Are you a drive thru junkie? Do you eat out more than 3 times a week? If the answer is yes, then you are a drive thru junkie. You probably think eating fast food is cheaper than dining out or even cheaper than buying groceries. Well, I’m here to enlighten you.

When you first make the decision to get on a budget, you will have to make some changes in your lifestyle, specifically better meal planning and eating from home more often. This takes discipline and planning.

The first thing to do is make up your mind to not eat out whenever possible. Many times, people get into the habit of running through the drive thru, whenever they are hungry even though they might be home in just a few minutes. There are times when you do have to eat out due to your schedule, but you can plan for those in your budget.

The next thing you need to do is begin planning meals ahead of time to make at home. This involves making a grocery list, using your grocer’s weekly ad for sales and clipping or printing coupons. Planning meals ahead helps save time and money because you won’t be scrambling last minute to figure out what to make for lunch or dinner and you won’t be tempted to run through the drive thruh or order pizza.

Another great thing you can start doing is using the crock pot a whole lot more! Crock pot meals are so easy and delicious and they help save lots of time. If a meal can be made in the crock pot, do it. Chicken, pork chops and roast are great proteins to make in the crock pot. Start them in the morning before you leave for the day and when you get home, dinner is ready! You can find many great tasting and easy to make crock pot recipes on line.

With a little planning, making a list and clipping coupons, you can really save a ton of money on your food bill-fast food and groceries!

In the past, not so many years ago, our Mother’s and Grandmother’s would cook meals totally from scratch. Those were the days before convenience and box foods took over the shelves. Dust off those recipes and start making a list of the items you will need.  

The most commonly used items for scratch cooking will be flour, sugar, eggs, milk, salt and baking powder/soda. Stock up on these relatively cheap staples and you will have an arsenal of ready to make items on hand. If your local grocery store has these items on sale, buy in bulk to have them on hand whenever a recipe calls for it.  

The next step is to find time to prepare the meals. Cooking from scratch will take some time, so chose a day like a weekend to do all of your cooking. If you have an idea of certain meals, make them all on the same day. You can proportion the meals out into single servings and then freeze them for the week.  

The meals you can make are endless. Do a search online for some old-fashioned recipes from scratch. You will find everything from homemade pancakes, to spaghetti sauce. Another benefit from cooking from scratch is how well your family will eat and how good you will feel knowing exactly what is in the food you have prepared.  

Many people turn to convenience foods, well because of the time factor. Time is precious and trying to cook a meal from scratch every night of the week is impossible for most people. If you set aside your one day to cook all of the meals for the week and freeze them, all you will have to do is grab them from the freezer and re-heat.