Hello Green Panda Friends and Good Morning.  Today we are discussing budget friendly holiday dinners in the next post in our “Home for the Holidays” series.  Green Panda knows that the holidays can be a very expensive time of the year, so we are here to help you with some budget friendly meals for your holiday dinners.

I am personally not a great cook.  Every single year my New Year’s Resolution is to learn to cook, and unfortunately I have never mastered the art of cooking.  Last year my Christmas Dinner ended up being Christmas Quesadillas, it was festive but it wasn’t really a true Christmas dinner with all of the trimmings.  This year I have planned my holiday menu and hopefully it will go off without any mishaps.  I am only cooking Christmas dinner for my boyfriend and myself and I am a vegetarian, so hopefully all will go as planned.

Holiday Dinners on a Budget

There are many ways that we can make a traditional holiday dinner without spending too much money. The best way to serve a nice holiday dinner without breaking the bank is to serve a lot of appetizers and side dishes.  Serve bread, dips, salads, and side trimmings with your meal.  Leave out the expensive nuts and chocolates, or ask someone to bring them.

This year I am serving a mixed green salad with almonds and raisins, creamed corn, mashed potatoes with gravy, fresh crusty Italian bread, and cranberry sauce.  I am going to make a small individual sized turkey or chicken breast for my boyfriend, because he is not a vegetarian.  Maple Leaf offers Prime Chicken already seasoned and it cooks in a lot less time than a whole Turkey or Ham. I am not expecting the whole meal to cost more than $50.

Easy Holiday Desserts

Christmas Cookies are a very traditional holiday dessert, but we don’t have to only serve cookies at Christmas.  Rachael Ray offers us a recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats.  They are easy to make with only 6 ingredients and the recipe makes 16 Rice Krispie Treats.

My favourite kind of cookies are Shortbread Cookies.  I used to love eating My Mother’s homemade Shortbread Cookies.  Now that I don’t live at home anymore my Shortbread cookie cravings are usually satisfied thanks to Pillsbury, but not this year.  This year I am going to try and attempt to make Gramma Horn Sugar Cookies.  This is a recipe from a Rachael Ray viewer who shares her easy cookie recipe online. The recipe takes some time to prepare and it makes 6 dozen cookies. It’s a perfect treat for any holiday party.

Eggnog Recipes for the Holidays

I have never been one to indulge in Eggnog or in Rum, but I know that Eggnog is a favourite drink during the Holidays.  Eggnog can be purchased from any grocery store in a carton, just like milk.  We can sprinkle on some cinnamon and add some Rum and it creates a nice holiday treat.

Enjoy Your Holiday Dinners Everyone!

Check Out the Previous Posts in our “Home for the Holidays” series:

Don’t Let the Holidays be Costly

Don’t Be Tempted to Swipe Your Card

Travelling Home For The Holidays

Photo by Allison Hare

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)

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)

My husband and I are trying to eat healthy, but we’re noticing that our grocery bills went up. To counteract that we’ve decided to get serious about finding ways to lower our grocery bills without sacrificing the quality of food we eat.

Have a (Grocery) Plan

Before you go ahead and shop, go through your kitchen and organize everything. Sometimes we’ve bought duplicates of things because we hadn’t cleaned up our pantry. I’m also ashamed to admit that some food has expired by the time we found them. It’s truly a waste, so I’ve improved in that area.

Do not shop when you’re starving, you’ll probably end up buying more than your planned. Instead have something light before you leave and enjoy the samples at the store. I tend to go for more snacks than necessary when I’m hungry. Having a little something to eat before I leave has helped me keep to the grocery list and keep our waist line down.

Speaking of preparing, it would be great to have a grocery list ready. If you’re like us, you won’t remember everything on the list and you may be tempted to buy some unnecessary extras while you’re at the store.

MVP/VIC – Using Member Deals

If you’re a grocery member you can sometimes get great deals on items when they go on sale. Look for nonperishable good that you can buy (and save) in bulk.

How do you know that you’re getting a good sale? Check out your price book to see if it’s lower than it usually is.  How do you create a price book quickly and easily? Here are some steps to get you started:

1. Write down a list of the staples that you get most of the time.
2. Visit your regular grocery stores and get the unit price for them.
3. Create a spreadsheet (Google Docs can be great) and figure out who has the deal by the unit prices.
4. Maximize savings by comparing the prices to VIP/MVP prices to make sure you’re getting a good sale.

After following this for a month or so, you’ll discover trends on certain items and where you’ll most likely find the best deal.

That’s not all your can do to save some cash, you can also:

• Double Your Coupons – Some stores like Harris Teeter will triple your coupons up to a certain limit. That can make a huge difference if you’re using several. Check your grocery store for details.
• Widen Your Stores - International or ethnic stores can give you some incredible deals on some staples.

Thoughts on Saving on Groceries

What have you done to cut down on your grocery bill without depending on ramen noodles? Where have you found the best deals?

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?