Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and
Speaker 1: Matt and today we're discussing cooking at home on a
Speaker 1: budget with Beth Monsell. Joel, we are all spending a
Speaker 1: lot more time indoors, getting to know our kitchens a
Speaker 1: little better, and not going out to restaurants. That's why
Speaker 1: we're happy to have Beth Moncell joining us today. Before
Speaker 1: Beth was a food blogger, she was a microbiologist after
Speaker 1: earning a degree in nutritional science. And now she has
Speaker 1: a massively popular site called Budget Bites, where you can
Speaker 1: find simple, delicious recipes that are designed for folks with
Speaker 1: small budgets. Beth has published a cookbook and she has
Speaker 1: developed a really cool mobile app as she continues to
Speaker 1: help others discover the joy of cooking while saving money.
Speaker 1: After housing and transportation. For most of us, food is
Speaker 1: our next biggest expense every month. So we're excited to
Speaker 1: talk with an expert who sits at the intersection of
Speaker 1: food and money. Beth, thanks so much for joining us
Speaker 1: on the podcast. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1: You guys, we're so excited to have you. Bet. It's
Speaker 1: fun to have a food expert because Matt and I
Speaker 1: we talked about it sometimes, but we don't really know
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. Let's be honest, I definitely don't
Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about. But we have a beer
Speaker 1: on every episode, Beth, because Matt and I really like
Speaker 1: craft beer, and it's also kind of this intentional thing
Speaker 1: where we're spending money on the things that matter to
Speaker 1: us right now while saving well for the future. Today
Speaker 1: on the show, we're drinking a beer called Whimsical Nature
Speaker 1: thanks to listener Doug sending in our way and so Bet.
Speaker 1: The first question we ask every guest is what is
Speaker 1: your craft beer equivalent? What do you explourage on now
Speaker 1: while you're still trying to like save and be thoughtful
Speaker 1: about your money for future times. Um. So, I am
Speaker 1: a plant person. I love house plants and outside plants,
Speaker 1: and they can be pretty expensive, but they bring me
Speaker 1: so much happiness it's totally worth it, even if they
Speaker 1: end up dying, which a lot of them. But my
Speaker 1: favorite thing, like you know, if I want to go
Speaker 1: treat myself is to go to the nursery, pick out
Speaker 1: a new plant, a really cool planter, and that plant
Speaker 1: will bring me happiness for a long time. That is awesome.
Speaker 1: Kate's gonna listen to this episode because she's actually she
Speaker 1: keeps up with you, you know, on social media and
Speaker 1: follows your recipes. As she's listening to this, she's gonna
Speaker 1: do some fist pumps because she totally has gotten into
Speaker 1: the plants over the past couple of years. And I'm
Speaker 1: we're totally with you, because sometimes they do die. Like
Speaker 1: right here behind we've got we've got this one tree
Speaker 1: that has seen better days. For sure. We're not totally
Speaker 1: sure why it's so sad, but totally understand it can
Speaker 1: still bring happiness even though it has less leaves than
Speaker 1: it used to. I think Beth is Kate's like spirit
Speaker 1: animal basically to be done with that spirit food bogger whatever. Yeah, well, Beth,
Speaker 1: we want to kind of dive into kind of your
Speaker 1: backstory a little bit regarding just with you know, your
Speaker 1: history with food. Did you grow up cooking? Have you
Speaker 1: always been a home chef? Yeah, I mean somewhat. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't call myself a home chef, um, but I did
Speaker 1: grow up in a big family. We had seven people
Speaker 1: in our family, so my mom was pretty much cooking
Speaker 1: NonStop every day, you know, just to keep us fed,
Speaker 1: So I learned a lot about the basics just by
Speaker 1: watching her and hanging out in the kitchen while she
Speaker 1: was cooking. And um I you know, through that experience,
Speaker 1: learned that cooking can be fun and it can be
Speaker 1: a way to express yourself artistically. And I've always been
Speaker 1: a creative type, so I enjoyed that part of cooking.
Speaker 1: And then I've also always really been into science, so
Speaker 1: I enjoyed that aspect of it too, Like you know,
Speaker 1: rainy days, I would experiment with candy making or things
Speaker 1: like that, which are very, um, you know, science heavy
Speaker 1: with food. So I did grow up learning the basics.
Speaker 1: And then, as you mentioned before, I got a degree
Speaker 1: in nutritional science and that taught me a little bit more,
Speaker 1: although that really didn't involve cooking too much. I think
Speaker 1: we only even had one cooking class. But then after graduation,
Speaker 1: when I started a blog, that's when I really started learning.
Speaker 1: So over the past ten eleven years that I've been
Speaker 1: doing this, just forcing myself to try something new every week,
Speaker 1: that's where I've learned most of my skills. So so
Speaker 1: what led you to start the budget Bites blog? Then
Speaker 1: it sounds like it was a learning experience for you,
Speaker 1: like you were learning how to cook food. It wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily just to start teaching out the get go. What
Speaker 1: what made you started? Right? Yeah? I was definitely a
Speaker 1: personal project at first, and then after it started, I
Speaker 1: realized there was a huge need for it, so it
Speaker 1: kind of transitioned to something I was doing for everyone else.
Speaker 1: But um so, after I earned my first degree, which
Speaker 1: was a nutritional science, my student loans went back into
Speaker 1: repayment and I had decided at that point not to
Speaker 1: become a registered dietitian. So there I was with like
Speaker 1: an enormous amount of student debt and working at a
Speaker 1: job that was like, I don't know, ten or thirteen
Speaker 1: dollars an hour, which is not enough to cover your
Speaker 1: basic needs and loans. So I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: I've already cut out every little bit of extra spending
Speaker 1: in my budget. The only thing that has any malleability
Speaker 1: at all was my food budget. Like everything else was
Speaker 1: a set expense. So I'm like, Okay, I have to
Speaker 1: cut back somewhere. But I have this degree in nutritional science,
Speaker 1: so I know how important it is for me to
Speaker 1: eat good food and eat food that I'm satisfied with
Speaker 1: so I started really diving deep into how I was
Speaker 1: spending money on food, and so I started tracking everything,
Speaker 1: and I think that needs to be the first step
Speaker 1: for everyone is to actually figure out where your food
Speaker 1: money is going. And then I started implementing the techniques
Speaker 1: that we had learned in school in our food service
Speaker 1: management courses on how to you know, manage the budget
Speaker 1: of a large food scale operation, like uh, you know,
Speaker 1: uh commercial kitchen or uh school kitchen, things like that.
