Today is a story about what saves the time of the hostess. Something that can be reused and what makes our stay in the kitchen "witchcraft" for the rest of the family.Post content:
1. Square meatballs
3. All-purpose soup dressing
4. Pesto cheese sauce
5. Bolognese sauce.
1. Square meatballs
Meatballs- this is a very convenient semi-finished product for freezing. You can make a lot of them at once, so that there is a supply in the freezer. But their creation takes too much precious time. Therefore, we will adapt an ice mold for these purposes. Labor and time costs are minimal, and the form is original.We will need:
. Minced meat for meatballs (half a kilogram of minced meat, 50 ml of milk and the crumb of half a loaf. Salt and pepper to taste)
. Ice mold (for this amount of minced meat you will need 3 standard molds)
. Wide knife or spatula
Cooking:
Pack mince tightly into ice cube trays. The denser, the neater our meatballs will turn out. Remove the rest of the minced meat with a wide knife or spatula.
We freeze.
After 6 hours, take out the form from the freezer and take out the finished meatballs. To make this easier to do, it must be lowered into hot water for 10 seconds so that the bottom and walls of the molds are under water, and the top (where the stuffing is) is not covered with water. Then carefully insert a thin knife into the gap between the meatball and the mold wall, press down and remove the meatball.
We put the finished meatballs in a bag or container for freezing and send them back to the freezer.
Everything! Now they are even in soup, even in the oven, even in a frying pan.
2. Concentrated meat broth - the basis for soup
I want to show an example of another way to rationally use money for food and your own time. We often cook soups. In fact, we eat them every day, only in summer they are lighter. vegetable soups or puree soups, and in winter the soups get thicker and fatter. Apparently, a chilly organism requires two qualities from food: the presence of meat and "so that the spoon stands." Therefore, it is better to cook soup in two stages: first make concentrated meat broth, and then dilute it with water and add vegetables to taste and mood.From one liter of such a concentrated broth, 5 liters of soup with meat are obtained. Considering that a standard serving of soup is 350-400 g, then four liters of concentrate is enough for 50-57 servings of soup. The cost of one serving (excluding vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage, onions and carrots is always inexpensive) - about 5 ross. rubles. So soups are not only healthy, but also very cheap.
The most rich meat soups are obtained from pork knuckles. It is not expensive, and the broth from it turns out great. Pork knuckle can also be substituted for beef leg. How to make concentrated meat broth?
We will need:
. Pork knuckle - 1.5 kg. One kilogram of shank costs about 150-200 rubles. I strongly advise you to buy not frozen, but chilled shank, so as not to accidentally buy stale meat.
. Bay leaf, black peppercorns, 3-5 cloves.
. Salt to taste
Cooking:
Wash the shank, put in a five-liter pan and pour cold water for 1-2 hours. After that, scrape the skin with a knife to accurately remove all possible contamination. Wash the shank again and pour clean cold water.
Put the saucepan on medium heat. When the water boils, reduce the heat and remove the foam. The fire under the pan should be such that the water does not even boil, but sways a little.
The knuckle should languish in this way for about four hours. During this time, she will give all her juices and most of the fat to the broth. You can add water as it boils. 20 minutes before cooking, add spices and salt.
The readiness of the shank is checked very simply: the meat should be easily separated from the bones. It will be impossible to pick up such a piece with a fork - it will immediately fall apart. The finished meat broth will be dark yellow in color.
Remove the shank, strain the broth through a fine sieve. After removing the shank, about four liters of concentrated broth should remain in the pan.
Break the meat into small pieces. We no longer need the bones, skin and remaining fat (you can give these leftovers to the yard dog). Distribute the meat itself into four liter jars and pour the broth into them (but not to the brim).
Actually, the concentrated broth is already ready. Some of it can be used immediately, and some can be frozen. It is necessary to dilute such a concentrate with water in a ratio of 1/3 (veggies will take about another liter in volume). And then proceed as with ordinary broth.
That, in fact, is all. It turns out a big saving not only in money, but also in time, since the preparation of the next portion of the soup will no longer require cooking the broth. And twenty liters of soup is a long time even in such a greedy family as yours.
3. Universal dressing for soup - a lot and at once.
With the onset of cold weather, cold soups, okroshkas and light pureed soups practically disappear from my menu. They are replaced by hot and thick dishes: cabbage soup, borscht, hodgepodges, pickles, etc. I noticed that for the preparation of most "winter" soups, you need to do the same operation: boil the meat broth and fry the onion with carrots (parsley root, celery or parsnip) in vegetable oil. On average, the soup is cooked for about 2 hours. Of these, it takes an hour and a half to complete these two operations. If you optimize these two processes, then cooking soup, even for a very slow housewife, will take no more than half an hour. How?We have already dealt with the preparation of the broth, its freezing and storage above (using the broth prepared for the future gives +1 hour of free time). Now it's time for the roast. Everything is simple here - you need to do a lot of it at once, so that it is enough for several times. I calculated that making a bulk all-purpose soup dressing (for six large pots of soup at once, takes 30 minutes), but saves two and a half hours of priceless time in the near future. I'd rather spend those two hours walking with my baby than chopping onions and peeling carrots. And you?
Soup dressing.
Total and active cooking time is 30 minutes.
Quantity - for 6 large pots of soup.
Ingredients:
. Onion - 2 pcs. . Carrots - 2 pcs. . Celery root - 1 piece (small or ½ medium). Bulgarian pepper - 1 pc. (in winter, you can use already pre-frozen and chopped). Garlic - 4 cloves. Tomato paste - 4 tbsp (or tomato sauce 6 tablespoons). Parsley - a bunch. Dill - bunch. Vegetable oil - 1 cup (you will need a lot). Salt - 3 tablespoons
Cooking:
1. Peel the carrots (4 minutes).
2. Pour 1/3 cup of vegetable oil into the pan and heat over low heat (1 minute).
3. Peel the onion, finely chop and fry in vegetable oil (4 minutes).
All roasting is done without a lid on a small fire.
4. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Add to onion and stir. Fry. (4 minutes).
5. Three carrots on a coarse grater and add to the pan.
Add another 1/3 cup oil and fry, stirring occasionally (5 minutes).
6. We clean the celery and three on a coarse grater.
Add the celery and the remaining oil to the pan, stir and fry (5 minutes).
7. We clean the pepper, remove the seeds and the stalk. We cut into cubes.
Add together with tomato paste to the pan, mix and fry (3 minutes).
8. Add finely chopped greens, mix, salt and fry (2 minutes).
Salt to taste, and then two more times the same amount. I use 3 tablespoons of salt. It's okay that the dressing will be too salty - it will only be better stored, and the future soup does not need to be salted.
