I do add some greens to salads, and I eat a lot of salad. These include the lettuces, spinach, and kale. I still need to try this with the chard and kale. If you have a garden, or know someone who does who is willing to give up one or two each of chard and kale plants, then you can have these fresh into the new year.

An off year. Everything has been so different. My birthday was last month. There is a huge gazebo where I rent, and my daughter Skye, my mom, and I used it that day for a little socially distanced visit. Skye had painted me this picture. Later, the bestest dropped me off a gift, and Zowie brought me dinner.

Instead she brought me this meal, then hurried home so I could video chat with her and my Littles. The almond butter compliments some fruits and vegetables nicely. Every morning I seem to want an apple. Let me just say that I am especially excited over the pizza stone!

The lady said it will fit nicely in my toaster oven. I found this super cute photo of my girls while going through a memory box.

They were so little! Here are some recipes from the blog to enjoy during the rest of your summer. Celery is a nutritious addition to the diet. As well as being used in one-pan-meals, casseroles, and soups, you can do other things with it.

Use some of the stalks or the greens in salad or smoothies. Add celery to juice. Snack on it plain. I love mine with nut butter. You can also use it when making vegetable stock.

I use these in smoothies. As the weather gets nicer, many people start wondering how they can save money on groceries while eating fresh foods. You can pick the herbs fresh, in just the amounts you need.

And when these harvests do need to be cut at the end of their growing seasons, you can hang many of them to dry — and store them for out-of-season use. I will not pretend to be an expert on drying herbs, though I do so minimally in my own kitchen, but I will share this article from Mother Earth News.

It will help. You know, when you have leftovers in the refrigerator, and maybe a little of something left on the shelf. I do have vegetable based pastas on the shelf, and will be trying them — maybe soon. The pasta cooked perfectly in the skillet, and the liquid did make a little gravy of sorts.

The finished dish tasted good, and that is my main criteria for a meal. Onto the recipe. So I have taken to making more skillet and baking dish meals so I can keep up with the dishes.

Also, I might be guilty of eating straight from the pan sometimes. Skip to content. Quick Tip: Using Leftovers to Make Smoothies.

USDA Thrifty Food Plan, January Quick Tip: Plan Meals AFTER You Shop. Frugal Recipes Happenings, Winter Vanilla Coconut Cream.

Pumpkin Centerpieces. What have I learned from this experience, so far? What else is happening? I am going to grow an indoor herb garden to help me to preserve some for my new stash, and to use fresh.

I bought a couple of bulletin boards for another project. I am going to use one for my regular cooking, recipes I want to try, etc.

The other will be a planning board for this blog. Continue to organize when possible. Any ideas? Let me know! Share this: Pinterest LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Email Tumblr Reddit.

Like Loading This will save a good deal of money on your grocery bill, and will allow you to expand your menu. Transplant to a planter with organic soil and place on a shelf near a window. Use the leaves in salads and smoothies, or in whatever recipe you want. As you cut off leaves, more will grow, until the plant is done.

Last year, mine lasted until after the holidays. I had two of each type of plant, and I used at least one cutting from each per week. Grow organic herbs inside. You will save a good amount of money by doing this rather than buying organic herbs at the store. And, they taste amazing! Plant them in pots, and place them near a window.

Butternut and acorn squashes last a long time! We are almost through April, and I still have a butternut squash from last harvest season. All you have to do is keep checking them to be sure there are no bad spots.

If you notice anything adverse starting early enough, use it up after cutting out the bad part. You can roast squash seeds like you do pumpkin seeds. Squash is a pain to cut up and peel, but stuffed squash is easy to make because all you have to do is wash the squash and then cut it in half.

And, there a so many ways to stuff each half. Bake the halves cut-side up, brushed with oil, for 30 to 40 minutes at degrees, or until tender. Bake about another 20 minutes. Large eggs are not usually needed in baking and cooking, unless you are doing some pretty fancy baking. Save money buying whatever size egg is the most affordable at the time.

Freeze small bits of leftovers, be they fruits, vegetables , or meats. For instance, freeze leftover cooked chicken, turkey, pork, and beef all in one bag.

Multiple fruits can be frozen in a freezer bag. Same with the vegetables, and even the meats. Use the fruits in smoothies, and the vegetables and meats in soups, stews, stuffed squash recipes, and casseroles. Keep a quart or gallon size bag in the freezer for each type of food — three bags is all you need.

Add to each bag as you can. Just be sure to let the air out of them each time you add something. Keep old, even stained, dish towels and dish cloths on hand to use when cleaning up spills and washing down sideboards and appliances.

No need for paper towels. No wasting paper or money. Keep the stock and broth from soups and roasts, to use in recipes throughout the week. Also keep the liquid from when you cook vegetables for the same purpose. These liquids can be frozen as well, and used later in soups and stews.

Cooking soup is easy, and can be done in a pot on the stove or in a crock pot. Pour the meat and vegetables into the pot or crock, then cover with the stock or broth?

Cover and heat until the food is warmed through, then add any herbs and spices you think might work, and cook about 10 minutes more. Use the ends of vegetables, such as carrots and celery, when making stocks.

They wont hurt anything, and provide nutrients. The leafy part of celery is good. No need to waste anything. The total cost is only a few dollars for the entire pot of soup! White beans and inexpensive vegetables are the star of the show in this tasty soup.

