Posted in Tightwad Tuesdays

After my last post in which I gave snippets of things I have been busy doing lately, I was asked to share the burrito recipe I had made.  I will do one or two better than that.  I'll share several time-saving ideas when it comes to meals-on-the-fly, or, as we refer to them, homemade fast-food meals.

Having meals on hand isn't just a treat, it's a necessity for those of us looking to cut more unnecessary money out of our budget.  One fast food meal can cost upwards of $25 - which was 1/4 of my total food budget!  I say was, because we are really streamlining our budget right now, and I'm now down to $75 per week.  So, one fast food meal is now, *gulp*, one-THIRD of my current food budget.  Yikes!  Being tired or cross or lazy now costs my family 1/3 of our weekly groceries!!  That should put dining out into perspective.

In my bid to cut all dining out expenses from our budget, I knew I had to get tough - disciplined tough.  I had to plan, anticipate, and WORK.  Because believe you me, having a fully stocked kitchen which anticipates ALL things isn't for the faint of heart.  I began with a notepad, and wrote down enough breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks for a week.  Then, on another sheet of paper, I began ruthlessly scheduling my days.  It looks something like this:

Wednesday (the day I made this list):  dinner - Polenta Pie and Salad
prep:  soak beans overnight for chili, make yoghurt, prep Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

Thursday:  breakfast - Cinnamon-Raisin Bread and fruit;
lunch - Veggie Soup and Cheese Quesedillas
dinner - (CP) Chili and Cornbread
prep:  bake Cinnamon-Raisin bread first thing in the morning; make Cinnamon-Raisin oatmeal mix and store in pantry; make Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins for Friday's breakfast; make whole wheat bread; go grocery shopping; thaw a gallon of milk before bed

Friday:  breakfast - Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins and fruit;
lunch - Polenta with Spaghetti Sauce and veggies;
dinner - Pigs-in-Blankets, coleslaw, chips;
prep:  (A.M.) assemble polenta and place in fridge for lunch; shred cabbage for dinner and place in fridge; make batch of burritos and freeze; make batch of pigs-in-blankets and freeze

Saturday:  breakfast - homemade granola with strawberries and fruit;
lunch - see list of possible lunches freezer burritos loaded with cheese, enchilada sauce, & lettuce;
dinner - homemade pizza and salad meatloaf, peas, baked potatoes;
prep:  assemble breakfast casserole for Sunday and throw in fridge; thaw chicken for Sunday dinner; artisan bread starter; pull out Banana Bread from freezer to thaw for Sunday breakfast; make yoghurt; pulled out muffins from freezer for breakfast instead

Sunday:  breakfast - Scrambled Egg Casserole, Banana Bread, fruit Super Power Muffins and fruit;
dinner - Hunky Chicken, salad, bread homemade pizza and salad
prep:  thaw chicken broth for Monday's dinner; pull out Banana bread for Monday's breakfast from freezer

Monday:  breakfast - Banana Bread and fruit (and lots of coffee - ugh);
lunch - pigs-in-blanket (yep, we're addicted) and pineapple;
dinner - Crock Pot Mushroom soup, boule bread, salad;
prep:  make artisan bread; throw dinner in crock-pot by 11 a.m.

Tuesday:  breakfast - Cinnamon-Raisin Oatmeal and fruit
lunch - beans and rice;
dinner - Veggie Stir Fry and homemade vegetarian sushi (my first attempt :P);
prep:  prepare all veggies for stir fry; make vegetarian sushi rolls and store in fridge; make whole wheat bread; make whole wheat French bread rolls and freeze; soak red beans for Wednesday's dinner; transfer bag of bagels from freezer to fridge

Wednesday:  breakfast - Bagels and fruit;
lunch - leftovers;
dinner - Red Beans & Rice and Salad;
prep:  Grocery List and Meal plan; make whole wheat pitas

