Food Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

10 Budget Lunch Ideas and Cheap Easy Meals You Should Try

November 8, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 16 Comments

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L Looking for budget lunch ideas? Here are 10 cheap meals for lunch recipes that you should start making. Yes, these are easy lunch ideas that are delicious! ast month's roundup 10 Budget Recipes proved to be popular, so I'm back at it again with 10 Budget Lunch Ideas and Cheap Easy Meals You Should Try.

Food is one of the largest expenses a family can have each month, which is why I'm a big believer in and lover of weekly meal plans. If you are looking for some new budget lunch recipes to start making for you and/or your family, then you've come to the right place.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the average family of four spends around $700 to $1,000 a month on food. That’s a lot of money, especially considering that most families waste around a large amount of their food each month!

If you want lunch recipes that are budget friendly and delicious, don't worry, it is possible! The budget lunch ideas included in this lunch recipes roundup are affordable, easy, and you may already have many of the ingredients in your home!

I have all of these recipes in my current meal plan, and I'm excited to make all of them.

Note: If you're looking for easy weekly meal plans, full of budget recipes, I recommend $5 Meal Plan. $5 Meal Plan is a meal planning service that sends you a delicious meal plan and shopping list every week for just $5 a month.

10 Budget Recipes and Cheap Easy Meals You Should Try

October 11, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 24 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Looking for budget recipes? Here are 10 cheap easy meals that you should start making. Yes, these are cheap meals that are delicious! These healthy meal and dinner ideas for families or even just for two or one are easy and delicious, and some are even vegetarian and vegan!

Food is one of the largest expenses a family can have each month, which is why I'm a big believer in and lover of weekly meal plans. If you are looking for some new budget recipes to start making for you and/or your family, then you've come to the right place.

If you want recipes that are budget friendly and delicious, don't worry, it is possible! The recipes included in this budget recipe roundup are affordable, easy, and you may already have many of the ingredients in your home!

I have all of these recipes in my current meal plan, and I'm excited to make all of them.

Here are 10 budget recipes and cheap easy meals you should try:

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How To Make Money By Becoming A Cooking Instructor

February 24, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 12 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I have an informative interview to share with you that will show you how to become a cooking instructor and hold kid's cooking classes. I recently had the chance to interview Jan Pinnington from Healthy Hands Cooking, who explains how this extra income opportunity may be a possibility for you.

Did you know that you may be able to become a cooking instructor and hold kid's cooking classes? This could be a great opportunity and business idea! In 2011, Jan realized that her children were ill-equipped in the kitchen and falling into unhealthy eating habits.

She started teaching her daughter how to cook, and eventually more and more children started coming to her home for cooking lessons. Some parents started putting money in Jan's apron to cover food and time and she suddenly thought, “hmmmm…I wonder if I could turn this into a business?”

This eventually led to Jan launching Healthy Hands Cooking.

Healthy Hands Cooking is a movement to fight childhood obesity by empowering adults to teach children about nutrition and healthy cooking through entertaining and informative classes, camps, and birthday parties.

Healthy Hands Cooking is a self-paced cooking instructor certification program that can be completed from the comfort of home. This is a 11 module course that will help you to create your own cooking business with the correct licensing, permits, background checks, food safety, marketing, and more. [Read more…]

March Goals Update, New April Goals And A Food Budget Update

April 3, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 43 Comments

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Hello everyone! Time for another life, goals, and food budget update.

March was another great month.

We are still enjoying our new home in Colorado. The weather has been perfect here, with nearly every single day being in the mid-70s. It's also been sunny every day and I think it's only rained once or twice. It's been wonderful!

Our house is still for sale in Missouri.

It hasn't sold yet, but we did decide to drop the price a little. The house is for sale for less than what we originally bought it for, which stinks but we're hoping it sells quickly. We have had several showings in the past month so I'm hoping something eventually happens! [Read more…]

February’s Food Budget Check In – We Failed But I’m Happy

March 13, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 76 Comments

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It's now been a little over two months since we finally created an action plan to lower our food spending.

At the end of December, I published the post Our Plan To Finally Cut Our Food Spending. Below is a snippet from that post:

When I first started blogging back in 2011, we were spending over $1,000 on food each month JUST for the two of us.

Food spending is something that we have always had a problem with. Whether it be spending too much money at restaurants or spending too much money on processed junk food, it's been a problem.

We are no longer spending over $1,000 a month on food, but it is an area that we still need to work on.

Some have asked why we want to spend less money on food.

I'm not sure what to say except for why wouldn't we?

While we both love food, we know that we spend too much money on it and it could be saved for better things. It's not like we are eating well just because we are spending so much money on food. [Read more…]

Our First Food Budget Check In – January’s Results

February 6, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 90 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

At the end of December, I published the post Our Plan To Finally Cut Our Food Spending. Below is a quote from that post:

When I first started blogging back in 2011, we were spending over $1,000 on food each month JUST for the two of us.

That sentence is something I will always be ashamed of.

Our food spending has always been out of control, but it is a habit we have been trying to change for several years. While we are not spending over $1,000 a month on food anymore, we are still not proud of the large amount of money we are wasting each month.

Food spending is an area we are trying to improve on because it can be a huge budget buster.

While I love food WAY more than the average person, I know I can eat healthier, have delicious meals, and save money if I just take control of the situation we are in by eating at home more often.

Below is our January food spending check in. [Read more…]

Our Plan To Finally Cut Our Food Spending

December 29, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 104 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

As most of you know, our main financial problem is that we spend too much money on food. When I first started blogging back in 2011, we were spending over $1,000 on food each month JUST for the two of us.

It's a number I still don't even understand and I feel ashamed whenever I mention it. We have been doing better over the years, but nothing to be proud of.

Some of our problems related to food include:

We go to restaurants too many times each week.
Too much of our food is wasted and has to be thrown away.
We get lazy and tend to make the same meals over and over again.

That's why one of our main goals for 2015 is to make more delicious meals at home.

We would like our average food budget for 2 each month to be somewhere around $500 per month. We want this monthly average food budget to include going out to eat and grocery spending, and I believe this is a number we should easily be able to achieve.

Since this is just a food budget for 2, $500 a month should be a reasonable number! I know there are many people out there who spend just a few hundred dollars each month for their growing families, and that is just amazing. [Read more…]

Here are 10 budget recipes and cheap easy meals you should try:

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