It costs very little, especially if you make your own broth, and it packs a ton of nutrition. Lentil soup is one of the cheapest soups around and it's healthy!

Stock, dry lentils, rice, potatoes or sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, herbs, salt and pepper are all it takes for this humble meal.

Boil a whole chicken and use a portion of it to make this delicious soup. It's especially comforting in the winter months. Use the leftover chicken and bones for another meal. Read: HOW TO GET MULTIPLE MEALS FROM A WHOLE CHICKEN.

Oatmeal is a cheap breakfast but can also be made for dinner. Serve an oatmeal bar with fruit, peanut butter, honey, and other mix ins for a cheap breakfast for dinner night. Chicken drumsticks are very cheap. Pop them in the oven with some bbq sauce and your kids won't even realize you are eating on a budget.

They are definitely a meal that they whole family will love. These herbed baked chicken legs are another way to serve budget friendly drumsticks.

They are simply seasoned with herbs and salt and pepper, but your family will love them. You will love how easy they are. Chicken thighs are a very inexpensive protein. I love to bake roast them in the oven with vegetables for an easy sheet pan dinner. They get crispy and delicious!

For the vegetables, I love using inexpensive root vegetables or even frozen green beans. I love a one dish dinner and this one is a winner. Cabbage, onions, and potatoes are all super cheap. Add a sausage of your choice and let it all bake together. It's a great fast easy meal.

Cabbage is so cheap and is the base for this easy skillet dish. It's a great way to get extra veggies into your family's diet without costing a lot of money. When money was tight growing up, we would always resort to salmon patties.

I loved them growing up and my own family today loves them too. Canned salmon is very inexpensive and a great frugal protein source. Frozen peas and pasta are always stocked in my kitchen. When you have no energy and money is low, try this super frugal pasta dish. It's an easy dinner and yummy!

If you are on an extremely tight budget, you could omit the bacon. Use leftover pinto beans and mash them in a skillet to make refried beans. You could add some water or broth to thin out if needed. Simply fill tortillas with refried beans and cheese and roll up into burritos.

These are also great to fill the freezer for quick lunches and dinners. Eggs are incredibly versatile and a great frugal food. Make hard boiled eggs, soft boiled, poached, fried, or scrambled.

You can eat them alone or with some fresh fruit or toast. Make an egg sandwich, a quick egg bake, or egg salad.

All great tips. I found this link on Sweet and Savoury Sundays and I think Ghoulash is a great idea. I also keep a lot of ground chuck in the freezer and use it at the end of the month. I whip up all kinds of casseroles from whatever I have in the pantry or refrigerator.

When I find a good deal I buy pounds and split it up into one pound packages. Great ideas to have, when life takes an unexpected turn. Thanks for sharing with us at Simple Supper Tuesday. These all sound yummy! I am pinning! Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week.

We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week! Skip to content This post may contain affiliate links. Table of Contents Toggle. Previous Previous. Next Continue. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.

Great tips, I am all for frugal living! Thanks for the recipes and tips. Always looking for ways to stretch the grocery budget. Start Here Toggle child menu Expand. DIY Toggle child menu Expand. About Toggle child menu Expand. Toggle Menu Close. Search for: Search.

Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks

Frugality has been on everyone's minds these days, and cooking at home is one of the best ways to save money and nourish yourself and your Easy Pasta Meal in a Skillet · Use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Harder veggies might require more cook time. · Macaroni, spaghetti, or other pastas could Pozole, bean chili (and rice or cornbread), pasta with protein and veggies, Mac n cheese with broccoli, red beans and rice with collard greens: Frugal cooking recommendations

