Some people eat to live, and others live to eat. If you are among the latter and you’re also on a budget, you may think you’ll never eat delicious food again. However, nothing is further from the truth. You can enjoy great foods while still being a frugal foodie.
Preparing Food at Home
Most foodies love eating out, but one of the easiest ways to stretch your budget is to make most of your food at home. Luckily, the money you save eating at home will allow you to eat out still and enjoy the restaurant experience, though perhaps less often than before you were on a budget.
Learn to Cook
The best step you can take as a frugal foodie is learning to cook. If you’re a foodie who loves the taste and experience of food but doesn’t know how to cook, you’ll want to eat out frequently. But, of course, this will blow your budget quickly. However, if you know how to cook, you can make delicious gourmet meals at home for a fraction of the restaurant’s prices.
Have your grandmother teach you, take a class, or buy a few good cookbooks and follow the recipes. Whichever way you choose, take the time to learn to cook.
Find Multiple Recipes Utilizing Specialty Ingredients
Upscale recipes often will require ingredients you don’t use every day such as sun-dried tomatoes, sardines, and eggplant relish. Unfortunately, most people buy these ingredients, use them for one recipe, and then don’t use them again before they go bad. Don’t make this mistake! If you find a recipe with a specialty ingredient, search for other recipes that also use it so you can use the product before it goes bad.
Utilize Discounted Food
A frugal foodie can make her budget stretch by finding discounted food. Look at your local grocery store to see if food is reduced for quick sale. For example, one year, a week after Easter, I found diced ham on clearance for less than $1 a pound. Once you know when your grocery store puts food on clearance, you can discover pantry staples, fruits, vegetables, and meats on clearance at significantly discounted prices.
Another place to look is your local farmer’s market. If you visit near the end of the day, the farmers may have steep discounts on their food because they want to avoid carting it back home.
Grow Your Herbs and Veggies
If you use fresh herbs and need to buy several a week, you can easily spend $30 to $40 a month on them. Instead, save by growing your herbs. Even if you live in an apartment with no outdoor space, you can grow them on your window sill.
Likewise, consider growing vegetables in containers if you have outdoor space, even a tiny patio. You’ll shave money off your grocery bill and enjoy produce much fresher than at the grocery store. Try to grow vegetables that are expensive at the store or that you use in significant quantities for the largest savings.
Be Flexible
Remember also to be flexible. You may want to make crab cakes this week, but if crab isn’t on sale, be willing to create a new plan. If you find discounted cabbage, you can make stuffed cabbage instead. Some people even utilize reverse meal planning. First, they find what is on sale, then they choose their recipes based on those items and the foods they already have at home.
Have at Home Dinner Parties
If you’re friends with other foodies, consider having one another over once a month. One month you make all the food; the following month, another friend does, etc. This will give each of you a chance to enjoy new dishes. This is like eating out without the high prices.
Eating Out
Of course, even if you make delicious food at home, you still want to eat out sometimes. What frugal foodie wouldn’t? So utilize these tips to save the most money.
Eat Out Infrequently
Eating out is most enjoyable when you do so occasionally. Otherwise, it becomes routine and boring. Limit yourself to a certain number of times to eat out per month, and then stick to it. Your budget will thank you, and you’ll appreciate the dining-out experience more.
Review the Menu Online Before You Go
Before going to the restaurant, review the menu online to find what you might want to eat. Then you can decide based on what sounds good and what you can afford.
Split Meals with Friends
If your friends like to share, consider dining out family style. Order a few items, and then everyone shares. At the end of the night, everyone splits the bill, which allows you to taste several different entrees for the price of one or less than one.
Find Multiple Restaurants by the Same Chef
If you’re in a large city, find all of the restaurants a chef owns. While some restaurants may break your budget, the same chef may have cheaper eats at a different restaurant. So let your budget dictate which restaurant you go to. Remember, most chefs have several restaurants, usually at various price points.
Recognize Some Budget Food Can Be Delicious
Being a frugal foodie means you appreciate good food where ever you find it. Sometimes that good food might be from a local food truck or a hot dog stand. Avoid falling into the trap of thinking restaurant food must be expensive to be enjoyable. Sometimes a budget bite is just what you need.
Final Thoughts
You can enjoy great food while being a frugal foodie if you learn to cook and strategize how you buy groceries. You can also enjoy eating out within reason if you utilize some of the tips mentioned above. Preferring to live to eat is possible on a budget if you are wise in your actions and purchases.
Come back to what you love! Dollardig.com is the most reliable cash-back site on the web. Just sign up, click, shop, and get full cashback!
Read More
5 Best Budget-Friendly Recipe Websites
How to Host an Extravagant Party without Breaking the Bank