Surviving the Recession - Money Saving Tips from your Highlands County Realtors

We all have to eat. Unlike other expenses, such as cable tv and gym memberships, we can't just give up eating. Eating healthy is an important topic these days and I have quiet a few tips that will save you money AND have added health benefits. Another Two for the price of One! Dine In - it saves gas money, time, the restaurant's overhead, and the tip for the waiter and there's two ways to do it:

1. Purchase frozen pre-cooked meals . With pre-cooked meals, you save time by not having to cook it from scratch. Every grocer carries a wide variety of frozen meals and I don't mean boring tv-dinners. Give Bertolli a try. Stouffer's make a delicous family lasagne to feed 6 for around $8. Add a tossed salad and jello for dessert, voila! Dim the lights, put a fancy table cloth on the table, top it with your best dishes and enjoy the meal!

2. Cook it from scratch. Get your cookbooks out and if you don't have any or need more inspiration, check out AllRecipes.com. You will be amazed at the wealth of information: Recipes, how to's, videos etc. It doesn't get any better. You can even save your recipes in your on-site recipe box. Give it a try! Cooking from scratch is more time consuming than using frozen meals but how about making it a family affair? Have your kids chop the veggies, have your spouse fire up the grill while you take care of the side dish and dessert. It's quality time you can spend with your loved ones. There's another Two for the price of One!

Generic brands - I don't compromise when it comes to ketchup. It has to be Heinz! With everything else, I purchase the store brand or generic brand whenever possible. On average I save around $15 per week with generic brands. That's $ 780 per year. One great example: Oil of Olay Night Time Firming Cream is $11. WalMart's Generic brand is $5 and it has exactly the same ingredients!

Left Overs - purchase a couple of cheap plastic containers (it does not have to be TupperWare!) and save the left overs. Chicken legs make a great salad if you pick the meat off the bones and add mayo and some of your other favorite ingredients.Leftover potatoes make a breakfast dish: slice, add some onion, fry with cooking spray and pour two beaten eggs on top. Add some of the left over meat from last night too! Cook down that bone from your ham, add a variety of dry beans, tomatoes, veggies - voila, you have bean soup! I freeze left over gravies for another meal. You can do the same with left over veggies.

Sales - check those fliers from your grocer for items that will on sale. It pays to compare sales and use coupons if you have them. Plan your weekly meals with the sales flier in mind. Yes, this means trips to several stores but you might be able to combine the trips with other errands.

Dine Out - if you must dine out, and there's really nothing wrong with it - take advantage of the deals many restaurants offer now: My husband and I went to Chili's a while ago and tried out their $20 deals. We shared the appetizer, each had a great entree and then shared the dessert (which was plenty for both of us). All for $20! Last summer, we took advantage of McDonald's 59 cent cheeseburger deal. Now some might argue that going to McD's isn't dining out, especially if it's drive-thru. We still got a great deal (we oven baked our own fries and had our own iced-tea for less than $1 per glass).

Buying Bulk - if you have the extra freezer space, buy meat in bulk. Check Costco and Sam's Club for specials. Example: we'd buy a whole tenderloin and get 4 meals out of it: pork roast, pork stew (no different than beef stew!), pork steaks (no different than beef steaks!) and stir fry. We'd cut the whole tenderloin in sections to go into the freezer. To save time, you can season the meat before you freeze it. All you have left to do is thaw and cook!

Last but not least: have a list! - Write a list of all the items you NEED and stick to it. You will not be so tempted to pick up 10 other items you didnt' really need.