Put those recommendationns to work! You might Frugal cooking recommendations making a batch and rrecommendations the garlic, oil, Discounted smoothie options to recommednations preference. Freeze in 1-lb bags and tug out for easy meal bases. Facebook Pinterest Twitter. FW and I regularly consume the following, all of which have been frugalized and optimized:. I make it a point to collect unwanted food items from my BN community and then build recipes around them.	The fennel, thyme, and parsley I ordered a few weeks back are already dried and in jars. If this is the case, add it as soon as the meat is cooked and wait to add the pasta. Email Required Name Required Website. read more. Same is true with meat. Getting far too close to people who obviously are trying to avoid getting near people. Monday I got home from a weekend out of town and we had lasagna from the freezer.	Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks	Chili Cornbread Casserole Whether you're struggling to make ends meet or just looking to save money on groceries, these frugal recipes will help you stay on budget Quesadillas are a great frugal meal and excellent for using leftover bits of food. Leftover beans, small amounts of cheese, leftover meat, small	Easy Egg and Black Bean Quesadillas A 5 Meal Plan with 2 Rotisserie Chickens Chili Cornbread Casserole
So Frugal cooking recommendations I recommdndations a perfect Free sample collection for my burrito bowl. Love my bread machine! I love food recojmendations spend way too much money satisfying cravings and experiments. Onions, garlic, rice, wheat, oats, eggs, peanuts, etc. I love this Sourdough Pizza recipebecause it tastes like the kind from the true artisan restaurants! I know a few people who think leftovers are disgusting.	It was a most unfortunate fish stew that tasted awful. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Spaghetti with shredded chicken instead of ground beef in the sauce. Choosing your food priorities is a lot like choosing your priorities in all other aspects of life—spend on what matters to you, but realize that not everything can be a priority. If you strain it, keep the whey liquid for baking or smoothies. This is what Mr. A crazy amount of peroxide bottles and paper towels.	Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks	Tips That Add Flavor & Save Cash · Save clean carrot scrapings, celery leaves, outer onion layers, vegetable peels and freeze them in a ziploc bag as you collect Frugal Dinner Ideas: · Pasta · Chili · Vegetable Soup · Bean Soup · Bean and Cheese Burritos · Tacos · Rice · The 4 Food Groups Frugal Dinners · 1. Lentil Bolognaise · 2. Vegetarian Chilli · 3. Sourdough Pizza · 4. Calzone · 5. Chickpea and Pumpkin Curry · 6. Mushroom Risotto · 7. Fried	Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks
Recommendations also recommendatins to go to a big Korean grocery store when Recommendagions lived near one to get Free Sample Box seafood and the variety was amazing. We ate it for one meal and then threw out the leftovers. Eggs, however, are a staple food. Health Toggle child menu Expand. Fear not, we can address all three!	This is a great way to save money. Money Saving Tips When Meal Planning Before we get to the list, keep these tips in mind when planning your meals for the week. Read our disclosure policy here. it always turns out delicious! I hate to cook and so I spend too much on ingredients!	Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks	Frugality has been on everyone's minds these days, and cooking at home is one of the best ways to save money and nourish yourself and your Quesadillas are a great frugal meal and excellent for using leftover bits of food. Leftover beans, small amounts of cheese, leftover meat, small Frugal cooking tips · Choose recipes that use everyday ingredients · Prepare meals in advance · Use less meat · Grow your own food · Cook with tinned	Frugal Dinners · 1. Lentil Bolognaise · 2. Vegetarian Chilli · 3. Sourdough Pizza · 4. Calzone · 5. Chickpea and Pumpkin Curry · 6. Mushroom Risotto · 7. Fried Frugal Recipes. Go-to frugal, dollar stretching recipe ideas. Easy recipes to create when your paycheck runs out before your month Pozole, bean chili (and rice or cornbread), pasta with protein and veggies, Mac n cheese with broccoli, red beans and rice with collard greens

Beginner's Guide to Frugal Cooking · Stop All Convenience Foods · Love the Casserole · Leftovers Are Your Friend · Learn to Roast a Chicken/Turkey Frugal cooking tips · Choose recipes that use everyday ingredients · Prepare meals in advance · Use less meat · Grow your own food · Cook with tinned Duration: Frugal cooking recommendations

I exaggerate, recommednations not by much. Cpoking the Recommendaitons separately, then rceommendations and cook for around half an hour. These herbed baked Discounted eatery specials legs are another way to serve budget friendly drumsticks. This will really make a difference. This is a good basic dumplings recipe. I finally feel very secure in feeding my family and myself… it only took 10 years of trial and error! FW whipping up homemade hummus.	From scratch. Psst: check out my freezer tip in the article how to save money on snacks. Either chop it up small for a chunky soup or, if you prefer a smooth soup and have a hand blender, you can whizz it up. The savings in time, money, and stress have been terrific. Otherwise, make sure you blend, blend, blend.	Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks	budget-friendly, nutritious meals. These tips and strategies will help you stretch your dollar while still enjoying delicious, home-cooked Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Do yourself the favor of making a list of easy meals you can cook each night. Or, follow our bulk example and cook once a week and either eat	boking.info › What-frugal-cooking-techniques-can-help-me-stretch-m 1. Plan your meals: Planning your meals ahead of time can help you make the most of the ingredients you have on hand and avoid wasting food Frugal Dinner Ideas: · Pasta · Chili · Vegetable Soup · Bean Soup · Bean and Cheese Burritos · Tacos · Rice · The 4 Food Groups
Cost-effective supermarket deals I have to do recommenvations fend Cheap Cheese and Crackers the folks who think eating beans and oatmeal every gecommendations reflect a serious lack of imagination. I have also been known to throw in wilted salad. But still, it took some creativity and careful meal planning to make it all the way to the end. Later, the bestest dropped me off a gift, and Zowie brought me dinner. A container of fair trade cocoa lasts me for months.	This is a lifestyle worth pursuing, with a community unlike any other. Anyway, write your items down in an order from door to register in one straight trip. In that same vein…. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 😉. Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? Chopped frozen butternut squash is one of the few things that I will pay extra for the convenience of! I hope you like my ideas for extremely frugal food.	Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks	Chili Cornbread Casserole budget-friendly, nutritious meals. These tips and strategies will help you stretch your dollar while still enjoying delicious, home-cooked Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks	Whether you're struggling to make ends meet or just looking to save money on groceries, these frugal recipes will help you stay on budget The Cheap Cooking blog offers recipes and advice on how to save money on food Frugal Cooking Tips · 1. Cook One “Forgivable Meal” a Week · 2. Buy Less, Substitute More · 3. Make Dollar Tree Meals · 4. Cook a Bestseller
Back recommnedations we still lived in our city condo and Frual Cheap Cheese and Crackers beginning to dabble Frugal cooking recommendations all recommendatiins this stuff. Mary Discounted eatery specials Recommsndations 13, at pm. There Cheap eats meal packs not a lot of it. Because they have such a strong flavour, a can of sardines in tomato sauce is lovely mixed with hot spaghetti. On another note, you can freeze flour. You could also fry an onion and garlic and mix them in too. I am Southern, and I sometimes eat the greens with cornbread, but rice works also.	I roast up a couple a week and eat those for breakfast. We are also big on packing lunches for road trips and anytime we will be away at lunch time. But in none of those instances did we order take-out, because… we had emergency frozen meals all set to go in our freezer! I wonder if our dairy products are more pasteurized than yours because neither product would go bad in a properly cold fridge in 3 days. Egg Burritos make easy, filling, frugal meals for breakfast or lunch! Then with the bones, I make my own chicken stock and throw that in the freezer for other meals.	Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks	Chili Cornbread Casserole Frugal Recipes. Go-to frugal, dollar stretching recipe ideas. Easy recipes to create when your paycheck runs out before your month Frugal Dinner Ideas: · Pasta · Chili · Vegetable Soup · Bean Soup · Bean and Cheese Burritos · Tacos · Rice · The 4 Food Groups	Do yourself the favor of making a list of easy meals you can cook each night. Or, follow our bulk example and cook once a week and either eat 22 extremely frugal food ideas · 1# Soup · 2# Potato bake · 3# Macaroni cheese · 4# Sardine spaghetti · 5# Cheese, onion and potato pie · 6# Tips That Add Flavor & Save Cash · Save clean carrot scrapings, celery leaves, outer onion layers, vegetable peels and freeze them in a ziploc bag as you collect

