LifeWay Christian stores closing nationwide

All 170 LifeWay Christian Resources stores are set to close this year.The organization cited fewer customers and lower sales as a reason for shuttering the stores, though it will maintain online sales and services.LifeWay Christian Resources, based in Nashville and owner of the stores, said it plans to focus on its digital strategy instead of brick-and-mortar stores, as it interacts with five times more people online in a month than in stores, according to a release from the [...]

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Job Seekers: Here’s a Step-by-Step Guide on How to Write a Good Resume

Hiring practices may have changed a bit in the past few years, but one thing has stayed the same: Resumes are a must during a job hunt, and a quality one is a very big deal for job seekers.

These sacred documents represent the whole of your working life. They’re your first introduction to prospective employers and can make or break your chances of getting a job.

If you’re wondering how to write a resume, there are some important details to keep in mind. Use this blueprint to create a great resume that gets you noticed.

Choose Your Format

First off, decide whether you are applying for a job that requires a CV (curriculum vitae) versus a resume. Don’t know the difference? Here’s a quick rundown.

Resume or CV?

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about resumes, but what about CVs — and what’s the difference? In short, quite a bit.

Your Curriculum Vitae

You can throw out many of the do’s, don’ts and tips we’ve mentioned when it comes to crafting a CV. This is a static document — as in you won’t be changing it up across industries as you would with a resume — that should cover your work and educational history in excruciating detail.

“Your CV only changes as your accomplishments grow,” said Loren Margolis, CEO of Training & Leadership Success. “Whereas, your resume should be modified often and tailored for each company and job to which you apply.”

You might associate CVs with academics — not very flashy, but chock-full of information. They can include everything from research and teaching experience, references to book chapters, memberships in professional organizations and conference-speaking engagements.

They can generally be as long as necessary to cover your professional career. And really, if you’re reading this, there’s a 99% chance you’ll write a resume for your job rather than a CV.

Start Formatting

Free online resume templates that let you fill in the blanks are an option, but you get what you pay for — which is to say, not much.

Artists, graphic designers and other visually creative professionals may want to use their resume to highlight their creative talents. In that vein, there are services, such as VisualCV, that create a custom template for you to work from — and recruiters won’t find it among Microsoft Word’s.

Otherwise, keep things simple.

Hiring managers are interested in your skills and experience, not fancy fonts or formatting. Use a standard font like Arial or Tahoma, and keep the layout simple with lots of white space and margins no larger than one inch.

In one of the most popular posts of all time on the jobs subreddit, Colin McIntosh, a former recruiter and current CEO at bedding company Sheets & Giggles, provided a simple template that should help you get started.

“I knew people were hungry for good free formats, so I expected it to be maybe the top post of the day, but I never expected this type of reception,” said McIntosh. “A year later, I still get emails and PMs every single day about that post, and it really recreated my favorite feeling from when I was a recruiter  — helping other people land dream jobs.”

Create Your Content

Staring at a blank Word document can be daunting. Getting started is sometimes the hardest part, but we’ve got you covered.

Start With a Brainstorming Session

The best way to get those creative juices flowing is by asking yourself a series of questions about your accomplishments, said Jessica Hernandez, founder of Great Resumes Fast.These include:

• What are you most proud of in your professional career?
• How did you add value — efficiency, cost-savings or just happiness — to the companies at which you previously worked?

Take notes on each of these questions for each of those positions you previously held. This will give you a starting point once you’re ready to put pen to paper (er, fingertips to keyboard.)

“If you can answer those questions under each job you’ve held, you’re going to get a lot of meat on your resume,” Hernandez said.

“You can also ask others what they think about you,” she said.

And make sure you can explain in plain English what you actually did at each previous job; clarity is king for recruiters. Try to shy away from wishy-washy, jargon-laden phrases like “added synergy.”

As you’re taking notes, keep each description and accomplishment short, roughly a line. Margolis said recruiters will spend as little as six seconds reading your resume.

Reach Out

Don’t be shy. Make a connection at the company where you plan to apply to get a general idea about what the firm is looking for in that particular job. The best way to do this is through LinkedIn, said Margolis.

This will help you customize your resume as you apply for jobs across industries. Plus, you can get an idea of what keywords to include throughout your resume. (We’ll get to those later.)