Everything is ready. It took us almost 30 minutes to prepare the soup dressing.
After the dressing has cooled down, it can be placed in clean glass jars(I fit in one liter jar). Pour the centimeter remaining to the edge of the can vegetable oil and send the jar to the refrigerator. In this form, it will be stored for up to two weeks. If part of the dressing is used, then the top layer in the jar must be covered again with oil.
4. Pesto sauce - cook, store.
With the advent of this sauce in our family, they practically stopped adding mayonnaise to all dishes. Now the place of the universal additive is occupied by Pesto sauce (“ cheese sauce"). In addition to its classic use - in the preparation of pasta or lasagna, it can act as a dressing for salads, added to soups, vegetable stews, meat or mushroom dishes, and just spread on bread. In general, like mayonnaise, only tastier and healthier.The almost daily presence of pesto sauce on our table does not mean at all that we need to cook it every day. You just need to be able to store it so that it stays fresh for up to two weeks. It is for this period that a half-liter jar of this sauce is usually enough. Cooked once - and in the refrigerator it smells like an Italian restaurant Worth it homemade sauce many times cheaper than in stores, and the taste differs in a favorable way. It is quick and easy to prepare - nothing needs to be boiled, fried or baked. I'm telling.
Pesto
Total and active cooking time - 20 minutes
Cost - 3 $
Ingredients:
. Hard cheese - 200 g. If you have the opportunity to get pecorino cheese (sheep cheese), then use it. If you live in reality - then Parmesan. And if in a tricky way, then any other hard cheese to taste. The taste of cheese is not so important here - all the same, garlic and basil will be in the foreground.
Basil - chopped, about 1 cup If in our northern countries it is very difficult to find basil in the autumn-winter period, then it can be replaced with 2 tablespoons of dry + a large bunch of fresh parsley.
Nuts - 100 g. If financial resources allow, then pine nuts. But sauce options with walnuts or hazelnuts also have the right to be. The only warning about walnuts- they must be fresh, harvested no more than 3 months ago (we have fresh nuts on the shelves at the end of September and are quite suitable for consumption until February).
I advise you never to buy already packaged walnuts, since they only bear the statute of limitations of the very fact of packaging. Old walnuts are bitter and can spoil the whole sauce. It is better to buy by weight and be strictly interested in when the crop was harvested. Fresh walnut kernels have a light skin. If, despite the request for fresh ones, they try to slip you dark brown or shriveled nuts, then you have every moral right to be rude to the seller.
Garlic - 4 cloves. We in the family really love garlic in this sauce, so we exceed this rate by 2 times. But for the first time, try to get by with a minimum of 4 large cloves.
. Olive oil - the amount depends on the density of the sauce.
Cooking:
Peel the garlic and crush the cloves with a garlic press. Finely chop the basil, mix with garlic and, armed with a marble mortar and wooden pestle (or an aluminum saucepan and a wooden crush), crush everything together until smooth. You should get a vigorous green and very odorous mixture. Particularly lazy and in a hurry can use a blender, however, the mixture chopped in a blender is less odorous than crushed by hand.
Cheese grate on a fine grater.
Finely crush the nuts and add to the future sauce.
Mix the cheese with a mixture of garlic, basil and nuts.
You should get a fairly viscous mixture, resembling plasticine. To dilute this mass and add plasticity to it, add olive oil in a thin stream. At the same time, the future pesto sauce must be stirred all the time.
That's it, the pesto sauce is ready.
For storage, transfer it to a clean, dry half-liter jar (tamping tightly), and pour 0.5 cm of olive oil on top. Such an oil pillow, firstly, will prevent the sauce from drying out and spoiling, and secondly, it will reduce the intensity of its smell (I warned that in the refrigerator, in which there is a jar of sauce, it will smell like in Italian restaurant). If the sauce is used, then the oil from the jar must first be drained, and then added again so that it completely covers the sauce. It is stored in this form for up to two weeks, but, as a rule, is eaten even earlier.
5. Bolognese sauce. Cooking, freezing and storing.
One of my friends works in an Italian restaurant. She once admitted that restaurant customers are almost never served fresh, freshly prepared sauces. For example, Bolognese sauce is prepared once a week in two five-liter saucepans, and then frozen in portions. If an order comes from a client for a dish with this sauce, then it is taken out of the freezer, and while the pasta is being cooked, it is thawed and served as fresh. She claimed that not a single person could yet understand that he was eating a frozen convenience food. Nobody complained, only praised. So I thought: why not take this principle into service? If this is practiced in a good Italian restaurant, then the more it is permissible for me.The results of my subsequent experiments with Bolognese sauce showed that, indeed, it not only freezes well, but also tastes the same as freshly cooked. Since then, I have been making this sauce at once in large quantities. I freeze in portions in 200 gram cups. Thanks to such reserves, dinner is prepared almost instantly: while pasta is being cooked, 2 cups of sauce are defrosted in the microwave (for me and my husband). And after 15-20 minutes, not just banal pasta is served for dinner, but Pasta with Bolognese sauce (sounds!). Also, this sauce can become the basis for cooking lasagna, served with potatoes or stewed vegetables.
Bolognese sauce
Total cooking time - 40 minutes
Active cooking time - 25 minutes
Number of servings - from the given amount of products, seven 200-gram cups are obtained.
Ingredients:
. Minced meat - 400 g (beef + pork). Onion - 2 pcs. Garlic - 6 cloves. Green pepper mild - 3 pcs. Tomatoes - 5 pcs (in winter, you can replace it with 3 tbsp. tomato paste with 1 tsp sugar). Olive oil - 50 ml. Dry wine - 120 ml. Dried basil - 1 tbsp. (in the summer, you can use fresh - 1/3 cup chopped). Dried mint - sprig (usually dried mint is sold in the spices department, but if not there, you can gut a bag of mint tea, which is sold in any pharmacy). Salt to taste.
1. We put a kettle on the fire (boiling water will be needed a little later to blanch the tomato).
2. Fry on olive oil ground meat.
Since there will be a lot of sauce, I advise you to cook it either in a large and deep frying pan or in a saucepan with a thick bottom.
3. While the minced meat is fried, finely chop the onion and garlic. Add to minced meat and also fry, stirring constantly.
During this time, we manage to finely chop the green pepper.
4. Peel the tomatoes (this is where we need boiling water) and also chop finely.
When minced meat begins to brown, add chopped pepper.
5. After 3 minutes, add the tomatoes. Close the lid and simmer everything together for 10 minutes.
6. Add wine, spices and herbs. Stir, cover and simmer for another five minutes, after which the finished sauce can be removed from the heat.
That's it, Bolognese sauce is ready.