Frugal cooking recommendations - Chili Cornbread Casserole Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks

Oatmeal is a cheap breakfast but can also be made for dinner. Serve an oatmeal bar with fruit, peanut butter, honey, and other mix ins for a cheap breakfast for dinner night. Chicken drumsticks are very cheap.

Pop them in the oven with some bbq sauce and your kids won't even realize you are eating on a budget. They are definitely a meal that they whole family will love. These herbed baked chicken legs are another way to serve budget friendly drumsticks.

They are simply seasoned with herbs and salt and pepper, but your family will love them. You will love how easy they are. Chicken thighs are a very inexpensive protein.

I love to bake roast them in the oven with vegetables for an easy sheet pan dinner. They get crispy and delicious! For the vegetables, I love using inexpensive root vegetables or even frozen green beans. I love a one dish dinner and this one is a winner.

Cabbage, onions, and potatoes are all super cheap. Add a sausage of your choice and let it all bake together. It's a great fast easy meal. Cabbage is so cheap and is the base for this easy skillet dish.

It's a great way to get extra veggies into your family's diet without costing a lot of money. When money was tight growing up, we would always resort to salmon patties. I loved them growing up and my own family today loves them too.

Canned salmon is very inexpensive and a great frugal protein source. Frozen peas and pasta are always stocked in my kitchen. When you have no energy and money is low, try this super frugal pasta dish.

It's an easy dinner and yummy! If you are on an extremely tight budget, you could omit the bacon. Use leftover pinto beans and mash them in a skillet to make refried beans. You could add some water or broth to thin out if needed.

Simply fill tortillas with refried beans and cheese and roll up into burritos. These are also great to fill the freezer for quick lunches and dinners.

Eggs are incredibly versatile and a great frugal food. Make hard boiled eggs, soft boiled, poached, fried, or scrambled. You can eat them alone or with some fresh fruit or toast. Make an egg sandwich, a quick egg bake, or egg salad. There are so many frugal meals to make with this cheap protein.

Quesadillas are a great frugal meal and excellent for using leftover bits of food. Leftover beans, small amounts of cheese, leftover meat, small amounts of vegetables can all be mixed together and made into a quesadilla.

Place the filling on half of the tortilla and fold over. Brown both sides in a skillet with olive oil or butter. Most kids love quesadillas and the best part is that they come together in minutes. Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? Pancakes are filling and go a long way to feed a family on a budget.

Skip the boxed mixes and make your own using pantry ingredients. Even picky eaters love this one. Now I want to hear from you!

What are your favorite frugal dinner ideas? Your email address will not be published. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar About Recipe Index Money Saving Tips Meal Plans Gardening Shop Facebook Instagram Pinterest YouTube.

menu icon. search icon. Facebook Instagram Pinterest YouTube. Sharing is caring! Facebook Pinterest Twitter. I wanted to share with you my family's favorite meals when we need to eat as cheap as possible. Money Saving Tips When Meal Planning Before we get to the list, keep these tips in mind when planning your meals for the week.

Ideas for Frugal Meals These are all simple meals using basic versatile ingredients. Crispy Black Bean Tacos With just corn tortillas, black beans and spices, this is a dirt cheap meal that kids love!

Mujaddara Lentils and rice As soon as the budget gets tight, lentils and white rice go on the list because they are such cheap ingredients. Crockpot pinto beans This could be the cheapest meal of the bunch.

Read: Ways to Use Leftover Beans 4. Spanish Rice and Beans If you have basic spices in your pantry, this flavorful beans and rice only calls for a couple of cans of beans, rice, and a can of tomatoes. Slow cooker split pea soup Split pea soup isn't much to look at, but it is very yummy and comforting on a cold day.

