Life On Churchill

How to save time and money creating healthy, from scratch meals WITHOUT rigid meal plans or strict budgets

My husband and I have always been living off a single income for about 6 months now. I worked for the first 3 years of our marriage, but our plan was always that we would budget for living off just my husband’s income once we started a family. It has always been a priority to both of us that I would be able to be home full time to be the primary caregiver for our kids.

While we are so thankful to be able to make this work, it does definitely come with its challenges. The first months seeing the big hit to our income really pushed me to evaluate the bad habits I had developed that were really eating away at our budget (no pun intended!) Seriously though, when it came to food, food waste was a big cost!

Also, since I was home full time now, I had the time to experiment and figure out how to make healthy, from scratch meals for my family in the most cost effective way possible. So here’s my top tips I’ve learned that I’m excited to share with you! I truly think these tips make a huge difference to not only save you money, but also simplify your meals, planning, and grocery store trips (a win for sure!).

Note, the tips here are very similar to a previous post where I talked about tips to simplify meal planning. I just put more of a money saving spin on those ideas in this post. Thanks for reading!

1. Keep it simple

My mother in law raised 8 kids on a diet of meat, potatoes, and vegetables. My husband always knew what was for dinner and he grew to expect it to be that way. When we met and got married I thought this was a bit too rigid for me, and I also had a lot of vague ideas in my head about food and misconceptions about what nutrition should look like.

This was probably partly because I grew up in the Trim Healthy Momma era (maybe you’ve heard of it), where a main idea was that you should not eat carbs and protein together, not mixing food groups. I also grew up believing potatoes were somehow bad for you because they were all starch, “empty calories”, etc.

I’ve come to realize that while some people may be able to plan and make something unique and super healthy for 3 meals a day 7 days a week, most people, and especially busy moms, need some predictability and routine. I’ve also realized that working with the meat, potatoes, and vegetable concept is actually very cost effective and works well.

This is because we all know you somehow need to fit in all your food groups plus be full enough so that you don’t get hungry an hour later (which I found to be a big problem with not mixing protein and carbs. It’s hard (and expensive!) to eat enough meat to keep you full so you don’t snack later, and also hard to get protein in other ways if you’re not having a meat with your carbs at dinner).

Here’s some examples of how I manage to incorporate some variety into the basic structure of meat/potatoes/vegetables meals:

To start, you will always have a couple types of meat thawing in your fridge (watching your food safety guidelines). For example, you can cook a whole chicken or roast and serve that with a variety of potato options.

Do your research here about which potato you want to chose. Keep a variety of options such as red or sweet potatoes as they each have their own unique nutritional components. I was surprised when I started looking into this how much potatoes can actually offer nutritionally, while providing a great filler to your meal (especially when contrasted to rice and pasta).

At our house I typically will stick to making one large cut of meat and then eating that in different forms throughout the week. We might do whole chicken with potatoes (roasted, mashed, baked) and cooked veggies (boiled, roasted, or fresh) one night, then I may pull some soft shell tortillas out of the freezer the second night and have chicken wraps, then maybe make a chicken pot pie the third night, then switch back to a chicken/potato/vegetable the fourth night, etc.

When you stick with the meat/potato/vegetable structure you will always have opportunity to use up leftovers, either by just reheating them, or by using leftover veggies and potatoes to make a shepherd’s pie/chicken pot pie.

This works so well for our young family too! I can cut up smaller pieces for my toddler and mash up some veggies and potatoes to introduce my baby to some healthy solids.

2. Stick to staples

We always have a variety of meat and vegetables in our freezer so that I can just “shop” from there as we go through the week. I also always have potatoes on hand. Other staples I keep a stash of include pasta, canned goods, flour, sugar, etc. (anything that you can stock up on and it doesn’t go bad!). I also have things like tortilla wraps/bread/buns in my freezer so I can work with that for meals as well. My husband and I did the math and it was definitely worth it to buy a large freezer (we found one on marketplace!). This way I could buy meat and frozen produce in bulk and on sale and thaw it as we go.

When in doubt, freeze it.

This goes for leftovers too. How often have we all found leftovers forgotten in the back of the fridge! So if you’re not sure you’re going to be able to use something up, just label it (what it is and the date) and throw it in the freezer (preferably in the side door or at the front of your fridge freezer so you don’t forget about them there either). Have a designated spot for frozen leftovers so you remember to use them.

The only fresh produce I buy during the winter is bananas, apples, cucumbers and spinach (I buy the big Queen Victoria bag for about $3). During the summer I buy whatever is in season because the prices tend to be more reasonable. Anything else tends to go bad on us too easily so it just wastes our money.

Anything frozen significantly decreases your food waste! This may look different for every family depending on how fast your family goes through produce, but another reason I like frozen produce is because I know how it’s frozen is how it was picked (at prime freshness!). Here’s another area where you may be surprised how versatile certain veggies are even if they’ve been frozen. Frozen broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc. are all delicious boiled, steamed or roasted in the oven (and even on the barbeque!). I buy the big bags of the Naturally Imperfect brand of frozen veggies and fruit from No Frills, or the Great Value brand from Walmart.

3. Buy in bulk

This step will take a bit of research. If you have a frugal friend or family member who you know has done the math already, definitely use that resource to find out where the best deals are to get what.

Unfortunately bulk stores and Costco aren’t always the cheapest option, so it does take some research to figure out where you’ll save the most.

For me, I make my own bread so I buy unbleached flour and sugar from a local bulk food store. This is cheaper then Costco. Then I get things like raisins, chocolate chips, oatmeal, some cereals, wraps, some toiletries, peanut butter, ketchup, etc. from Costco. If you don’t have a Costco membership, it may be worth going with a friend and taking some pictures of the prices (since the in store prices are different then the online prices), or you can ask a friend to get you a Costco cash card (gets you free entrance into the store but there is a limited amount of times you can do this).

Again, this is so you can build your supply of nonperishables. Think of it like a home grocery store, working with the supply you have for meals as you go through your week. This also saves you time and money on your weekly grocery store trips!

4. Shop sales

I check my Flipp (price matching app) weekly for sales. You can customize your watch list so you can easily check for sales on the items you need. For more information on how to use Flipp check out my price matching post: https://lifeonchurchill.com/2024/03/16/the-easiest-way-to-price-match/

I stock up on those sales! For example, when I shop sales I can typically buy whole chicken at $2 or less a pound (in Canada), boneless/skinless chicken breasts at less then $6/pound, and then I use the PC app to stock up on PC points when they have offers on fruits and veggies.

Wrapping up!

I hope these tips get you well on your way to healthy, from-scratch meals and save you time, money and stress along the way! You can always use up leftovers for lunches, or check out my sourdough bread and waffles post to get you started making healthy bread options for breakfasts and lunches.

How to Make Sourdough Bread: Everything you need to know!

Buttermilk sourdough discard waffles

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And if you liked this post be sure to subscribe below & check out my blog at lifeonchurchill.com for more realistic tips as I share my journey towards a simpler, from-scratch lifestyle that actually makes sense for busy moms, saving you time and money along the way! 

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