Get Started

Once you have all your notes handy, a nifty template to work from and a 48-ounce cup of coffee, you’re ready to get started.

Your resume should contain several important components. But keep in mind there is disagreement in the HR and recruiting world about what to include and exclude. We’ll give you a rundown of all the components, and you can decide.

One very important thing to remember: You should keep this document to one page, McIntosh said. Remember, recruiters are going to give you less than 10 seconds to make an impression with your resume.

Contact Information

Feature your name and contact information at the top of the page.

Start with your name, followed by your phone number and email address. If you have a LinkedIn profile or professional online portfolio, be sure to include that as well.

But wait! This is an area you can use a little hack to avoid any unconscious bias that recruiters may have. Use you first initial instead of your full first name and it should help overcome any potential gender bias that could come out when a recruiter is scanning your resume.

Still, you’ll want to use your full name when emailing with a human resources manager or applying online.

Also, if this is a position in a new city, you might want to leave off your current address or include a note that you are planning to move to the city in which the job is located. That way, you can avoid being passed over due to an employer worried about covering moving expenses.

Objective

We’re going to tell you how to write a resume objective, but know this first: There is some debate in the resume-writing and HR world about whether you need an objective at the top of the document.

McIntosh said to skip it and get right to your accomplishments and job descriptions.

But, if that connection you made over LinkedIn advises you to use an objective, make it short.

Write a paragraph — two or three sentences at most — highlighting the type of work you’re looking for. Be sure to mention skills and talents that make you perfect for the job. This goes at the top of the document, usually separated by a line.

Work Experience

List your current job (if applicable) first, followed by all previous jobs in reverse chronological order.

Each job should include:

• Name and address of the company where you worked
• Your job title
• Dates of employment
• Your job responsibilities*
• Your accomplishments in the position

See those bullet points above? They should be all over your resume. Use them for your accomplishments, job descriptions and the education and skills sections, described below. They’ll help recruiters scan your resume quickly.

If you have no work experience, don’t leave this section blank or eliminate it. McIntosh suggested listing your position during any downtime as an independent consultant, under which you explain in a bullet point that you needed some flexibility for personal matters.

“No one will ask about the personal matters, and you can just hand wave it away as ‘some family items that needed to be sorted out’ if they do,” he said in a follow-up Reddit post.

Additionally, you can use the section to highlight skills you’ve developed during college or while doing volunteer work.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the skills you list on your resume need to be the direct result of a previous professional position. As long as you can successfully demonstrate those abilities, go ahead and list them. It really doesn’t matter where you learned them,” recommends The Everygirl’s Kat Boogaard.

Education

In this section, include any community colleges, universities, trade schools or technical colleges you’ve attended. Begin with your most recent school and work backwards.

For each school, be sure to provide:

• The name, city and state of the school
• Any degrees or certifications you received

Recruiters we spoke to highlighted another trend in resume-writing to overcome any age-related bias: Leave off the graduation dates.

“Protect yourself, and do not put graduation dates on your resume,” Hernandez said. “It’s pointless to do so.”

Note: If your degree is in progress, add the expected date of completion to let prospective employers know you’re still working on it.

Honors and Community Experience

This section captures extracurricular activities that don’t fit into the previous sections. For example:

• Academic or work-related awards
• Membership in clubs or organizations like Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, 4-H or debate club
• Volunteer community service
• Greek life leadership

Additional Skills

Here’s where to highlight skills and talents that set you apart from other job seekers, including:

• Fluency in more than one language
• Typing speed
• Experience in specific software
• Experience with public speaking

List the programs and skills without any qualifiers, such as “proficient,” “experienced” or “skilled in.”

Personal Interests

McIntosh recommends including a section in which you list your personal interests, such as:

• Hobbies
• Favorite TV shows or movies
• Favorite books or authors

This will give something with which you can connect with your recruiter, provided they have the same interests.

A Word About Keywords

Now that you have the basic format of the resume down, let’s talk about keywords — or how robots will likely be responsible for your employment future (sort of.)

Many companies ask job candidates to apply online and upload resumes to their website. Resumes are often electronically scanned for particular keywords to quickly weed out unqualified applicants.

“Your resume keywords should include specific job requirements, including your skills, competencies, relevant credentials and previous positions and employers,” says career expert Alison Doyle. “Essentially, keywords should be words that, at a glance, will show the hiring manager that you are a good fit for the job.”

