If you’re trying to save money on groceries, the last thing you want to do is throw food away! Wasting food, simply put, is wasting money.

In the past I’ve shared 7 ways to use milk that is almost expired to help people not waste one of the most common staples in our kitchens.

Today we’ll look at bananas! Bananas are the perfect healthy snack to have on hand. Nature even has them conveniently individually wrapped for us! It can be tricky to be always stocked with bananas, though, as they can ripen fast, especially in the summer.

The good news is that there’s no such thing as a bad banana. Even a very overripe banana can be saved and given another (very delicious) life. I’ll share with you my top five uses for overripe bananas so you’ll never need to toss them out again!

What constitutes an overripe banana?

First, let’s talk about exactly what constituted an overripe banana.

As bananas ripen they get sweeter and softer. Whether a banana is underripe, overripe, or just perfect is partly personal preference. For some people, even one brown spot is overripe, while others prefer a well-speckled banana.

Test and texture aside, bananas become less appealing (no pun intended!) as they get brown. In the summer, an overripe banana will summon fruit flies from who knows where, a clear sign it’s time to use ‘em or lose ‘em.

While brown bananas may be too soft, squishy, and ripe for you to enjoy fresh, overripe bananas have many great uses for baking and other treats.

Great Ways to Use Overripe Bananas

There is no need to throw away brown bananas ever again! With these 5 smart ways to use overripe bananas, you’ll never waste another banana!

1- Banana bread

If you do any sort of baking, you probably already know that overripe bananas are the perfect ingredient for banana bread. What you might not know is that overripe bananas can be frozen to make banana bread in the future. Here’s our favorite moist and delicious banana bread recipe.

At the end of the post, I’ll share two tried and true methods for freezing bananas, so you can bake your banana bread whenever it’s convenient for you.

2-Banana Pancakes

In our house banana pancakes are a welcome sight any day of the week. We don’t even have to sleep in and pretend like it’s the weekend. The best part is there’s no recipe required. Just add mashed banana to your pancake batter, no matter if it is a lot or a little. It always turns out great!

If you’re looking for whole wheat pancakes, here’s our go-to homemade whole wheat pancake mix that we keep in the pantry.

3- Smoothies

Our family loves smoothies with whatever fruits we have on hand. Adding bananas to smoothies makes them nice and creamy. You can use overripe bananas that are fresh or frozen. You don’t even need a recipe. Just throw some bananas along with some frozen berries and milk or juice.

To save time, you can freeze smoothie kits by adding all of the solid ingredients to a freezer bag. Here are some of my best money-saving smoothie tips.

4- One-ingredient “ice cream” (dairy-free)

While it’s not technically ice cream as there is no cream or dairy in this treat, the smooth and creamy consistency is shockingly similar. Peel, slice and freeze your overripe bananas, then toss them in the blender or food processor until they are smooth. You don’t need other ingredients, but if you want to add vanilla or chocolate or peanut butter, that will be delicious too!

5- Banana cake

My college roommate had a well-loved recipe for banana cake with brown sugar topping that she would make any time we had spotty brown bananas. Sadly, I have lost the recipe and haven’t found another to replace it.

Until I find that beloved recipe, we’ve been enjoying this moist and flavorful banana cake with cream cheese frosting. Whichever route you go, banana cake is a great way to use up those overripe bananas.

How to freeze overripe bananas

In case you’re like me and can’t drop everything to make banana treats as soon as those brown spots appear, here are two great methods for freezing bananas so they are ready whenever you are!

Method 1 for Freezing Bananas:

My preferred method for freezing overripe bananas is to peel the bananas and cut (or break) them in half (or smaller pieces if you want). If you are freezing lots of bunches of bananas, you will want to first lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze for several hours before putting the frozen bananas into a freezer bag. This way the bananas won’t freeze to each other in a big banana mass.

If you’re only freezing a couple of bananas, you can get away with skipping the flash freezing step. Be sure to lay the bag flat in the freezer so that there is minimal touching of the bananas. I usually freeze bananas this way so I can use the bananas individually for smoothies if I want.

If you’re planning to use the bananas all at once for baking, then it doesn’t really matter if they are touching because you will thaw them all at the same time before using them anyway.

Method 2 for Freezing Bananas:

Let’s say you notice overripe bananas on the counter as you’re running out the door to catch a plane for a two-week vacation. You can freeze bananas in their peels if you are in a total hurry and don’t have time for the other way. This isn’t my preferred method, but it works.

Frozen bananas in peels are not very fun to deal with. The frozen banana peel turns completely black and the bananas have to thaw a while before you can get the peel off. I usually score the peel with a knife or fork to help take it off more easily. I’m not going to lie, though. It’s a little gross.

The plus side is that you don’t even need a plastic bag when you freeze bananas in their peels since the peels protect the bananas from freezer burn.

How do YOU use overripe bananas?

Here’s a random fun fact: In graduate school, my dad, a geneticist, did research on fruit flies. In order to attract his specimens, he travelled to various parts of the country with carloads of brown bananas. He got his fill of banana aroma and to this day he will not eat bananas or anything made with them. He’s totally missing out!

What constitutes an overripe banana for you?

What are YOUR favorite ways to use overripe bananas?

If you have a favorite recipe please share!

The post 5 Smart Ways to Use Overripe Bananas (and how to freeze them) appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Ever since I started sharing my monthly grocery shopping hauls, especially now that we’re trying to eat healthier (more real food, less processed stuff), I have received so many questions about how we are able to eat all of our produce before it goes bad.

We try to do pretty much the whole month’s shopping at once, though we may make a small trip or two later in the month for bread, milk, produce, something random, or a great deal.

So how do we buy so much produce without wasting it?

Honestly, I think we just plain eat more than most people.  Our four older kids (ages 3, 6, 8, and 10) are all tall and thin (as is typical in our family, the baby is chunky!), but they have lots of energy and burn calories like it’s their job.

My husband is super tall and has an incredible capacity and high metabolism (though not as high as it used to be).

And me, well, I had a baby last fall and it still shows (I’m working on that).  Our eight-month-old is a voracious nurser, so I’m kind of eating for both of us, though he’s starting to eat some table food like banana, sweet potato, applesauce, and avocado.

Aside from us just eating a lot, there are some conscious things I do to help us buy a lot of produce and not let it go bad.

I’ve summed it up with some unwritten rules that we follow.  If you’d rather watch me tell you all about them, here’s a video!

1. Eat Fresh First

As I’m planning what we’ll be having for meals, I focus on what’s fresh first, instead of ingredients that are in my pantry or freezer.

For example, at the beginning of the month when I have fresh tomatoes, I won’t use any canned or bottled tomato products.  Later in the month when the fresh tomatoes are gone, I’ll make homemade tomato sauce out of tomato puree that I canned in the past.

For sides at dinner for the first three weeks or so of the month we will have salad.  When all of our salad greens are gone we will eat frozen veggies, like peas and broccoli, for side dishes at dinner.

2. Start with What Will Go Bad First

Some fruits and veggies are more robust than others.  Eat the more sensitive ones first and save the sturdier ones for later.

