The thing with our generation is that we all want to eat well but we just can’t get it done for some reason. We end up eating out more often than we would like to. It also feels like healthy restaurant options are difficult to come by. I personally love to eat well, train hard, and enjoy the results. The problem is that I always find myself in a hurry and I turn to fast food more than anyone. For the benefit of me and everyone reading this, I wanted to jump into the idea of frugal balanced menus and taking care of yourself without going broke.

Let’s open up our discussion today on saving money on food and finding healthy restaurant options. There will be a little less structure today as we try to cover various topics when it comes to saving money and eating well.

When you must eat fast food.

What do I do when I have to eat fast food? No matter how dedicated you are to preparing your own meals ahead of time, there will be many times where you’re on the go and you need to eat whatever is available. It’s all good there’s no need to stress. There are many great options for fast food. The trick is that you need to avoid that obviously carb/fat-loaded meals (Big Mac, pizza or poutine). Always grab a water, don’t bother with a diet drink, it’s still the same crap. If you get any type of sandwhich, I recommend taking off the bread and just eating the meat. You can also grab a salad from most fast food joints. Just because you’re stuck eating fast food it doesn’t mean that it has to completely throw off your diet or budget.

When you have time to prepare food.

When you have time to prepare food it’s a different story. You can head down to your local grocery store and pick out what sticks out to you. I usually grab a decent mix of canned goods, cold cuts, fresh food, and vegetables. I then try to turn this into a few small meals. When I’m feeling lazy (pretty often) I just grab the ready made meals from the grocery store. These are a great way to eat well and save money. The point being is that when you have some extra time it’s always a better option to head down to the grocery store so that you can actually plan your meals so that you don’t spend lots of money on crap food.

Is eating out at a restaurant always a poor idea?

Healthy restaurant options are all around us. It’s just that eating out has a negative connotation due to the Burger King’s of the world. I mentioned what to watch out for at fast food joints earlier. Now I just want to throw out a few quick tips for eating well at a sit down restaurant. If you want to avoid spending lots of money and having your waist line explode, it’s advisable that you don’t buy any booze. If you want to drink it’s best done before or after because as a college student a restaurant will kill your budget with drinks. If you want to eat lean it’s best to always order a side of vegetables instead of greasy fries or potatoes. Eating out at restaurants will become increasingly popular as you graduate from college and everyone wants to go out for dinner. You can attend these meals, eat well, and still save money.

Does saving money on food have to be boring?

What If I like to keep my meals interesting? What if I like to enjoy my food? I’ve had this debate in some form a few times with one of my friends. He always argues that he works hard for his money so he deserves to spend it on food. That’s cool because when it’s your money you can do whatever you want with it. Just don’t complain when you don’t know where all of your money is going.

Saving money on food is not about being boring. It’s about trying to fuel for body for as little money as possible. I’m not saying that you should never eat out. I love going to a restaurant as a treat every once in a while. The thing is that it doesn’t become so special when you do it so often.

At the end of the day personal finance and fitness will always be a major part of my life. Once you start to save your money and eat well you’ll notice many positive side effects that you never expected. You’ll be less stressed out, more motivated, and generally more happier. What are you waiting for?

How do you manage to save money while still eating well?

Affordable Sports and Training For You

(photo credit: djjewelz)

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Staying healthy with no money is possible. It’s actually what I would recommend you all try. Too often do I see newbies to the fitness community get all caught up with joining a gym and buying all of the fancy tools that go along with working out. You know what I mean? I see newbies buying the most expensive Nike running shoes, a slick track suit, an over-priced gym membership, and ridiculous amounts of workout supplements. What’s the point of all of this? Whatever happened to keeping it simple and at home exercising?

I wanted to discuss affordable sports and training, and how you can get in shape this Spring on a tight budget:

Performing body weight at home exercises.

There’s nothing like setting a new record for consecutive pushups or squats in your living room. Instead of worrying about the bench press or fancy squat machines, you should start off by performing body weight exercises at home. You’ll be shocked when you see how sore you get after trying to pull off that new pushup record. The best part about all of this is that you can do it while watching tv at home. Next time you find yourself idly sitting on the couch and just watching sports, you should try to perform a few body weight exercises. At first it will be annoying. Once you get into the habit, you’ll really start to enjoy these at home exercises.