Now, while reading through this, you see that Saturday and Sunday had quite a bit crossed out.  That's because PLANS ALWAYS CHANGE.  Saturday hubby and I thought we'd go grab the travel trailer from storage, pull it over to the house, and commence a leisurely spring cleaning and general maintenance on it throughout the day.  We're planning a trip to Tucson this weekend, and wanted to get ready.  (For entertaining reading, feel free to read how our LAST trip to Tucson last May turned out.  At least we don't have Irish dance to contend with this time, lol.)  We left the boys home in the morning and trotted off to storage.  (okay, we didn't really trot - hubby bought a tank last weekend and so we roared off to storage)  We got to storage, threw the old hitch (sidenote here: this hitch-with-sway-bars was my grandparents that they always used when camping; this hitch has been towing me around since I was a tyke, so sentimental feelings about a piece of rusty metal abound) onto the new truck, and realized with a dismayed disbelief that the old hitch wasn't going to work.  It was too high for us to hook the trailer onto.  As in, a good 6-8" too high.  I readily conceded defeat, but hubby, being a hubby and all, tried to make it work.  Several cotter pins and trips to the hardware store later (they all snapped from him trying to get the trailer higher), he finally admitted this wasn't going to work.  We needed a new hitch.  I suggested passing "GO" and heading straight to Camping World.  He shook his head and stubbornly headed off to Checkers auto supply.  Seeing where this was headed, I called the boys and told them we'd be awhile and then asked hubby to stop for water (it's pushing 100* now here in AZ, and you don't leave home without water unless you're coming right back; critical flaw in our plan) and grabbed some corn chips as well (hey, if you could see into the future like I did, you would've grabbed them too).  Checkers had some items, but none of the hitches or hitch balls were rated over 5,000 lbs.  Our trailer is rated at 7,600 lbs., fully loaded.  Heh-hmmmm.  Next stop, Wal-Mart.  Less choices than Checkers.  Out we go.  Our third stop takes us to an RV store.  They have the hitch ball we need, but not the hitch.  We might have purchased that, but the lady behind the counter tried telling my husband that instead of a $300 hitch that would do the trick, he'd be better off flipping the axles of the trailer to raise it to the height we needed.  Yeah, you know what happened.  He put the hitch ball back and walked out without purchasing anything.  Don't try to sell a man something more expensive, bill it as less expensive and less trouble, and expect a man to purchase a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. from you, especially if you are a woman.  Doesn't go over real well.

By this time, it's lunch, and I'm calling the boys to tell them we're now on our way to Camping World , which is about an hour round trip.  They're hungry, and so I tell them to grab a couple of the burritos out of the freezer and deck them out for lunch.  They're happy (of course they're happy - they're home eating when they want and playing Guitar Hero Band on the Wii with no interference) and off we drive.  At Camping World, we finally find it - a hitch with sway bar attachments that has a variable height adjuster - yay!!  The cost?  $302 and some change.  If you were paying attention earlier (and I don't blame you if you weren't - this post is going on waaaaayyyy longer than I had anticipated), you caught the part where we just purchased a new (to us) truck - an F-350 diesel to be exact.  So we're not exactly flush right now (hence the grocery budget cut), and $300 is looking like a looooooot of money - which it is.  So, we pick up a standard ball and hitch, appropriate weight requirements, and head out the door to go back to storage.  On the way, we stop at home real quick to have a burrito (they cook up in about 5 minutes - faster than the drive thru), and I spend all of 5 minutes throwing potatoes in the crock pot to bake.  Turn it on high, and hit the road.  By the time we get the trailer home, it is about 4 o'clock in the afternoon.  Oh.  My.  Gosh.

Well, we settled in to Spring Clean, but not so leisurely anymore.  I scrubbed, did laundry, vacuumed, mopped, sprayed, wiped, and sanitized.  Hubby worked outside, and we didn't stop until about 7 p.m.  We came in the house, showered, and headed down to the kitchen, where baked potatoes were waiting for us.  I pulled mini-meatloaves out of the freezer (bake your meatloaf recipe in muffin tin instead of loaf pan, and you have individual meatloaves perfect for just this occasion), nuked them for 5 minutes, and threw some frozen peas on the stove.  Within 15 minutes we were settling down to a wonderful meal - where previously we would have ordered out after a day like that.  Hubby was appreciative, and I was so happy I had all that available to do my job.  (as an endnote - I am very proud to announce that after two days of working on the trailer and all of the roadblocks we came up against, not once did hubby and I have cross words.  We're growing up, indeed. )

I highly encourage every woman out there to take a good look at her kitchen and make it work for you.  Living on a budget is time-consuming, but if you plan it right, it'll pay off in spades.

To read more Tightwad Tuesday posts, or to join in yourself, please go visit Mary for more information.  Have a wonderful week!