For example, in last month’s grocery haul I bought lettuce (baby spring mix), spinach (organic baby spinach), green cabbage, and red cabbage.

Lettuce gets wilty faster than lettuce, so we eat the lettuce mix first (sometimes with spinach mixed in) and then we eat straight spinach in our salads.

In my experience, the cabbage can last two months without much, if any, change in the quality.  I’m new at buying red cabbage, but it appears even more hearty and robust than the green cabbage!  I’m not planning to use the cabbage until the end of the month when my other fresh greens are gone.

3. Default Snack

When I share pictures of my grocery hauls on Instagram or Facebook, I always get asked about how we go through so many bananas before they go bad.

Honestly, we never have a problem going through lots of bananas.  One of the reasons is that fruit and veggies are the default snack for my kids. When the kids whine that they are hungry and ask for a snack, I point them toward the bananas, apples, or mandarins.

This didn’t come naturally, but through training.   If you want your kids to eat more fruits and veggies, don’t have other snacks accessible.  If they’re hungry enough, they’ll start eating the fruits and veggies you have readily available.  And then they’ll start to like them.

Just for the record, this is coming from the girl (that’s me!) who was in her twenties before she learned to like salad and still can’t handle the texture of raw carrots.

If all the non-babies in my family ate a banana a day for a snack or with breakfast, that’s 42 bananas in a week.  And often they’ll eat more than one (especially if they’re my husband)!

4. Prep Ahead

The more convenient you make your produce, the more you will eat it and use it in your meals.  It’s so much easier to use fresh fruits and vegetables when they are prepped ahead of time.

I have a whole post (and even a video) about how I prepare and freeze a vegetable mix (carrots, celery, onions, and garlic) that I use in a lot of the soups that I make.  Cooking soup for dinner is suddenly quick and easy when all of the ingredients are already cut and frozen.

I keep a freezer bag of diced peppers and onions in my freezer to use in my breakfast eggs.

Cut up veggies for snacks.  Carrot and celery sticks can be stored in a container of water so they don’t dry out and get limp.

For kids (or grown-ups) who are intimidated by eating whole fruit, a fruit salad is an easy way to have fruit ready to eat.  As long as there is something acidic in it (oranges, pineapple, etc) you don’t have to worry about apples browning.

5. Store it right

How you store your produce makes a huge difference in how long it lasts.  Besides bananas, potatoes, onions, and some squashes, I try to keep as much of our produce in the fridge as possible.  We do have a second fridge (that we got for free when a friend was giving it away), which makes this possible.

Apples stay nice for months in the fridge!  Oranges last a long time in the fridge too!

In fact, in my monthly shopping in April, I bought four 5-lb boxes of Cutie clementines for less than $1/lb because they were near the end of their prime.  We picked out a dozen cuties that were soft and then put the rest of them in the fridge.  I planned to use them fast in lunches and for snacks because I expected them to go bad quickly. They stayed good all through April and into the first week in May when they finally ran out.  I had taken one of the boxes out of the fridge and put it on the counter for convenience and those Cuties started to get soft, but the ones in the fridge were perfect!

Take fruit out of bags when possible, especially banana and tomatoes.  I like to store my tomatoes in leftover Cutie boxes so that they can stack nicely in the fridge.

Keep bananas away from apples and other ripening fruit.  Hang if possible to prevent bruising. They shouldn’t be kept in the fridge, but the cooler your house is, the longer they will last.  Ours last much longer in our house in the winter when it’s cool inside than in the summer when it gets hot.

6. Have a Plan B

If eating fresh doesn’t work out, have another plan.  There are lots of other ways to eat fruits and veggies besides fresh.  Here are some favorite Plan Bs for the produce we buy often:

Bananas– If I have bananas that are going brown and soft I peel them, break them into a few pieces, and stick them in a freezer bag.  They are excellent for smoothies!  If I have time, I make banana bread right away, but most often I freeze the bananas and make them into bread later.  If you are pressed for time, you can just put them in the freezer in their peel and peel them later.

Spinach/Kale– If I notice that the spinach is starting to go I transfer it into a freezer bag and freeze it for smoothies.  You can put a handful or two of frozen spinach into your smoothie and you won’t even notice it.  Your kids will never know!

Strawberries– Wash and hull (cut off green part) strawberries before freezing them.  Frozen strawberries are perfect for smoothies or pies.  I slice and freeze strawberries too so I can easily make strawberry topping for ice cream or waffles.

Citrus– Cut and freeze lemons and limes to easily use their juice (or zest) in recipes.  You can also use them in smoothies (even with the peel!).  Alternatively, you can peel your citrus for use in smoothies.

Avocado– Avocados can be frozen in halves, chunks, or puree.  I use it in smoothies or as guacamole.

Tomatoes– Even tomatoes can be frozen if you’re going to use them in puree or sauce.  I do this with our garden tomatoes so that I can do one big canning session to make all of my tomato puree.

Apples– Yep, you can freeze apples too!  When my kids don’t finish the apple slices in their lunch and they are looking brown and less than delicious, I stick them in the freezer and throw them in our next smoothie!

Grapes– Frozen grapes make a fun icy treat.  They can also go in– you guessed it– smoothies.

The key here is that in most cases it’s best to take action on plan B before your produce goes bad.  This is just a matter of being aware and keeping a good lookout.  Every day as you open your refrigerator, take a look at the state of your produce and see if there’s anything that needs to move to plan B.

Sometimes life happens and produce goes bad [gasp!]

It happens to everyone.  I promise it does.

Your compost pile (or chickens) won’t mind that you’re not perfect.

Just move on and do better next time.  If you bought a fruit or veggie without a plan to use it, make a plan before you buy it next time.

Before you know it this eating-healthy-on-a-budget thing will be second nature.

You’ve got this!

How about you?

• What fruit or veggie goes bad on you most often?
• What are your best tips for not letting produce go to waste?

The post 6 Hacks to Never Waste Produce Again! appeared first on Six Figures Under.

What if I told you you could get fresher, better quality meat that is cheaper than the grocery store from a truck in a church parking lot?  Would you think I was a crazy lady?

The logistics sounded a bit odd to me, too, when I first heard of Zaycon Fresh, but now I’m hooked!

I’m still suffering from sticker shock from the meat prices here after for nearly five years of living in California.  Even when we were in the Midwest where prices were much better, I never paid full price for very many things.

Needless to day, when I learned of another option for buying meat at a good price, I was all ears.  Even if it meant picking it up from a truck in the parking lot of a church I had never been to before.

So what is Zaycon Fresh?

Zaycon Fresh is like a co-op for meat.  They cut out the middle man so to speak.

In our country, at least the parts where I have lived, we’re pretty trained to feel comfortable buying groceries from a grocery store and nowhere else.  Sure, some of us seasonally shop at farmers’ markets or grow our own food, by most Americans buy groceries almost exclusively from a brick and mortar store.

We don’t often think of the store as a middle man.  Yet, that’s really what they are.  I’m not complaining though.  It’s suuuper convenient to be able to buy so many different products all in one place!

Having a middle man with lots of overhead like a grocery store has some downsides though.  With all the logistics of transporting food, it’s not as fresh as what you get straight from the farm.  Also, adding a middle man with lots of overhead significantly increases the price.

