the difference.
- Meal Prep Multiple Meals At Once – One of the biggest draw-backs of meal prep is that you end up getting sick of eating the same thing multiple days in a row. An easy way to fix this is to prep a couple different meals that use similar ingredients to reduce cook time. For example, bake chicken but with 2 or 3 different seasonings on it, and put one with Pasta, one with Rice and one with Lentils. This will give you 3 distinct flavors to enjoy all week, with only needing to cook chicken once.
- Find Filling Snacks You Enjoy – One big reason people end up ordering delivery or eating out is they’re super hungry, and don’t want to wait to eat. If you can find a healthy snack that also fills you up, you may be less likely to impulse-buy a prepared meal. Our top picks are flavored almonds, veggie chips, and pistachios.