Food is the at the center of our lives. Each day we make meal choices that nourish our bodies or indulge our cravings.

While we all love a great meal, our budget and time constraints can sometimes leave us with a lack of desirable culinary options. Creating a list of go-to meals that don’t break the bank, take hours to make and yet still satisfy in a big way is a great tool to have in your financial and time management toolbox.

These tasty and frugal meal ideas below will have you coming back to them time and time again—even after your budget increases and your schedule opens up.

Ways to Save Time and Money on Groceries

The landscape of the grocery store has changed drastically over the past few decades.

With newer options such as self-checkout, online grocery shopping with delivery and high-end selections from all around the world all in one spot, it is clear that people are quite busy and want ways to save time.

In addition to this, the cost of food is 80.95% higher in 2018 than it was in 1990 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For many individuals and families, this inflation can create an issue with the allocation of finances as budgets become tighter.

Here are some great tips to help you save time and money when grocery shopping:

• Be prepared with a list of items before you go shopping. This will help you to keep your purchases in check so you don’t overspend. This list of foods that can help to keep your budget in check are must-buy items to help stretch your dollar.
• Try to go grocery shopping alone, on a full stomach, and when you are energized so you will be undistracted and alert to make good choices.
• Basic ingredients such as onion, garlic, and spices go a long way in adding flavor to any dish and are very cost effective. Also stocking up on common pantry items such as flour, pasta, beans, and condiments will be beneficial because they are used quite often in many recipes.
• Utilize apps such as Ibotta, Checkout51, and Food on the Table to locate the best deals in your area and maximize your savings.
• If you have kitchen gadgets, use them or lose them. If you use them (i.e. a bread maker that you can use to make fresh bread at a fraction of the store-bought price) or lose them (a.k.a. sell them) you can end up with more money in your pocket.
• Use coupons and store reward programs to get deeper discounts. For more money stretching grocery budget ideas this article on how to eat well on a $300 monthly budget is worth a read.
• Look for sales on pricier items such as animal products (meat, fish, and poultry). Once you find a good deal plan to stock up and freeze these products for future use.
• Create a weekly meal prep schedule and shop once a week. Both points will help you save money so you aren’t tempted to buy more throughout the week which can cause you to spend more than your budget called for. Check out the $5 Meal Plan for easy and budget-friendly meal ideas and prep instructions.

Using these tips will bring you closer to grocery shopping time management and budget success.

Frugal Meal Ideas

Two major concerns for grocery budget users are a lack of flavor and variety in their meals. When you’re on a budget it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice the good stuff. Instead, you find creative ways to make your recipes tasty and diverse!

Take a look at these 14 great meal prep recipe ideas that offer something delicious and easy to make for every diet and every budget.

Bowls

The everything-in-a-bowl idea is very popular. Here are two that will become your favorites for either lunch or dinner.

Meat recipe: Chicken Burrito Bowl Meal Prep

Meatless recipe: Vegan Buddha Bowl (pictured above)

Salads

Salads aren’t just for veggies anymore. There are so many variations that you will never run out of ones to try!

Meat recipe: Fajita Chicken Salad

Meatless recipe: Protein-Packed Roasted Vegetable Salad

Soups/Chili

Great at any time of the year, soups and chili always provide a nutritious and hearty meal! Plus, they’re super affordable to make.

Meat recipe: Sausage, Potato, and Spinach Soup (pictured above)

Meatless recipe: Easy Vegetarian Chili

One Pan/One Pot

The one pan/one pot cooking style is on the rise! These methods are the easiest for meal prep.

Meat recipe: Sheet Pan Parmesan Pesto Chicken with Potatoes, Broccoli, and Carrots

Meatless recipe: Instant Pot or Slow Cooker African-Inspired Peanut Stew (pictured above)

Seafood

With the option to purchase frozen seafood rather than fresh, your money will go a lot further.

Parchment Salmon with Broccoli, Red Pepper Tomato Parcels

Garlic Shrimp and Quinoa (pictured above)

Pasta

Pasta is the ultimate budget-friendly food and is a fail-safe favorite!

Meat Recipe: Cheesy Chicken and Bacon No-Boil Pasta Bake

Meatless recipe: Linguine with Kale and Chickpeas

Desserts

There is ALWAYS room for dessert! With these budget and time friendly options you can indulge your sweet tooth more often.

3-Ingredient Souffle Cheesecake 

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies  (pictured above)

Need more meal ideas? Check out the $5 Meal Plan especially if you’re trying to feed your family well on a budget. You’ll get tasty and frugal meal ideas and shopping lists delivered directly to your email inbox each week. You can get your first two weeks of the service free to try it out!

As you research and try new ways to make cost and time friendly meals that are exciting and flavorful, you’ll see that easy, frugal meals and tastiness can go hand in hand.

What are your favorite grocery budget tips? Which recipe(s) will you try from the list above?

The post Frugal Meal Ideas That Are Easy to Prep first appeared on My Debt Epiphany.

The post Frugal Meal Ideas That Are Easy to Prep appeared first on My Debt Epiphany.