With Zaycon, you get fresher, higher quality meat for better prices than the grocery store.  The only catch is that it’s only sold in bulk.  For example the ground beef and boneless skinless chicken breasts that I just bought come in 40 pound boxes.

That might sound like an outrageous amount, but with a deep freeze or a friend or two to split the order with, the bulk amount becomes completely manageable.

How it works

With Zaycon, you need to be a member to get the deals, but it’s free to sign up.  Once you go through the quick sign up process you’ll be able to browse the pickup locations and dates.  You’ll get emails when different meat “events” are coming up.  You’ll get coupon codes every now and then, too!

The event details include the pickup location, which is often a local church parking lot, and the pickup time, usually a 30 minute window of time.  If that time doesn’t work for you, you can have a friend pick up your order.

When you find an event you’re interested in, you register for it.  Payment is due at the time of registration, which is often a month or more before the event, though sometimes you can get into an event that’s coming up sooner if it’s not full yet.

When your event day rolls around be sure you have room in the fridge!  You’ll also want to set aside some time that week to cook or package your meat for freezing.

The actual pickup couldn’t be simpler.  You don’t even need to get out of your car!  There will be some cones and signs in the parking lot to show you where to go.  The friendly truck driver  will ask you for your name and order number.  He’ll get your order from his refrigerated truck and load it into your car.  It seriously takes two minutes tops!

If for some reason you miss your pickup, you’ll get a refund or a credit.  They are super easy to work with.

Zaycon is not for everyone

While Zaycon works great for our family, it might not be right for you.

If your budget is super tight right now, Zaycon isn’t for you.  In order to start buying (anything) in bulk, you’ll need to have some wiggle room in your grocery budget.  Once you’re in a place where you can stock up, you’ll find that it all evens out.  While I may spend $100 on meat one month, I won’t need to buy meat again for another six months.  That frees up money to stock up on apples from the local orchard when they’re in season, or buy peaches in bulk when I’m ready to do some canning.

If you eat exclusively certified organic meat, Zaycon isn’t for you.  While their meat is humanely raised and processed in the United States, it isn’t certified organic.  In my experience, I have found the quality to be impressive, better than what I would be buying at the grocery store (it even have my mother-in-law impressed!).

If you are single or have a small family and either don’t have a freezer or don’t have anyone to split an order with, Zaycon’s probably not for you.  This one is pretty subjective and will depend on the way you “do food” at your house.  I know some empty nesters who still buy and cook in bulk as if it’s the only way to go.  Zaycon might still be a great option, even if you don’t have a big family, but it’s something to think about.  You definitely don’t want that meat going to waste.

Why I Love Zaycon Fresh

While Zaycon isn’t for everyone, it works great for my family!  Here are a few reasons I love buying meat through Zaycon Fresh.

I get better quality for less money— I’m buying fresh, high-quality meat for less than what I pay at the grocery store.  That’s a big win for this frugal mama!

It’s super convenient— I can secure great prices from the comfort of home and don’t even have to get out of my car to get my order!

Buying in bulk saves time and money— Stocking my freezer means I don’t have to shop for meat very often.  It’s one less department I have to go to at the store.

I first ordered from Zaycon last year.  I wanted to be sure it met my awesomeness criteria before I wrote all about it.  And let me tell you, it passes with flying colors!  In a future post I’ll tell you what in the world I do with all that meat!

Want to try Zaycon?

If you’re new to Zaycon, go see if Zaycon is available in your area.  If they are (hooray!), then sign up for a free account and see the upcoming events in your area.

How about you?

• Have you heard of or tried Zaycon Fresh?  What was your experience?
• What would you do with 40 lbs of ground beef or 20 lbs of chicken breasts?

This post contains my affiliate link.  That means that I will get a commission if you choose to make a purchase.  Rest assured that I only share with you products and services that I deem awesome!

The post Why I Buy Meat in Bulk from a Truck (Zaycon Fresh Review) appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Mary Poppins spoke the truth when she said, “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun.  You find the fun…. and snap!  The job’s a game!”

I love games and I’m always up for a challenge.  Though my husband and I never fight, we can be very competitive when it comes to games.  (In fact, he rarely plays Big Boggle or SET with me anymore because I win every time… we usually stick to Scrabble where both of us stand an equal chance.)

Over the years I have tried to take advantage of my competitive streak by using it to reach my (normally non-competitive) goals.  Most of the time I’m only competing with myself, but just like the my favorite nanny illustrates, when you can find fun in a chore, “the job’s a game!”

Lowering your grocery budget isn’t usually seen as a fun challenge.  In fact, just bringing up the topic of grocery budgets is enough to make some people break out in a sweat and get their grumpy face on.  So lowering your grocery budget is the “job that must be done” and now I get to show you the “element of fun!”

Remember, attitude is everything here.  Scrooge wouldn’t think these games could be any fun, but if you go into them with a positive attitude, you really can have a good time lowering your grocery budget.

With our further ado, here are six of the games I play to make keeping a low grocery budget fun!

If it’s not on the list…

If you have a habit of grabbing impulse items from the end caps in the grocery store or seem to get uncontrollable cravings when you’re shopping, then this is a great game for you!  Not only will you have an incentive (i.e, to win!) to avoid impulse buys, you will also be refining your grocery-list-writing skills.

The game is straight-forward.  You plan your meals and make a good shopping list before heading to the store.  When you’re at the store, you must limit yourself to only those items on your list.  If you make it out of the store with only the items on your list, you win!  You’ll become a focused, rockstar grocery-list-maker in no time!

How long can I go?

For some people, this one might be torture, but I actually think it’s a fun challenge.  If you really want to cut your month’s grocery budget, try to see how long you can go without buying food.

Now, you can set your own rules for this challenge, so maybe your rules are that you can only but milk and a set amount of produce each week.  Other than that, all of your meals must come from your pantry or freezer.

An alternative to the “How long can I go” challenge is the no-spend challenge (also called a “pantry challenge”).  With a no-spend challenge, I set a specific time limit on how long I will not buy groceries.  For us, I usually do a month.  In fact, you can go beyond just groceries and do it for all of your flexible spending categories of your budget.

Sometimes I try to see how long I can go without going to the grocery store just for fun.

Cash Budget Game

I have never done a full cash budget, but I have worked with a cash grocery budget before.  It’s a really effective way to limit your spending because when the money is gone, it’s gone!  No cheating– that’s a given.

With a cash budget you are forced to pay attention to everything that you put in your cart because you don’t want to end up with a total you can’t pay for at the register. #beentheredonethat

The rules are simple, if you make a weekly shopping trip, only bring 1/4 of your monthly grocery budget.  If you stay within those parameters, you win!

 Just the Perimeter

The next challenge will save you both time and money.  The object here is to only shop the perimeter of the grocery store.  Typically the perimeter of the store has fresh produce, meat, and dairy.  You will avoid the inside aisles, including boxed, bagged, or canned food.  You might be surprised at the money you’ll save when you don’t buy the pre-packaged convenience food which makes the bulk of what is sold in grocery stores (at least here in the US).