Speaker 1: And I started applying those techniques to my kitchen at home,
Speaker 1: and that's where everything kind of clicked. So it's things
Speaker 1: like reducing your food waste, um, making sure you have
Speaker 1: a plan for everything you buy, you know, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I started doing that at home, and I started
Speaker 1: getting really excited about the things I was cooking and
Speaker 1: how cheap they actually were when you actually take the
Speaker 1: time to figure out how much it costs to make
Speaker 1: a pot of soup or something. And I posted that
Speaker 1: on my personal Facebook and people started asking for the
Speaker 1: recipes and I was like, hmmm, maybe I should put
Speaker 1: this stuff online. And I didn't even really know what
Speaker 1: a blog was at that time. It just like knew
Speaker 1: the words. So I started googling how to start a blog,
Speaker 1: and I went from there and it just has not
Speaker 1: stopped since. I feel like back then there was just
Speaker 1: like Deuce and like Cup of Joe, like the o
Speaker 1: G bloggers that I feel like everybody. I mean I
Speaker 1: was familiar with them too, but like two years ago,
Speaker 1: like those were I mean, those were huge blogs kind
Speaker 1: of sparked that whole revolution. Yeah, it is funny because
Speaker 1: when I started, I thought food blogging was staturated at
Speaker 1: that point. Little did you know part could go. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, so one of the cool things that you
Speaker 1: do on your site is like you incorporate so obviously
Speaker 1: you have these recipes and they keep cost in mind,
Speaker 1: but you actually incorporate the price of you know, not
Speaker 1: only the ingredients, but like what the cost comes out
Speaker 1: to per serving. What led you to do that? Is
Speaker 1: it just because that's what you're tracking yourself, and you
Speaker 1: saw the need for that because there aren't a lot
Speaker 1: of other recipe blogs who present that information like you do. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I think a reason most other blogs don't do it
Speaker 1: is because that pricing information is not going to be
Speaker 1: the same for anybody else. Prices very so much like
Speaker 1: even from storage store within a city or from city
Speaker 1: to see, even day to day. I worked in a
Speaker 1: grocery store, so I saw how often prices changed on items.
Speaker 1: But the reason I'm including it is just for example purposes,
Speaker 1: so people can see how much one single ingredient can
Speaker 1: totally skew the price of an entire recipe. So UM,
Speaker 1: I started doing this because this is the method that's
Speaker 1: used in commercial kitchens to figure out how much their
Speaker 1: food should cost and how much it is costing them,
Speaker 1: so they know how much, you know, like profit to
Speaker 1: make off of it. And I think it's a really
Speaker 1: good technique to use at home too. So when you
Speaker 1: start doing that, you see which ingredients you can have
Speaker 1: a little bit more leniency with, which are going to
Speaker 1: be your inexpensive based ingredients like the pasta, the rice
Speaker 1: of beans, inexpensive vegetables, and which ingredients you need to
Speaker 1: be really careful about how much you use, like cheese
Speaker 1: and meat and nuts and stuff like that. So I
Speaker 1: think it's a really important lesson for people to learn,
Speaker 1: So I want to give that example. UM. I think
Speaker 1: it's even better if people try it themselves at least once,
Speaker 1: because it can be a really eye opening experience, But
Speaker 1: I want to have that example out there for people
Speaker 1: just so they can at least see it very cool. Yeah, Beth,
Speaker 1: you said that you worked at the grocery store, So
Speaker 1: as an insider, what would you say for us normal
Speaker 1: folks going to the grocery store? Are the biggest things
Speaker 1: that you saw in play that part people from their
Speaker 1: money as they go about shopping, and so like, how
Speaker 1: can we actually save money the grocery store? As someone
Speaker 1: who worked in one, yeah, so I think that was
Speaker 1: a really valuable experience for me because the grocery store
Speaker 1: I worked at was Whole Foods and also known as
Speaker 1: Whole Paycheck. But if you know you're looking for there,
Speaker 1: you can actually get some really great deals, even at
Speaker 1: a place like Whole Foods. So the way that people
Speaker 1: end up blowing all their money is the impulse purchases
Speaker 1: or Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and grocery stores like that.
Speaker 1: And I think regular grocery stores are kind of getting
Speaker 1: on board with this. They are making food more of
Speaker 1: an experience. They're getting you with these really fun foods,
Speaker 1: the prepackaged like, oh, that looks like it would be
Speaker 1: so much fun to eat. For dinner, so people are
Speaker 1: going there and having these food experiences instead of just
Speaker 1: getting like basics implies. You know, so if you stick
Speaker 1: to the basics and you have a plan, you won't
Speaker 1: blow your budget. Beth, you mentioned budgeting and how you
Speaker 1: started with tracking your expenses, you know, when it went
Speaker 1: to groceries, Like, do you still do that now for
Speaker 1: folks or I mean, is that what you recommend or
Speaker 1: is there a like maybe a per person amount that
Speaker 1: folks should be shooting for. Like, so I mentioned that
Speaker 1: because I'm a super number numbers nerd and I've tracked
Speaker 1: my family's grocery budget over the past ten years and
Speaker 1: we have consistently very normal thing to do, super normal
Speaker 1: to do. Yeah, and so like I know, for us,
Speaker 1: we average about a dollar per person per meal. Um,
Speaker 1: and that hasn't really changed as we've added kids and
Speaker 1: we're super cheap, we're pretty frugal. But do you recommend
Speaker 1: that for folks to shoot for a dollar amounts or
Speaker 1: should they take other things into consideration? Um? Well, I
Speaker 1: don't think I would recommend one general amount for anybody
Speaker 1: because everyone is so different. Not only do you have
Speaker 1: different sized bodies that require different amounts of foods um.
Speaker 1: But everyone has a different budget and different lifestyle, so
Speaker 1: when you're thinking about your food budget, you do need
Speaker 1: to take into consideration not only how much food you need,
Speaker 1: but how much convenience you need, and that mix is
Speaker 1: going to be different for everybody. So I think the
Speaker 1: first thing that you need to do is track how
Speaker 1: much you're spending on food, not just groceries, but eating
Speaker 1: out for I would say at least a month. Just
Speaker 1: do it once just so you know what you're starting
Speaker 1: point is, and then set a goal and go from there.
Speaker 1: And you can set multiple goals, like small goals at first,
Speaker 1: with one large goal, or you can you know, shoot
Speaker 1: straight for the stars. But I think it's a lot
Speaker 1: better people start small. You know, you have a high
Speaker 1: rate of success that way, But you can figure out
Speaker 1: what your goal is that way, like how much you
Speaker 1: need to spend personally for your own lifestyle and your
Speaker 1: own body needs, because like I said, it's just gonna
Speaker 1: be different for everybody. Yeah, Beth, let's let's set up
Speaker 1: this fictitious scenario where someone has had a long day
Speaker 1: at work and they're not sure what to cook for dinner.
Speaker 1: Nobody really actually experiences that on a day to day
Speaker 1: basis is totally ficti. They've just made this up right,
Speaker 1: very hypothetical. Right, Well, what recipe is there that prevents
Speaker 1: people from grabbing the easy takeout on the way home?
Speaker 1: Because speaking of budgets, like, that's something that blows our
Speaker 1: budget right the last minute going out to dinner or
Speaker 1: pick something up on the way home, or even worse,
Speaker 1: grub having it because the delivery fees are atronomical. So like,
Speaker 1: what are your favorite quick and easy meals to prevent
Speaker 1: us from taking the quick, easy, but expensive option. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's so many things that you can do that are
Speaker 1: going to be just as fast or faster than getting
Speaker 1: take out, and it's gonna taste way better. So I
Speaker 1: think probably the easiest thing is some sort of stir fry.