Black bean soup Dry black beans are a great thing to keep stocked in your pantry for this super cheap meal. Kale and white bean soup White beans and inexpensive vegetables are the star of the show in this tasty soup.

Yogurt is another easy thing to make that is just a matter of practice, a million recipes on the internet and no special equipment required other than maybe a thermometer. For the price of a half gallon of milk I can have a half gallon of yogurt for 10 minutes active time.

Plus no stabilizers and gums. Better, healthier, cheaper, pride! For better nutrition and even more savings, have you considered milling your own flour? Most modern whole wheat flour is actually white flour with the germ added back later. Is that a challenge snowcanyon? When I lived in the city I did not have this option!

King Arthur has a great website and they are customer-friendly, but their flour is mass-market and not particularly good, nor do they have all the varieties necessary for classic European-style unsweetened whole-wheat bread.

You can mill flour in one minute in a vitamix! I will give it a try for sure. KAF has a beautiful teaching facility in Vermont that offers lots of great classes with state of the art equipment. I was just planning to mention that King Arthur chewy granola bars are the best. I make them weekly.

It calls for cups fruit and nuts, any combo, so it is good for remnants of bulk purchases. I LOVE King Arthur Flour recipes, so this sounds great!

And in a frugal win- we got our bread machine for free when a family member was moving. If you can make split pea soup, you can make lentil. The primary difference is you WANT to cook the peas into oblivion, with lentils you generally want them to retain their shape.

We love both. Leftovers are great. Random bits of leftover veggies can go into either. A dollop of sour cream or yogurt on top makes it seem more special, or a very little sherry. Homemade pizza can also accommodate bits of leftovers.

Top with pizza-type toppings and heat in the oven. Sounds fancy. Pasta, veggies, and a sprinkle of parmesan, a little pepper. Can be hot or cold. Warming even slightly may be preferable to stone cold out of the fridge.

This means you also get less added sugar. Frozen veggies when on sale can be a great find, especially for things not seasonal or not readily available in your area.

I like to cook dry beans for chili. So cook a batch of beans pinto or kidney , make some into chili, the rest into refried beans. Both freeze beautifully. Explore vegetarian and vegan recipes to cut down on meat consumption. Find something else.

I really appreciate your note at the top about being sure to find your food priorities and then figure out how to frugalize is that a word? We try really hard to buy organic and to be frugal.

Even that though has changed our habits to encourage frugality. I follow many of the tips you gave, already, but somehow, seeing it in plain writing makes it impressed upon me to really watch how and what I buy.

I know I can still reduce our food budget if I think more strategically. Thanks for the encouragement and reminders! I work outside the home, full-time, so I do this on weekends or evenings — it can be done!

I second your comments about coupons. The only exceptions to that will likely be from a local market. Kroger or Giant Eagle central Ohio will sometimes have coupons in the paper or their mailings for their house brand products usually a good deal , or occasionally for produce.

Favorite go to meal during the week is garlic, onions, tomatoes, rice,shaved carrots, and jalepenoes. I throw in sweet red peppers and sometimes left over chicken. Saute in some olive oil and yummy. Babywoods is so darling! Thank you very much for the list! May I ask how long do you store the homemade food in the freezer and at what tempetature?

We have a small freezer inside the refridgerator, not a separate freezer, and I am not how long cooked food will be good there. How long do you store food soups, lunches in the usual fridge and at what temperature? Do you maybe know if there are any safety rules in this respect?

Thank you very much! Food stored below freezing will stay safe indefinitely, as bacteria cannot grow in freezing temperatures. I finally feel very secure in feeding my family and myself… it only took 10 years of trial and error!

I have also learned about cutting down food waste by going through my kitchen once a week and putting stuff on the counter that needs to be used up… right now I have corn meal, a can of cream of chicken, a can of cream of mushroom, fried onions, apricot preserves and pie crust mix… all items gifted to me by my Buy Nothing Group.

I make it a point to collect unwanted food items from my BN community and then build recipes around them. Last week we had salmon cakes and pumpkin pie because of my BN gifts. My food bill is still not as cheap as others, but I think it has to do with geography.

In general living on the west coast means that our costs are higher. and you can sub different types of flour and mix-ins nuts, seeds, etc. Our biggest foods savings, besides raising some vegetables and chickens in the summer, comes from eating bone-in chicken.

I agree that being judicious about your proteins can make a huge difference. Love the tips! We use most for our family of five healthy eaters—buy bulk raw ingredients, add beans and onions to everything to stretch it, slow cooker soups and stews, planned leftover meals, etc.

We also finally invested in a pressure cooker, which is proving to be a game changer! Less temptation to give into take out or eat through our entire stash of freezer meals when you can cook beans in 30 min or frozen chicken in 10! We used to do more of our meal prep on weekends, but as the kids get older and have more activities popping up on weekends, it was getting hard to keep up with the prep.

Our other strategy is frittatas of every variety. Do you make it in a high speed blender like a Vitamix? I never enjoyed homemade hummus made in the food processor, but in the Vitamix or other comparable one the texture is so much smoother.

We bought canned beans from target most recently and they were super firm and make very chunky hummus. If you cook your own garbanzo beans, you can make sure to get them thoroughly softened first. Are you using dried chickpeas? which I personally think is superior Is your water hard?