How do you win at this one?  Simple!  You just don’t buy anything that isn’t on the perimeter.  Chances are, you will need things from the inner aisles at some point, so this challenge isn’t one you’ll do every week.

Nothing at Regular Price

There are two levels of this challenge.  In its simplest form, you would focus on sale prices and loss leaders from your store’s weekly ad.  The front page of the ad will have the best deals.  Planning your menu around key sale items is a great money-saving strategy.

To increase the intensity of the “Nothing at Regular Price” challenge, you can involve coupons.  In a former life (read: when I didn’t live in the boonies), I enjoyed couponing.  Couponing is a whole game in itself.  I won’t get into all of the details, but trust me when I say you can get lots of food for great prices if you’re willing to put in a little effort to learn this skill.  The most effective way to use coupons is to combine them with a sale price, a cashback rebate, or other promotion.

Challenge yourself to only buy what is on sale.  Hopefully you’re keeping track of prices on the items you use regularly so you can recognize what a real sale is when it hits.  If you make it out of the store without buying anything regular price, you win!

On your Mark, Get Set, Go!

How can we go without a challenge that is time-based?  One complaint busy people have is that grocery shopping takes too long, so why not challenge yourself to do it faster?  Decide on a time that you’d like to beat, then start the countdown with your stopwatch (or a phone app stopwatch substitute)  Don’t forget your list! Your list is what will allow you to speed-shop!

The money-saving factor here is that you will just buy the things you need and won’t take time to browse all of those impulse items that are dying to get into your cart.  You do have to be careful here though, because when you’re time-bound, you won’t take as much time reading labels and comparing prices.  This isn’t a problem for me usually because I have done all of the comparisons at my local store and already know what’s a great deal and what isn’t.  If you’re new to cutting your grocery budget you will want to take some time to compare the prices per unit on the items on your list.

A Disclaimer

I don’t expect (or recommend) that you use one of these challenges every week.  Most of these challenges (except the cash grocery budget) work best when they are not used every week.  Also, not all of these challenges are inherently money-saving.  You have to couple each challenge with a money-saving mindset in order to see the best results.  In other words, don’t rely on one of these challenges alone to revamp your grocery budget.

How about you?

• Are you (like me and Mary Poppins) motivated by challenges and games?
• Have you ever made saving on groceries a game or challenge?

The post 6 Fun Ways to Lower Your Grocery Budget appeared first on Six Figures Under.

I was a teenager the first time I tried out freezer cooking.  I set a goal to make a month’s-worth of meals for my family (I grew up in a family of six).  I dusted off the Once-a-Month Meals cookbook that lived on the bookshelf with other rarely opened cookbooks and dove right in.

I was excited about doing such a big project as a teen.    Since my mom taught piano lessons in our home after school right up until dinner time, I knew my project would be of service.  How convenient it would be to have meals for our family organized and prepared ahead of time!

After reading through the recipes and compiling a detailed shopping list, I rummaged through the cupboards and food storage, then got all the other ingredients at the store with my mom.

The only thing I remember about the preparation is that it was a lot of work.  I spent an entire Saturday working in the kitchen and I was exhausted (and still not even finished).

While I was excited about the meals I had made, the long tedious hours in the kitchen made me wonder if I really had saved any time or money.

I wouldn’t say that I had a bad experience making freezer meals, but considering that decades passed before I attempted any similar feat, it’s safe to say that it was more than a little overwhelming.

I didn’t avoid freezer cooking altogether.  There are lots of ways I use my freezer to save time, money, and sanity when it comes to meal time.  I cook beans in bulk and freeze them.  I brown and freeze ground beef when I buy it in bulk (and stretch it with veggies).  I even make pie crust in bulk and freeze it.

It was just making entire freezer meals that I avoided for years, decades even.

But isn’t freezer cooking a frugal dream?

Many people were surprised to hear that I wasn’t into the freezer cooking craze, as it can be a great way to save money.  Freezer cooking forces you to meal plan well in advance.  Even on busy nights where unexpected craziness might otherwise land you in the drive-thru lane, you have a simple, frugal solution when there’s a homemade meal at your fingertips in the freezer.  When your meal planning, shopping, and meal prep is done all at once, you don’t have to make those quick trips to the store throughout the week.  You also buy the exact ingredients you need so you don’t have food going to waste.

So what were my reasons for not embracing the freezer meal craze?  It wasn’t just laziness or overwhelm that kept me from making freezer meals.

Let me explain…

Here are my 5 main problems with the freezer cooking

Time.  My experience with having freezer cooking consume an entire weekend doesn’t seem to be unique.  I’ve seen others post and tell tales of cooking for an entire weekend straight so they wouldn’t have to do anything for the next month.  While that sounds fantastic, it also doesn’t sound very feasible for me right now.  What do I do with my four little ones while I’m spending every waking hour in the kitchen all weekend?

Organization. Honestly the thought of organizing and shopping for a month’s worth of specific meals that I’ve never made before overwhelms me.

Meat. The majority of freezer cooking plans I see are meat-based. We save tons of money by stretching our meat.  We don’t eat meat every day of the week like most Americans, so many of the freezer meal plans out there wouldn’t work as an everyday solution.  Also, our oldest has stopped eating meat altogether, which means we’re even more careful about having less meat and having a meat-free option.

Space.  We have a deep freeze and plenty of space by most people’s standards, but we are always filling it with garden produce, markdown dairy or meat, and bulk baking.  My issue is with filling your freezer with foods that would otherwise be fine on the shelf.  I don’t like the idea of opening up a bunch of canned foods (which have a nice shelf life) and putting them in a bag and putting them in the freezer, making them susceptible to power outages and space constraints of the freezer.

Meal size.  I wouldn’t say my family of six is large, but it’s bigger than the standard two adults and two kids that many meal plans go by.  We also eat a lot. I look at gallon-size freezer bags and I think “There is no way that will feed my family.”

If you have had some of these qualms with freezer cooking, then you’ll be excited to know that I’ve found a method that addresses these real issues that I’ve been facing!

The strategy that’s working for me

There are lots of different freezer meal plans and strategies out there that I’m sure are great.  I recently discovered MyFreezeEasy meal plans by the $5 dinner mom and they got me really excited to give freezer meals another try.  Better yet, they have actually helped me get over all my previous issues with freezer cooking.

Let me give a quick explanation of what MyFreezEasy is and then I’ll show you how it solved my freezer meal issues and actually got me really, really excited about jumping on the freezer cooking bandwagon.

The basic version of MyFreezEasy gives you access to 8 different meal plans with new recipes each month.  There is a traditional plan, gluten-free plan, slow cooker plan, clean eats plan, all chicken plan, just to name a few. You get access to ALL 8 meal plans each month.

Each meal plan includes five recipes (you make two of each one), shopping lists, prep and assembly instructions, and labels for your freezer bags or trays.

You get a complete assembly video of the traditional meal plan each month so you can actually do your prep right along with Erin Chase.  You also get highlight videos of all eight of the plans, so you can get specific tips and tricks for that set of recipes.