Speaker 1: The reason that those are so popular with takeout is
Speaker 1: because they're so fast and easy and you can literally
Speaker 1: put anything into them. So you can do that at
Speaker 1: home to grab whatever leftover vegetables you have in your fridge,
Speaker 1: chop them up, throw them in a really hot skillet
Speaker 1: for like two minutes. If you want to do some
Speaker 1: sort of meat or like you know, frozen tramp or something,
Speaker 1: you can throw those in there too, And then the
Speaker 1: sauce first or fry is so simple, just some soy sauce,
Speaker 1: maybe some chili garlic sauce and maybe a little brown
Speaker 1: sugar to kind of balance those flavors and that's all
Speaker 1: you need. Pop that over some rice and you're like
Speaker 1: done in fifteen minutes. So something like that. Or you
Speaker 1: can go like the roasted vegetable and meat drought like again,
Speaker 1: whatever vegetables you have, throw them in a hot oven
Speaker 1: with a little oil and like whatever your favorite seasoning is,
Speaker 1: and you know, roast those and while the roasting, cook
Speaker 1: up some meat and you have like a really balanced
Speaker 1: dinner with like zero effort. That sounds amazing. Yeah, so mean,
Speaker 1: is this something that you do personally? Like is this
Speaker 1: something you do yourself? Well? So these days the only
Speaker 1: thing I eat are leftovers from my photo shoots and
Speaker 1: like recipe testing, so I really know the life of
Speaker 1: a recipe cookbook. Like we don't cook for ourselves at
Speaker 1: home like ever anymore. It's just like whatever I have
Speaker 1: left over from that day's photo shoot, that's what it
Speaker 1: gets eaten. But that's not that's not a terrible life
Speaker 1: to live, No, not at all. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: pretty perk of the job. Well the sturfright certainly that
Speaker 1: that description kind of had me getting a little hungry
Speaker 1: right there. Yeah, Actually, like the way you're describing, I
Speaker 1: was like, wow, that does sound so I could totally
Speaker 1: do that because my wife is for sure like the
Speaker 1: the you know, she does all the cooking for our
Speaker 1: family and she loves it. It's one of her passions.
Speaker 1: But I hear you say this, I'm like, oh, that
Speaker 1: sounds like that's totally something I could do. And I'm
Speaker 1: a complete novice, so yeah, if it sounded like something
Speaker 1: I can do, then it's probably something that pretty much
Speaker 1: everybody can do. Awesome. Well, Beth, you know you you
Speaker 1: hinted that some of these different practices basically that you're
Speaker 1: able to that you learned when it came to these
Speaker 1: commercial applications of cooking, like just being in the food industry.
Speaker 1: And so after the break, we're gonna talk about maybe
Speaker 1: some different ways that we can take these different strategies
Speaker 1: and approaches and apply those two cooking at home, and
Speaker 1: how we can use those practices to save us money.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that right after the break. We're back
Speaker 1: from the break, we're talking with death Monsell about cooking
Speaker 1: at home on a budget, which, I gotta be honest,
Speaker 1: pretty much all of us can stand to learn something
Speaker 1: from this conversation. Well, and by the way, we're calling
Speaker 1: you Beth Mondseell. But like, do folks call you budget bites?
Speaker 1: Because I mean you're known online as budget bites. I
Speaker 1: think most people call me Beth actually know anyway, I
Speaker 1: don't see people just call Matt. How the money? Now?
Speaker 1: So like how the money? Matt? No, not really but
Speaker 1: all right, So, Beth, we were just talking about the
Speaker 1: expense of you know, the quick meal, picking it up
Speaker 1: on the way home because you don't want to cook something. Well,
Speaker 1: I've heard it said be or some people have this
Speaker 1: reaction to eating at home and they say, eating well
Speaker 1: at home is too expensive and there's all these reasons
Speaker 1: that I can't do it because buying the better products
Speaker 1: at the grocery store cost too much money. So what
Speaker 1: would you say to people that say that eating well
Speaker 1: at home costs too much? Well, I think it depends
Speaker 1: on what their definition of well is. Do they just
Speaker 1: mean tasty or are they talking about ingredients that are
Speaker 1: like locally sourced and things like that. Um, so it's
Speaker 1: going to depend a little bit on that. But I
Speaker 1: think the main thing is I think they're probably just
Speaker 1: choosing their wrong recipes. If you just keep it really
Speaker 1: simple and stick to really basic, simple ingredients and less
Speaker 1: package stuff, your bill is going to be lower than
Speaker 1: eating out, like, no question. I mean, because when you're
Speaker 1: eating out, you're paying for the communians with someone else
Speaker 1: making it for you. You buy the single ingredients on
Speaker 1: their own, and you spend fifteen thirty minutes putting together,
Speaker 1: and it's a fraction of the cost. Even when you
Speaker 1: go for those higher price items like organic or you know,
Speaker 1: something local. There's just no question about it. If you're
Speaker 1: trying to make really fancy things like beef wellington, maybe
Speaker 1: it's gonna be really expensive. But those aren't the only
Speaker 1: foods that are good. I mean, really basic cuisine is delicious,
Speaker 1: especially when you're making it at home because it's fresh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I will say, you had dule over your salivating talking
Speaker 1: about veggies and stir fry when normally he is a
Speaker 1: kind of beef welling. Well. Yeah, Like, what are some
Speaker 1: other ways than that we can reduce that cost? You
Speaker 1: know that we're able to maintain a pretty slim budget
Speaker 1: at home, you know, while we're cooking nutritious meals that
Speaker 1: we're proud of. Yeah. So it's funny because people always
Speaker 1: say that eating healthy is really expensive, But the same
Speaker 1: principles that I learned for eating healthy in my degree
Speaker 1: for nutritial science are the exact same principles that I
Speaker 1: use for cooking on a budget, and those are things
Speaker 1: like sticking to whole grains, beans, and vegetables. So people
Speaker 1: like vegetables are so expensive, but they don't have to be.
Speaker 1: I think they're expensive when you are focusing on the
Speaker 1: really trendy, like super foods, but that totally discounts how
Speaker 1: valuable really basic vegetables are, like sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage.
Speaker 1: Those are all like a dollar a pound, which is
Speaker 1: a fraction of what something like ground beef costs, and
Speaker 1: they're super healthy. You fill up your diet with those things,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna be sitting pretty, you know, and not
Speaker 1: spending a lot of money. Yeah. Speaking of the principles
Speaker 1: that you follow, Beth, you kind of did a write
Speaker 1: up on your website of some of the principles that
Speaker 1: you follow in order to reduce how much you spend
Speaker 1: on food and how other people can kind of do
Speaker 1: the same. One of the things you mentioned is is
Speaker 1: planning your meals ahead. So can you talk to us
Speaker 1: a little bit about meal prep or make a head
Speaker 1: meals and how those can help us save money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the planning a head thing is really important.
Speaker 1: Even aside from meal meal prep. It's when you go
Speaker 1: to the grocery store without having any sort of plan
Speaker 1: in mind, You're just gonna grab a bunch of random things.
Speaker 1: Those things will probably go to waste because you didn't
Speaker 1: have a plan to use them in the first place,
Speaker 1: or you didn't have a set plan, so you might
Speaker 1: be missing other ingredients that you need. So even if
Speaker 1: you pick like one or two recipes a week that
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna make and plan when you're going
Speaker 1: to make them so that you actually do um, that's
Speaker 1: gonna save you so much money and you know you
Speaker 1: won't be tempted to go eat out those nights or
Speaker 1: whenever you eating the leftovers. So having the plan before
Speaker 1: you go into the grocery store is so important. And
Speaker 1: then as far as meal prep goes, this is really
Speaker 1: just something that I like to do personally. It's not
Speaker 1: for everyone, um, but I really appreciate having leftovers. Kind
Speaker 1: of like we were saying before, it's it's another way
Speaker 1: to prevent those busy nights where you want to order
Speaker 1: Postmates or something because you're just too tired to cook.