Tip: To freeze, you need to let the sauce cool down and only then pour it into plastic glasses. You can store at -18C for up to two months (I'm sure it will end much earlier).
P.S. I googled the recipe for this sauce. I found about two dozen recipes of different composition of products that claim to be the “real Bolognese sauce”. I do not guarantee that my version of the sauce is “the one”, but I guarantee that it is delicious.
I confess at once, I am a spender. And as a child, my mother scolded me very much for this: if money fell into my hands, then I immediately hurried to spend it. Maybe I just always knew what I needed. But one way or another, the money in my hands did not linger. Naturally, when my independent life began, I had to remake myself, change radically.
First attempts
It all started, of course, in my student years. Now, honestly, I can't imagine how I lived in my first year on one scholarship (more precisely, on two: regular and social) - 1200 rubles (in 2003). Moreover, I then managed to buy my first mobile phone myself (for my entire monthly income).
Later, when in the fourth year I began to live with my future husband, some kind of rational distribution of funds began. At that time, my husband's salary was meager, and my income was practically non-existent. As a result, we rented an apartment and lived on one and a half living wages. Then I had to learn to save.
We started, like everyone else, probably with a notebook of expenses and incomes. We carefully kept all receipts from purchases, then wrote down the amounts in the columns down to kopecks. And so for six months. At the end of the month, they summed up the results, analyzed what was superfluous, what could be saved on.
However, this did not help us at all - we lived from paycheck to paycheck. Soon, having recognized the maintenance of such a notebook as a useless business, we abandoned it. 
The situation improved when I found a job in my fifth year. We lived for a month on two salaries without much straining and even managed to buy something large and save up for something. It was easy enough: my husband's salary was once a month, and she went to pay for the apartment and major purchases, but I received every day a percentage of the work done for the working day - we bought groceries with this money.
In general, they lived well. Even all the "piglets" from both wallets were put every day in the evenings into a piggy bank-cow, presented to us for the wedding. And then sometimes spent on something unplanned.
When my daughter appeared, I had to quit my job, and life became a little harder, but not much - by that time my husband was already working in a good position with a good salary. We took up savings with new efforts only when we bought our apartment and gave half of my husband's salary for a loan.
Now this has become a real economy. And after I broke up with my husband, and the loan (thank God, along with the apartment) went to me, saving simply became a way of life. So how do I save?
My strategy
And the savings strategy is quite simple: do not save on products. Of course, we do not eat red caviar, we do not absorb tons of cookies and sweets. Potatoes and other root crops are supplied to my daughter and me by my parents from their dacha - good, we eat a little bit with my goat.
Such expensive products as cheese and sausage live in our refrigerator all the time, but in small quantities. True, I still have not learned to guess this very quantity. When I lived with my husband, I got used to the fact that food disappears from the refrigerator at lightning speed. And from the moment of our parting, because of this habit, a lot of things in the refrigerator have already spoiled precisely through the fault of my rashness.
Although, if I take fewer products in the store, I could save money. From here rule one: don't take more than you can eat.
And at the same time immediately second rule: long-term storage products(sugar, flour, cereals, pasta) it is better to take in the largest volumes and wholesale. Since my daughter and I almost never use sugar, except for pies and homemade cookies, this product has not decreased by more than a kilogram from stocks for 6 months. That is, sugar will appear on my shopping list for a long time to come.
By the way, here third rule: Before going to the store, make a detailed shopping list. I allow myself no more than one deviation from the list - to "pamper" myself, because it is impossible to keep myself in constant tension of austerity.
As for other expenses, then it works fourth rule: For the sake of quality, it is worth sacrificing a LITTLE cost. For example, I have a certain taboo on buying shoes in the markets. Only in the store and only with a guarantee. Yes, sometimes it comes out a third, or even half, more expensive, but it's worth it.
For example, I wear sneakers from the market for 500 rubles for two months - not even enough for the season. And sneakers from the store for 800-900 rubles - two summers. Tried, experimented three times - the result is the same.
Since we touched on clothes and shoes, then there is one more thing for me, fifth, the rule of economy: discard unnecessary complexes. While my daughter is small, and around, with friends and acquaintances, children are older than us, I shamelessly take advantage of the fact that they give us a lot of things.
Yes, some things can only be worn under other clothes, but very often they give away completely new, almost unworn dresses, trousers, T-shirts. I confess that almost half, if not more, of my daughter's clothes are previously someone else's things, not from the store. Moreover, I often change my clothes into my daughter's, for example, jeans. And I’m not shy about “wearing out” my aunt’s clothes myself, who gets bored with them. Fortunately, we are the same size.
Following these simple rules, now my daughter and I survive on 8 thousand rubles. Agree, this is very small even for a provincial town. But I confess, even in such a situation, for example, my mother still managed to save money - but, alas, I was not given to comprehend HOW she does it ...
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Foreword
It is not in vain that folk wisdom says that “you can’t forbid living beautifully.” Nowadays, a layer of fairly wealthy people has appeared, for whom no matter how much money they spend, it will be enough for two centuries. But there are many more of those who can hardly make ends meet, and even more of those who want to live, though not in luxury, but with dignity, so that they can dress decently and not lose face in front of guests. How to combine all these, in general, quite legitimate desires? There is only one way: not only to live within your means, but also to find ways to save these funds.
Reasonable family savings are the main way to keep funds in a poor family. Our book is dedicated to how to make your life beautiful and worthy, how to help keep money in the family budget and find funds for the most necessary things - a real “gift to young housewives”. Almost 150 years ago, a book under this title was published in St. Petersburg, written by Princess Elena Petrovna Molokhovets. Here is what she writes: “Kitchen is also a kind of science, which, without guidance and if you cannot devote a few time exclusively to it, is acquired not by years, but by dozens of years of experience, and this ten years of inexperience is sometimes very costly, especially for young spouses, and it is not uncommon to hear how, later on, the disorder of the state, and as a result of this, various displeasures in family life are attributed for the most part to the fact that the hostess of the house was inexperienced and did not want to delve into herself and take care of the household.
To prevent these bad consequences, or at least to take a step towards avoiding them, is my direct goal and my most sincere desire, and if my book reaches at least half of the goal I desired and benefits my compatriots, then I will be completely happy and this will be the best reward for my labors."
However, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since that time blessed by heaven, many housewives were brought up by this book, but times have changed, and much of what at the time of Molokhovets seemed to be a common truth looks like anachronisms.