Premium members get all the benefits of the basic membership, but you can also adjust the serving sizes for the meals, look through the recipes and create your own meal plan from all of the recipes available using a brand new drag-and-drop desktop app.  You’ll also be able to save your favorite recipes so that you can easily find them for future  meal plans.

Overcoming my personal issues with freezer meals

After years of being anti-freezer-cooking, I now realize how wonderful it can be.  Originally I was just going to give it a try for the sake of giving it a try, but in the process I fell in love with it.  There’s just something magical about being able to pull dinner out of the freezer and not have to think about what you’re going to have that night.

I was thrilled to get over my freezer cooking issues thanks to the MyFreezEasy method.  Let me show you what I mean:

Time— The MyFreezEasy plans are designed to make 10 meals in about an hour (though it takes a little longer for me because I do the 8-serving version of the recipes, which means twice as much chopping as the 4-serving version).  The recipes don’t require loads of “prep” cooking.  The bulk of the prep work is chopping up vegetables (which actually goes along really well with what my kids have learned in the Kids Cook Real Food course).

Organization—  Each plan  comes with a shopping list that can be organized by meal or grocery store section.  The prep session is clearly laid out in a logical order.  Each month even has a step-by-step video of the entire process!  You can prepare your freezer meals right along with Erin.  She shares her tips as she goes through the prepping step-by-step, but she doesn’t care if you’re still in your jammies and your hair isn’t done.

Meat— The plans are sorted by meat type, cooking method, or dietary preference.  This makes it really handy to find vegetarian dishes!  Also, since we are accustomed to eating less meat, I don’t put in quite as much as the recipes call for.  If you have allergies or other dietary preferences, it’s easy to find meals that will work for you, too.

Space—  There are some canned ingredients in the MyFreezEasy meal plans, which bugged me at first, before actually using the plans.  While I don’t usually buy many canned goods, I have found they are a huge time-saver for assembling freezer meals.  Since I’m only making 10 meals at a time, I’m not so worried that I’m converting shelf-stable food storage into electricity-dependent food storage.  Making only 10 meals at a time also means they don’t take up as much space as if you were trying to store meals for an entire month.

Meal Size— When you are choosing and compiling your personalized freezer meal plan with the premium version, you can choose the number of servings you want.  You don’t need to think in doubles or do a mental “time and a half” when you’re shopping of preparing the recipes.  You can choose 2, 4, 6, or 8 servings.

Making freezer cooking fun and guilt-free

If you ask my kids, they will tell you that assembling freezer meals is fun.  My three older kids are usually eager to help in the prepping process, which is a huge win.  I have fun with it too!  I really feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m done and I get giddy just thinking about how much more calm and less stressful future dinner hours will be thanks to all of our preparation.

I also had a change in mentality using this freezer meal planning system.  Before, my idea was that freezer meals (I received some from friends as gifts when I had a new baby) were there just as a back-up plan when other plans fell through or schedules went awry.  I would really have to weigh my choices. Do I really want to use up one of my freezer meals now or save it for another time?  I would almost feel guilty if I used them.

Now my thinking has shifted to knowing that I put these ten meals in the freezer to use over the next two weeks.  They aren’t a back-up plan, they are THE plan.  I did the work ahead of time so that I wouldn’t have to do it now.  It’s such a refreshing change to pull out freezer meals and not feel guilty about using them on an everyday basis.

If you are interested in getting started with freezer cooking, look into MyFreezEasy.  You might just get as excited about freezer meals as I am.  You can also get some great tips about freezer cooking in general in this free freezer cooking workshop.

Have you tried freezer cooking?

• What kinds of freezer meals do you like to make?
• What do you love or hate about freezer cooking?

This post contains affiliate links for products or services I actually use and love.  On Six Figures Under we keep it real.  Rest assured that you’ll only find honest and sincere endorsements here.

The post Why I changed my mind about freezer cooking appeared first on Six Figures Under.

The price of meat has gone through the roof, in case you didn’t notice.  I’m going to tell you what you can do about it, so you can still have money for important things in your grocery budget (like ice cream and chocolate).

Of course, the surefire way to save money on meat is the same as the key to saving money on fur coats or Ferraris.  Don’t buy any!

But in case you like meat (which I do), I will let you in on a secret that really keeps the meat portion of our grocery budget down.  This is one of the reasons we are able to feed our family of 6 on $300 per month.

Before I tell you my key for keeping meat prices down, I must assure you that this is in no way related to my April Fools Day post this year.  I had a fun time making that post as ridiculous as possible, I know that it probably didn’t agree with everyone’s stomachs.

While those tips might work great for some folks, we don’t do any of them.  At all.  Promise. (But it’s okay if you do.  We can still be friends…. just don’t invite me over for dinner.)

My big tip for saving money on meat is simple:

Don’t make meat your main dish!

It’s that simple.  You can include meat in your meals without making meat the main event.

Make it a side dish.  Make it a part of the main dish. You could even have it for dessert if you like!

Ground beef or chicken will go a long way when it’s in something as opposed to being the star of the show.

I never buy steak or ribs or any of those “stand alone” cuts of meat.  Honestly, though I love to eat steak, I don’t know the first thing about buying (or cooking) it.  Though, now that I’m thinking about it, maybe I should learn so that we can buy and make steak for our upcoming debt-free celebratory meal.

Instead of eating meat solo, I usually incorporate meat into a soup, sauce, casserole or other clever disguise like a burrito.

Let me show you what I mean

If we were eating grilled chicken breast for dinner, each person would eat at least one chicken breast, likely more if they’re small.  However, if I’m making a crock pot of chicken curry, a couple of chicken breasts will feed our whole family and we’ll have leftovers for lunch.

We still got meat in our meal, but it cost a fraction of what it would have cost if meat were the main course.

Need some more ideas?

Here are some of our go-to meals that include meat, but don’t make it the star of the show:

• Creamy Tacos Casserole
• Mock Lasagna
• Potato Soup
• Chicken Pot Pie
• Hawaiian Haystacks

Even when we have burritos (which is a broad term in our family which means anything wrapped up in a tortilla), we always have beans, rice, and other fixin’s in addition to some ground beef with taco seasoning.  With beans to accompany the meat in the burrito, we get plenty of protein without paying an arm and a leg!

Speaking of stretching meat

I have another sneaky tactic I use to make meat, ground beef in particular, go further.  What’s even better is that it gets us to eat more veggies without even realizing it.  I use pureed veggies to stretch ground beef when I brown it.  It’s a pretty neat trick!

If this sounds hard for you…

I’m sure demoting meat from main dish to regular ingredient won’t go over well with everyone.   Meat to some is like coffee to others (or ice cream to me).  While this tip will save you money, it will be a sacrifice.

Whether it’s worth it or not is up to you.  If you’re skeptical or just not up for a big change like this, try it for a limited time.  What about just while you’re working toward a certain financial goal?  Or you could challenge yourself to see how long you could go without having meat be the main dish.  I bet your grocery budget will look better than ever!

What do you do?

• What are you favorite ways to use meat without making it the main dish?
• What other ways do you stretch your meat?