To help you find the keywords relevant to a position you’re pursuing, print out a copy of the job description. Then highlight the words or phrases you see pop up several times throughout the document. Finally, circle the ones you have in common and sprinkle them throughout your resume.

Do’s and Don’ts While Writing Your Resume

As we keep saying, recruiters give you 10 or fewer seconds when scanning your resume and deciding whether to start the interview process. Here are some quick do’s and don’t while writing your resume.

Do!

• Keep it to one page. Margolis said that rule is a bit outdated and you can likely get away with 1 1/2 pages, but striving to keep your resume brief will help you tease out your most impressive accomplishments.
• Include hyperlinks to your online resume or portfolio. This used to be a big no-no, but with modern PDFs, you can easily link to other personal information. This will help keep your actual resume short as well.
• Always use PDFs when emailing your resume. It’s universal, and there’s nothing that will get your resume trashed faster than sending a document that’s incompatible with a recruiter’s computer.
• Include as much white space as possible. Make your resume easy on the eyes and simple for HR professionals to quickly scan.
• Use action verbs such as “built” or “launched.”

Don’t!

• Don’t use an inappropriate or outdated email address. Said McIntosh: “Delete your Hotmail with extreme prejudice.”
• Don’t overdo it with keywords. As you sprinkle keywords throughout your resume, be sure they don’t make the content sound stilted or awkward. Look for ways to work them in naturally; don’t force it.
• Don’t use a fancy font. Stick to the basics. McIntosh said he’s on a Garamond kick lately.
• Don’t blast your resume out indiscriminately. Make sure you tweak it based on the position you’re applying for — and remember to reach out over LinkedIn, if possible.
• Don’t use personal pronouns like “I” or “me.” Basically, Margolis said, you need to write like a caveman and leave the pronouns out.

Oh, and remember to check out our 31 awesome tips to make your resume shine.

Final Touches

Once you’ve created your resume, it’s not ready to hand to a hiring manager until you do these three things:

1. Proofread Your Work

It’s not enough to simply run your resume through a spellchecker because they don’t always catch every mistake.

Print a copy of your resume, then read through it slowly several times to make sure it’s error-free. Blow up the font to help catch every problem.

2. Show It to a Friend

Share your resume with someone you trust to get some honest feedback on how it looks. Have the person read it to you out loud to take in the content in a new way.

3. Convert It to a PDF

Write your resume in whatever software application works best for you, but convert it to a PDF file before you send it to a hiring manager. If your word processing software doesn’t include a conversion feature, there are plenty of free online services to choose from.

PDF file formats are almost universally preferred during the hiring process, and they protect your resume’s content from being accidentally altered once it leaves your hands.

Once your resume is ready for prime time, write up a cover letter (they’re more important than you think) and start sending it to job prospects.

Happy job hunting!

Alex Mahadevan is a data journalist at The Penny Hoarder. Lisa McGreevy contributed to this post.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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This Easy Three-Step Guide Will Help You Nail Your Next Cover Letter

When you’re writing a cover letter, all of your deepest insecurities can surface.

You start to question your writing skills, your professional experience and, really, your entire life.

How do you introduce yourself? Do you repeat what’s on your resume? How much should you talk about yourself? How can you mirror your whole being on to this one page?

We talked to several career-advice specialists who say a cover letter is really only as complicated as you make it. To tackle yours head on, you first need to understand its purpose.

What Is a Cover Letter?

All those questions swimming in your head? They’ll settle down when you start to understand the purpose of your cover letter.

First, think about a cover letter just as it is: It’s a one-page brief that physically (or virtually) covers a copy of your resume.

Second, think about your cover letter as a way to emphasize the most relevant points presented in your resume and to provide extra context. Your resume should point out your transferable skills; those are the skills or experiences you have that will translate to your success.

Your cover letter then explains those skills with a little more flavor, color and personality. It also proves you have the communication skills you need for the job.

Think of the cover letter as you would a short commercial, as a quick piece that captures your audience’s attention, says Loren Margolis, CEO of Training Leadership Success, a global consulting firm specializing in executive coaching and leadership development.

As creepy as it might sound, Margolis says you want it to be like you’re whispering in the reader’s ear: “Hey! Look at this! Look at me!”

