Frugal Fridays: Don't Eat Your Money

I was at a financial informational meeting recently, and one of the participants said the above comment - "Don't Eat Your Money." And I'm not talking about ACTUALLY eating money, of course, although I did eat a quarter once because I was mad at my mom and I didn't want to go somewhere and I thought if I ate the money, I wouldn't have to go. No such luck. Anyway, I'm talking about using your money to go out to eat or buying prepared/convenience/pre-packaged, etc. food.

Now, the flip side to this, and the thing that people don't often address is that you will need time to devote to making food from scratch. This is why doing once a month cooking is REALLY helpful for me. I don't usually have an hour-plus "free" time in the afternoon to prepare dinner. It is also really helpful, in many ways, to have a menu. It will help you plan on how you will use the non-packaged food, and how much of it you will need, but it will help so that you don't have to deal with that "What's for dinner?" question at 4 pm. You will know a week or a month, depending on how long in advance you menu plan, in advance what will be for dinner. And breakfast. And lunch.

And if you have wheat, get a grinder or find someone who does and grind it, and Use it! Take the beans that you have and grind them and turn it into bean flour, and Use it! Many of the things that are staples in long-term food storage are inexpensive. But it doesn't do your family any good if it just sits in storage. Find recipes/ways for you to use the food that you store. And make sure that you store what you will use.