The post One simple tip to save money on meat every single month appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Do you know how much you spend each month on food?  Adding up the total amount you spend on food each month can be a rude awakening!  All the little trips to pick up this or that accumulate and then you wonder where all the money went.  Lots of people don’t pay attention until they start budgeting.

Maybe you really want to lower your grocery budget, but you’re convinced you can’t eat healthy on so little.  If you think eating ramen and frozen burritos is the only way to reduce your grocery budget, think again.

Healthy foods don’t have to be expensive.  You can eat real, whole foods on a pretty tight budget.

You need a meal plan

One of the best ways to spend less on groceries is to make a detailed meal plan and stick to it.  If you know what you’ll be eating for a week or more at a time, then you can get all the groceries at once.  You’ll prevent having to run out just for one thing (which usually turns into one cart full of things).  A menu will also seriously reduce the chance of resorting to fast food or take-out.

I sure don’t feel qualified to share my own meal plans with you.  I’ve shared some of our favorite frugal meals here and there, but that alone didn’t seem to really be enough to help anyone get a handle on their own grocery budget.

Honestly, on my own, I’m not very good at meal planning.  I’m a little too spontaneous.  But fortunately for our budget, we live much too far from any form of take-out to ever have that as a fallback.

I wanted to try something new

I am a well-oiled machine when it comes to frugal grocery shopping.  I sometimes do our monthly shopping trip without a list and still stay under budget most months.  I have cooked from scratch for so long that I often lay aside menu planning and fly by the seat of my pants.

That’s fine when I’m making the same ol’ meals I usually make, but it becomes a problem when I get in a recipe rut and start craving something new.

Since I don’t plan meals far enough in advance, I don’t usually have the right ingredients on hand when I get a creative twitch and I turn to Pinterest to find some fresh recipes.  Fortunately, living in the boonies without access to a store nearby has taught me to be pretty resourceful at substituting and tweaking.

Unfortunately, my substituting essentially turns the fresh new recipe into something that looks and tastes just like one of our trusty regular recipes.

Enter Frugal Real Food Meal Plans

Earlier this year, I found a menu plan called Frugal Real Food Meal Plans.  I was really curious for several reasons:

• A $330 monthly grocery budget was pretty close to our normal food budget
• The plan uses real foods (not processed foods)
• The shopping lists and prep lists were already made
• I wanted to get out of my recipe rut

My hope with Frugal Real Food Meal Plans was two-fold:

For my family, I hoped that this meal plan would help us get out of the rut of eating the same meals that I have been cooking from scratch for years.  Although they are frugal and healthy, I was pretty eager to incorporate some new recipes and foods into our menu.

Secondly, I hoped to find a meal plan that I could point my readers to so that they could eat healthy on a limited food budget, too.

So at the beginning of the year, I decided to see how Frugal Real Food Meal Plans worked for my family.  Then if it was a success I would share it with you.

I am happy to report that it was a win!

I have really enjoyed making new recipes and actually having the ingredients to make them!  I love not having to think about what I’m going to make for dinner out of whatever ingredients I happen to have.

The shopping lists are wonderful!  There is a monthly shopping list with all the staples and non-perishables on it.  It has prices listed so you can know what to expect and know if you’re getting a good deal.  Each week has an additional shopping list with produce and dairy.  Sometimes I cheat and shop for two weeks of produce at once because I don’t go in to town every week.

Another really neat thing is the way the meal plan is set up, meals build on one another.  For example, you might make a batch of cornbread muffins and eat half with tonight’s meal and the other half in two days.  Or the leftovers from the chili one night will be used as a topping for the baked potatoes you’ll have another night.

The recipes are designed to use similar ingredients so you don’t have half a cabbage and half of a squash going bad in the fridge because the recipe only called for that much.  When that is the case, there will be another recipe coming up to use the other half.

The meal plans include breakfasts, lunches, and even some desserts too!  Even though I usually stick to peanut butter and jelly for lunch, it is nice to have more exciting healthy options if I’m in the mood for something more interesting.

If you want to feed your family healthy food but feel like it’s just too expensive, then you should give Frugal Real Food Meal Plans a try.

You really can do this! A grocery budget of $350/month is totally doable if you want to make it happen.

Do you need Frugal Real Food Meal Plans to be able to eat healthy on a tight budget?

Absolutely not! I have been feeding my family on $300/month for years without a special meal plan. Just whole foods, cooked from scratch.

Is it really convenient to have a detailed shopping lists, all the recipes and prep instructions laid our for you, meals that build on one another, and are designed for a low grocery budget?

Of course! At the same time, remember that the meals won’t cook themselves. You still have to do work. Sometimes it’s as simple as putting everything in the crock pot in the morning, but you are still cooking. From scratch. Which does take effort.

Whether you use someone else’s meal plan, make your own, or you fly by the seat of your pants, you can eat healthy on a limited food budget. If you buy whole foods, cook from scratch and are carefully about only buying what you’ll use (not wasting food), you’ll surprise yourself with how little you’ll spend!

Are you interested in freezer cooking?

I’ve found that freezer cooking is another great way to menu plan.  Freezer cooking really cuts down on my prep time in the kitchen.  If you want meal plans that can go straight from the freezer to the oven, skillet, or slow cooker, then I recommend MyFreezEasy.  You can read about my experience with this style of freezer cooking here.

How about you?

• Does it feel like eating healthy costs more?
• Are you diligent at meal planning?  What’s your secret?

This post contains affiliate links for products that I love!  Making a purchase through one of my links may generate a commission for me, though the price to you remains the same.  Thanks for supporting this site and the SixFiguresUnder family!

The post How to eat healthy on a $350 monthly grocery budget appeared first on Six Figures Under.

I have a love/hate relationship with packing lunches.

My least favorite part of my morning routine, hands down, is making lunches.  Still, I keep making them for husband, my second grader, and first grader.

I love how packing lunches saves us money.

If my husband were to eat out for lunch it would be a minimum of $6 a day (likely more).  That would be $30 a week, $120 a month, or just under $1,500 a year.  And that’s a very conservative number considering $6 per day is pretty low if you’re looking to get something nourishing.

If my kids were to buy a hot lunch at school it would cost $2.75 each or $5.50 a day for both of them.  That’s $27.50 per week or $110 per month.  For an entire school year of 180 days it would be nearly $1,000.

Since I don’t buy special prepackaged lunch snacks, the cost to make a homemade lunch is very, very low.  Any lunch ingredients are a part of our normal $300 per month grocery budget, which consists of mainly produce and pantry staples.

Packing lunches saves our family somewhere around $2,500.  Not too shabby.

But I get really tired of packing lunches.

Packing homemade lunches can be a lot of work, especially if you’re doing it on a rushed morning (and aren’t they all?).

Since we don’t usually buy pre-packaged lunch snacks (unless I find granola bars ultra cheap at Grocery Outlet) and  I make our homemade bread for sandwiches (except when I don’t), there is some real preparation involved in getting supplies ready to make lunch.

Here are some ways I’ve minimized the time, effort, and cost required to make good healthy lunches for my family:

Bake in bulk and freeze

At the beginning of the school year, I decided to do a big baking day so I could fill the freezer with homemade lunch snacks that would make packing a lunch a cinch.  I have don’t more bulk baking days and really love the results.