Three Types of Cover Letters

You’re probably familiar with the classic cover letter you send when applying for a particular job. But there are actually three types you might write during a job search.

“You can call them all cover letters,” said Erica Stallings, program director for career advising and counseling at Florida State University. “And typically they’re all going to be followed by your resume.”

But they all serve different aims.

Networking Cover Letter

This is a more personalized version of a cover letter that you would send to someone with which you are trying to forge or strengthen a connection. It could be a LinkedIn message or body of an email — with your resume attached, of course — so it should be short and to the point.

“You don’t want to write a dissertation in an email,” Stallings said.

In it, you might request an informal coffee meeting to discuss how they landed a job, inquire about having that person become your mentor or ask if you can shadow them on the job. Keep it personal, and be specific about what you want from the letter.

Prospecting Cover Letter

A prospecting cover letter is aimed at helping you develop a connection at a company and let’s you inquire about a variety of open positions — not just a single job posting. It should be about a page long and be addressed to the recruiter or HR manager at the firm in which you are interested, Stallings said.

Basically, you’re reaching out to see if a company has any openings rather than targeting a specific job description you might have seen.

Traditional Cover Letter

This is what you’ve probably attached to your resume when applying to jobs in the past. And this is the type we’re focusing on in this how-to guide.

How to Format Your Cover Letter

With cover letters, it’s easy to get hung up in the details. Many of us are really good at that.

For that, here are some important details to consider before diving into the meat of the letter:

Set your document to 1-inch margins. Stick with the traditional 12-point font, though you don’t have to opt for the classic Times New Roman. You can mix it up — perhaps with Georgia or Cambria.

Either way, make sure the font you choose matches your resume. If you’re in a more creative field like graphic design, put your skills to work — just don’t get too crazy with, like, Comic Sans (*shudders*).

If you’re attaching your cover letter to an email (preferably in the same document as your resume — your cover letter on the first page, resume on the second), you’ll want it to read like a letter. For that, add your traditional headings: your name and your contact information, the date and the company’s name and its contact information.

If you’re simply copying and pasting the cover letter into the body of an email, which is fine, go ahead and delete all that other stuff and start with “Dear…”

Speaking of “Dear,” always, always personalize your cover letter. Never write “Dear Sir or Madam.”

“That’s just so spammy,” Margolis says. Instead, find the hiring manager’s name.

If you’ve exhausted your search, opt for the name of the recruiter. Or you could even go as far as calling the company and its hiring department and asking who the hiring manager is.

“Even if it’s the wrong person, have a name,” Margolis says. “You have to have a name.”

But don’t just make it up. Say you’re applying for a brand manager position but can’t find the brand director. Maybe the vice president of the department is listed on LinkedIn. Go with that name.

Or, if you’re not comfortable with that, just direct it to the specific department, said Alaina Rahaim, assistant director of career readiness at the University of Tampa.

Sign off with a simple “Sincerely” or “Best regards.” Don’t take a chance hitting a nerve with your reader. Even “Warm regards” could feel too touchy-feely.

Keep it all to a page — or less, even. Remember, this is your commercial. How long do you pay attention to a commercial? No more than 20 seconds — two minutes if it’s the Super Bowl. Many times, hiring managers won’t even look at a cover letter if it’s over a page.

How to Write a Cover Letter in Three Simple Steps

Google “cover letter,” and you’ll get pages upon pages of templates and best practices and theories and expert opinions.

So, no, there’s no singular universal answer as to the best way to write a cover letter. But there’s no need to make it more difficult than it has to be.

A Quick Note About Keywords

If you’ve read our advice on how to write a resume, then you probably understand the importance of keywords — important words or phrases repeated throughout a job listing. You should also include these throughout your cover letter.

To keep it simple, Margolis suggests a three-paragraph “You, Me, We” approach.

Paragraph 1: You

“One of the biggest errors people make is that they talk all about themselves,” Margolis says.

However, your first paragraph should be about you — as in the recipient, the potential employer, the company.

If someone referred you for the position or you have some sort of connection to the company, mention that in the first sentence, Margolis says. That could be something like: “So and so, from this-and-that company, recommended I apply for this role.” But mention the specific role. This is important.

So name drop. That hooks ’em. It’s called networking.