Joshua has a passion for health and is always involved in fitness. He believes health is wealth and to stay healthy, we need to have a green superfood along with detox drinks!

Losing weight is possible but most people think that you need more money to make this possible. If your main goal is to lose weight but you think you do not have enough money to pay for the products that can help you achieve it, you have to reconsider. There are some ways that can help you lose weight without really spending much. Here are some tips that can help you save money and lose weight:

1. Always Include Protein

Protein-rich breakfast is what you need if you want to lose weight. If you start your day eating the right food, you are also giving yourself a better chance to be healthier. Protein-rich food can help make you feel satisfied and this is the best way for you to lessen your intake of junk food.

If you are contented with the food you had when you started your day, you will not crave for unhealthy food. You will feel full for the next hours.

2. Be Prepared and Plan Ahead

Before you start your day, you have to be sure of your plan to lose weight. This way, you will be able to prepare all the things you need to achieve your goal.

Start by checking your meals and determining the health content of the food you are eating. You can add Detox Organics to whatever is in your list. Planning is very important so that you will be able to start perfectly.

Pro Tip – Try the $5 Meal Plan to help you plan meals for your whole family stress-free. 

3. Calorie-Cutting Pasta Swaps

One of the best ways for you to lose weight is to cut your calorie intake. To do this, you have to identify the foods that are not really helping out in your weight loss program. Instead of eating too much carbohydrate, you can look for food that has lesser calories.

4. All-Natural Snack Packs

The main concern of people who are trying to lose weight is the unhealthy snacks they are eating whenever they are not at home. If this is an issue that is hindering your weight loss plan, you should start packing healthy snacks at home. This is also one of the ways on how you can save money. Instead of eating processed food that are readily available in the pantry of the convenience store, you should prepare a healthier option before you leave in the morning.

5. Strawberry Substitute

If you are looking for a healthy food that will serve as a substitute for the food that you want to avoid, strawberries are a great start. Strawberries contains vitamin C, calcium, magnesium and fiber. Most importantly, one cup of strawberry is equivalent to only 49 calories.

6. Grow Your Own Veggies

To be able to lose weight, you have to shift to natural and organic food. Eating more vegetables may sound like spending more money. However, you will be able to lessen the amount of money you will be spending on healthier food if you have your own vegetable garden.

Aside from getting fresh produce, you will also realize that growing your own veggies will help you save some money for food.

7. Set up a Double Rewards System

Having a goal in mind will give you the motivation you need to go through the process of change. Being able to lose
weight and save more money is a great goal. This serves as a double rewards system for you. Keep that in mind as you try to look for ways that will work for you.

Related: Ebates Review: Earn Cashback For Everyday Shopping

8. Have More Homemade Meals

Even if you really love to lose weight, you will surely have a hard time cutting calories if you rely on the food you can buy from the convenience store or fast food. Most of the stuff you will be able to buy outside are processed and unhealthy.

If you really want to make your weight loss program work, you should start by preparing homemade meals. This way,
you will be able to measure all the ingredients you are adding to your food.

Related: How to Eat Well With a $300 Monthly Grocery Budget

9. Grow Your Own Garden

Aside from the vegetables that you can easily grow in your backyard, there are other healthy foods that you can add in your garden. One of the benefits of having a garden is that you will also be able to sell some of the vegetables you grow.

This is another reward that you will be able to get as you lose weight and achieve your goal to be healthier.

10 Rethink Your Gym Membership

Aside from your regular gym time, there are other ways on how you can lose weight. You can consider going out early
for a jog at the park. There are different ways on how you can shed calories. If you think it would be possible for you to exercise at home, you can cancel your gym membership.

It is possible for you to lose weight even without spending much. You can save money and make your weight loss
program work.

Related: How I’m Making it Work Without Having a Gym Membership

The post 10 Money-Saving Weight Loss Tips first appeared on My Debt Epiphany.

The post 10 Money-Saving Weight Loss Tips appeared first on My Debt Epiphany.

Sticking to your grocery shopping budget can be challenging when you see items you want in the store and are compelled to purchase them. A few extra impulse purchases have to cause my $150 budget for two weeks of food to turn into $170-$180 some months. The $5 Meal Plan is something that I have started using to help keep my grocery budget on the right track.

Slow Down and Meal Plan They Say

It’s true, one of the most effective ways to make sure you stick to your grocery budget is to create a list and plan out all your meals. I find comfort in entering the grocery store with a detailed list of what my family will eat for the next two weeks.

The only downsides are when I run out of ideas for meals or I ask my son repeatedly what he wants to eat for breakfast or dinner and he just shrugs his shoulders and says ‘I don’t know’. Then, he ends up not eating what I bought at the store. *Rant Over*

Since I’m the main one who comes up with the meal ideas and does the shopping, I started dreading both but couldn’t really do anything about it because we all need to eat. If you know anything about my crazy schedule you’ll understand why it started to become time-consuming to work out dozens of combinations of meals when I could be doing something else and just pay someone to do that task for me.

