| |
| |
|
Personal Finance Information brought to you by credit cards 101 |
|
|
|
Take Control and Master Your Kitchen
Those who keep a watchful eye on where their money is spent, have long conquered the kitchen woes. No last minute panic trips to the market. No longer needing the "give-the-kids-$20-for-fast-food" solution. This is no longer a problem or even a concern for the "Kitchen Master". You too can be a 'Master Of Your Kitchen'. All it takes is a little time and planning! Now you might be saying "I don't have time to plan meals, let alone control my kitchen!" That's fine. Wait until you do have some time. All you need is just a couple of hours some Saturday or Sunday where you can really "dive" into your kitchen. Where To Start Start from scratch. Clean out ALL those cupboards, shelves, racks, pantries, etc.... At some point, you'll want to do the same to your refrigerator and freezer. You must! This is VALUABLE storage space that will save you hundreds off your grocery bills if they are properly put to use. Kitchens were designed to act as 'mini-supermarkets'. Everything you need to prepare meals your family can enjoy morning, noon, and night. Once it is setup, you can accommodate quite a number of meals, without having to go to the market every other day! Once The Cleaning Is Done Now that everything is cleaned and your current supplies organized, you'll need to inventory what you have. What this means is to list out what you have, and what you need to get. Ideally, you should have at least 2-4 weeks of meals available at your disposal. Why? This will reduce the number of trips to the market and help minimize overspending and impulse buying. What helps is if you list foods and meals you know your family likes (and would) eat. These are the items you need to stock your kitchen pantry and frig with. With this approach, you use your cupboards, pantries, and shelves to your advantage. Whenever you come across great bargains on items you use, buy more than usual, and store the rest. Cans of tuna for 40 cents each, buy a lot. Boxes of macaroni and cheese for 50 cents each, buy a lot. Sugar, cheese, spaghetti, rice, pasta, bread, meat, cereal, fruit, chicken, sauces, canned foods, vegetables, boxed foods. These are just a few examples of items than can be stored in your pantry, refrigerator, or freezer (depending on what it is) for a reasonable amount of time. You know you are running low on an item by simply opening your well organized pantry and determining what needs to be restocked. Planning Your Meals Now that your kitchen has been cleaned and well stocked, it's time to put it to use. It works best if you plan the following days meals, the night before. This is not hard or very time consuming. Five minutes before going to bed, simply open your cupboards and see what you can plan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the following day. Start off just planning one day at a time. Later, as you adjust to this style of living, you'll be able to plan the whole week just by looking at the contents within your kitchen. What also is a must is creativity. Try to steer away from traditional hamburger and hot dog meals. Get creative with your meals. There are literally hundreds of different combinations that can be made to give you and your family the variety they need. For example, think of all the combinations you can put together with rice or potatoes (ie: rice and vegetables, rice and beans, rice with chicken, rice and soup, rice with eggrolls, etc...) And that's just with rice! You have a ton of options. Take the time to think of, or search for some. Here are a few websites that offer a number of recipes and cooking ideas: http://www.notjustbeans.com Conclusion The whole goal of this exercise is to eliminate unnecessary trips and excessive spending at the market in addition to creatively using what you have in your kitchen to prepare meals for the week/month.The more times you go to the market, the more chances you have of spending your money on foods you may not need. Organize and master your kitchen, plan out your meals, stock your storage areas, and you can save $100-$400 a month (depending on your spending habits ;-) Best of luck mastering your kitchen! Gregory Thomas has been writing effective money-saving tips for SavingSecrets.com for over six years. Hop on over and you'll find FREE money-saving articles, a monthly newsletter, and even a FREE Ebook download just for stopping by! http://www.SavingSecrets.