If you weren’t referred, just start by saying you’re excited, pleased or delighted to apply for the position.

Next, state how you found out about the position. Was it your connection? A LinkedIn posting? The company’s website?

Now, mention what excites you about the company. You’ll need to do some research on this part. Is the company a leader in the marketplace? Known for its innovative products? Perhaps it was recently ranked on a “Best Places to Work” list. Or maybe it won an award. Then get more specific about the department and what it’s doing.

Bottom line: This part has to be tailored to the company and the position.

Paragraph 2: Me

That’s you now!

For this paragraph, Margolis suggests choosing two to three transferable skills. Remember, those are the skills that can easily translate to your success in this new role.

And start bragging.

“It’s the gracious brag, graciously patting yourself on the back and saying, ‘I believe my two years of experience in x will lend to success with your team,’” Margolis says as an example.

You want to use more concrete, specific examples in this section, too, offering more details than your resume. Be as straightforward as saying, “For example…”

“It’s OK to repeat your resume; you’re just shedding a different form of light on it,” Margolis says.

Tie this paragraph up with a nice little bow of a conclusion sentence, something as simple as, “I’d be excited to bring these skills to your team.”

Paragraph 3: We

Margolis says there’s not a whole lot left to say in the paragraph. Even two sentences, done right, can suffice.

This is where you tie it all together. You plus me. We.

Discuss how your skills and ambition align with the company’s goals and values — and make sure you do your homework so you really stand out, said Rahaim.

Talk about the next steps. Mention meeting for an interview or attending the company’s open house.

Then mention how you’ll follow up. Will you call next week? Email?

If that doesn’t feel appropriate, you can always thank the recruiter or manager for their time.

6 Things to Avoid in Your Cover Letter

We’ve all heard those cover letter horror stories and the “Crap, I didn’t attach it” mutterings.

These, however, are six simple things Margolis encourages applicants avoid.

1. Jargon and/or Acronyms

Just write it out.

Even if you’re entering a job in healthcare policy, Margolis says by way of example, don’t use ACA — just write out the Affordable Care Act.

2. Slang or Shortcuts

LOL.

This doesn’t work. Ever. Even if you’re using it ironically.

3. Contractions

Although brevity is the soul of wit, you’ll you will want to avoid contractions so you come off as polished as possible.

“I think it’s more professional to spell it out,” said Rahaim.

4. Negative Comments

Even if it’s intended to be positive, avoid the “I’ve seen reports of your company’s poor culture in the news, and I really think I can help” comments. Further, don’t mistakenly say anything negative about yourself, such as: “Although I haven’t done this type of work before, I am willing to learn.”

“I think that’s sad,” said Rahaim. “Off the bat you’re focusing on the fact that you’ve ever worked in the field.”

Just leave it sunshine and roses.

5. An Old AOL Email Address

Whatever you do, be sure to send your cover letter from a professional email address. This could be some combination of your first and last name.

Not beachblonde911@aim.com.

6. Silliness or attempts at humor

It might be tempting to flex your witty wordplay to catch a recruiter’s eye, but using humor or silliness can also backfire for job hunters. Without verbal or physical cues, jokes can lack context and come off as weird nonsequieters.

“When you’re writing it and someone’s reading it there’s no guarantee how someone will take it,” said Rahaim.

Final Words of Cover Letter Advice

Remember: Every cover letter is going to be different, depending on your field, your position and you.

However, Margolis suggests always asking yourself two questions before submitting your cover letter:

1. “If I were the recipient of this letter, would I want to read it?”

You should feel proud of your cover letter — not like it’s an extra burden you’ve slapped on top of your resume.

2. “Can I use the ‘Three Cs’ to describe it?”

The “Three Cs” are concise, compelling and effectively communicating your value.

Check, check and check?

Spend some time proofreading and revising. Read your cover letter aloud (a trick I use in all my writing) or have a friend or family member read it.

Then, stop banging your head against the desk and overthinking it — just send it!

Carson Kohler (@CarsonKohler) is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder.

Data journalist Alex Mahadevan (@AlexMahadevan) contributed to this post.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

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Raise Your Credit Score With These 7 Simple Strategies

Frugal Food Spending for One: A Case Study

This week, my wife is visiting her sisters and my children are visiting their grandparents, which leaves me at home alone. I’m using that time to work, take care of a long checklist of tasks, catch up with some old friends, and have a few really long uninterrupted blocks of times for some hobbies.

