How to Save Money for Travel

 

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The #1 question that all travel bloggers get is the same one. It doesn’t matter if the travel blogger is a single traveler, retired traveler, family traveler…everyone has THE same question.

The number one question travel bloggers get asked is…. Drumroll, please.

How do you afford it?

I’m here to answer that important question AND give you tips to save for the adventure of YOUR lifetime. There are so many ways to save but a BIG expense for most family involves food so…let’s start there!

In my world, any money saved goes into the travel fund. More money – whether it is earned or saved or won in the lottery or received in a tax refund check = more travel! Woohoo!

It is this type of thinking that inspires me to cook frugal meals in spite of the fact that I HATE to cook.

No seriously, I hate to cook.

It takes so much time to prepare, to shop, to plan, to cook, to clean up after and only seconds (it seems anyway) to eat. UGH! That is a lot of work for very little return in my book. BUT, in an ongoing effort to travel as much as possible 🙂 I am happily cooking with saving money in mind to get us closer to that goal.

In my house, cheap meals need to be easy. I’ve searched the web for the cheap and easy combination and found quite a few. They are compiled here after they were also chosen to be healthy, too! What good is saving for a vacation if you are too unhealthy to get to enjoy it, right?

Today’s cheap and easy recipe category involves cabbage.

Now before you go running from the room, let me tell you ahead of time these recipes are NOT the plain boiled cabbage your mom stunk up the house making. (No offense, mom, but seriously – boiling cabbage really does smell like old gym socks!)

These recipes are delicious! Even better than that – they are CHEAP!

Save Money for Travel – Cheap Cabbage Recipes #1

Veggies and Rice

2 cups rice

frozen veggies

soy sauce

raw green cabbage – shredded

bouillon cubes

***This is my favorite bouillon!***

The cheapest rice comes in a bag, like dried beans, and not a box. Cook the rice according to directions. For extra flavor add a bouillon cube to the water for cooking rice.

Cook veggies according to the package and when they have about 5 minutes left in the pan to cook, add the shredded cabbage on top. Cook till it wilts.

Serve with veggies on top of the rice and add soy sauce to taste.

You can have this meal once a week without getting tired of it by switching up the vegetables. You can buy a variety of mixed veggies in the freezer section of the grocery. Walmart has a GREAT selection.

Save Money for Travel – Cheap Cabbage Recipes – Why Cabbage?

Cabbage is Cheap.

I add cabbage to almost everything. It is cheap, especially if you buy the whole head of cabbage and shred it yourself.  According to the Economic Research Service at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), cabbage is the 2nd most economical vegetable!! (Does that make you wonder what is first? Potato)

Cabbage is healthy.

Cabbage contains 20 different flavonoids and 15 different phenols which are the good stuff in cabbage that are linked to a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.

What does that mean in English? People who eat more cabbage are less likely to have heart disease.

Cabbage can prevent cancer.

Cabbage contains DIM, which is short for a very long word, which has cancer prevention properties. You can even buy DIM in a jar if you want the cancer prevention but don’t want to eat cabbage every day.

I started eating cabbage as often as possible when I went through genetic counseling to see if I had the BRCA breast cancer genes.

There is a very strong history of breast cancer on my mom’s side of the family – so strong that my insurance covered this expensive test.

Thankfully, in my case, the results were negative for that gene, but the oncologist who was counseling me suggested that there was a gene of some sort in the family and ‘we just don’t know how to test for it’.

So, he suggested eating cruciferous vegetables every single day to protect me from the breast cancer risk that lurks somewhere in my genes. Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable.

He said that cruciferous vegetables ‘kill cancer cells in Petri dishes’. Those are powerful words that stuck with me.

Dr. Grant, from Holistic Help, has this to say…

“Foods that are rich in indole-3-carbinol (I3C, a natural chemical found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, brussel sprouts and kale and EPA eicosapentaenoic acid (an omega 3 fatty acid) derived from fish and grass-fed beef, both provide powerful prevention against conversion into 16-a-hydroxyestrone and BRCA gene expression. If one is not eating these foods, these nutrients can be consumed in the form of a fish oil supplement and a product called DIM.”