Here are some of the lunch snacks I made at the beginning of the school year.

I made about eight loaves of pumpkin bread and banana bread. I wrapped each serving (two half slices) in plastic wrap.

I made several dozen yellow squash muffins.  I’ll share the recipe in the summer when we have yellow squash again.

I made a couple of pans of homemade no-bake chewy granola bars.  I use a variation of this recipe.

Having lunch snacks in the freezer not only keeps the food fresher for longer, it also keeps them out of sight so they don’t disappear.  I might be guilty of that otherwise.

Make-ahead sandwiches

One of my favorite lunch hacks is freezing sandwiches.  We have peanut butter and jam sandwiches 99% of the time, which freeze like a dream!

I usually make four loaves of bread at a time.  Usually we will eat one loaf right away.  Warm bread and butter is a favorite snack for everyone.  We will also have a slice with soup for dinner.

With the other three loaves, I make sandwiches (and more sandwiches and more sandwiches).  I like to make three loaves of sandwiches all at once so I only have to clean up once.

I put each sandwich into its own fold-top sandwich bag, then put a whole loaf or bagged sandwiches into a bread bag and store it in the freezer.

When I’m assembling lunches in the morning, I grab a sandwich for each kid and 3-4 sandwiches for my husband.  When lunchtime rolls around, the sandwiches are thawed.  They are perfect and fresh like they were just made.

Single-serving containers.

At the grocery store, you pay a premium for single-servings.  You’re paying for both the additional packaging and the convenience factor.  For the slight additional work of putting food into individual containers and then washing the containers, you can save lots of money.

We use these Rubbermaid containers and absolutely love them.  I have put soup, yogurt, fruit, and more in them and we have never had a leak.

This works great for canned fruit,

While the picture isn’t lovely, the yogurt-covered fruit salad was.  After having it with dinner, I packaged the leftovers into single-serving containers to put in lunches.  It’s easy to grab them as I fill lunch bags in the morning.

Prep fruits and veggies

It probably won’t surprise you that prepping fruits and veggies is another chore that I like to do in bulk.

Instead of buying baby carrots, I buy a 5- or 10-pound of whole carrots.  I peel them, quarter them, and cut them for lunches.  To prevent them from drying out, I keep the cut carrots in water (usually in the red-lid containers I mentioned above.

When I’m assembling lunches in the morning, I grab a handful of carrots and put them in a fold-top sandwich bag.  The extra moisture helps them not to dry out in the bag.  This method works great for celery too.

You can prep apples by cutting them and storing them in water with Fruit Fresh (or the citric acid you use when you make dishwasher detergent) to prevent browning.  Honestly though, cutting apple slices is something I usually just do in the morning when I pack lunches.  When everything else for the lunch is prepped, just slicing an apple isn’t so bad.

While I will be the first to admit that I’m not a big fan of packing lunches, I am happy to keep doing it for budget and health reasons.  When I’m on top of my preparations like baking snacks, freezing sandwiches, storing leftovers in single-serving containers, and even prepping fruits and veggies, lunch prep is a breeze.

How about you?

• Does anyone else hate making lunches but do it anyway?
• What do you do to keep homemade lunches manageable?

The post Homemade Lunch Hacks (to save time, effort and money) appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Have you seen my extreme couponing strategy?  No?  That’s because I don’t have one.  I haven’t used coupons in years.  And I’m not starting any time soon.

People figure that because we have a $300 monthly grocery budget for our family of six that I must be going crazy with coupons and hoarding mac and cheese like it’s going out of style.  While I am a big fan of stocking up, we live in the boonies and cook from scratch, so traditional coupons just don’t work for me anymore.

During law school I was a coupon queen, but afterward I quit coupons.  Cold turkey, in fact.  What’s more, I don’t even look at the store ads!  Is that a frugal faux pas or what?!

I have lots of strategies for saving on groceries without using coupons, but the one I want to focus on today is cash back apps.

My Favorite Grocery Cash Back App

In my round-up of cashback apps, I mention several grocery apps that I use and why I like them.  To summarize, Checkout 51 is nice because it doesn’t matter what store you shop at.  I often shop at a discount grocery store with awesome markdowns, but I can still get cashback there.

Shopmium doesn’t have tons of deals, but the ones they have are good.  Plus they start you out with a free Lindt chocolate bar (when you sign up with code FKEEYMRJ).  I never complain about free chocolate.

My favorite, though, is Ibotta.  It has evolved over the years since it first started.  I really like what it has become.  Let me tell you why Ibotta is my favorite!

Why Ibotta is My Favorite Grocery App

Ibotta has cash back for generic brands!  Since generic brands are already the lowest price, they don’t typically have coupons available for them, but Ibotta has some rebates that work for any brand.  To skip right to the any brand offers, search “any brand” in the search bar at the top of the app.

Ibotta has cash back for produce and dairy!  Checkout 51 also has cashback offers for produce, but it’s almost always limited to $.25 per week.  It takes a long time to reach your $20 minimum to cash out that way.  Ibotta always has several produce items available.  They also usually have some dairy offers too.  These are the grocery items that you rarely would find traditional coupons for.

Ibotta is easy-to-use.  The app is pretty, organized, and straight-forward. You can scan the items before you buy them to make sure they count.  They are fast to credit rebates to your account.

There is a sign-up incentive!  When you sign up with Ibotta, you get $10 after redeeming your first rebate.  That’s real money!  You can also share Ibotta with your friends to earn referral credit.

They have bonuses!  Ibotta becomes a team sport when you invite friends to save with you.  Some bonuses involve saving as a team.  Other bonuses come from redeeming a certain number of rebates or for buying a certain combination of products or buying certain products at certain stores.

How to Start Saving with Ibotta

If you’re new to Ibotta, here’s a quick but thorough explanation of how it works.

First, sign up for Ibotta through this link to get an extra $10 when you redeem your first rebate.

Look through available rebates.  You can do this by store or by category.  I usually do it by store when I’m planning my shopping trip.

Unlock the rebates you want. Click the pink button that says “Unlock Cashback.”  To unlock the rebates, you need to do a little something.  Usually it’s just watch a short video or answer one quick survey question.  I multi-task this by pressing play while I’m working on my grocery list or working on something in the kitchen.

Shop. With the “any brand” rebates this is easy because anything goes.  For rebates that require a specific brand, product, size, etc, you’ll want to have your phone available to scan the bar code of the product.  The app will tell you if the product qualifies or not.

Oh, and you can still use any coupons that you would normally use.  That won’t affect your cashback with Ibotta.

Verify purchases.  Click on the green circle at the bottom that says “verify purchases.”  Depending on the item, you may first be asked to scan the bar code of the item.  Next you’ll either be asked to scan the QR code on the receipt or photograph your receipt.  I like to do this as the final step of my put-away-the-groceries process.  You could even do it in the car.  Just find a routine that makes it automatic for you.

Get your cash!  Your cash back will be credited to your account within 48 hours (but usually much faster).  When you have a minimum of $20, you can cash out through PayPal, Venmo, or you can get a gift card to major retailers instead.

Start saving on groceries now!