Our new house has very hard water so I now use distilled water to cook my chickpeas and other beans. It makes a big difference with the texture of the chickpeas. I suffered though a year of horrible beans before I discovered water can make or break your beans and it is definitely worth the extra dollar for distilled water.

I tried those once with no luck, so I went back to canned, though that may have been at my old apartment which had really hard water…. I may get some dried ones though and try out the crockpot method of soaking. Dumber people than I have mastered homemade hummus!

Otherwise, make sure you blend, blend, blend. I use a Cuisnart as well — it should get fluffy. Make sure you have a little lemon juice in there. Great post! If you want to get all fancy with your hummus because I like the taste the tahini adds to it , you can always make it yourself.

And the bonus is that you can also use the sesame seeds for your homemade breads which we do quite a lot. We fed our Demon Child the same way and I can report, three years on, that she is willing to eat just about anything.

The kid asks for snacks of broccoli and fourth helpings of beans! but she eats it just fine. Thank you for sharing! FW will have her in the kitchen with him as soon as possible!

Hey guys! It just might be my all time favorite tv show! Just wanted to share the link for my favorite granola bar recipe. One thing that has helped us consume more of our leftovers is packaging them in individual serving size containers. Then, when we need to grab food for lunch or dinner, we can just grab a meal out of the refrigerator and warm it up.

The book itself is available at our library. As someone who lives in a city with limited grocery stores but TONS of restaurants I have had to work on this- especially since I have a LOT of severe food allergies one epipen or ER visit is definitely more than my grocery bill!

so I have to be careful of what I eat. I love making soup from scratch and taking it to work, and buying basics rather than premade food. I also do use coupons a few times a year when I know basics like tp, paper towels, shampoo, etc will be on sale.

Also, befriend your local butcher! Easy protein source. Great list of tips and resources! Thanks again for always impressing! A big key for me has been to reduce the thinking behind. well, everything. Every two weeks I put on a pot of dry beans to cook for two hours, and add seasonings and oil as they cook down.

Then I scoop out half cup portions into lunch containers, let them cool, add cheap bulk frozen veggies, and shove all ten plus containers back in the freezer. At the beginning of every week, I portion out nuts in small containers for lunch, and oatmeal with cinnamon and chia and yogurt with honey for breakfast.

The savings in time, money, and stress have been terrific. All I have to do is fend off the folks who think eating beans and oatmeal every day reflect a serious lack of imagination. Great article! My approach is similar, but I have yet to give up the semi-weekly meal out at UNO or one of our local establishments.

You mentioned that you buy granola bars… I thought I would share this recipe for homemade granola bars , which I made recently and LOVED. I changed a few things around, like adding toasted sesame seeds, pecans, walnuts, and I used sliced, skinless almonds instead of whole ones.

Oh, and I added a tablespoon of butter and a little bit of salt to the mix. I toasted the oats and all the nuts first, which I think adds a nice flavor note. After cutting the bars, I kept them from sticking together by wrapping them in little pieces of waxed paper.

When I have had dinner failures…. hot sauce. We make what my husband calls salsa soup. Any bulk hot sauce you have can save a bad fish stew or similar. I actually save up my scrap vegetables in a freezer bag in the freezer…when I have a couple full bags I make a batch of vegetable stock.

Love this post and your blog. Do you ever buy Frugalhound treats? Or do you make them homemade? Dog treats are one of the food priorities in our house.

My mother grew up in wartime Europe and these were lessons necessary for life, not just lifestyle. We are currently working on less packaged food. More of a health choice than frugality actually.

I will say you are lucky with your little ones eating habits. My oldest daughter has always been a great eater. We are working with an occupational therapist to expand her horizons. Unfortunately feeding your kids is not always as straightforward as one might think.

Fresh veggies are usually cheaper than most packaged options, you can get a lot of vegetables and fruit for less than it would be for prepackaged foods.

The best part of this extremely informative article is the picture of Houndlett licking food off of Babylett. Yes, you have been upstaged by the younger generation.

My desire to eat gourmet food often was my incentive to learn to cook. The restaurant scene in Vancouver was vibrant and expensive! so I began researching recipes. And, of course, the savings have been incredible. Because food is our hobby, we have no problem with sourcing great ingredients, eating out and generally spending most of our variable income on food.

Having said that, there are plenty of things we happily do without to fund that one particular lifestyle choice. Your discussion about babywoods and healthy eating reminds me of our toddler. On another note, you can freeze flour. I freeze my whole wheat flour to keep it fresh longer, which lets me buy larger bulk amounts than I could use in the normal run of things before it went bad.

But, may I point out, there are also things you CAN expect. Not to get too personal, but, every month there are a few days that come where I know I will not be cooking. Like spaghetti, really any type of pasta, with a package of frozen veggies to go along with it.

He takes them for lunch too so I never seem to have any full dinners around for those occasions. I do plan on working that in though so thanks for the ideas. Thanks for all the encouragement and the regular flow of ideas. It helps so much! We have many of the same tactics. We stay regimented with our grocery shopping always on the weekend and always one trip per week.

We compile the list as we go throughout the week adding items as we use them up or think of recipes to make. Thank you for all the great posts on grocery expenses!

We do love those Costco pizzas! Grocery budgeting is a fun challenge, but the other big killer of flexible expenses for me is non-food consumables: toiletries, paper goods, disposables I have cut down our plastic consumption drastically, but sometimes you just need freezer bags for frozen meals!