Speaker 1: So I like to cook batch meals of things like
Speaker 1: soups and stews, pasta, diicious things that I can freeze
Speaker 1: single serving portions of. And if I have a variety
Speaker 1: of those stashed in my freezer, if I get to
Speaker 1: a night where I'm just like too tired to cook,
Speaker 1: I can grab something out of the freezer, something homemade,
Speaker 1: something delicious, something I know I love, and reheat it
Speaker 1: really quickly in the microwave and I don't spend any
Speaker 1: eggtra money that way. I love leftovers, Like I'm with you,
Speaker 1: Like every day I work from home, and so I
Speaker 1: come walking out of my office, I can come to
Speaker 1: back to the house and I take a look at
Speaker 1: in the fridge and I'm just always looking for just
Speaker 1: a solid leftover from the past day or a couple
Speaker 1: of days ago. And specifically, I feel like for me,
Speaker 1: at least, the best way, I always fry up an egg,
Speaker 1: and ideally I can find a leftover that I can
Speaker 1: put a fried egg on top. It's like, yes, the
Speaker 1: unofficial slogan is put an egg on it, like land
Speaker 1: where they're like put a bird on it. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I can put a fried egg on pretty much anything.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, Kate, check this out. I made this.
Speaker 1: Rolls her eyes at me. Well, So when it comes
Speaker 1: to like meal prep, that's how you describe batch cooking, right,
Speaker 1: Like you're making all these single serve things ahead of time.
Speaker 1: Do you have a strategy and approach for like portioning
Speaker 1: that out? And I'm talking about the actual containers, Like
Speaker 1: do you use tupperware that's like it's like made to
Speaker 1: you handle like a full meal? Or do you use glass?
Speaker 1: Do you use like the like the cheap circle you know,
Speaker 1: industry containers that you can buy like pieces at once.
Speaker 1: So I think I'm going to write a blog post
Speaker 1: about this soon because everyone struggles with tupperware. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: I started out with the blue zip top or blue
Speaker 1: zip block containers, you know what I'm talking about, Like
Speaker 1: you can buy them the packs of like four or
Speaker 1: six and the store. I still really like those because
Speaker 1: they are very durable, they're super inexpensive. They come in
Speaker 1: a bunch of different shapes and sizes. They can go
Speaker 1: straight from the freezer to the microwave. UM I find
Speaker 1: those are really useful. But I have also gotten into
Speaker 1: the glass containers, and I like the really simple ones
Speaker 1: made by either Pyrex or anchor Hackeing I think is
Speaker 1: the other brand that makes a really good priced UM
Speaker 1: glass container. So they don't have any a shield, bells
Speaker 1: and whistles like dividers or anything. The lids are really
Speaker 1: simple plane lids. They don't have like clamps on over anything,
Speaker 1: but there's still water tight. So I think those really
Speaker 1: simple glass containers are awesome, and those are my two
Speaker 1: big choices. I don't like those black containers that a
Speaker 1: lot of people use for meal prep that you buy
Speaker 1: in packs of twenty, like you were saying, because you know,
Speaker 1: the main reason is because they feel cheap and gross,
Speaker 1: and your meal is just not going to be very
Speaker 1: enjoyable when you're eating it off of a gross plastic
Speaker 1: tray like you're in a school cafeteria. Right, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like so much of that does have to do
Speaker 1: the experience. I think back to my bachelor days, I
Speaker 1: would throw everything in ziplock bags and man leftovers in
Speaker 1: a ziplock bag. Just don't do it for me, you know, Like,
Speaker 1: who wants to see a bunch of mashed potatoes like
Speaker 1: smear down the side of a nipluck bag, Like it's
Speaker 1: going to encourage you to not eat that stuff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I see people eating up the paper plates, I
Speaker 1: get really sad. I'm like, oh, that looks so unenjoyable, totally.
Speaker 1: So speaking of the containers, that you put them in,
Speaker 1: containers that go well in the freezer is a great thing, right,
Speaker 1: so that you can store for the future. So how
Speaker 1: long in your opinion, can food typically last in the
Speaker 1: fridge before you have to move it to the freezer?
Speaker 1: And then what are the foods that are kind of
Speaker 1: perfect candidates to buy and freeze as you're kind of
Speaker 1: prepping for food in the future. So when you are
Speaker 1: planning to freeze something, you want to freeze it sooner
Speaker 1: than later because the longer it stays in the refrigerator,
Speaker 1: the more likely things are to grow on it, basically,
Speaker 1: so you want to catch it at its freshest, but
Speaker 1: you don't want to chill it completely in the refrigerator first,
Speaker 1: So I usually say overnight because that will help maintain
Speaker 1: the quality after it's freeze frozen and thought, so chill
Speaker 1: it overnight in refrigerator and then you know, pick however,
Speaker 1: main servings you wanna freeze, pop them in the freezer,
Speaker 1: and then they're going to be good in the freezer
Speaker 1: for about three months, sometimes longer. So what happens in
Speaker 1: the freezer is that food just kind of slowly dries
Speaker 1: out over time and gets that freezer burn. So I
Speaker 1: usually reckon then three months, but I am you know,
Speaker 1: admittedly I eat things that are in their way longer
Speaker 1: than three months. So it just depends on what your
Speaker 1: tolerance is for a texture and flavor changes. And then
Speaker 1: things that you can buy and stash in the freezer.
Speaker 1: So definitely um expensive things like meat, if you want
Speaker 1: to buy a larger quantity of meat, usually get a
Speaker 1: better price. So what I do is like buy a
Speaker 1: larger pack and then I divide it into single recipe portions,
Speaker 1: pop that in the freezer, and then I could just
Speaker 1: grab one out whenever I need to make something. Cheese
Speaker 1: is also a great thing to keep in the freezer
Speaker 1: because again it's less expensive if you buy a larger
Speaker 1: quantity and it freezes super well. Um, most of the time,
Speaker 1: you can't tell any difference with the frozen and thought cheese.
Speaker 1: The only thing it's not good for is slicing because
Speaker 1: it gets a little bit more crumbly, so you're not
Speaker 1: gonna want to make sandwich slices out of it. But
Speaker 1: for everything else it's perfect. And there are a lot
Speaker 1: of other things like breads I like to keep frozen
Speaker 1: since I don't eat them very quickly, so to prevent
Speaker 1: them from getting moldy, I just stash them in the
Speaker 1: freezer and grab a slice or two out whenever I
Speaker 1: needed things like that. So you're just talking about buying
Speaker 1: things in bulk sometimes, like buying cheese or something like that.
Speaker 1: Which are So do you shop at Costco? How do
Speaker 1: you feel about the warehouse clubs as a place where
Speaker 1: people to go in order to buy food and save money. Um, so,
Speaker 1: I'm really not a fan of them, But I think
Speaker 1: that's just a person. I think we just became not friends.
Speaker 1: Well here's the reason, since it's just me and my boyfriend,
Speaker 1: and for a long time it was just me, I
Speaker 1: don't I just didn't need that much stuff, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So like having to pay the membership fee,
Speaker 1: I don't think really would have paid off for me.