Proper housekeeping, an economical budget will allow you to free up the necessary funds for recreation and entertainment, help you realize your wildest dreams. It's no secret that life sucks, often give up. Home is work, work is home, and there is no longer that happiness that we dreamed of in our youth. The family is growing, there is desperately not enough money, we become irritable, tired, lose our beauty and attractiveness. All this affects the relationship in the family with her husband, and sometimes children. Our book will help you escape the routine. Reasonable housekeeping, proper purchase and storage of products, their economical use, conservation of the fruits of your garden and garden in the summer will help plan the family budget. And now you have already been able to once again escape to the theater, entertain children on expensive rides, afford a family vacation abroad, and this is a completely different life, full of happiness and comfort. But you need to understand that savings are possible not only in the economy. A healthy child is not only a joy for parents, but also savings on doctors and medicines, which are now beyond the reach of many.
I have compiled this book exclusively for young housewives, in order to give them an opportunity without their own experience and in a short time to gain an understanding of the economy in general, and in order to encourage them to take up housekeeping. Whether we love this subject or prefer to engage in other areas, the household is a necessary thing. Properly equipping your home, life, things around you is the main guarantee of well-being and success in life. And wealth and solvency is by no means the main thing here. The main thing for a person is the comfort that he creates around himself.
Let's succeed together!
Natalia Sheiko
Chapter 1
First of all, you need to understand that there can’t be a lot of money at all. They are always missing. One does not have enough for bread, another for a bottle of cognac, the third does not have enough to buy another skyscraper or tanker ... Lack of money is the most common situation in the world, and not only today, but in general, starting from the very moment when humanity invented this money. Initially, someone had a lot of them, someone had very little, and someone had none at all. The rich have always been a minority. Such is the dialectic of life, and all those who throughout history have tried to change this order, to destroy money, to prohibit or redistribute it, have always found themselves in the dustbin of history (most often during their lifetime). The last experiment in our country ended before our eyes, and ended very ingloriously for the experimental fathers.
What is “no money” and how to deal with it
The last thing is to complain about life and nod at the fact that someone was born there with a silver spoon in their mouth, and you have to work hard to earn a living by the sweat of your brow.
In order to learn the art of having money, let's first answer the question:
What is money in your life?
In our time, women most often dream not of a handsome prince on a white horse, but rather of a sort of king in a white Mercedes and with a wallet that can hardly be stuffed into the trunk. However, these "kings of life" are often very capricious and impractical, and even the most wealthy can tell you: "you supposedly ruined me with your expenses."
In order to live and succeed in our world, or at least not deprive herself of the most basic things, a woman must be practical and be able to count her money and the money of her life partner. However, there are often such women for whom money means far from everything and who put peace in the family and spiritual harmony many times higher than any salary.
I offer you a simple test that will help determine what role material security plays in your life.
First of all, answer all the questions honestly (there are not too many of them, and there are three possible answers for each).
Then, according to the table on page 10, select the answers and calculate the number of points you have scored.
1. Do you have a hobby that takes up most of your earnings?
BUT. I don't want to spend money on nonsense.
B. I don't have extra money for hobbies.
IN. There is. And what is expensive - nothing can be done, because a hobby is a hobby.
2. Why do you think some people borrow?
BUT. Because they get too little.
B. Because they don't know how to live within their means.
IN. Because there are unforeseen expenses.
3. Which of the two suitors would you prefer: rich but stupid, or not rich but interesting in communication?
BUT. I'll choose the prettier one.
B. I choose rich.
IN. I will choose a more erudite one, since for me the inner content of a person is more important than his wallet.
4. How do you feel about people who think that "heaven in a hut" is impossible?
BUT. I feel sorry for them, because, firstly, you can never wait for a palace, and secondly, it’s better to have a “hut” than a “golden cage”.
B. I hate people for whom in life, except for money, nothing exists.
IN. I agree with them. And if “heaven in a hut” still exists, then not for long.
5. Are you satisfied with your monthly income?
BUT. Almost never enough.
B. It depends.
IN. Enough.
6. How do you perceive the theatrical premiere, the opening of the exhibition, secular "parties"?
BUT. I'm interested.
B. Depending on the mood.
IN. I'm not interested.
Answers
If you scored from 4 to 9 points, then spiritual values are more important for you than material ones. Congratulations - you are a highly spiritual person. And of course, it's wonderful that you are above all commercialism and the predatory things of the century do not interest you ... but not to the same extent! You should have been more practical.
If you scored from 10 to 16 points, then you belong to the category of such people who can sit without a penny for quite a long time, without making any effort to find a job. But if you have money, then you will spend it without counting. The financial viability of a man is not the main thing for you, but still you will be glad if fate brings you to a rich guy, and even with such a person who will teach you how to spend money rationally.
If you scored from 17 to 22 points, then all you need in life is money. But still, it didn’t hurt to think about folk wisdom: “you can’t take anything with you to the next world” and “happiness is not in money”.
Beware of borrowing!
Strange as it may seem to realize, but the greatest number of problems in life arises from those who have a habit of borrowing money. Money is a universal instrument of exchange, a measure of all material (and many moral) values, it is a product, it is, finally, an organism. Many people earn money by hard work, others by criminal means, but there is another layer of people - those who “grow” this money.
The last occupation is at the intersection of banditry, hunting and predation. It is called usury - lending money at interest.
From the time of Moses, this occupation was considered shameful and contemptible. Thus, in the book Exodus it is written: “If you lend money to your brother, a poor man, never treat him like a usurer. You are not allowed to tax it with interest." Aristotle writes in his Politics: “The usurer is hated quite rightly, for his money has become a source of income itself, and is not used for what it was invented for. For they arose for the exchange of commodities, and interest makes more money out of money. Hence their name (born). And born like a parent. But interest is money from money, so it is the most repugnant of all occupations to nature.
If we translate the text of the original Greek word for word, then in the Gospel of Luke we read: “... and let us borrow, not expecting anything,” and the Council of Nicaea, held in 325 from the Nativity of Christ, forbade all clerics to charge interest. The punishment for violating the ban was immediate defrocking. In 1139, the Second Lateran Council decreed: “Whoever takes interest must be excommunicated and taken back after the strictest repentance and with the greatest care. Interest collectors who did not take the path of truth before death should not be buried according to Christian custom.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) vehemently denounced usurers many times: “Therefore, a usurer and miser is indeed not a man; he sins inhumanly. He must be a werewolf, worse than all tyrants, murderers and robbers, almost as bad as the devil himself. He sits not as an enemy, but as a friend and fellow citizen, under the protection and patronage of the community, but he is more disgusting than any enemy and murderous arsonist. Therefore, if street robbers, murderers and criminals are wheeled and beheaded, then how much more do you need to first wheel and torture all usurers, drive out, curse and behead all misers ... "
In our country, with the advent of commodity-money relations, people forgot about all these common truths and began to earn on their neighbor, lending money to each other at extortionate interest and borrowing from others, while mortgaging their houses and all property (both their own, and often their relatives). And of course, they all lost their money, except for those who managed to get them out with the help of brute force.