Embrace the park for training.

With summer just around the corner, it’s a perfect time to take advantage of the park. I have younger brothers so if I ever want to work out on a warm day, I drag one of them to the park to kick the ball around or to go for a jog. There’s nothing better than going for a nice run on a Spring evening. Give it a try, you might get hooked on it.

Join a community sports team.

If you want to get moving and be held accountable for it, joining a sports team can be the ideal option for you. My dad is in his 50s now and he still plays soccer every Sunday morning with his friends. No matter what your age is or what your favorite sport is, you can always find a team that’s looking for an extra player. Playing on a sports team is beneficial for you in many ways, including:

• An opportunity to socialize.
• Meet new friends.
• Be apart of a team.
• Practice your leadership skills.

Try one of the many at home exercise programs.

If you’re willing to spend a little bit of money you can purchase one of the at home exercise programs that are out there. These programs usually come in the form of a DVD set and they allow you to train at your own convenience. This means that you can train at 4 in the afternoon or 4 in the morning, as you prefer.

What are some common at home exercise programs? The ones that I have tried include the P90X workout and Crossfit. You can purchase the videos online (I won’t be posting any links) or you can find some sample videos online. I’ve tried both of these workout programs and they’re amazing if you’re dedicated enough to perform them on a consistent basis. Since consistency is key the main challenge is getting into the habit of sticking to the routines. It’s really easy to get lazy and forget about the workouts. You can start off by having a workout partner so that you guys can hold each other accountable for training. You’ll find that training becomes so much more enjoyable when you’re doing it with a good friend. The other bonus once again is that by working out from home you guys can work around each others busy schedules.

Affordable sports and training are very possible. If you start to embrace at home exercising you’ll find yourself getting in shape without worrying about your tight budget. Don’t let money become an excuse for not being in shape. The only thing holding you back is yourself.

What are some other ways you can find affordable training methods to get in shape? What did I miss?

(photo credit: hamedog)

We’re not frugal people just to be frugal. We’re not just looking at price when deciding on our groceries and restaurant options. We want to eat well and still have some money left in our wallets. Here are some ways we save on food without depending on ramen.

Trader Joe’s- Shoping There Without Going Broke

You can’t mention trader Joe’s without mentioning some 3 Buck Chuck. That what we originally went to the store to get. Slowly, we started trying out other items. For us, we love some of the easy to prepare meals they have for those busy nights. We’re trying not to go for the convenient, but unhealthy fast food options.
Friends recommended looking at Trader Joe’s easy prep items. We loved their lasagna and stuffed peppers as dinner options.I found the bagged salads better tasting and cheaper than the ones at Walmart. Having a price book is a good idea when shopping at Trader Joe’s. Making impulse buys can be quite easy in the store.
Whatever grocery store we go to for good, having a plan helps us make smarter choices and save money.

Make a Grocery List:This seems really elementary, but creating a shopping list important step. Grocery stores are designed to make you buy more, whether you need to or not. It might difficult to come up with a proper grocery list at first. An easy way to get started is thinking of the meals you like to eat. Do you like spaghetti, chicken wings, or tacos? Break the meals down until you have a list of items.

Use a Price Book: I have talked about making price books before, but I mention it because it works. Many people think of price book and think it’s overly tedious and don’t think it’s time well spent. It’s actually easy to start a price book and it can simplify your shopping trips and save you some money.

Warehouse Clubs – Always a Good Deal?

I mentioned before how our Costco membership has saved us quite a bit of money. I didn’t however really get into detail about our food and bulk item savings. Warehouse clubs can be advantageous for some people and a not a good deal for others.

You can’t mention warehouse clubs without discuss membership fees. Each club it’s own fee structure. I’m listing the basic membership fees.

Run the Numbers

You have to consider the following questions before just going on a shopping spree in the warehouse: How many are you planning to feed? How quickly can you finish the food? We’re a small family of two, so some bulk items aren’t good buys for us based on the amount we eat and our limited freezer space.

We’ve used Costco to buy our juices, rice, food for parties at our house (great deals on those!), pasta, and meats. It’s worked well for us and we’ve saved some money too. There some other tips I’d recommend if you’re buying at a warehouse club.