Speaker 1: If you have a big family, I think it could
Speaker 1: totally be great. But if you don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of storage space too, that's another issue, which is something
Speaker 1: I've never really had a lot of storage space, whether
Speaker 1: it be just in my kitchen or apartment in general,
Speaker 1: or even in my freezer. So again, buying in bulk
Speaker 1: wasn't really you know, a good option, but buying slightly
Speaker 1: larger quantities at a regular grocery store, not like at
Speaker 1: a normal storage like at a non bulk store. It's
Speaker 1: still a little bit more than you know, their normal packages,
Speaker 1: but it's not such a huge quantity that you're gonna
Speaker 1: have storage issues. Yeah, Joel showing it up to his
Speaker 1: house with like thirty pounds of turkey. Look, Emily, I've
Speaker 1: got thirty pounds of turkey. She's like, that's great. What
Speaker 1: have we gonna do with that every night for the
Speaker 1: next two years? Right? Right? Uh? Well, that that leads
Speaker 1: us to ask them like where, like where are your
Speaker 1: your favorite places to shop for your different ingredients? Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: I mean this has changed a lot over the years.
Speaker 1: I've been doing this for eleven years. I think now
Speaker 1: So my current favorite is Aldi. I finally moved to
Speaker 1: a city that has an Aldi two years ago, and
Speaker 1: it's very close to my house and I am loving it. Man, Okay,
Speaker 1: so you're no longer friends with Joel because he's totally
Speaker 1: in love with Costco. But we're in the Aldi family.
Speaker 1: We've got one. It's like maybe two miles from our house.
Speaker 1: It's not even that not even that far, but like
Speaker 1: I can ride my bike there. We got an Aldi
Speaker 1: tattoo on his back like Superman, just except for it's
Speaker 1: on my back. You're right, Yeah, No, I love my
Speaker 1: little Aldie. I love that it's small so I can
Speaker 1: like get in and out without having like this huge ordeal.
Speaker 1: Like I think that's another reason why Costco is not
Speaker 1: for me, Like it's just too much to deal. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's colost convenient and easy, and I love that
Speaker 1: they have like a mix of the basics and then
Speaker 1: also kind of like more trendy items, Like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of gluten free, a lot of organic. They're some
Speaker 1: fun stuff, but not so much that I'm going to
Speaker 1: blow my grocery budget. Yeah, it's a good place, so
Speaker 1: I'm not Yeah, what items do you like to get
Speaker 1: organic or and like what items you know, do you
Speaker 1: just not care about getting organic? So this is interesting.
Speaker 1: Last year I did a partnership with stony Field Organic
Speaker 1: where I got to go out to one of their
Speaker 1: farms out in Vermont and learn all about the organic
Speaker 1: farming process. And it was so cool, Like I learned
Speaker 1: so much that I didn't know about organic because before
Speaker 1: then I didn't really have an opinion about it. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't have enough information to even have an opinion.
Speaker 1: But I really loved the farming technique for so many
Speaker 1: different reasons, not just health reasons. I think it's great
Speaker 1: for the environment, it's great for the farmers with their
Speaker 1: business model, you know, like all of that stuff. So
Speaker 1: the thing I try to buy organic when I can now.
Speaker 1: But I think probably the most important in my opinion,
Speaker 1: which might not be that informed, is probably like the
Speaker 1: meat and dairy products. Okay, so meat and dairy are
Speaker 1: ones that you prioritize organic, and then a lot of
Speaker 1: the other ones just not as important. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess I don't have super strong but I don't know
Speaker 1: if I can say they're not important, but you know,
Speaker 1: for you at least, Yeah, in my my half hearted
Speaker 1: attempt to do better. Yeah, I'll buy the organic when
Speaker 1: it's available. But I wanted to ask you another way
Speaker 1: I think that we obliterate our food budget sometimes is
Speaker 1: by kind of the portions that we put on our plates.
Speaker 1: And we've kind of especially when we're going out to eat,
Speaker 1: the portion that we get is often absurdly sized, right,
Speaker 1: and so is entre for you and your family, right,
Speaker 1: But it's but everyone in your family gets their own,
Speaker 1: and so Matt. Now we've talked about sharing an entree
Speaker 1: with your spouse, with your partner, and how that can
Speaker 1: be a good way to save money when you're eating
Speaker 1: out at least, how do you control your portions when
Speaker 1: you're cooking at home. Is there kind of the best
Speaker 1: way to create a portion size that works for you
Speaker 1: so that you're not eating too much? Yeah? I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a little bit of a learning curve
Speaker 1: for everybody, because again, you know, people need different amounts
Speaker 1: of food. But what I do, I think the most
Speaker 1: important thing to do is to portion it as soon
Speaker 1: as you're finished cooking, because if you chill the entire
Speaker 1: batch of whatever you're cooking in one big, you know,
Speaker 1: bowl or container or whatever. You then have to portion
Speaker 1: yourself each time you want to serve yourself, and that's
Speaker 1: going to change depending on how hunger you are. So
Speaker 1: if it's already free portioned, then you don't have that
Speaker 1: variable and you might eat that portion and then feel fine,
Speaker 1: Whereas if you had portioned it right before you ate
Speaker 1: and you're starving, you would have given yourself twice as
Speaker 1: much and spent twice as much basically on that meal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a problem with us as people, right, like, like
Speaker 1: it takes so long for us to realize that we're full.
Speaker 1: I guilty of this, and I just keep eating. Like
Speaker 1: if there's like we normally keep it on the table
Speaker 1: because our girls want more, and we make sure that
Speaker 1: we're not wasting food by giving them too much on
Speaker 1: their plate, and then we end up having to toss
Speaker 1: it on the trash. But then the problem is I've
Speaker 1: got this giant cast iron, you know, skillet full of
Speaker 1: like stir fryers, and it's made and I just keep
Speaker 1: eating and I don't stop because it's sitting right there
Speaker 1: in front of me. But yeah, like you said, removing
Speaker 1: that from you kind of creating these guardrails to kind
Speaker 1: of keep you from doing that to begin with, I
Speaker 1: think is wise and something I should probably do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I just I think that most people don't realize
Speaker 1: how much of a literal interpretation that is of their budget.
Speaker 1: Like the more you eat, the more like dollars you're
Speaker 1: you know, eating. I don't know how I want to
Speaker 1: put it, but you have wasted money basically that I
Speaker 1: am consuming that I do not need to consume. Our
Speaker 1: entire culture is kind of based on food as entertainment,
Speaker 1: so it can take a while to kind of rewrite
Speaker 1: that habit in your brain and figure out other ways
Speaker 1: to entertain yourself or keep yourself intellectually stimulated without using food.
Speaker 1: Is that tool, Well, that's I love that best. So
Speaker 1: these are all ways that we can cook at home
Speaker 1: for less money basically, and you know, we we've kind
Speaker 1: of been knocking on grub hub. But like there's also
Speaker 1: these different you know, meal in a box things like
Speaker 1: blue Apron. What are your thoughts on those? Like is
Speaker 1: that a smart way to to get folks started cooking
Speaker 1: if that's not something they've done before. I think it
Speaker 1: can be a useful tool, but I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a good tool to use long term, um, I think
Speaker 1: it can help people get over the intimidation of cooking
Speaker 1: or inspire them to try new flavors, which is always
Speaker 1: a great thing. But as far as something to use
Speaker 1: on a day to day basis, I feel like it's
Speaker 1: just way too much packaging and you can just get
Speaker 1: better prices for the ingredients on their own. Sure. I
Speaker 1: appreciate those thoughts, and we've got we're gonna we've got
Speaker 1: some more questions for you that we want to get
Speaker 1: to after the break, and specifically for folks who are
Speaker 1: considering something like, you know, a meal delivery service, but
Speaker 1: because they just haven't gotten used to being the kitchen,
Speaker 1: they don't know how to go about it. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about some kitchen cooking skills and and how to get
Speaker 1: better in the kitchen. Let's get to that right after
Speaker 1: the break. All right, we'll back to the break. We're
Speaker 1: talking with Beth Mansel and her website is budget bites
Speaker 1: dot com, and Beth, I love how accessible your recipes are.
