SAVE MONEY: Do not buy food until you HAVE to

for you no meat eaters out there just take a look at that scrumptious meal! take a look at my protein rich plate of food! love it, eh!?! ...this post is for you meat eaters too.  and this post is especially for you "cook with no recipe" lovers like myself. i don't like to cook, so i'm known to just throw it all together and eat it. this meal was put together with the items stored up in my home that were waiting and waiting to be eaten up. they are items that sit with long shelf life and a frozen bag of field peas.

can't wait to know what's on the plate? okay, i'll tell you before i encourage you to save money by EATING YOUR PANTRY AND REFRIG/FREEZER OUT.

*frozen bag of field peas from Walmart
*a box of couscous from ALDI
*can of stewed diced tomatoes from ALDI
*sweet onion sliced
*Florida avocado from WALMART
*zucchinis from ALDI. sliced straight down the middle, the tops rubbed with olive oil, salted and peppered, and baked until desired texture. i also broiled mine for a little crisp on the top.

SAVE MONEY: do not buy food until you have to AND do not let your produce go to waste. do not buy more produce until the produce in you home is eaten all gone. last week i discovered that i didn't eat up our fresh mushrooms in time for them to go bad. that had me so bummed out, like it really really did! What about those little spots on the apples? cut it out, that's what. by doing this you will keeps days ahead of yourself before you need to delve into the food budget envelope for shopping.

SAVE MONEY: EAT YOUR PANTRY AND FREEZER OUT! open up the pantry doors. look at all the cans of green beans and cans of peaches and cans of tuna fish. just eat them, eat all of those canned goods! get past the idea that none of it sounds appealing. appealing, what is that? appealing doesn't matter when you are on a budget to GET OUT of DEBT. so, let's just say if you have those three items in the panty -then go ahead and make a meal out of it.
*tuna fish sandwich, or do you have lettuce in the refrig? make a tuna salad on a bed of lettuce, have your side of green beans and peaches. voila! there's a meal!

PLAN YOUR NEXT several days' meals straight out of what's in your refrigerator, freezer, pantry, and the produce/fruit on your counter that need to be eaten. EAT it all up and see how long you can go without going into the grocery store for more food. if you are not in a store then you can't spend money, right?  

i promise you will be surprised by the next time payday comes around and it's time to budget all over again and to fill up those envelopes. Your FOOD envelope will have some left over money in it!! What to do!?! What to do!?! maybe you'll take yourselves out for a date night. FOR US it's just going to roll over into our savings envelope. Yeah, we're still on baby step #1 in the Dave Ramsey Get OUT of DEBT plan.

A Tasty idea: if you have bananas that are needing to be eaten up but you can't imagine eating them all in one day or spending time to make banana bread then make smoothies for everyone.
ONE of MY FAVORITE SMOOTHIES- ice, almond milk, peanut butter, & bananas. I also usually throw in chia seeds as well.

Happy Eating!! Happy Savings!! And Remember to EAT your produce, don't let it spoil.