Well, even if we don’t experience hard financial times, I’ve really enjoyed the extra “push” to be resourceful with our finances, something I need to be doing all the time anyway!
Since the kitchen is one of the most flexible places in the budget, I thought I’d try to share, randomly, little things we’re doing to save a dollar here and there. Dollars add up you know!
I made the kids a snack with Honey Bunches of Oats “Just Bunches” cereal and a box of raisins. The box cost $2.88 and with this $2.00 off coupon, made a cheap, healthy one!
Earlier this week, I cooked a chicken fryer ($6.38) and deboned it. I then poured half of the broth (I made a lot of broth) up for freezing–stock for another meal. I left half of the broth in the pot for soup that night.
I divided the chicken up into 2 or 3 freezer bags and froze them for a later meal–pasta or cassserole.
With the broth on the stove, I added a pack of Lipton Onion Soup Mix. I had a few frozen vegetables–carrots, broccoli and cauliflower–not really enough for soup left whole, so I chopped them up and dumped them in. I broke a half of box of angel hair pasta and threw it in as well as the last handful of shredded cheese. We served it with homemade whole wheat rolls.
This was hubby’s bowl–with a sprig of fresh parsley, grown on the front porch (by my daughter…I can’t grow a thing).
The whole meal, though hard to figure, could not have cost much more than $2.00. Maybe not the heartiest, but hey, the added benefit is getting them used to possible lean times. *Big Smiles*
Do you have a frugal kitchen tip? Please share!
24 comments
Great tips! I certainly do have ideas. I just posted 3 days worth of tips on my blog 🙂 I will be posting more in the future since this is one of my “passions” as a wife. It’s one of those things you learn when you go through hard times, and then you never want to let go!
Go to my blog for ideas (and start reading at Oct 9th). wwww.matlockmkj.blogspot.com
I buy regular, boxed cereal, like Cheerios, etc. I save the inside, plastic liner and use it for “freezer wrap”. It is nice, heavy-duty plastic! I shake them out over the sink (cereal isn’t dirty, but you can rinse them out first) and store them flat,in the freezer.
I store ground beef in them (I buy large packages of ground beef and break them up into smaller sizes and put them in my “freezer wrap”). I also use them to store loaves of homemade bread.
You have to use clamps or clothespins to hold them closed, though (or twist-tie or rubber-band them), as they don’t have a sophisticated little “zip lock” on top. Hey, I’m laughing all the way to the bank!
I use the outer cardboard part of the cereal box to scoop kitty poop into. We go through a lot of cereal, so I can use a fresh one every day and take it outside to the trash. I stack them by the litter box, which is in a closet reserved just for our cat.
As much baking and bulk cooking that I do, I need a lot of Ziploc bags. I wash them with the regular dishes and dry them on wooden kabob skewers. They last forever that way!
Civilla,
I LOVE that!
Kim,
I’m with you!
If you have a pressure canner, I would suggest canning your excess chicken broth. It frees up freezer space and if times were hard enough that we don’t have electricity then we have our canned goods. 🙂 I just canned chicken broth this week. I also canned chili for the first time this week. Even if times don’t come to that, I have chili already made that only needs to be heated. I am thinking of doing vegetable soup and beef stew next.
Tracy
http://www.evanspatch.wordpress.com
I have to thank you for your blog. I just found it a couple weeks ago and I find it very helpful in my thinking right. I appreciate your information on this economy and your tips and your biblical thinking through it all. Your writings are full of wisdom from the Lord for which I’m thankful to be able to learn from you. Thank you, Heather
I appreciate that, Heather!
I’m glad to see you younger ladies wanting to be frugal. I have tried for years to teach some younger ladies that I know, but they laugh at my squirrely tips and say, “I’m not gonna live like that!” But, it is watching little things like that which may enable a mom to stay home with her children. I did with me, anyway.
Hello! I enjoy your blog and wanted to say keep up the good work. I am one of those girls who wanted to play soccer and be a doctor and wouldn’t learn to cook…now I am a stay at home mom with two babies and, ah, I am learning as I go and doing things by the seat of my pants. So thanks for posting this type of thing. I am currently making a Homemaker’s Survival Guide at my blog for this very type of thing (either stuff that may go down or it is just good to have to train The Princesses with ). It is ALWAYS good to know how to strecth a meal, if times are hard you don’t starve and if they are easy…it is just more money in the bank for that “rainy” day.
Many Blessings 🙂
Ace
I have a bread recipe that uses few ingredients, and only takes and hour and a half from start to finish. I found it in “The Tightwad Gazette” and posted about it on my blog:
http://candacehensley.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/you-can-do-it/
Dry beans! They are healthy and can be eaten alone, with rice, or with any “toppings” you have on hand. I try to cook enough to have for lunch and also for a Mexican-type dish the next night. We have been doing this once a week for about 2 years, but it looks like we will now be including it more often.
Also, if you have the cheese (more expensive nowadays, though), you can quickly throw it on the griddle or in the pan between 2 tortillas to make cheese quesadillas.
Maybe a no-brainer, but oatmeal is pretty cheap. For a 2 dollar carton of oatmeal, I can feed my family of 7 oatmeal for breakfast 3or 4 times.
We also drink a lot of water. Each child has a personal water bottle/container in the fridge, so it is always cold and very convenient. If they are thirsty, they know what to get!