Speaker 1: I've been kind of going over them on your website
Speaker 1: and there's nothing that seems too terribly difficult for me,
Speaker 1: and as a complete amateur in the kitchen, that makes
Speaker 1: me feel good and I love too. You've even got
Speaker 1: tips to spice up a bowl of instant ramen, and
Speaker 1: I might have recently purchased a Costco size box of
Speaker 1: instant ramen, so I do need your tips on how
Speaker 1: to spice up that bowl of instant ramen, make it
Speaker 1: actually taste good and especially for our college listeners. Um also,
Speaker 1: how can they take instant ramen and make it better? Sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's one of my favorite things to do. I'm one
Speaker 1: of those rare people that not o d on ramen
Speaker 1: during my college years, so I still love it, but
Speaker 1: I try to, you know, kind of limit it because
Speaker 1: it's probably not something you should eat every single day.
Speaker 1: But I do have some ways to make it more
Speaker 1: tasty and kind of up the nutritional value a little bit.
Speaker 1: So UM Ramen is one of my favorite things to
Speaker 1: use for using up the leftovers in your refrigerators. So
Speaker 1: when you get to the end of the week and
Speaker 1: you see you've got all these vegetables in your refrigerator
Speaker 1: that you didn't use, you can just like toss those
Speaker 1: into your pot of ramen. So things like um, leftover spinage,
Speaker 1: you could do, mushrooms, you can do. What else do.
Speaker 1: I like to put in there bell peppers, um, green onions,
Speaker 1: So any little leftovers like that that you have, you
Speaker 1: can throw that into the broth. I also like to
Speaker 1: kind of beef up the broth a little bit, so
Speaker 1: to speak, with things like garlic and ginger, which I
Speaker 1: almost always have on hand, and then you can add
Speaker 1: like other sauces, things like toasted sects. Me oil is
Speaker 1: really good, just a couple of dashes of that, maybe
Speaker 1: some hot sauce. I even experimented recently with putting canned
Speaker 1: coconut milk into the broth, and that was absolutely amazing, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: sounds good. Yeah, that's something hits on that before as well.
Speaker 1: If it kind of takes it to that, like takes
Speaker 1: it from instat raman to like tie ramen level. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Would you ever go math throughout and put a Friday
Speaker 1: in it? Oh? Absolutely, I do that all the time.
Speaker 1: Actually I don't fry it. I just like poach it
Speaker 1: or self boil it and put it in. Oh nice.
Speaker 1: Oh and you mentioned ginger as well. You said you
Speaker 1: always have that on hand. Is that because you have
Speaker 1: those little ginger tubes that you get at aldi? Um no,
Speaker 1: So when I do Yeah, I do fresh because it's
Speaker 1: way less expensive. And so if you buy like a
Speaker 1: knob of ginger, and you can buy any size, A
Speaker 1: lot of people don't realize you can break those ginger
Speaker 1: knobs apart, kind of like you separate a bunch of
Speaker 1: bananas if you only want a few, So you can
Speaker 1: break off a piece of ginger bring it home. I
Speaker 1: like to wash it really good because I don't bother
Speaker 1: peeling mine, and then I just stash it in the
Speaker 1: freezer in a freezer bag. And when it's frozen, it's
Speaker 1: way easier to grate with, like um, a fine hole
Speaker 1: cheese grater, because normally it has is like stringy bits
Speaker 1: in it that kind of clog up the greater, but
Speaker 1: when it's frozen that doesn't happen. So I keep a
Speaker 1: knob in the freezer at all times, and when I
Speaker 1: need to use it, great off as much as I
Speaker 1: need and pop it back in the freezer. Awesome tip.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's the secod alright, Beth. What about folks who
Speaker 1: are looking to get started in cooking at home but
Speaker 1: they're completely overwhelmed? Right, Like, these are folks who haven't
Speaker 1: spent much time in the kitchen. What are some practical
Speaker 1: steps to making cooking less intimidating for them. Um. So, first,
Speaker 1: pick a really really simple recipe. I mean maybe like
Speaker 1: a pot of soup, because that for soup, all you
Speaker 1: do is throw stuff in a pot and heat it up. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, things like that. And then also take advantage
Speaker 1: of YouTube and things like that. There are so many
Speaker 1: tutorials out there, video tutorials to show you how to
Speaker 1: chop and clean things. If there's a vegetable you're unfamiliar with,
Speaker 1: I guarantee you can find a video on how to
Speaker 1: clean and prep that um vegetable. But start small. I
Speaker 1: think that's the most important thing. Don't go for that
Speaker 1: really fancy recipe on your first go, you know, stick
Speaker 1: to that simple ster fry or a pot of soup
Speaker 1: and work your way up from there. What would we
Speaker 1: as a civilization do without YouTube? I know, how did
Speaker 1: we survive? Right? Seriously? How do we learn anything before YouTube?
Speaker 1: We went to the library, I guess we did, you'r.
Speaker 1: It's a totally different way of learning. But YouTube is
Speaker 1: like so easy at our fingertips. I use it all
Speaker 1: the time, Beth. Most folks know that you're supposed to
Speaker 1: have a couple of nice knives, maybe a couple of
Speaker 1: good thick pots and pans. But what are some of
Speaker 1: the tools that a lot of people overlook that are
Speaker 1: really useful in the kitchen as they kind of begin
Speaker 1: to cook more at home. Um, So I use my
Speaker 1: cheese graters all the time. So you can either get
Speaker 1: like a box grater that has different sized holes on
Speaker 1: each side, or I just have a flat one with
Speaker 1: large holes and a flat one with small holes. And
Speaker 1: I use that not for just cheese, but I great
Speaker 1: a lot of different vegetables on that too, So I
Speaker 1: great carrots, a lot for different like surfries or pull offs. Um,
Speaker 1: great potatoes on it. Other vegetables like zucchini are really
Speaker 1: good to great sometimes, so those get a lot of
Speaker 1: use in my kitchen. Things like don't forget about your
Speaker 1: measuring cups and measuring spoons. I like to have a
Speaker 1: set of at least three cutting boards so I don't
Speaker 1: have to cross contaminate with like raw meat or fish,
Speaker 1: and then my vegetables. And then a rolling pin is
Speaker 1: kind of surprisingly useful not only for baking goods, but
Speaker 1: I use it to like pound meat if I need,
Speaker 1: you know, my chicken breast to be and even thickness
Speaker 1: or something like that, or to crush, you know, graham crackers.