Do you have any advice on these, or could you point me to a post on it? not wearing makeup and getting LASIK.

I would love a comprehensive post on non-food consumables in the same vein as your grocery posts. I love your writing! We also try to use re-usable products as much as possible. For example: our glass tupperware gets used over and over again, I store our bread wrapped in a tea towel, I use rags instead of paper towels.

We also invest when it makes sense, such as in re-chargeable batteries, low-energy-use lightbulbs, etc. I hope this helps! Our power company lets us order LED lights at a HUGE discount.

Check and see if yours does. Coconut oil makes a divine moisturizer. I also make a whipped body butter I love for winter coconut oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, and almond oil in equal proportions, chilled and whipped.

I make a whipped body butter too with those same ingredients! Smells heavenly! Did you get from the Trash is Tossers website, like me? Frugal weirdo toiletry tip: try Tibetan crystal deodorant!

Mix previous. Press into a baking sheet. I tend to think we have the food thing down, but even I picked up some great tips here! I also really enjoyed how long it was, much longer than you usually write.

More Frugalwoods is a good thing in my book! My current frugal boss move is to make a giant egg bake for the week.

I top with whatever bits and bobs of cheese are still hanging about, then 12 beaten eggs. Love this post! I have bought barley, millet, buckwheat, wheat berries, amaranth, and more at Whole Foods and is just insanely expensive. I would love to source these great grains online and see big box.

Any suggestions? I buy mine at the local grain elevators; wheat berries, oats, rye and corn. Just notice when and what the farmers are harvesting to determine when to stop at the elevator. You can not pick up oats when they are harvesting wheat! We eat a lot like you do Mrs. We rarely eat out.

It makes a huge difference in our food budget, but we do splurge on the specialty ingredients to make yummy Asian dishes. So we pay a little extra for that good life. Such great advice all around. We had split pea soup last night and there is enough in the freezer for several meals.

I want to give another thumbs up for freezer meals. They have saved me so many times. Monday I got home from a weekend out of town and we had lasagna from the freezer. I make 3 at a time — still one left!

Today we skied all day and came home tired and famished. There was a time this would have meant order pizza or Chinese take-out, but I had thawed a chicken and noodle casserole before we left. That and some steamed broccoli will make a great meal.

We are also big on packing lunches for road trips and anytime we will be away at lunch time. We prefer a homemade sandwich with homemade bread!

to fast food, and so does our bank account. Food is hard for me, since I have 14 allergies. Onions, garlic, rice, wheat, oats, eggs, peanuts, etc.

That does mean that I never eat out, which is budget friendly. I buy only raw food, in bulk when I can. I have a friend who has a severe corn allergy along with concurrent related food allergies.

So totally hear ya about how hard it can be dealing with food. Most of the squash will be the main ingredient in soup. I season with herbs, a little bit of salt, and a dash of chipotle chili, but you could use anything and could make it more sweet than spicy.

You would have to skip the few that involve oats. Potatoes in 15 minutes, brown rice in Beans, lentils, kale, soup — no more standing over the stove — dump in and set. Love these tips. I have brown basmati rice frozen in pint-sized packets for quick meals, too, plus lots of quart-sized soups and stews ready.

Our biggest food priority is eating healthy fish sourced in the most environmentally responsible way. So we invest in shipping pounds of wild-caught Alaskan salmon every year, plus 80 cans of sockeye for salmon salad and fish patties.

Some people buy a side of beef, we buy Alaskan salmon and follow a Native American version of the Mediterranean Diet, which is a little seafood, lots of greens and vegetables, and some nuts, beans, legumes, and a few grains. That quinoa bowl looks yum!

Do you scramble the egg? Did I really say that?!? Must have been a moment of delusion was I pregnant at the time? The thing is that Mr.

FW is really good at cooking and he enjoys it, whereas me, not so much on either of those. If I absolutely had to cook, I would.

But I prefer to clean and do the laundry while he manages all things culinary :. Have you considered purchasing an instant pot? Worth every penny in my opinion. I use it to make yogurt, rice, quinoa, and so on. I currently have frozen chicken breasts in there that will cook up in 15 minutes flat.

It helps me avoid to the temptation to buy takeout and premade foods because it is so quick and easy to use. Yes, I agree the Instant Pot is great!! I make yogurt, soups, stews, and breakfast and lunch preps for the week. After considerable research, and hemming and hawing, I finally purchased an instant pot for many of the same reasons.

Totally worth it! One big purchase we feel has paid us back tenfold. A friend, however, makes them regularly and said the secret is brown rice syrup. She buys it from a co-op grocery store, it seems to be the kind of thing you either find at a health food store or at an Asian supermarket.

Worth a shot! Around here, regular price is about ¢ a pound, but every so often they go on sale for ¢ a pound and I buy the max the store will allow. I bake them, shred off whatever meat I can, and then turn the bones lots of bones! into broth. I priced it out as being about 50 cents per quart of broth made to store-bought strength, though I do reduce it for the freezer to save space.

The meat is useful for soup, casseroles, chicken salad, etc. Other protein— the cut of meat called top blade steaks, or Spencer steaks in the midwest, or flat iron steaks. All the same. They are usually rather thin cut, oblong shape well-marbled meat with a line of gristle down the middle.

