Stretch Your Food Dollar: Lunchtime Extravaganza
Clint mentioned last week that he’s been bringing his lunch to work in order to stretch his food dollar. He’s a smart cookie. If you figure that the average lunch costs around $10, you could be saving $50 a week by bring your lunch to work. The challenge with bringing your lunch is that lunchtime can get kind of ho-hum if you just bring a sandwich or a frozen meal every day.
I’m a big believe in sack lunches. I’ve shared recipes with you all in the past for soups, salads, and sandwiches. Here are a few more salad recipes that actually get better after being in the fridge for a day or two. Make up a batch on Sunday night, for example, and you’ll have lunches ready to go for Monday and Tuesday. Both recipes are vegan-friendly, but anyone will enjoy these flavor-packed dishes.
Black Bean Salad
1 can black beans, drained
1 red bell pepper, seeded and minced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and minced
1 can corn, drained
3 green onions, minced
1/2 cup minced cilantro
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lime (or lemon)
salt and pepper to taste
1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine all of your ingredients. Stir until everything is evenly distributed.
2. Pack about 1 cup of salad in individual plastic containers. Store in the fridge until ready to serve.
After making this recipe, you may decide that you like more/less onions or cilantro. Adjust the recipe according to your own taste buds. The kitchen is, after all, your own creative work space. Read the rest of this entry »


Thus far in this series, we’ve talked about all the things you should and shouldn’t buy as a consumer to save you money. We discussed how higher quality can cost a little extra initially, but how in the long run it can pay off to pay a little extra. I’ve ignored one thing that you should pay for though, and I hope that thus far it hasn’t been to your detriment. Yes, it makes sense, but you should be sure to pay a little extra for your food.
Are the rest of you as irritated as I am about the banks sending out reminders to consumers about the new overdraft regulations? As of August 15th, customers have to specifically opt in to their bank’s overdraft protection if they want the bank to process transactions that would send an account into insufficient funds. That’s because NSF charges are big business for the banking industry. The 