Speaker 1: If you're making a dessert stuff like that, ye smash
Speaker 1: out some nuts or something. Yeah, so you mentioned the
Speaker 1: box grater. I feel like I always have a hard
Speaker 1: time with cheese graders, right like box graders. It can
Speaker 1: always feel so awkward, like you sometimes you've got this
Speaker 1: big block of cheese or whatever it is. Is there
Speaker 1: a way to make that easier because I feel like
Speaker 1: a lot of times it just feels so awkward and
Speaker 1: it always feels like I'm not doing it right. I
Speaker 1: don't know if this is if you're going to have
Speaker 1: a good answer for me, but I want to I
Speaker 1: want to see if you do. It sounds like a
Speaker 1: personal problem. I remember, I don't know. It's not like
Speaker 1: maybe I just need to spend more time in the
Speaker 1: kitchen and then it wouldn't feel award. This isn't a
Speaker 1: noop chef therapy, Matt, Come on, I mean, you do
Speaker 1: need to be careful of your fingers. I have like
Speaker 1: grated my knuckles. But you know, other than that, it's well,
Speaker 1: like what about so there's there's some like some great
Speaker 1: tools to have, Like, what about some of those fancier
Speaker 1: appliances that are popular these days, like instant pots, air fryers,
Speaker 1: things like that. Are those worth having on hand? I
Speaker 1: am a big proponent of just keeping things simple. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't like specialty gadgets. I did buy an instant
Speaker 1: pot a few years ago because I had always wanted
Speaker 1: a pressure cooker to begin with, and then that came
Speaker 1: on the scene and I'm like, oh, that sounds like
Speaker 1: it could actually be really useful for multiple things. But
Speaker 1: then after I got it, I realized not that great.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think an instant pot is good, like
Speaker 1: a slow cooker, for a few things that it does
Speaker 1: really well, But the rest of the time, I think
Speaker 1: it's so much easier to just cook in a regular
Speaker 1: pot on the stovetop. You're not one of those people
Speaker 1: that are making like cheesecake. I feel like that's one
Speaker 1: of the things that are like and you can make
Speaker 1: cheesecake with it at home all the time, right the
Speaker 1: staple in my yeah, Like I mean, I have maybe
Speaker 1: like it's a year tops and it's great when I
Speaker 1: have it, but like I'm not you don't necessarily buy
Speaker 1: something just to make cheesecake. Right now. I think the
Speaker 1: things that it's valuable for are the pressure cooking options,
Speaker 1: because um, it's so fast, but you can do all
Speaker 1: those same things in a slow cooker with more time,
Speaker 1: And a slow cooker is going to be like twenty
Speaker 1: five dollars versus a hundred dollar plus instant pots. So
Speaker 1: I would rather just spend less and you know, have
Speaker 1: it take a longer time. We're all about the cheaper
Speaker 1: device that does the exact same thing. If you needed
Speaker 1: to write and Beth, what other important skills or techniques are?
Speaker 1: Are things that you encourage people to learn? Are there
Speaker 1: like nice skills that we need to master? Is there
Speaker 1: anything else? I mean, Matt obviously needs to master the
Speaker 1: cheese greater, that's something I need to improve on right
Speaker 1: bone up on that, But are there any other techniques
Speaker 1: that are really useful, like basic things as we kind
Speaker 1: of attempt to do more work in the kitchen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think, like you mentioned, knife skills are probably
Speaker 1: one of the most important things, and that's really just
Speaker 1: gonna come with practice. So even if it's uncomfortable or
Speaker 1: you feel like you don't do it good now, just
Speaker 1: keep doing it and you will get better at it.
Speaker 1: Watch those YouTube videos if you need to. I think
Speaker 1: another really important skill to have is knowing how to
Speaker 1: roast things in the oven. Um, like vegetables. It's a
Speaker 1: really simple technique, but if you don't know like a
Speaker 1: couple of the hints, it can all go very wrong. Um,
Speaker 1: and you'll have with soupy vegetables. But having that one
Speaker 1: technique is going to allow you to make a lot
Speaker 1: of really really delicious meals. Nice. Yeah, well, can you
Speaker 1: dive into that You're you're talking about roasting veggies. You know,
Speaker 1: it sounds like a great way to get some of
Speaker 1: that nice roasted flavor on those old vegetables that you
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier that you know that we don't want to
Speaker 1: go bad in the fridge, Like, how do you make
Speaker 1: sure that you have these roasted vegetables that are actually
Speaker 1: flavorful and not just soggy. Yeah, So roasting vegetables like
Speaker 1: roasting vegetables makes just about any vegetable taste better because
Speaker 1: you got like a concentration of the flavors as the
Speaker 1: evaporation happens, and then you get the caramelized edges, which
Speaker 1: add another layer of flavor. Um. But in order for
Speaker 1: that to happen. You have to make sure that um,
Speaker 1: the vegetables are not too crowded on your sheet pan
Speaker 1: or whatever you're roasting them in, because when they get crowded,
Speaker 1: all of the moisture that's evaporating how the vegetables gets trapped,
Speaker 1: and then you basically just end up stewing them in
Speaker 1: their own juices, and that does not create a desirable
Speaker 1: flavor or texture. So make sure that everything is kind
Speaker 1: of spaced out evenly, and then making sure that they're
Speaker 1: coated in enough oil. If you try to cut back
Speaker 1: on the oil too much when you're roasting vegetables, they
Speaker 1: just kind of dry out and end up like a
Speaker 1: hydrated vegetable instead of getting those really nice caramelized edges.
Speaker 1: Very nice. Yeah, Beth, I'm going to go home make
Speaker 1: some stir fry some veggies. Appropriately sounds like you've converted
Speaker 1: Joel to being a vegetarian. A vegetarian friend of ours
Speaker 1: is gonna be like High five and his wife because
Speaker 1: they all the time. Joel makes fun of them because
Speaker 1: they don't eat as much bacon as he does. I
Speaker 1: do like bacon, But but this has been such a
Speaker 1: great conversation. I feel like I learned a lot, and
Speaker 1: I hope and I know that this is going to
Speaker 1: be just a lot of great infot for our listeners
Speaker 1: as well. So where can they go find out more
Speaker 1: about you and what you're up to? Um? So you
Speaker 1: can visit my website, which is budget bites dot com
Speaker 1: and it's b y t E s or Instagram is
Speaker 1: probably the next best place to find me, and that's
Speaker 1: just at budget Bites. You're like, you're huge on Instagram.
Speaker 1: How many followers do you have at this point? Well?
Speaker 1: Maybe two? Oh yeah, just a cool You're you're almost
Speaker 1: Kim Kardashian level. Bit. She's like, I'm not a numbers person,
Speaker 1: but Instagram really late, so I didn't have very much
Speaker 1: of that pre algorithm time, so you know, only two
Speaker 1: seventy five. Well, I mean that's the thing. Beautiful, delicious
Speaker 1: looking food certainly lends itself to a visual medium. And
Speaker 1: when you're making simple, amazing recipes like you are, that
Speaker 1: that folks can make at home, but they see how
Speaker 1: beautiful it looks, they think, man, that's a beautiful piece
Speaker 1: of broccoli that was roasted, and I want to eat
Speaker 1: that universal language. Everyone loves food. It brings people together. Um,
Speaker 1: so I think it has a very wide appeal. Very cool. Well,
Speaker 1: we appreciate this conversation. Will definitely link to to you
Speaker 1: in our show notes. Will we'll tag you in our
Speaker 1: Instagram post for this episode. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: for talking with us about food and just again, like,
Speaker 1: we can save so much money if we're able to
Speaker 1: rein in our grocery budget every single month, because it's
Speaker 1: one of those recurring expenses. And we really appreciate all
Speaker 1: the tips that you've given us today. So thanks so much,
Speaker 1: Thank you guys, so much fun. Thanks again, Beth, Matt.