This was also a great opportunity for me to actually examine the costs of food preparation for a single person because, well, for nine days at least, I’m basically living like a single person. For one grocery cycle, I’m only concerned about preparing meals for myself, not for anyone else.

My question, then, is how can I prepare frugal meals for myself? What exactly would I, with years of practice in cutting costs, do to make meal planning as inexpensive as possible?

My plan was simple. I’m spending the whole week trying to eat as I believe I would if I were truly single again. This means eating a healthy diet, focusing on foods I like, and keeping costs low and meal preparation efforts low, too.

It’s important to note that I don’t want to rely on eating out or convenience foods much if at all. Many single people get into a routine of eating a lot of convenient foods or eating out frequently because they don’t believe the effort of preparing food at home and cleaning up afterwards is “worth it” for a meal for themselves.

According to the USDA data, a single male ages 19-50 should be able to eat for a week on $43.10 using the “thrifty” meal plan – their inexpensive estimate. Their “liberal” estimate is $85.30 (I honestly look at that number and think, “For me? For a week? Seriously?”).

My goal, then, is to have meals I like that are easily prepared for a full week for $43, with the only thing I’m relying on that I already have are small amounts of spices in the cupboard. I’m also assuming I already have adequate containers to store items in the fridge and equipment for cooking basic meals. That $40 buys everything else.

I start where I always do, with meal planning.

The Make-Ahead Strategy

If I were single, what I would often do is make several meals at once when I was preparing a meal and then put the leftovers in individual containers for meals later in the week (if I put them in the fridge) or in the future (if I put containers in the freezer). This would be a pretty routine thing for me.

So, for example, I might make a pot of soup that’s big enough for four meals for me. I’d eat one when it was finished, put another one in a container for the fridge for a meal in a day or two, and put two more in the freezer.

What that would mean is that after a while, I’d partially be relying on meals from the freezer for my meals for the week, allowing me a lot more variety in terms of meals. However, for this week alone, I’ll probably just eat all of the meals I prepare and store them all in the fridge. I might store a few in the freezer if I don’t end up eating them, but the intent is to eat everything I make this week.

Thus, my plan is to make one hot breakfast that I can split into four personal meals, storing three of them, and then have a simple or cold breakfast the other three days. For the other 14 meals throughout the week, I’m essentially preparing four meals for a full-sized family, then dividing those up into individual meal containers and eating them later in the week.

Meal Planning

Thus, my actual meal plan might look like this, assuming I buy groceries on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday evening: Prepare meal A, eat meal A, set aside three individual containers of meal A for later in the week.

Sunday morning: Prepare hot breakfast, eat hot breakfast, set aside three individual containers of hot breakfast for later in the week.
Sunday lunch: Meal A container
Sunday dinner: Prepare meal B, eat meal B, set aside three individual containers of meal B for later in the week.

Monday morning: Cold breakfast
Monday lunch: Meal B container
Monday dinner: Prepare meal C, eat meal C, set aside three individual containers of meal C for later in the week.

Tuesday morning: Hot breakfast container
Tuesday lunch: Meal C container
Tuesday dinner: Meal A container

Wednesday morning: Cold breakfast
Wednesday lunch: Meal B container
Wednesday dinner: Prepare meal D, eat meal D, set aside three individual containers of meal D for later in the week.

Thursday morning: Hot breakfast container
Thursday lunch: Meal D container
Thursday dinner: Meal C container

Friday morning: Cold breakfast
Thursday lunch: Meal A container
Thursday dinner: Meal D container

Saturday morning: Hot breakfast container
Saturday lunch: Meal B container
Saturday dinner: Meal C container

At this point, I still have a meal D container to stow away in the freezer for later. I can also obviously move around the meal containers to my personal preference.

The Specific Meals

So, for all five of those meals I prepare, I’m going to want meals that reheat well and ideally freeze well, as well as meals that I can prepare easily that I like. Ideally, the meals are inexpensive as well. When figuring out the specific meals, I do as I always do even with my full family here, which is look at the grocery store flyer and somewhat base my choices on what’s on sale.

What you actually choose for each meal is a matter of personal preference, of course, but here’s what I chose for this week.