Therefore, no matter how hard it is financially, remember the main truth: "You take someone else's and for a while, but you give yours forever." Never borrow money from friends (if you do not want to hate them), or from relatives (if you want to maintain good relations with them). And never lend to friends or relatives (if you want to keep friendship and love).
Before you take a loan from a bank, imagine with your own eyes where you will go when your main, basic and only valuable property is taken away from you - a place to live - an apartment? Replenish your army of homeless people or enlist in hard work with housing in a kennel? And the fact that armed people will definitely try to take away your apartment and will do it with full right and without fear of anything, this will definitely happen. After all, this whole usurious operation was started for that. It was not for nothing that the banker spent money on an advertising campaign, notifying everyone around that he would gladly give everyone any amount of money, but ... on the security of an apartment. Isn't that why there are so many homeless people in the city now - more than in previous years? Usury should not be prohibited - it is a financial operation widespread throughout the world, moreover, it is the basis of all banking. People pawn palaces, ships, factories and ... most often lose them! But in enlightened Europe, a bankrupt financier moves to live in a “cheap hotel”, but in our realities it turns out to be a hostel of a brick factory ...
So it is best if such thoughts of taking a loan secured by an apartment never visited you, no matter how tempting the deal was. For a loan secured by real estate is a rather difficult test in the conditions of the capitalist West, where people have a decent salary and social guarantees. In our country, taking a loan secured by an apartment is the same as leaving yourself and your children without a livelihood.
No less stupid and hopeless business is to carry valuables to a pawnshop. There they will give you hardly a fifth of the value of these valuables and immediately deduct interest. In vain do you console yourself with the thought that by the end of the month the situation will improve and you will be able to redeem a chain or a ring. You will never be able to redeem them, because when you receive this money, either they will not be enough to redeem, or they will demand such a sum from you that it will seem completely inappropriate to redeem your property. Better then just sell your valuables and forget about them.
Family budget
For the family budget, large expenses for the purchase of a valuable thing are not so dangerous as careless daily spending of seemingly insignificant amounts. Even the most frivolous people pre-think and discuss a big purchase, and small daily expenses are usually considered unworthy of attention and accounting, and in total they are the significant extra expenses.
Money loves an account! The trouble with many people is that they don't understand this and live like grass grows, living in luxury when they have money and tightening their belts when they don't. A young housewife needs the ability not only to distribute family funds for the next two weeks before receiving the next salary, but also to plan her funds correctly, reasonably, balancing income and expenses over not only a month, but also a year. The lack of calculation in the household inevitably leads to serious difficulties in family life. The lack of money turns into a hassle, and it develops into violent scandals, often undermining the dam of family life to the very root. Let's face it: not always the cause of these difficulties is only excessive wastefulness, sometimes it can be unjustified frugality, in which money is not spent in a timely manner even in the most necessary cases, on the most necessary things.
One of best ways determining how you spend your funds, whether you spend them correctly or incorrectly, is a daily record of expenses. Believe me, no good economy can be carried out spontaneously, without planning. If you don't want to sit on dry rations, distributing pennies for the days left until payday, immediately sit down and calculate your expenses for all days of the month, including weekends. How much money do you need per day for your family? Travel expenses, newspapers, breakfast for a child, lunch for a husband, dinner for a family - try to take into account literally every little thing, including the cost of bread and meat - add up! A thrifty housewife needs to learn a firm rule (the wisdom of old Russian economic books teaches us this): use money for food only for its intended purpose!
It's okay if you don't have any money left for the theater, or for a new dress, or for shoes, or for a vacation, or for .... The main thing is that you now know exactly how much you must have by the beginning of the month in any case. And your main task is to have this amount by the beginning of the month by all means! And then you don’t have to borrow from friends “until payday” or carry things to a pawnshop.
If you have achieved this, then the rest is already easier - you can try to start saving. And then you can already count on what things you need to buy first. And this will help you in the first place
Income and expense book of a thrifty hostess
The victorious, drunken fanfare of the wedding celebration died down, and the young hostess, for the first time, tying an apron around her waist, enters the kitchen ... Where to start mastering the complex world of family life ?! First of all, with the study of the family budget. You have to balance your income with your expenses.
For this, it has long been practiced in Russia, Ukraine, and Western countries to keep income and expense books of an economical housewife, which is filled in on an accrual basis daily.
It includes columns: Total family income (annual, monthly, daily), which consists of the wages of family members, bonuses, fees, winnings, state insurance deductions, inheritance receipts and earnings on the side. General expenses: for food, payment for an apartment, kindergarten services, purchase of material assets (furniture, clothes, shoes, books, transport, etc.), housing construction, cultural and entertainment events.
Expenses are recorded on a monthly basis, except for the cost of food and cultural and entertainment events, which are taken into account daily.
For example: the real monthly income of a young family of 2 people. is 6000 rubles. Expenses: for food - 3600 rubles, payment for an apartment, kindergarten - 500, transportation costs - 1700, cultural and entertainment events - 200 rubles.
Given the meager family budget, a young housewife can allocate only 3,600 rubles for food, that is, 120 rubles a day!
In our time of insane prices for food and manufactured goods (10-15 times against the level of 1965), a young family of 2 people. it is very difficult to live on such a sum per day. It is necessary to abandon the cultural and entertainment program, the acquisition of things and seriously think about earning money in addition to wages.
What is the income and expense book of a thrifty housewife?
This is an ordinary notebook with a format of 100x140 mm, 150 pages.
At the end of the month, the results are summed up.
At the family council, the budget items for the next month should be discussed. Today, not knowing how to properly allocate the budget, many are leading the family "ship" blindly, "at random", enduring hungry storms and floundering in debt puddles.
Naturally, the income and expense book is not an idle invention of zealous and stingy old-world and Western housewives, spoiled by an abundance of products on store shelves.
The Russian “broad soul”, hospitality has firmly entered the traditional life of our families. Many housewives, without thinking about the consequences, spend 1/3 of the monthly family budget on a random, unnecessary party, dooming the family to a half-starved existence.
After three months, you can try to draw up your own "quarterly" and then "annual balance sheet." It goes without saying that no one will return the money spent to you, but an analysis of daily expenses, their monthly total, a comparison with the previous month or with the same month last year makes it very obvious which expenses were unnecessary, which were necessary and expedient. The conclusions from such an analysis make it possible to reduce or increase this expense at the expense of more or less necessary.
Other housewives object to recording expenses, explaining that they spend only what they have and do not buy anything extra. But it is not always immediately possible to determine whether the expense was superfluous or necessary. And besides, it is far from always possible to afford to spend everything that you have.
