It’s the end of the month and you get your credit card bill, eyes pop out of your head and you think, WHERE IS ALL MY MONEY GOING? You’ve stopped eating out, you only buy cheap coffees, and your clothing and travel budget is nonexistent. You think you have no more room to cut costs. I am here to tell you that you do! There is hope at the end of the “very broke” tunnel. I know this because despite all of my penny saving tricks, I needed to find a way to save another $100 or more a month and I found it. It’s your recipes man! Yep that’s right. You think you are being thrifty by cooking home-cooked meals but let me tell you where all the extra money goes…it’s those darn recipes!

Recipes are a total money sucker. That’s where your “stay in and cook” plan starts to get expensive. Let’s play this out. You make the frugal decision to stay home and cook. What’s the first thing you do? Google a recipe that has you flying to the store to pick up all the missing ingredients you need for this home cooked delight. Before you know it, you have a jar of masala seasoning (of which you only need a teaspoon), a bunch of leeks (of which you only need one), and a jar of sun-dried tomatoes (of which you only need a quarter of). You use your new ingredients one time, and are on to the next recipe, likely throwing out, or never using the other leftover un-versatile ingredients. Stop this, stop buying ingredients you only use once a year, stop googling recipes that require additional trips to the store, stop wasting money…and no, I am not saying stop eating. Well I am, I am saying stop eating food that requires you to waste money and start REVERSE MEAL PREPPING.

What the heck is reverse meal prepping (RMP)? It’s cooking backwards! No, I don’t mean put your back to the stove while you try to simmer your veggies. I mean make a weekly grocery list, stick to it, buy your staples, some proteins, some veggies, some fiber, complex carbs etc… When it’s time to cook, type in three main ingredients you have in your house like chicken breast/broccoli/rice or salmon/pasta/green bean or potato/egg/cheese…you get the idea. NOW google. Recipe’s will pop up with those ingredients. If any recipes pop up with additional ingredients you don’t have you can either leave them out, or google a substitution for that ingredient.

[shortcode-1-In-Article-Banner-728×60]

Sounds obvious right? I have so many people ask me “what gave you the idea to make that!?” and I simply say, I just googled a couple ingredients I had on hand. I care about being healthy, but I am a very flexible cook. If a recipe calls for onions and all I have are scallions, it’s fine. If a recipe calls for sweet potatoes and all I have are regular potatoes…yep you guessed it, it’s fine. This way at the end of the week, or year, you wont throw out hundreds of dollars of food, and you won’t head to the store to purchase hundreds of dollars of additional ingredients.

A few tips to make your Reverse Meal Prepping successful:

• Have a well stocked spice cabinet
• Have a variety of condiments that have a long shelf life
• Only buy one meal’s worth of meat/veggie protein at a time (unless you are prepping lunches and stuff).
• Buy veggies that you know you love (not the I “should eat this” kind)
• Minimize the purchase of foods that expire within 7 days, more trips to the store is better than throwing out food
• Don’t be afraid to get crazy in the kitchen and mix ingredients you never thought would go together! Breakfast Pizza and Hotdog omelets can totally be a thing!
• Focus on healthy ingredients, not magazine worthy presentation

Let the RMP Begin!