My hot breakfast was a basic vegetarian egg casserole, similar to this recipe from Kitchen Addiction. I used a flash-frozen mix of chopped onions and green peppers that is sold at my local store to cut down on the chopping time and I changed some of the other ingredients to fit my personal tastes. The total cost of this meal was about $6 in ingredients.

My cold breakfast is a box of my favorite breakfast cereal and some almond milk. Easy enough. This covered three meals and cost about $6.50, but left some leftovers for the next week.

Meal “A” is a slow cooker full of vegetarian chili. I actually prepared this for my inexpensive game day knowing that there would be plenty left over, and I was right. The cost for this was about $2 in ingredients by my estimation.

Meal “B” is a spaghetti bake. I actually just made a very simple pot of spaghetti, using a full box of pasta and a jar of pasta sauce, and ate a normal spaghetti meal with some steamed and seasoned vegetables on the side. I then took the leftover pasta, put it in a casserole pan, added some of the leftover cheese from the breakfast casserole to the top, and baked it. Then, I quartered that casserole for four separate meal containers. The cost of this was about $6, mostly for the sauce (as I’m kind of picky about pasta sauce).

• Read more: 10 Smart Ways to Use Leftover Pasta

Meal “C” is a stir fry meal served over rice. I basically bought some typical stir fry vegetables – onions, bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, and peas – and stir fried them, adding a sauce I like and serving it all over cooked rice. I made enough to prepare three easily reheatable containers of it for future meals. The total cost of this meal was about $7.

Meal “D” was a personal favorite of mine, what I call a “vegetarian Reuben.” It’s basically a grilled sandwich on rye bread with sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing, gruyere cheese, and a fried egg instead of the corned beef. I love love love these sandwiches and this was definitely my unhealthy and expensive meal for the week. The total cost for ingredients here was about $9, but there were a lot of things left over for the future.

I also bought a lot of on-sale low cost fresh fruits and a few bags of flash frozen vegetables, adding up to another $11 but actually leaving me with leftovers.

My total grocery bill was about $47.50. This was a little higher than my $43.10 target, but it also involves a lot of leftovers for the following week. I won’t have to buy cereal or almond milk, there will be some fruit left over, there will be at least one meal in the freezer, there are many leftover ingredients that I could use for meal prep in the future, and this is actually stretching for 22 meals, not just 21.

Supplementation

With many of these meals, I’m going to want super healthy and convenient foods on the side. I basically eat some sort of fruit with every meal, often an apple or a banana or a pear, so I’ll buy some fresh fruit at the store as well. I noted this above.

I also bought a few bags of flash frozen vegetables, which are really easy to steam. I season them thoroughly depending on what flavors I want – again, not really hard.

For beverages, I mostly drink water, so there’s no need to buy any beverages. I do drink black coffee most mornings, but I actually have a lot of beans already on hand, so I didn’t count this.

• Read more: How Drinking Just Water Saves More Money Than You Think

How Did This Actually Work Out?

Here are some notes on the experience.

As I write this, I’ve already prepared all of the meals and I just have a series of meal containers in the fridge. I enjoyed all of the meals and they all seem to reheat well (I don’t know this for sure about the reuben sandwiches, but I usually reheat sandwiches in the oven rather than the microwave and many have turned out fine over the years).

Almost every meal I’ve eaten has been accompanied by a fruit on the side, either a clementine, an apple, or a banana. Some of the meals have also had steamed vegetables on the side, often seasoned with just sea salt and black pepper.

All of my lunches are “hot,” which isn’t probably something I would do all the time if I was doing this. Quite often, my lunches would be a very simple peanut butter and banana sandwich, because peanut butter and banana sandwiches are amazing. Not doing this actually inflated the cost of the week, because I could have cut this down to three prepared meals very easily.

For that matter, it would be easy to just prepare a bunch of peanut butter sandwiches, individually package them in reusable containers, and keep them in the fridge, if I wanted to do that.

Having meals in the fridge in containers is super convenient. I grab them, pop them in the microwave, and they’re ready to eat in just a couple of minutes. Since they’re all things I like, I don’t really get tired of them, either.

My favorite reusable meal containers, by the way, are these Glasslock meal containers. They’re just great. We also have a number of Rubbermaid containers picked up here and there. I’ve used other containers in the past and they’ve often ended up cracking and warping and becoming unusable.