Every economy needs reserves. The household also needs them, no matter how small it may be. Family savings create such reserves. They, these savings, are usually calculated for all those cases that are associated with unusual, increased expenses: a trip or an excursion during a vacation, the purchase of a fur coat, new furniture, repairing an apartment, buying a car, etc.
If you always have money at hand, it is easiest to spend it for other purposes. Therefore, use the services of a savings bank, even when it comes to small amounts: there is a kind of financial discipline in the household.
Be sure to keep a personal diary. It is quite possible to combine it with the income and expense book. In it, you will record not only daily expenses, but also new recipes, useful information and household tips. In the same notebook, you can make a plan for housework for the near future, the next season or week, and you should also keep a record of daily expenses. You will soon get used to your diary and the entries in it, and they will become indispensable to you.
Check your financial receipts, start keeping track of the money spent - and you will almost immediately see that there is a serious gap in the dam of your financial well-being. Try to close it immediately. Almost always, money has the ability to "leak", and at the most inopportune moment. This is their main ability. But as soon as you put their "flow" under your own strict control, immediately expect changes. This does not mean that you will stop spending at all - just that you will start spending money smarter, more logically, and therefore more rationally.
In any situation, there are primary costs and those that can wait, and in no case should one be confused with the other.
The ability to distinguish the first from the second is the basis of the well-being of a good family man, and not at all the ability to make a lot of money quickly. The world knows a lot of rich people who were born with what is called "with a silver spoon in their mouth", who quickly and cleanly squandered their fortune. There are an incredible number of traps for your funds in the world. One of the main such traps is financial games, gambling establishments, lotteries. All their activities are based on one principle: a huge powerful organization with incredible tricks, rude flattery and active impudent advertising took up arms against you in order to take all your money from you. Do not believe that a bouncing roulette ball or a lottery ticket will bring you wealth. Most likely, these will be the tools to completely deprive you and your entire family. Unfortunately, people do not understand this well.
The endless crises in Russia and the increase in the cost of services and food prices make us look for opportunities to save every time. You don’t want to be under stress from constant savings, so it’s better to consciously approach this issue and start applying helpful tips in your life every day.
When traveling to Europe and America, it has always been surprising that they are very economical with their resources and money. Western people always calculate the expediency of purchases: all electrical appliances and equipment are bought in an energy-saving mode, all garbage is sorted. They always buy goods in stock at discounts, and they take the children home from the kindergarten for dinner, because it is more economical for the family budget.
Let's see how we can save in Russia. Our whole life consists of daily habits that we can revise in order to save money in everyday life.
- Control the temperature hot water when washing dishes, without adding cold water, but slightly reducing the pressure of hot water. And it’s better to save up dishes and.
- Change all the light bulbs in the apartment to energy-saving ones. Save up to 40% on electricity.
- The refrigerator should be placed away from the stove, from the battery, from the window so that the sun does not heat the surface of the appliance.
- When cooking on the stove, the area of the bottom of the pan must exactly match the diameter of the burner. Food is better to cook under the lid. Save up to 20% per month on electricity.
- It is better to load the washing machine after weighing the laundry, that is, at full load. But set the mode to economical. As a result, you save both powder, and water, and the electric power.
- A glass of water when brushing your teeth will save up to 15 liters of water per day, and 450 liters per month.
- A shower saves several times more water than a bath. Don't neglect it.
- Unplug all electrical appliances and chargers from outlets. Turn on the warm floor in the apartment as needed. And in your absence, it is better to turn it off.
- In your chandelier, for example, 10 light bulbs. This amount is needed only when guests gather. Therefore, leave 3-4 lamps for comfortable lighting, this will also bring significant savings.
- Do not put hot food in the refrigerator, wash at night in automatic mode, collect spring water for free, iron clothes when there is a lot of it, and not just one thing.
- It is better to pay for utilities, the Internet, and electricity a little in advance. Many of them give bonuses for prepayment: city tours, favorable rates, paying with bonuses for your fare, access to an electronic library, etc.
So, thanks to these tips, you can save up to 40% per month .
- Stain removal can be done with dishwashing liquid, laundry soap, ammonia.
- A microfiber cloth can be used to wipe dust without any chemicals.
- Air fresheners can be replaced with scented candles.
- Bread is best stored in the refrigerator. It does not ferment for so long and can be used for a long time.
- Instead of sausage, make your own baked meat in the oven. It is more useful and economical.
- Make your own white meat chicken, herring and liver pâtés.
- 3 ply toilet paper is more economical than 2 ply.
On home tricks you can save up to 20-30% .
Everyone knows that it is better not to go to the store when hungry. Everyone also knows about price tags with 99 at the end. But about the menu for the week, I think not.
- Make a menu for the week and a list of products for the week at once.
- Prepare semi-finished products yourself and freeze everything. It can be pancakes, meatballs, cabbage rolls, broths, dumplings and pasties.
- Bread can be freshened up by soaking it in water and then warming it up in the oven.
- From the leftover products, you can cook pizza, scrambled eggs, hodgepodge.
- Plant fresh herbs and onions instead of flowers on the window.
- Put everyone on a dinner plate. So much more economical than throwing away leftovers.
- Tea is healthier and better to brew in a teapot - that's enough for everyone. And you can add thyme bought at the pharmacy, dry apples from the dacha, rose hips from the forest on your own.
- Buy water for drinking in large containers, it is more economical.
- In the morning, drink coffee at work, and not from a vending machine on the street.
- Clearly divide portions for consumption: for example, a pack of kefir is divided into 5 doses, and pour oil for frying in a pan using a spoon.
Do not save, but diversify your diet simply by leading accurate calculation of all costs .
- Use the 72 hour rule: don't buy right away, don't get emotional.
- Buy groceries with a fresh head, when you are not very tired, so you will buy less unhealthy food.
- It is more economical to buy groceries in a basket than in a cart.
- Small children increase the cost of shopping by 30%.
- Bulk purchases at vegetable bases, collaborating with someone, bonuses in the store, large packages, promotional sales of the right product - use it.
- Always consider the cost of one piece goods, and not per package.
- Focus on prices.
- Freeze foods in the fall. Eggplants, peppers, carrots, beets, tomatoes are more delicious in autumn. Then it is convenient to cook from them, and they are as tasty as in the high season.
save up to 40% .
- Lead a healthy lifestyle, there will be savings on medicines.
- Walk 5 km a day and you will not be overweight, and your complexion will improve significantly.
- Make healthy face masks from everyday products.
- It is better to visit a dentist, gynecologist, therapist once every six months so you do not miss the disease, and you will not need expensive medicines, as well as dental treatment.
- Make gifts with your own hands, you can give flowers grown with your own hands, and pack everything yourself.