Speaker 1: That was a great conversation. Much needed. I think to
Speaker 1: get a food expert in on the show because you know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about saving money. We like all the we
Speaker 1: we like saving money on groceries. Some of us like Costco,
Speaker 1: not Beth. But I mean I don't know how to
Speaker 1: cook of the stuff that she has on her website,
Speaker 1: but I think it's stuff that I can learn now
Speaker 1: after having that conversation. Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah. So what's your
Speaker 1: your big takeaway from this episode? My big takeaway was
Speaker 1: stir fry. Dude, two words, stir fry, because I think
Speaker 1: it's something that I can easily put to use. I
Speaker 1: can take vegetables that are a couple of days old, tossum,
Speaker 1: you know, on the stove, and create myself a decent
Speaker 1: meal that I can actually like. And I think that's
Speaker 1: the problem sometimes with leftovers. People don't want to eat
Speaker 1: leftover is because they're worthy, they're not gonna taste very good.
Speaker 1: And especially when it comes to like vegetables that are
Speaker 1: a couple of days old. So anyway that we can
Speaker 1: spice those up, make them taste good and actually enjoy them,
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna help our budget and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be good for us to write. And so that was
Speaker 1: my big takeaway. I'm gonna start doing stir fries more frequently,
Speaker 1: and I think Evilly is gonna be happy that I do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you and me goes like you're all about the stuffry. Well,
Speaker 1: I'll kind of dovetail into that one a little bit too. Um,
Speaker 1: not stir fries specifically, but just her approach, which is
Speaker 1: that cooking like it doesn't have to be this super organized,
Speaker 1: orderly thing where you have to have the perfect recipe
Speaker 1: and all the right ingredients, and sometimes these ingredients are
Speaker 1: gonna be exotic. It literally can be just things you
Speaker 1: have already in your fridge, and you can just start
Speaker 1: adding stuff until it tastes good, right, Like you mentioned,
Speaker 1: like throwing that soy sauce on there, getting some of
Speaker 1: that fresh ginger. I think that's one of the cool
Speaker 1: things about cooking on a stovetop like that is that
Speaker 1: it doesn't require an exact science. Right, We're not baking
Speaker 1: a cake. It's something that you can be a little
Speaker 1: more improvisational on, right. Uh. It doesn't require exact temperatures,
Speaker 1: it doesn't require you making sure you know the veggies
Speaker 1: are cookedly, thoroughly through to avoid making sure you're not
Speaker 1: going to get sick. Like that's that's perfect for me.
Speaker 1: I need to those error proof resives. Yeah, exactly. And
Speaker 1: so hearing her talk about that gave me confidence for
Speaker 1: the next time I've got all four kids and I'm
Speaker 1: at home and trying to figure out, you know what
Speaker 1: meal I'm going to cook. Gave me, Yeah, gave me confidence.
Speaker 1: And I think this pair as well with how we
Speaker 1: talk about money. I think a lot of times folks
Speaker 1: when they think about money, it's just this massive, overwhelming
Speaker 1: thing and they feel like they have to get everything
Speaker 1: perfectly lined up. When it doesn't necessarily have to be
Speaker 1: that way. You can start with something as simple as
Speaker 1: tracking or spending to get you on a budget, just
Speaker 1: like she was talking about when it comes to kind
Speaker 1: of dialing in your food budget. It doesn't have to
Speaker 1: be this perfect thing when it comes to food or
Speaker 1: our money. You can just start off easy and small,
Speaker 1: and if you can think about it in a way
Speaker 1: that's approachable, you're gonna be much more likely to continue
Speaker 1: to do that action, and you're gonna be much more
Speaker 1: likely to succeed because you keep up with it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think going back to the food thing for
Speaker 1: a second, to that one of the things we didn't
Speaker 1: talk about with Beth, but it's so true is that
Speaker 1: the more you can use those leftovers, the more you
Speaker 1: could utilize food that you've already cooked to actually make
Speaker 1: it tasty and eat it, we're gonna minimize food waste,
Speaker 1: and food wastes is a huge problem in the developed
Speaker 1: the world that we just we just throw away a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff that's very edible, and it also affects
Speaker 1: our budget to this extreme right where we're actually throwing
Speaker 1: away edible food, We're throwing away meals, and then we
Speaker 1: have to go either buy more stuff or we go
Speaker 1: out to eat to to have something to eat that
Speaker 1: night or that day. And when we can actually make
Speaker 1: things last a little bit longer, we can reuse and
Speaker 1: some of the things that we've already cooked, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna have more money left at the end of the
Speaker 1: month because we did that. That's huge. So, yeah, food
Speaker 1: waste major problem, and I think you know, if we
Speaker 1: take Beth route, we're on our way of solving it absolutely. Man. Well,
Speaker 1: something that we never waste is beer. So this episode
Speaker 1: we had a Whimsical Nature, which is a beer by
Speaker 1: Phase three Brewing Company out of Illinois. This one was
Speaker 1: sent to us by Doug. So, Doug, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for for sending us this beer. Joel, what were your
Speaker 1: thoughts on this? I'm gonna go ahead and spoil it
Speaker 1: a little bit, delicious beer because this one was so good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think we've talked trash about a
Speaker 1: beer yet, although we've had some that were definitely not
Speaker 1: as good as others. We've gotten creative and how we
Speaker 1: talked about some of those beers. But this is top
Speaker 1: to your range, man. This is so good. This is
Speaker 1: so good. So to me, this beer tasted like ripe hops.
Speaker 1: My palate was assaulted with a lot of hops in
Speaker 1: this one. Like normally hops are I mean hops like
Speaker 1: you get the dust and the oils off of hops, right,
Speaker 1: But like the way you're describing it almost as if
Speaker 1: the hop was juicy. Yes, it was, and it totally
Speaker 1: totally was. It felt like I was biting into something
Speaker 1: almost and it was had some floral notes, had some
Speaker 1: kind of orange flavors present, but overall just a delicious
Speaker 1: I PA that I thoroughly enjoyed. Yeah. Man uh and
Speaker 1: this was a double I p A by the way.
Speaker 1: To me, it had this bright, almost like fizzy orange
Speaker 1: juice like character. I've described other beers this way as well,
Speaker 1: where it kind of almost reminds me of sunny d
Speaker 1: and the best way possible, But it kind of had
Speaker 1: that going on for me. It sort of reminds me
Speaker 1: of a like a refreshing orange drink, which certainly lends
Speaker 1: us off to some of these warmer us that we're
Speaker 1: starting to experience now, at least what we are in
Speaker 1: the South. Sure, yeah, I mean we drink I p
Speaker 1: s all year round, but man, getting a really juicy
Speaker 1: what I would describe as almost kind of effervescent. Phzzy.
Speaker 1: I p like this as it's warming up. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: really gets me a pump for the summer. Yeah man,
Speaker 1: all right, now we gotta in this episode because I'm
Speaker 1: hungry after that conversation with Beth. But for folks who
Speaker 1: want the show notes for this episode, they want to
Speaker 1: find out more about Beth, well, they can find that
Speaker 1: on our website at how to money dot com. Yeah, Joel.
Speaker 1: Along with those show notes, you can find other helpful
Speaker 1: articles up there as well. In particular, one article we
Speaker 1: have up there is about choosing the right credit card
Speaker 1: based on how you spend your money. And so if
Speaker 1: you are looking for a new credit card, we would
Speaker 1: recommend you check that one out. You can go do
Speaker 1: how to money dot com forward slash credit cards, and
Speaker 1: if you were to sign up via any of those links,
Speaker 1: that helps out the show. So, Joel, that's gonna be
Speaker 1: it for this episode, Buddy. Until next time, Best Friends Out,
Speaker 1: Best Friends Out.