Spring Break
Economical dinners
Jason M. Wallace
Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Opinion
Since I've been off of a meal plan, having to pay for my own food has opened another variable in the problem of saving money. After last semester, I learned where my refund money goes to besides paying for rent, textbooks and other expenses. If we had the appetite of a snake, then food expenses would not really be a problem. However, since we do run off two or three meals a day, this is my advice to help with the food bill.
Keep dining out to a minimum. A combo at most of the fast food restaurants around campus start at $6, then every sit down restaurant entrée starts around $6 to $7, then adding a drink besides water will make it a $9 to $10 meal. Making those kinds of dining choices daily could easily wipe out close to a $100 a week.
I've found that buying groceries and making meals at home is the most cost effective way to feed myself. If I'm going to be on campus all day, a bowl of cereal in the morning, one or two homemade sandwiches with water for lunch, and a quick meal, or leftovers from a previous one, all probably costs $5 or $6. If you're going to be cooking for yourself, then making five servings in dishes like meatloaf or baked chicken with rice should get you through the work week. Canned vegetables are inexpensive and make easy side dishes as well. A single, small can of anything will make two or three servings.
The only problems with fixing every meal from home are finding what can be tolerated and enjoyed every day for a week -- and then there's the cooking process. This takes a little bit of time to experiment with finding the foods you like and the dishes that you are capable of cooking, but eventually you'll end up with more options than repetitive fast food menus.
It helps to keep a list of what's in the fridge. Finding a bag of forgotten and molded grapes in the crisper is never pleasant because now I have to find something else to snack on, and secondly, there goes $2 worth of grapes.
We constantly find ourselves taking the easy way out for preparing food for ourselves by constantly eating fast food or at restaurants. We do so because our society is so fast paced that time for a decent meal at home would require more hours in the day, which will, unfortunately, never be granted to us.
For someone with a 16-hour class load and a job, weekly visits to the grocery store and productive time in the kitchen can easily be put on the back burner. But cutting down to one or two outings a week will help save so much in the end.
This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.
Keep dining out to a minimum. A combo at most of the fast food restaurants around campus start at $6, then every sit down restaurant entrée starts around $6 to $7, then adding a drink besides water will make it a $9 to $10 meal. Making those kinds of dining choices daily could easily wipe out close to a $100 a week.
I've found that buying groceries and making meals at home is the most cost effective way to feed myself. If I'm going to be on campus all day, a bowl of cereal in the morning, one or two homemade sandwiches with water for lunch, and a quick meal, or leftovers from a previous one, all probably costs $5 or $6. If you're going to be cooking for yourself, then making five servings in dishes like meatloaf or baked chicken with rice should get you through the work week. Canned vegetables are inexpensive and make easy side dishes as well. A single, small can of anything will make two or three servings.
The only problems with fixing every meal from home are finding what can be tolerated and enjoyed every day for a week -- and then there's the cooking process. This takes a little bit of time to experiment with finding the foods you like and the dishes that you are capable of cooking, but eventually you'll end up with more options than repetitive fast food menus.
It helps to keep a list of what's in the fridge. Finding a bag of forgotten and molded grapes in the crisper is never pleasant because now I have to find something else to snack on, and secondly, there goes $2 worth of grapes.
We constantly find ourselves taking the easy way out for preparing food for ourselves by constantly eating fast food or at restaurants. We do so because our society is so fast paced that time for a decent meal at home would require more hours in the day, which will, unfortunately, never be granted to us.
For someone with a 16-hour class load and a job, weekly visits to the grocery store and productive time in the kitchen can easily be put on the back burner. But cutting down to one or two outings a week will help save so much in the end.
This writer can be contacted at opinion@theeastcarolinian.com.
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