- Manicures and pedicures will last longer with proper care.
- Do not buy packages from the store. The package costs 10 rubles, you go to the store 10 times a month, here you have 100 rubles, and this is 1 kilogram of apples.
- When shopping, the price must be compared with the cost of your hour of work.
- Review communication tariffs for the whole family.
- Plan the weekend not only for going to paid events, but also prepare excursions to interesting places yourself, and promise the children a picnic in nature - everyone will be interested.
- Don't buy books. Enrolling in an electronic library will give you very big savings, for example, a subscription for a year costs about 2-3 thousand, and one book costs 300-400 rubles.
Daily habits will bring you more an organized approach to your money and time .
Initially, when you introduce new habits, the body resists a lot, and you may even feel tense and tired from it. You need to consciously approach the issue of saving, and accept what, in the end, will bring you not only savings in money, but also benefits.
Try it, you will succeed! And then, it's so interesting to manage your little home empire!
Economical hostess. Part 1 - NutritionAll rich people who I met in my life knew how to save and rationally use the resources at their disposal. They never spent money without first asking the question: what will it give me? And vice versa, those people who clearly had financial problems and often asked for a loan were guided by the principle “we live once and in a big way”.
Saving for the sake of saving itself is a thankless and merciless business. It is necessary to save in order to free up financial resources for more important purposes than the clogged refrigerator shelves. And the first step to reasonable savings should be taking into account the available financial resources.
It is impossible to manage your money wisely if the exact amount of income and expenses is unknown. Therefore, if we have decided to take the path of reasonable savings on food, then we need to know exactly how much the family spends per month on food, and what percentage this amount is from the general family income.
I think that you should not set yourself the goal of reducing, say, the cost of food to a certain amount. It is much wiser to set a goal to reduce the percentage of food expenses. And this is achieved in two ways:
- by reducing costs;
- by increasing income.Which of these ways is preferable for you personally - choose for yourself. Food expenses should not exceed 30% of total income. Optimally - up to 20%. If less than 10%, then you can only envy your income.
Accounting for expenses should be kept for at least two or three months in order to get an idea of where the money comes from and where it goes. Even if you think you have a rough idea of this process, there are many surprises waiting for you. For example, you will be surprised how much extra money can be spent on various sweets and uselessness, such as chocolates, chips, modest gatherings in cafes, etc. When I started keeping records, I was literally shocked by the size of the column: "Eating out." Then, for several months, I tried to patch up this black hole, as a result, the number in it no longer looks so frightening.
Well, then, after getting to know the reality, you can start planning the family budget and specific tasks: where to cut and where to add.
Accounting can be kept in different ways: the old-fashioned way in paper form or using computer programs.I remember that as a child, my mother had a special notebook in which she scrupulously entered all expenses. Then at the end of the month I counted everything and delivered a verdict. As a rule, it began with the words: "Everything is lost, let's go around the world ..." And ended with the words: “Despite the crazy spending of our dad, I managed to save so much this month.”
Now the time has changed, instead of notebooks, tables in Excel and special programs for home accounting have come to the box. Here you can see an overview of such programs and choose the right one at this link.
Personally, I have used these programs over the years:
. http://easyfinance.ru/
. http://www.keepsoft.ru/homebuhl.htm
. http://justtry.ru/buh/family-accountingIn principle, they are similar in function, I switched from one to another only because the first one bothered me. So I changed it once a year. The first is online (but the most multifunctional). And the second two can be installed on your computer.
In any case, the main thing is not the form, but its content. Accounting for all expenses and income is a tedious and painstaking task, but very effective and useful.
Should I save on food?
This topic was born from one conversation near the sandbox, in which four young mothers participated. While the kids were making Easter cakes, we discussed a very burning question: who spends how much money on food? We all had experience in housekeeping and our own vision of this problem. Everyone believed that it was his approach to the distribution of the family budget that was the most correct and convinced others of this.Yegor's mother complained about the crisis and the eternal lack of money. Necessary payments and paying bills ate up almost all the money earned, so I had to save on food. For example, fruits were bought only once a week, and pasta, cereals and potatoes were the main food. Frankly, we were amazed by this recognition, since outwardly the family gave the impression of being financially prosperous: two new cars, expensive clothes and toys for the child, excellent repairs. Although, as it turned out, it was the payment of loans for these cars and the new built-in kitchen that required the lion's share of the family budget. And on the minuscule that remained, the family lived.
Matvey's mother immediately stated that she does not save money on food and does not advise us. She is going to give her child everything only the best and dearest, and she will never regret anything for her boy. They always have fresh fruit, meat, smoked sausage and red fish, expensive cheeses in their house. True, not everything has time to be eaten and a lot is thrown away. And it’s not at all possible to save money to solve a sore housing issue: they live together with their father-in-law and mother-in-law in a two-room Khrushchev, and the father-in-law also has serious problems with alcohol ... But the family is guided by the motto “We only live once” and in matters of nutrition, really, no what does not deny itself.
Anya's mother complained that too much money is spent on food. Especially for all sorts of "unnecessary", like sweets, chips, chocolates. As soon as the husband goes somewhere with the children, almost the entire amount that she allocates for food for a whole week will be spent on such nonsense. In addition, my husband is a very picky eater. For example, he flatly refuses to eat vegetable soups and cereals. For him, meat should be mandatory every day and at least for lunch and dinner. And the meat itself is by no means in the form of minced meat or chopped pieces, but a large steak. The eldest son began to adopt the same eating habits. So, no matter how hard she tries, no savings come of it.
I told them that I had been doing home accounting for many years and I always knew exactly how much money our family spends on food. I try to keep this amount within 20-25% of our total family income. If the income in any month pleases, then we indulge ourselves. Well, if they decrease significantly, then I am able to feed the whole family tasty and varied for $ 30 (less than 1000 Russian rubles) for a whole week. True, the girls did not believe me. They unanimously declared that for such an amount you can feed only pasta with potatoes, and you can definitely forget about the taste and variety. No matter how much I convinced them that it was more than real, how much I did not give examples, they were skeptical.
Several months have passed, and this conversation has not gone out of my head. In our society, it is not customary to openly discuss your income and financial problems. You can convince others as much as you like that everything is in order in these matters in the family, but if this is not so, then the family itself suffers from this, first of all. I will not take on the role of a financial guru and will not talk about money at all. I want to talk about just one of the aspects - money for food. In this matter, I have both experience and skills and certain successes.
There are no problems with money in only one case: with an unlimited number of them. For example, if you have a Magic Nightstand in which money appears by itself. Or a good fairy godmother who gives you as much money as you want. But, as a rule, our resources are limited and have a certain source of income: salary, business income, pension, parental assistance, rent income, allowance, etc.