Buy meat in bulk and freeze: We try to get a good amount of meat on sale, divide it up for sevral meal, and then freeze it. That tip drops the cost per pound down. When we get home, for example, I have broken down ground beef into several bags for meatloaf, spaghetti, tacos, hamburger helper, etc.

Take advantage of sales that you’d actually buy without the sale: Sometimes I want to buy something because it’s on sale. It’s not something that we use a lot or even at all. When you do that you’re not really saving money, you’re spending more. It’s not bad if you do this once a shopping trip if you want to expand your menu, but if you’re on a tight budget, try to minimize this.

Happy Hour = Fun Nights on a Budget

We’re big fans of eating out with friends and family and making it a special occasion. It’s great to go somewhere, have a really good evening of catching up, and not having to worry about cooking and cleaning. We get out occasionally and want to make the most of it without draining our budget.

Know the Specials: This is something we started when we were dating in college and were on a tight budget. You canfind some great happy hour and early bird specials if you ask around. We enjoy going to Brio’s happy hour because of the food (and their mojitos).

Buy an Entertainment Book: We have saved some money with one of those Entertainment books.  We have gotten 50% some of our meals with the Buy One, Get One Free coupons. while trying out new places is great, just make sure the book is encouraging you to spend more; those defeating the purpose.

Your Thoughts
How do you save money while eating well? Where do you splurge?

We went to Brio‘s last night with some friends for happy hour. Great time by all.

I ordered their Brio Burger with chips and my husband got the pepperoni and sausage flat bread. We addeded another order of the flatbread and it was filling. We actually had to wait to finish off the second flatbread.

Burger and fries....Not bad for $2.95

Of course, to get the Tuscan Tasters deal, we had to buy some drinks. We picked up two long island ice teas and a Italian wedding cake martini plus a berry lemonade (free refills) to finish it off.

The total was $34 and change with tax. I had some fun and would probably go there again

Where do you go for happy hour?

If you’re interested in seeing some other pictures of the Tuscan Tasters’ choices, check out The Veggie Option’s review.

Photo Credit: The Veggie Option

This new job has been great in terms of increasing our monthly income, but I’ve been eating more lunches out. I do a lot of driving around town for the job and I haven’t packed my lunches as often as I should. I find myself trying to find something convenient which usually means spending some cash for not so healthy food.

I must resist the lure of fast food to improve my waist and wallet.

Realizing How Work Affects Me Eating Out

Grabbing whatever is quick and easy has been a weakness of mine. I’m going to cut down on my take out lunches to 3x week for the next 2 weeks and then drop down to eating out once or twice a week for the rest of the year. It helps if I remember that the money I’m saving is going towards a goal, so the money saved will go towards the joint savings account.

I do enjoy eating lunch with a friend, but these take out lunches have just been me and they haven’t really offered good food. I’d better better off making something at home a few times a week. I’ve written about some quick and easy recipes that can be used as brown bag lunches the next day like pizza, nachos, chili, and stew. Today’s lunch will be a tasty honey ham and cheddar cheese sandwich and a fruit cup on the side.

I grabbed the lunch food last week and that has made it much easier to make a sandwich in the morning. I’m also considering grabbing lunch at cheaper places, like Costco and saving some money. If you are going to eat out, be reasonable and go over your monthly budget.

Eating Out Tips:

• Dig to find local spots. Asking your co-workers, neighbors, and friends can pay off if you find a great place with wonderful food.
• Make a second meal on leftovers. I fill up on my bread or chips (depending on the place). I’m not acting greedy, but I do enjoy what they offer. If salad is included with a dinner, then eat the entire salad. It fills you up and it’s generally good or you. Two meals for the price of one!
• Get a discount. See if they have lunch/dinner specials or use a site like Restaurant.com to get a deal on gift certificates. Sometimes you can get a $25 gift certificate for $10 or less!
• Mix Appetizers. Sometimes you can get a good deal by having two appetizers.
• Don’t be frugal with your tip. That should go without saying, but if you got good service, please tip accordingly.

Your Thoughts

How have you kept on your eating out budget? Any advice?