If you’re like the majority of people, you probably want to spend less money on day-to-day expenses and put it towards more important things, like vacations or investment accounts. Dining out can be one of the biggest drains on disposable income – a quick pastry on the way to work in the morning, a sandwich down the road for lunch, and then take-out on the way home for dinner really does begin to add up. If you find yourself dining out more often than you’d like, it may be time to start planning your meals ahead of time. Closet and Storage Concepts of Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada has some tips on how you can organize your week’s meal schedule.
Start Slow
If you eat out three (or more) times a day, seven days a week, it’s going to be overwhelming trying to change your whole lifestyle. Trying to make too big of a change all at once will leave you feeling burned out. Instead, try and change one meal a day. Instead of your usual doughnut with coffee in the morning, have a quick bowl of oatmeal or cereal, and bring homemade coffee to work. Even just a $5 breakfast a day adds up to $1820 saved a year!
Utilize Weekends
Putting aside a couple hours a weekend to do meal preparation will be very important. After a long day at work, the last thing you want to do is go to the store, come home, and spend time cooking. Most people choose to go grocery shopping on Saturday and cook on Sunday, but this isn’t a hard and fast rule. To make it more fun, put on a movie while you cook or even invite a friend over, open a bottle of wine, and have them help!
Keep It Simple
To make the meal preparation as fast as possible, keep your recipes basic. Let’s be honest, most people dine out because they don’t want to spend their free time cooking, and complex recipes usually take much more time. One popular idea is to start with a base starch, such as rice or quinoa, and just add vegetables, protein, some spices, and you have a delicious meal that will last throughout the week. Even more simple is to make crock-pot meals, which have hardly any cleanup time involved.
For more organization tips, check out Closet and Storage Concepts of Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada!
Photo by bodytherapeutix used through Creative Commons License 1.0 Generic (CC BY 1.0).