At the same time, the possibilities of the consumer society surrounding us have no limits. The more money we have, the more temptations and temptations to spend it. It only at first glance seems that the cost of food can be limited by the capabilities of the human body and appetite. Truffles, foie gras and roasted nightingale tongues are food not for the hungry, but for the rich. Do you know the saying: “The more money, the more they are missing”? And this is true: if you do not control the flow of money, then, regardless of the amount of income, there will always be little of it.
Why save money on food?
Firstly The money saved on food can be spent on more necessary and important things. For example, to solve the housing issue, develop your own business, educate children, health, vacation, etc. It is very sad if the most important priority in the family is "to eat deliciously without denying yourself anything." Maybe your child would rather eat hake today than salmon, but study at Oxford tomorrow? Or will you deny yourself red caviar and blue cheese for several years, but you will be able to buy the house of your dreams? If you believe that you can afford the fulfillment of any desires without restrictions, then say hello to the good fairy godmother.
Secondly, the transition of the family to a thrifty diet means a simultaneous transition to a healthier diet. For example, refusing smoked sausage, sprats, shop semi-finished products will only benefit the body. And an increase in the amount of available vegetables in the diet, such as cabbage, carrots, beets, onions, etc. would be approved by any nutritionist. In addition, the refusal to eat meat at least two days a week, the introduction of vegetarian days into the menu is welcomed not only by religious orthodox people and vegetarians, but also by doctors. Saving on food is not eating quality products. Saving on food is the choice of quality products at a reasonable price.
Thirdly, the ability to save and feed a family for a limited amount is a very important and necessary skill for any housewife. God grant that we all never know the need, so that the experience of our grandmothers who went through difficult wartime, or our mothers who managed to raise their families in the difficult 90s, will never be useful to us. Let's hope that we have a cloudless future ahead of us, without crises and losses. But the ability to save and save in the small is the guarantee of our confidence that we will cope with the big. If you know how to save and spend the money you have wisely, then you are not afraid of sudden financial crises associated with illness, job loss, falling income levels, etc. Because there is self-confidence, and this is the key to success.
What can't be saved?
- On the quality of products. We carefully study the expiration dates and appearance of the products. At the slightest doubt, we refuse the suspicious.- You can not save on health. The diet should be fresh vegetables, fruits, foods rich in protein. If you completely switch to pasta and potatoes, then in the future you will have to spend even more on medicines than on such “illusory” savings.
- On petty and rare pleasures. If you want to treat yourself to something tasty, then so be it. The less often, the greater the joy from such pampering.
How can you save:
- To replace store-bought semi-finished products with homemade ones. We reduce to the minimum possible the consumption of sausages, sausages, dumplings, fish sticks and cutlets, ready-made chickens, sauces and mayonnaises, salads, five-minute cereals, ready-made pancakes, cookies, sweets and other sweets. Instead, we cook more on our own: soups, casseroles, salads, cereals, pasta, various gravies and sauces, pies, mannas, charlottes and other cheap, tasty and healthy dishes.
Sausages or steak?
- On the exclusion of products from the category "pampering" and snacks: chips, buns, crackers, sandwiches between main meals.- On the rational use of already purchased products. We don't throw anything away! We perceive a product that has gone bad in the refrigerator as a mute evidence of our poor household skills: either you don’t know how to buy in accordance with your needs, or you don’t know how to cook.
Stale bread turns into crackers, croutons, breadcrumbs, gratin toppings.
. Cottage cheese is made from yesterday's milk.
. The missing kefir will go into the pancake dough.
. Most prepared meals (except salads) keep well in the freezer.
. Yesterday's uneaten porridge is added to today's soups, cutlets, casseroles.
. "Extra" vegetables are frozen until better times.
. Small pieces of anything left in the refrigerator make excellent toppings for pizza and pies.
. Cucumber and tomato marinades are the basis for pickles and borsch, you can stew meat in them.
. After frying the meat, the remaining juice and fat turn into the basis for sauces, etc.- Eating out. Minimize snacks in cafes and other catering establishments. Homemade food is tastier, healthier, and cheaper. You can take on work "soboyki". Yes, for this you will have to cook more at home and organize yourself in planning tomorrow's dinner. But the savings will be obvious. To do this, you need to specially buy containers and thermoses, in which you can bring any dishes with you: from soups to salads.
Charlotte or candy?
- We buy vegetables and fruits only in season. No fresh strawberries in February or persimmons in August. Benefit and taste qualities greenhouse winter tomatoes are highly questionable, and the blow to the wallet is tangible. You need to buy what has grown under the sun. In winter, vegetables and fruits long-term storage: beets, cabbage, carrots, onions, garlic, potatoes, celery, apples, oranges, bananas, persimmons. In summer, the choice is much wider.- The freezer is our friend. We do not buy frozen vegetables, herbs, berries and fruits. We are not lazy, but we prepare all this on our own in summer and autumn. If there is a desire and opportunity, we independently collect and dry / freeze mushrooms and berries. We actively use seaming, pickling and salting for the winter.
- Before going to the store, we make a menu for the week. Based on it - a list of products and buy only on it. This is the surest way not to buy anything superfluous and unnecessary!
- Interested in prices in each store for similar products and prefer those that are cheaper. If the purchase occurs once a week, then it is best to choose large grocery stores with more affordable prices. Even if such a store is far from your home, the cost of gasoline will pay off due to the large volume of purchases.
- We study promotions and discounts. And not only prices, but also the expiration dates of products for these promotions. If the products can be eaten before the expiration date, then we buy.
Before the purchase we study the ratio of the real weight of the product in the package and its cost. It makes no sense to pay for a beautiful and large package. It is better to prefer a similar product that is 30% more expensive but 50% larger.
Nuts or chips?
- Nuts, dried fruits and seeds cheaper by weight than in the package.We are trying to cut down on meat consumption. I am not advocating to completely abandon the use of animal proteins. If you want, they should be (although vegetarians and ascetics prove with their personal experience that you can live without meat). Meat must be in the diet of children, pregnant women and people engaged in physical labor. But it doesn't have to be every day. Several days a week, meat can be replaced with other protein-rich foods: fish, legumes or dairy. And cheap and useful.
- On purchased juices. Most of the juices that are sold in bags in our northern stores are made from concentrated powder. An exception may be tomato, apple and birch sap(they are often poured into banks in their original form in our latitudes). It is cheaper and healthier to cook compotes from fruits and berries frozen in summer.In the following publications, we will talk more about reasonable food savings. We will share ways and methods of saving, available recipes. We will learn how to plan a family budget, how to determine the required amount of food expenses per week. Let's talk about the personal experience of saving, our own successes and results.
Do you know how much your family spends on food?