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Personal-Finance - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How to Save Money in a Grocery Store Now there are ways to save money in the grocery store, and they may or may not take much effort on your part to learn some great ways to save money. Your greater savings can often be found in the perishable departments of a grocery store. I Want to Buy a Home - Now What? If you were to ask 100 women "What would you like to achieve financially?" Buying a home or apartment is usually one of the answers. Some women think that they can never own a home - which is not true! In fact, there are so many success stories of home buyers who never thought they would get there. Personal Checks - Extreme Benefits Millions of people have a checking account and many people have two of three. They have the choice of choosing a variety of check designs to compliment the checking account. Honor Those Who Serve with Checking Account Supplies Our global society has had a wake up call in the last five years regarding our safety. But there are those in our communities that fight to keep us safe from day to day. Succession Planning Have you ever thought about what you are going to leave your children when you pass from this earth? Wouldn't it be a great feeling to be able to give them a really good head start in life - without actually spoiling them?It really doesn't matter how old you are, it's something that you need to be thinking about and planning for now. In the process of planning your inheritance and blessing your children, you are really making YOUR life better and more financially secure because you'll enjoy these benefits before you pass them on. Estate Planning Basics You have probably accomplished a great deal with your life. Over the years you have worked, planned and saved. Portfolio Planning can Lead to Irreconcilable Differences The judge had to ask the question, and we had to answer it in order to get our divorce finalized. It was all supposed to be pro-forma. Im Broke, How Can I Afford... I'm still amazed every time someone comes to me complaining that they don't have any money to put into their business and that they're broke.I mean what have you been doing with your money man?!?Plain Truth: If you don't have any money you won't make it my friend? it's that simple. 10 Tips To Save Money When Dining Out Here are some tips that can help you save money when dining out. Keep in mind that these tips are intended to help you save money when dining out at a restaurant type setting. How To Free-Up 10% to 15% of Your Income Would you be interested in freeing up 10% to 15% of your current income? Just imagine what you could do with this money. You could pay down your debts, increase your savings, or work toward that next important purchase that you have in mind. Budget Planning - Its Elementary My Dear Watson Does it feel like you have to be Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery behind balancing your personal budget? Are you living a mysterious thriller where your realization of "financial independence and security" is a vicious repeating cycle of debt? Don't be afraid?.. Saving Money - Are You Doing Enough? It is estimated that we, as consumers, waste an average of 30% of our paychecks on items we don't need or pay way too much for the items we buy. Since 1990, spending is up 30% and debt is up an astounding 80%. Banks Are More Than Just A Place To Park Your Money If you've been to a shopping mall lately, you've probably discovered two different banks within a few feet of each other. Go inside the food store in that shopping plaza and you'll see yet another one, just waiting to offer their services to you. 7 Simple Ways To Save Money Each of us knows how to spend money, but do we really know how to save our money? No, I am not necessarily talking about setting aside funds for an investments purposes - a good thing - but saving money on everyday items. Here are seven simple ways you can save money:1. The Good and the Bad of Money Management Good money management needn't be difficult. In fact, there a number of easy steps recommended by most financial professionals to help manage your finances better. 10 Tips to Make Sure Your Financial Budget Will Succeed You've analyzed your past expenses, put them into spreadsheets, loaded Quicken with all of your data and come up with a budget. Now what? The tough part! You actually have to stick to your budget and put your plans into action. Save Money Off Your Home Utility Bills Many don't realize that our basic utility bills provide the perfect money saving opportunity for practically every household!Especially with today's energy crisis so prevalent throughout many of the states, you've probably heard this term - conservation.Guess what, conservation really means "using less". Your Dry Cleaner's Double Standard Women are charged more for dry cleaning services. Don't fume, find a better way. Budgeting is Bothersome It doesn't take much for you to get behind on monthly bills, but it sure takes some time to catch up. The comparison in my mind is to weight gain. Resources to Help You Learn About and Protect Yourself from Identity Theft There is a new bill that is being passes, it is a very weak bill but if passed, it will prohibit using a social security number for identification purposes. This bill should take affect in 2006.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