Cabbage is low calorie and filling at the same time.

How is that even possible? Well, cabbage is high in fiber and that will make you feel full. So, you can eat a LOT of cabbage which makes you feel full and still stay skinny because it is low calorie.

Save Money for Travel – Cheap Cabbage Recipes – Cheap Cabbage Recipes #2

Cabbage Soup

Remember the days when cabbage soup was everyone’s diet food of choice? Headlines read, “I lost a zillion pounds on the cabbage soup diet!”

The reason cabbage soup was such a weight loss tool is that the two main ingredients have next to zero calories! Water has zero calories, of course, and cabbage has only 20 calories per cup.

Cabbage is also extremely filling because it is high in fiber with 2.2 grams of fiber in one cup. According to Everyday Health women between the ages of 18 and 50 need 25 grams of fiber a day. Interestingly, once you cross the line of 50 women need only 21 grams of fiber a day. I need to find out why! In spite of needing this much fiber, most Americans get only 15 grams a day. That is WAY under what you need!!

Cabbage is cheap, filling, and good for you so eat up!

Cabbage Soup **lots of recipes online but this one is from Nell Marsh**

5 carrots, chopped

3 onions, chopped

2 (16 oz.) cans whole peeled tomatoes with liquid

**Organic is extra healthy!**

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

1 (15 oz.) can cut green beans, drained

2 quarts tomato juice

2 green bell peppers, diced

10 stalks celery chopped

1 (14 oz.) can beef broth

Put everything in a large pot and simmer till vegetables are tender. Soup can be stored in the refrigerator for several days. *** Warning – it smells pretty powerful! Be prepared when you open the fridge. LOL!**

Save Money for Travel – Cheap Cabbage Recipes – Cheap Cabbage Recipes #3

This recipe reminds me of the French Cassoulet but is cheaper, easier to make and WAY healthier for you without all the fatty ingredients like duck fat, which actually sounds pretty gross – lol, but is delicious.

White Beans and Cabbage – recipe by Jaden of Steamy Kitchen

2 T. Olive oil

1 med. potato diced

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 onion minced

1 (15 oz.) can white beans – rinsed and drained

3 c. shredded green cabbage

salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and cook potatoes until tender, about 5 minutes. Add thyme, onion, and beans. Cook till beans are browned. Add cabbage and cook 1 minute. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Just FYI – Olive oil is really good for you. That is pretty common knowledge but did you know that each type of olive has a different ‘good for you’ quality? The best way to get all the good stuff for your health it to rotate the type of olives you use for olive oil. Try olive oil from different places for the full health effects of olive oil!

Texas – This olive oil is made from olives grown on a family olive orchard in Liberty County.

Greece  – This olive oil is made from Kalamata Olives.

Tunisia – This is not only made with olives from Tunisia but was made with ‘old Tunisian methods’ which are supposed to help retain the aroma of the olives.

Save Money for Travel – Cheap Cabbage Recipes – Cheap Cabbage Recipes #4

Roasted Cabbage – My favorite cabbage recipe!

1 head green cabbage shredded

olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, toss cabbage with olive oil until coated. Spread cabbage evenly in a baking pan. Don’t worry if it seems like a LOT of cabbage. Cabbage shrinks a LOT when you roast it. Roast cabbage about 10 minutes, stirring midway until cabbage is dark brown.

This is my all time favorite recipe and we eat it probably once a week.

We love it so much that I have to carefully measure how much each person gets because it would be really easy to eat more than your share!!

Try different salts for a little different flavor. I use the old time favorite Morton Salt myself most of the time but it can be fun to experiment with different flavors.

I love this variety pack that includes salt from Hawaii, France, and the Himalayas!

These delicious cabbage recipes are cheap, easy, and healthy. Eat well and save that extra money so you can travel well AND more often!!

Happy travels,

Natalie, The Educational Tourist