If you haven’t tried Ibotta (or if you tried it a while ago, before the major improvements), give it a try now!  You’ve got nothing to lose.  You will get $10 after you redeem your first rebate when you sign up for Ibotta through this link!  Alternatively, you can enter this referral code wqiyxfa (but it’s probably just easier to use the link).

After you sign up for Ibotta, go check out the other strategies I use to save money on groceries without using coupons.  You might just opt for a coupon-free life like me!

How about you?

• Do you use coupons or cashback apps?
• What is your favorite grocery savings/cashback app?

You’ll Also Enjoy:

The post Best Grocery Savings App for Frugal People appeared first on Six Figures Under.

Are you dumping money down the drain?  If you’re letting milk spoil and then pouring it out, that’s exactly what you’re doing!  Let’s talk about ways to use up that almost expired milk.

Most people would love to lower their grocery budget but have a tough time figuring out what to cut.

Food waste is a great place to start!

If you want to learn all of my money-saving grocery strategies, you’ll definitely want to check out my course Grocery Budget Hero.

Cutting out food waste means you won’t have to buy as much because you’ll actually use what you buy.  When it comes to milk, there’s a tighter deadline to use it compared to most other foods.

Before I tell you my top 7 ways to use milk that’s about to expire, I’ll start with some milk expiration FAQ (okay maybe not-so-F AQ):

What does the date on the milk carton mean?

We often refer to the date on milk (or any other food product) as the “expiration date,” but that’s not necessarily the case.  In fact it’s usually not!

The meaning of the date on the milk jug or carton depends on the state you live in.  Dates on food packages (aside from baby formula) aren’t regulated or required by the federal government at all.  Dates on food packages are voluntarily put there by the manufacturers, though dates on dairy are regulated in nearly half of the states.

In some states, the date is a “sell by” date (a date that gives consumers about a week to use it), in others it is a “best by” date (a date that tells consumers when the peak flavor is reached, still good for another 5-7 days) and in yet others it is a “use by” date (which sounds the most like “expiration”).  What’s worse is that the definition of each of these terms varies, which further confuses and concerns consumers.

How can I tell if my milk is still good?

Generally milk is good for 5-7 days past the date on the carton, even longer if the milk is unopened.  However, depending on how the milk is stored, the milk could even spoil before the date (speaking from experience here).

Thankfully, recognizing spoiled milk is simple as long as your nose and eyes are working.  If you don’t smell a sour, “off” smell when you remove the lid and take a whiff, then you are fine.  If the milk is bad, you will know it!  Other clues that your milk is done are lumps in it or a change in color.

If you are unsure, you can err on the safe side by using it in one of the ways listed below rather than drinking it cold with a slightly questionable flavor.  You will be perfectly fine using it in a recipe where it is heated and mixed with other things.  When milk is really bad, there will be no question.

How can I make my milk last longer?

The difference between milk that spoils fast and milk that lasts well past the date is mostly a matter of how it is stored.  You want to keep your milk cold– the colder the better.  Instead of in the door of the fridge (which gets a waft of warm air every time the fridge opens) or the top of the fridge (the warmest part), keep it in the bottom of the fridge.

On to the tips!

Here are my top 7 ways to use milk that’s about to expire!

Homemade Yogurt

We make yogurt pretty regularly at our house.  Making yogurt in your crock pot is easy and very cost effective.  You’ll need a small amount of yogurt to act as the starter, but other than that, the only ingredient is milk.  Heating the milk up changes the milk and “resets” its expiration clock, if you will.  In other words, even if your milk is about to expire, the yogurt you make from it will still last its normal up-to-two-weeks in the fridge.

So what do I do with a gallon of yogurt?  There are so many things you can do!  Eat it with fruit or granola, put it in smoothies, use it as a substitute for sour cream, make frozen yogurt, and use it in other recipes.

Pancakes or Waffles

Homemade pancakes are a staple around here.  We make our own whole wheat pancake mix so that it’s all ready whenever we want pancakes (sometimes for breakfast and sometimes for dinner).  Since you need eggs and milk to make the pancake batter, it’s a great way to use up that milk that’s about to go bad!

We also love Mike’s grandma’s homemade sourdough waffles.  You prep them the night before so they’re super easy in the morning.  They are fool-proof.  You seriously can’t mess them up.  And there’s absolutely no waste.  If you have a sourdough start (or want to make your own), you’ll want to give these waffles a try!

Pudding

Pudding is a great way to use milk!  If you are going to eat the pudding right away, then you can make the instant kind.  The instant kind will be good as long as the milk would be good, so instant pudding doesn’t really stretch the expiration deadline on your milk.  It does, however, make your milk very yummy and edible, so you might eat it up faster than you’d drink it up.

If you want to stretch the lifespan of your milk, make the “cook and serve” pudding or make pudding from scratch.  Getting the milk up to boiling “resets” the milk’s internal expiration clock.  We have started making tapioca pudding from scratch and love it for a snack.  Here’s the recipe that I use.  I use skim milk (no cream) and it works wonderfully.

Potato Soup

I recently shared my potato soup tutorial and showed how I make a roux with milk to make the soup creamy (instead of using cream or another expensive alternative).  If you have extra milk on your hands, making a creamy potato soup (or other creamy soup) is a great way to prevent wasting that  milk!

Yummy Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate is a special fall and winter treat around here.  While making hot chocolate with milk is always an option, we usually make the frugal choice to use water.  Most hot chocolate mixes have powdered milk in them so you aren’t drinking chocolate water.  However, when I’m feeling fancy or we have a gallon of milk getting close to expiring, I make it with milk.  It’s yummier and creamier with milk, so it’s a special treat.

White Sauce

Making your own pasta sauce from scratch is easier than you think.  I make a simple white sauce that is very versatile (similar to this one).  Melt in some cheese and you’ve got cheese sauce!  And you know what the main ingredient is?  You guessed it–milk!  If your milk is about to expire go make some white sauce and have pasta for dinner!

Freeze It

I freeze milk all the time.  It works like a charm.  Milk expands when it freezes, so you’ll want to pour a little out before putting the entire gallon in the freezer.  To make thawing milk even easier, freeze it in a gallon ziploc bag.  I double them up just in case.  Instead of filling the bag absolutely full, just fill it part-way then lay it flat to freeze.

And just so you aren’t alarmed, the color of milk changes to a yellow-ish color when you freeze it.  This is totally normal and nothing to be concerned about.

When you thaw the milk, stick it in a sink of cold water or put it in your fridge.  Honestly, I just leave it on the counter sometimes too, as long as you shake it periodically  to make sure the outer, thawed milk stays cold.  Wait to drink it until all of the milk has thawed, as the creamy part and the watery part thaw at different rates.

You might notice a difference in milk that has been frozen and thawed (I don’t, but I’ve met others who do), but it is perfectly safe to use.  If you notice a difference in taste of consistency with milk that has been frozen, you can use it in cooking and you’ll never know the difference?

There you have it!  I bet you want to go out and buy extra milk just so you’ll have the chance to try these out!

The post 🥛 7 Smart Ways to Use Almost Expired Milk (Don’t throw it out!) appeared first on Six Figures Under.