If I did this system with the same exact three to five meals every week, it would get kind of boring. This system works great, but it requires a large pool of meals to draw from, something I’ll get back to in a minute.

In theory, if I were single for the foreseeable future, I would use this system but prepare a lot of meals in the first few weeks. I’d probably make 15 “quadruple” meals in the first two weeks or so. After that, I’d be in “maintenance” mode, where I only make four a week as described above, but the “meal container” meals would have far more variety because I’d have a wide variety of them in the freezer.

So, the first two weeks might involve two weekends where I make four “quadruple” meals, saving one container of each in the fridge for use later in the week and freezing two. I’d also attempt to make “quadruple” meals during the week as much as I could (probably four times a week, doing things like soup in the slow cooker) and then saving one container of each in the fridge for later in the week and freezing two.

So, if I make eight meals a week for two weeks and freeze two containers from each of those meals, I’d have 32 containers in the freezer, two containers for each of 16 meals.

After that, I could just use that plan of “make a quadruple meal, save one in the fridge, freeze two” for four meals a week. I’d also pull meals out of the freezer throughout the week and have a ton of choice for those.

The nice thing about this system is the flexibility. If I end up going to lunch with someone and we’re brown-bagging, I just take a container along with me. If I go out, I just have an extra container in the fridge. If I go out for dinner one night, no problem – there are always meals at home waiting for me. It’s really flexible around what I want to do.

Additional Meal Ideas

I have a lot of experience with “meal prep days,” as Sarah and I have both made lots and lots of extra meals for the purpose of using them later in the week or just freezing them. A good “meal prep” meal is one that you’re happy to eat now and later and one that reheats well and survives freezing well.

Here are some things that really pass the test. They’re meals I like that are easy to divide into individual portion, freeze well, and reheat reheat well.

Stir fry reheats really well and offers a ton of variety. You can season it with curry or with soy sauce or with any number of other sauces. You can vary the vegetables a lot. You can add meat if you wish (or tofu). This is a great choice for regular use.

Soups without noodles are fantastic. The only bad part of reheating soups is that noodles just turn to mush and some grain-based ingredients (like barley) aren’t the best, but the vegetables and meat and liquid all reheat really well. I particularly like reheated chili – I usually think it’s better the second time around. I also really like blended soups.

Burritos They’re easy to individually package and reheat fairly well, though I prefer to reheat them in the oven or in a skillet rather than in the microwave. If you must use the microwave, wrap them in a paper towel.

Casseroles Most casseroles freeze well, even ones with pasta in them such as lasagna. The lower proportion of liquid (as compared to soups) seems to be a big factor in this.

Rice and beans Seasoned rice and beans (with or without a meat of some kind) tend to reheat very well. They tend to taste a little different than the initial meal and usually warrant the addition of hot sauce upon reheating, in my experience.

Hamburgers or black bean burgers freeze well after being cooked without changing quality or texture significantly. I’m referring, of course, to just the patty; you’ll want to assemble the full sandwich when reheating.

Those categories alone provide tons of room for meals that freeze well. In general, the only thing I’m really wary of freezing are flour-based items that are wet, such as pasta, as they can often end up with a bad texture. Having said that, casseroles with pasta often turn out well.

Final Thoughts

You absolutely can eat an inexpensive, varied, and tasty diet at a low price if you’re a single person. The trick is to prepare family-sized meals that reheat well so that you don’t have to go to the kitchen to prepare a complex meal for one person every single night; rather, you can rely on “convenience” meals that you’ve made yourself. (That isn’t to say you might not occasionally eat a convenience meal, but that it doesn’t – and probably shouldn’t – have to be the back bone of your diet.)

Don’t avoid the kitchen if you’re single. Rather, embrace it. Make meals you love without worrying about anyone else, and then package them so they’re convenient to eat again in the future. You’ll make many meals super convenient and save a ton of money, too.

Good luck!

Read more by Trent Hamm: 

• $1 Meal Tactics: Saving Big on Food Costs, One Buck at a Time
• Keeping Food Costs Down With Picky Eaters at Hom
• 26 Favorite Cheap and Easy Meals

The post Frugal Food Spending for One: A Case Study appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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