The Tight Budget Cookbook

Here’s a cookbook perfect for budget conscious meal planners…

If you want to save a lot of money on your grocery bills, yet still serve delicious and nutritious meals, this cookbook is for you!

All of the recipes in this book were contributed by Nutrition Educators with your needs in mind. You’ll find breakfast dishes for as little as 4 cents per serving, and main dishes featuring meat for as little as 51 cents per serving.

With hundreds of recipes, you’ll find everything from breakfast; main dishes with meat, poultry, fish and a secti (more…)

Family Finances: 7 Ways to Save Time and Money on the Food Budget

Time and cash are a trade off. When we have plenty of income, we turn that resource into time by purchasing convenience foods and eating out. When we don’t have as much income, we spend time cooking at home more often and using more staple items as well. I look at it this way. When I’m working, I’m adding to the budget and I can afford more conveniences. When I’m not employed, my job becomes saving. Both ways, I’m helping the quality of life for my family. But in the real world, how do we manage the time drain while we try to save? Here are seven ways:

Think of your family as a team. Every member of the team should participate in the process of providing food for the family, whether it’s hauling in groceries from the car, helping with meal preparation, or stacking the dishwasher.

Consider co-op cooking with another family of similar size. Once or twice a week, one family will cook a larger meal and share half of it with the co-op family. This will give one or two kitchen-free days to each participant. Sharing can work well when people live in close proximity and are very good friends.  I would not try this with strangers or with people whose taste in food is quite different from yours. Planning the shared meals together would be a big help.

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Adopting a Frugal Lifestyle

In these days, being frugal is important.

Unemployment is higher than it’s been in a long time, and many companies are downsizing or going out of business, which means job security is almost non-existent.

Combine that with the concern that prices will be going up soon, and you’ve got some very good reasons to watch your spending.

Here are some tips on how you can adopt a frugal lifestyle from my friend Cara Mirabella:

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Having trouble making ends meet? Have more month left than money? Many people struggle with this issue. One of the best ways to save money and truly stretch your dollars all the way to the end of the month is to live a more frugal lifestyle.

Yes, frugality is key. Being frugal with one’s life does not mean that you will live a life, doing without and hoarded away. Frugal living is actually very freeing. Frugal living frees up your finances to work harder and smarter for you so that you in turn do not have to work so hard to actually bring in an income.

In a time where 40% of Americans live beyond their means, meaning they spend more monthly than they make, finding ways to save and learning to be more frugal sounds like a winning idea.

There are a few key concepts that one must adopt in order to begin living a more frugal lifestyle.

Smarter money management. A person must begin to not only spend less money, but also manage the money they have in a smarter way. This can take some time and discipline but will truly pay off in the end.

Spending less. A person must also learn how to spend less than they make. This can be a difficult process for some who have spent more than their paycheck for a long time, however if they adopt some frugal living ideas they can be doing this in no time.

Saving. With the money that they save through not spending as much, they can begin to put away money into savings; another key to frugal living that will help a person to get ahead.

Continuing the process. Continuing to spend more and save less is key.

Adopting some key concepts to frugal living can truly change the way you live your life, and the way that your money works for you. Become different from the norm and begin a smarter, more frugal lifestyle today.

About the Author:

Cara Mirabella is a WAHM with one toddler from New Jersey. She owns and manages TheHouseholdHelper.com – a site dedicated to saving your time, money and sanity when managing your household. She has written several articles, reports and e-books including Frugal Living – How to Stretch Your Hard Earned Dollar.