string(4218) "
It's the end of the month and you get your credit card bill, eyes pop out of your head and you think, WHERE IS ALL MY MONEY GOING? You've stopped eating out, you only buy cheap coffees, and your clothing and travel budget is nonexistent. You think you have no more room to cut costs. I am here to tell you that you do! There is hope at the end of the "very broke" tunnel. I know this because despite all of my penny saving tricks, I needed to find a way to save another $100 or more a month and I found it. It's your recipes man! Yep that's right. You think you are being thrifty by cooking home-cooked meals but let me tell you where all the extra money goes…it's those darn recipes!
[shortcode-02-03B3-in-article-responsive]
Recipes are a total money sucker. That's where your "stay in and cook" plan starts to get expensive. Let's play this out. You make the frugal decision to stay home and cook. What's the first thing you do? Google a recipe that has you flying to the store to pick up all the missing ingredients you need for this home cooked delight. Before you know it, you have a jar of masala seasoning (of which you only need a teaspoon), a bunch of leeks (of which you only need one), and a jar of sun-dried tomatoes (of which you only need a quarter of). You use your new ingredients one time, and are on to the next recipe, likely throwing out, or never using the other leftover un-versatile ingredients. Stop this, stop buying ingredients you only use once a year, stop googling recipes that require additional trips to the store, stop wasting money…and no, I am not saying stop eating. Well I am, I am saying stop eating food that requires you to waste money and start REVERSE MEAL PREPPING.
What the heck is reverse meal prepping (RMP)? It's cooking backwards! No, I don't mean put your back to the stove while you try to simmer your veggies. I mean make a weekly grocery list, stick to it, buy your staples, some proteins, some veggies, some fiber, complex carbs etc… When it's time to cook, type in three main ingredients you have in your house like chicken breast/broccoli/rice or salmon/pasta/green bean or potato/egg/cheese...you get the idea. NOW google. Recipe's will pop up with those ingredients. If any recipes pop up with additional ingredients you don't have you can either leave them out, or google a substitution for that ingredient. 
[shortcode-1-In-Article-Banner-728x60]
Sounds obvious right? I have so many people ask me "what gave you the idea to make that!?" and I simply say, I just googled a couple ingredients I had on hand. I care about being healthy, but I am a very flexible cook. If a recipe calls for onions and all I have are scallions, it's fine. If a recipe calls for sweet potatoes and all I have are regular potatoes…yep you guessed it, it's fine. This way at the end of the week, or year, you wont throw out hundreds of dollars of food, and you won't head to the store to purchase hundreds of dollars of additional ingredients.
A few tips to make your Reverse Meal Prepping successful:
Have a well stocked spice cabinet
Have a variety of condiments that have a long shelf life
Only buy one meal's worth of meat/veggie protein at a time (unless you are prepping lunches and stuff).
Buy veggies that you know you love (not the I "should eat this" kind)
Minimize the purchase of foods that expire within 7 days, more trips to the store is better than throwing out food
Don't be afraid to get crazy in the kitchen and mix ingredients you never thought would go together! Breakfast Pizza and Hotdog omelets can totally be a thing!
Focus on healthy ingredients, not magazine worthy presentation
Let the RMP Begin!

"

I can’t remember who gave me this personal finance hack, or, rather, advice: but one juicy tidbit was that I should keep a balance on my credit cards and that it would up my credit score. I’ve even wiped out the balance on a credit card debt and then purchased something that I slowly pay

Keep reading

You spend $30 on Chinese takeout for just yourself on Monday. On Tuesday you bought a $5 latte. You finally purchased all the items in your shopping cart and spent $102 on Wednesday. Silver lining, you got free shipping. Thursday you went to the new craft cocktail bar. You bought yourself a drink and then

Keep reading

By a more than $10 billion margin, Bill Gates sits alone at the top of the list of the world’s billionaires. Currently the head of the world’s largest charitable organization – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – saving lives in the developing world and working to revamp the American educational system. Born in Seattle,

Keep reading

THE KENTUCKY DERBY IS FINALLY HERE! GET EXCTIED FOR THE FASTEST 2 MINUTES IN SPORTS THIS SATURDAY!! My buddies and I always try to make it out to a game, but we never really care which one we end up at provided we can bet on it. Obviously we have our favorite sports and teams,

Keep reading

Our homes are everything. It’s more than just a building, holding the key to all of our fondest memories, family gatherings, and where we finally get to unwind after a long day. And with all that comes a ton of moving parts so when things go wrong with your house, it needs to be addressed

Keep reading

These are uncertain times, and everyone is looking for ways they can cut down on costs and make life easier. Our editors have been searching for the best deals and ways you can save some coin, and we’ve found the best way to make dinnertime simple and more cost-efficient: HelloFresh. HelloFresh is a recipe box

Keep reading

First, it was the smartphone, and now, it’s the smart wallet. In a crowded market, Ekster’s smart wallets have been standing out because of their amazing features. Their wallets come with RFID blocking technology and the ability to be tracked, making them safe from data theft and virtually unlosable. If you think these features sound

Keep reading

I thought I had a pretty good handle on my finances out of school. I worked several jobs while attending university and had little to no problem managing my income. However, once I graduated, I realized how much more complicated personal accounting could really be. There were so many variables I needed to keep track

Keep reading

No matter what the circumstance is, being laid off is never an ideal situation. Sometimes you can feel it coming, and other times it comes out of nowhere. But a lot of the time, it has nothing to do with the person and the quality of their work. The economy is always in motion. Industries

Keep reading

A few weeks ago, I woke up with a stiff back which was probably brought on by sitting at my kitchen table WFH for hours on end. I tiptoed to the bathroom as quietly as possible as to not wake my girlfriend, Claire. Even after a hot shower, the muscles were still tight so I

Keep reading