This month’s Eat Well, Spend Less posts were all centered around saving money and eating healthy during the crazy summer full of travel, camping, vacations and the everyday schedules. Whether you’re planning to head to the lake or go somewhere tropical, we have the tips to make it as hassle free and doable as possible. Here on Food for My Family, I offered up the little nuggets of wisdom I have on eating healthy amidst summer schedules. With the kids out of school and in summer sports,... more

Welcome to the June edition of the Eat Well, Spend Less series. This month we’re focusing on meal and snack time during the summer, whether it’s during air travel, on a road trip, camping, in the heat or just while juggling the craziness of the summer schedule. Here on Food for My Family, I’ll be sharing some tips for healthy and frugal meals and snacking when you’re out doing fun summer activities like the zoo, the ballpark or sitting watching the kids on the soccer field. Summer... more

Our Eat Well, Spend Less series continues! This month we’re looking at food storage options, and I am specifically breaking down what we do as a family with a small kitchen area and virtually no extra storage space. While we do keep a well-stocked pantry and we love buying in bulk, we need to be conscious of our lack of space, too. There are six people in our family, which means quite a few hungry mouths on a daily basis. While I’ve talked before about how we love purchasing food... more

Week 3 of the Eat Well, Spend Less series was all about the grocery shopping process from the point of view of your regional area. From Canada to Seattle to Texas, we all threw our experience out on the table to share the ins and outs of our shopping trips with you. Here’s the wrap-up, and don’t miss the grocery giveaway at the end! I shared our own shopping hurdles here in Minnesota and how the system changes depending on the time of year. As it so happens, now that it’s warming... more

It’s the last week in the Eat Well, Spend Less series, and I can’t believe how fast it flew by. This week is all about the shopping experience and how and where we shop to keep the grocery budget under control. Living in the Midwest poses a few challenges as you start thinking about grocery shopping. The first and probably most prominent challenge is that of local food availability during the winter months. These definite seasonal shifts also lead to seasonal shopping differences... more

This past week was all about frugal meals in the Eat Well Spend Less series, and I was so excited to see everyone’s contributions. There were such great ideas, from pantry meals to budget-friendly ingredients, this group showed they know how to cook on a dime. I showed you a week’s worth of meals here at Chez Olmanson, sharing how all the meals fit together and breaking down our budget into four sections: produce, meat, dairy and eggs and whole grains and other staples like beans. ... more

Last week in the Eat Well, Spend Less series I did a lot of talking about menu planning and making your meals fit together, and this week, I’m going to demonstrate with five of my favorite go-to meals and a typical week of meal planning in our household. In our house, we often start by planning two main meals for the week and building from there. We aim to plan five total meals each week, leaving some room for flexibility. Flexibility is key when you have two working parents and four kids,... more