I’m looking forward to more ideas! 🙂
Rebekah…those are great. We are water people too…the bottle in the fridge idea is good. One “solution” to drinks during the day that only works if I stay on top of it is a tray with a cup for each that has everyone’s name on it. They use that cup all day, and then it gets washed at night.
Also, if you can buy the beans and oatmeal in bulk, even better. We buy our wheat berries in bulk, but want to start buying more that way.
Civilla,
I just made up a big batch of frozen biscuits and put them in cereal bags with a chip clip! Yay–thank you for that tip.
Great ideas, but I have to admit that I’m not very frugal. I try to be, but I have ALOT to learn. All of you have been married WAY LONGER than I have, so you know what you’re doing. I’m still relatively a new wife, so I need all the help I can get, ha!
Something my husband has been telling me for years worked for his mother was to have a running list. They always knew what they where having on any given night of the week. I have made menus for years and I have a notebook with a list of our favorite, er…30 or so meals. I like variety, but when times are tight I can do the set menu thing and it really saves us.
I do oatmeal every morning, pb and j or mac n’ cheese for lunch then we have beans and rice twice a week with the left over beans used on off days for refried in burritos or nachos. Chicken spaghetti or regular spaghetti the other days then we have stew or roast on Sunday after church(my hubby and sons venison) .
My children have gotten so used to it that when I make eggs or toast with oatmeal or we have leftovers for lunch or even a “surprise” dinner, they are very grateful.
We don’t always do this, but we are used to it when the budget is low or like right now when we are trying to save. They did not like it much at first(“Beans, again?”)but they are thankful for a full belly. It did not take long to get used to it,either.
I just think this is also good training for leaner times to come. Hopefully we will not feel so deprived or such a severe “entitlement” withdraw.
Mrs. Lady Sofia,
The reason I am so frugal is because my hubby lost his job 2 years ago. I wasn’t very frugal either. I was just so clueless. My mamma always gave me what I wanted and when I got married I didn’t even know how to balance a checkbook.
A good start is to go to the library and find all the frugal books you can find. Tons of ideas from veterans in this area. My husband is so grateful too because he knows he can trust me with his hard earned money.
I have come a long way but it was because of the Lord’s help (not the way I would have chosen to begin with, but now I thank Him for those hard times).
I have tried that same recipe Candace mentioned above and it is VERY easy.
Glad you liked the cereal bag trick. I use Ritz cracker or Cheezits boxes, too, the same way. And, I have washed aluminum foil, too. And zip-lock bags! I’m not nearly as good a saver as my grandmother was, or my mother-in-law is. But, they both lived through the Great Depression.
not really a severly ‘frugal’ tip, but i take 3 sticks of real butter and add 1.5 cups of canola oil, then whip it up in the blender….and store in a container in the fridge. this makes the butter more ‘spread-like’, as i found we could waste lots of butter simply because it wasnt spreadable. i found out butter is better in many ways than the store spreads or margarines, and it lowers the fat by adding the canola oil, and ups the omegas too, i think.
here is a soup trick i learned, too. i take the whole fryer, emptying the giblets, of course. i boil it in a stock pot. meanwhile, i take those giblets and put them in a separate smaller pot of boiling water. then i throw in vegetables and herbs; a TON of vegetables. bring to boil and then simmer for about 2 hours or maybe more. remove giblets. i use a colander to strain out the vegetables, and whiz them through the blender. then add the smaller pot of giblet-flavored (haha) chicken broth to the buigger pot, along withj the vegetables, which are now semi-liqefied. my kids didnt always like chunky vegetables in their soup but they probably have no idea how many cuploads of veggies they are now getting. really the giblets are only used to make more broth as not to be just thrown out and wasted altogether. also makes it easier to strain out the veggies in that smaller pot. then of course since the other pot is a huge stock pot, i freeze lots of soup.
i suppose my ideas are more ‘healthful’ than ‘frugal’, but you get the idea.
AM,
I LOVE the “stretching butter” idea. We only use butter too, but of course, is a lot more expensive. I think I’ll try this with olive oil???
Wow, I love your tips AM.. I’m glad I have that box clicked that says:
Follow-up comments will be sent to my in box 🙂
Of course, share them on your blog.
Kelly….I tried olive oil too once…but it gave a very strong taste to the ‘butter’. Instead of butter toasts, it was olive oil toast, lol!I guess it was not so easily disguised or blended, as the canola. I try to use olive oil too..but it didnt work for me on this idea.
AM…ah…I wondered about that. Thanks for the heads up before I wasted so much olive oil 😉
I am really bad at using all my food. I once read in this book of a mom of 6 kids, that the day before grocery shopping day, she would pull everything outta the fridge for lunch or dinner or whatever. I think for her it was the Sunday night 'dinner', beings they would have had a large lunch following church. So, she pulls everything out, and lays it out on the counter….smorgasborg-style….and all the kids know for years this is how Sunday night 'dinner' is run, and they must all fend for themselves…first come, first serve. She would set it all up at a predetermined time so the kids KNEW when they better be down there to get the good stuff. If she was running low she'd add cereal or PB&J as a backup to add the the 'buffet'. It really aided in keeping the fridge waste to a minimum, and helped her prep the fridge to be more empty for groceries the following day. I think she got this idea after reading all those articles that say the average American tosses out like $1000-$2000 in spoilage yearly. yikes.