Why I Started Using the $5 Meal Plan

I wanted to keep save money on groceries each month, and it’s been a way to introduce my family to new meals. I thought $5 for my grocery list to be completed for me was perfect.  I also got tired of having to create my own grocery lists. The $5 Dollar Meal Plan is a nice alternative to me wasting time putting together a menu of what we were going to eat for the week.

The meals come out to about $2 a person so not to bad at all! The best thing is they start off with a two-week free trial so you can get a feel of what you will be getting. After the two weeks if you happen to not like the meal plans you can ask for a full guarantee of your last payment.

What Do You Get With My $5 Meal Plan?

• A menu each week that costs you just $5 per month
• 6 Dinner Meals, a Breakfast, a Lunch, a Snack and a Dessert (and occasionally a Side Dish or other tasty treat!) all together on the same plan
• Choose between the Gluten-Free Plan and Classic Plan
• One-time purchase packages of six weeks of meal plans and shopping lists around a certain theme (Normally priced at $10 on $5 Dinners but for $5 Meal Plan members, they are $8).

Preparing Meals For a Family With Different Tastes

Erin and Jim from $5 Meal Plans offer quite a few different options for members. Not all plans are $5, but the basic grocery list starts at $5. People who like gluten-free, vegetarian meals skimpy calorie meals, (under 450 calories), slow cooker meals paleo meals, and 30-minute meal can all get specialized plans. You have so many options and there is something for everyone.

It’s nice to have that and able to get a whole grocery list of ideas.  Some of these special meals aren’t the easiest to come up with on a daily basis, so a little guidance for a reasonable price is nice. You can also mix in ideas that you already had and add them with the list you get every Friday.

It’s great for small kids who might not love everything you give them, and a way to get ideas for them to try out. Everyone always having the same taste buds would be fantastic, but it doesn’t always happen like that. $5 Meal Plan can help eliminate some of the stress of finding something for everyone.

Feeling Lazy When It Comes to Planning Meals

What love about the service is I know meal planning is something I should do and I like the benefits I get from it, but sometimes life gets in the way and I fall off track with my schedule. I get lazy or exhausted on Sundays and don’t feel like researching recipes and planning out what we’re going to eat. That’s why I’d rather just have a list of meals and ingredients all lined up. I can focus on other important tasks and get some extra time with my family not having to worry about putting together a grocery list from scratch.

• $5 Dollar Meal Plan creates shopping lists with a variety that are tailored to popular grocery store chains like Aldi, Costco, Kroger, Walmart, Whole Foods and more.
• They have over a dozen meal plans including 30-minute meals, diabetic, gluten-free, paleo, portion control, slow cooker, clean eating, and more. This has especially helped me considering the fact that I’m always struggling to eat healthier and lose weight and I don’t always make the wisest meal choices for that on my own.
• Leftovers don’t last too long in my household, so it’s nice to have a wide variety of food to taste and try. I feel like if you’re going to cook from home and really commit to it, your food can’t be boring or cliché. How many times are you going to truly enjoy that same old recipe you keep making? eMeals does a nice job of switching it up.

I even take it a step further and order my groceries online using Walmart’s free pickup service. It cuts down on so much time. I no longer have to walk into the store to get my groceries. No longer have to run the risk of buying something I don’t need because I walk past my favorite snack in the store. I submit my grocery order the night before and pick them up from the store. Your food is almost always ready as soon as you pull up during your selected time slot. As long as you have the grocery pickup app you don’t even have to call or message the department they bring your food right out without having to notify them.

What Kind Of Meals Are Included

Skimpy Calorie Plan (6-week add on $8)

Beef Fajita Skillet Dinner,  Moroccan Chicken, BLT Salad.

30 Minute Meal Plan (6-week add on $8)

Lasagna Skillet Dinner, Potato Chip Chicken Strips,  Slopp-Cheesy Joe Sliders.

Slow Cooker Meal Plan (Best selling add-on)

Sesame Ginger Chicken, Beef Roast with Apples & Pearled Onions

Paleo Plan (6-week add on $8)

Mexican Chicken Soup, Apple-Almond Butter ‘Sandwiches’, Mango-Strawberry Green Smoothie

Vegetarian Plan (6-week add 0n $8)

Tomato-Basil & Corn Soup, Asian Lettuce Wraps, and Spanish Oven Omelet

Mix and Match

Current offer:  If you cannot decide on which add on to choose why not try a few? You can buy the original slow cooker, paleo, and vegetarian plans, (this does not include the 30-Minute Meal Plans) for just $20!

How I Save Money on Groceries

While I personally may not be saving thousands of dollars per year since I plan to spend only $2,000 per year on groceries, I am saving quite a bit of money despite it being a paid service. I love the custom meal plans, and my son and husband are big fans as well! The plans are so simple my son is able to give me a hand with some of the prep when and if I need it.

$5 Meal Plan is $15 for 3 months or just $60 for an entire year.

If you take advantage of the yearly price, that makes the service cost you about $5.00 per month. Yes, for $5 a month you can have your own custom meal plan and shopping list made for you to help simplify the process and free up more of your time.

The post How I Shop Smart and Save Money on Groceries first appeared on My Debt Epiphany.

The post How I Shop Smart and Save Money on Groceries appeared first on My Debt Epiphany.