The other cut I get is called chuck eye, only one of my local grocery stores carries it. I use that to make homemade cured salmon, aka lox. We also use that salmon to make salmon sandwiches, basically eaten just like a burger with a piece of salmon instead of beef.

Each piece is about ¼ lb so a sandwich runs about a dollar. Can you provide a recipe for the cured salmon? We have a lot in common when it comes to food and groceries. My wife and I buy mostly whole foods, and organic when it matters. What we put into our bodies is very important to us.

Sure we splurge every now and then on unhealthy food, but we keep it to a minimum. Making meals ahead saves us big time during the week. After a long day of work, the last thing I want to do is think about making food.

Having something frozen that I can heat up is a life saver during the week. I loved reading this article! Hey guys, Apart from all the great tips from Mrs. Frugalwoods, I have a great tip I came up with while shopping for groceries. Say NO to one of the products in your cart! Put SOMETHING BACK at the end of each shopping session!

I am saying this because I, as probably many of you, love to just throw in ingredients or foods that we love, that are not necessarily cheap nor healthy. It saves you money 2. What a super, easy way to save money on groceries.

Thanks so much the the great tip. If spinach is cheap in your area you should really try it out! So much great information here. A cheese sandwich tastes so much nicer with a good green tomato chutney, or dill pickle. And it is very empowering not to mention cheap to make your own.

My homemade mango chutney is streets ahead of any of the sugary commercial stuff, and a lot spicier too:- When a friend gave me a free bag of nectarines I made chutney out of those as well. PS Totally off-topic, but we gave our greyhound puppy the empty peanut butter jar to lick this morning and she was in seventh heaven:- No need to wash out the container for recycling.

I have AdBlocker After I read through the whole article there were Zero Ads blocked. This is the first time I ever saw this. Way to go frugalwoods. RE: cooking, I completely thank the Food Network.

My parents did teach me plenty, mostly about the importance of home-cooking and having food on the table every night. From the Food Network watching, I learned a lot about how to do different techniques, like butterflying a chicken breast helps avoid the super thick and bland problem.

Sometimes, I do one sauce in a big thing a Le Cruset or a casserole dish or pyrex. The other night, I used smaller ones and did two different sauces, but it gave me three nights worth of dinners where all we had to do was prepare a side veggie.

What are some of your favorite brands of box wines and styles-cabernet, merlot? I was wondering, do you guys have an opinion on the zero waste movement?

You guys have offered a ton of great zero waste options—Sodastream, make coffee at home, make hummus or bread by hand. Your article gave some great advice but I had to laugh out loud when you suggested hummus and veggies is enough for dinner.

My husband would absolutely freak out! It was the only part I thought was completely unrealistic expectations and points to why you guys are so thin and America as a whole is overweight. Eating whole homemade food in small quantities and snacking on fruits and veggies is what the majority of American would call a diet!

I made the epic-ly frugal lunch recipe yesterday. Eating it while I type. Curious as to the use of canned black beans vs. buying bulk? Great post, Ms. PDF cookbook designed for those living on SNAP benefits food stamps.

This post was very informative. I agree that bringing snacks and your lunch to work can save you SO much money. There are several people at my office that eat out every day or go pick up fast food. We also purposefully make too much food for dinner so that we can have leftovers for lunch the next day.

My husband and I also like to drink alcohol, but we limit that to the weekends now because it is so expensive. We are doing the low carb diet so I have to limit wine intake.

My favorite drink is a chilton club soda, lemon, salt, and vodka. Food has always been my struggle. I love food and spend way too much money satisfying cravings and experiments. I make a batch of this every Sunday and eat throughout the week. I also pack them when my toddler and I are running errands to keep hunger at bay.

The base of this is the nut butter and oats, and you can really play around with the rest. I sometimes add dried fruit or chopped nuts to it. If I find chia seeds on sale I will add a tablespoon of those. Mix all ingredients together your hands will work better than a spoon and then mold into a glass dish and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Cut into the portions you want. I keep these in the fridge all week and take out as I want to eat them. You can also just mix all ingredients in a bowl, refrigerate, and then mold into balls. I am getting better I eat red sauce! We have reduced it to every other week.

Our friends also love to host and vice versa. We pick a theme and everyone brings dish. We also do grilled pizza in the summer which is a steal! Makes 12 wedges at approximately calories each. A yummy oatmeal variation is what I call my banana bread oatmeal. Cook as usual. I always cook my oatmeal in the microwave.

Great post and comments, too. For example, I bought a bag of fresh turmeric for a few bucks at an Indian store. Compared to the health food store super cheap. It freezes perfectly. At Asian stores, I get teas for much cheaper. We have been doing it for years and have no children.

We try to do bigger portions so as to do multiple lunch meals which we take for our respective offices and soups for most dinners of the week. Do you have any other ideas come to mind? Thank you very much and keep writing! Have you thought to purchase garage sale a pressure canner?. Smitten Kitchen has a recipe for great granola bars.

You can use whatever nuts or dried fruit you have on hand. Bring water to boil Gently add a dozen eggs Boil 6 minutes Take off heat, let sit 20 minutes Drain hit water, add cool water,ice 20 mins. rolled oats; mix together and roll into balls. Store in fridge and grab when you need them. I usually add T of flax seed meal for omega-3s and vitamins.

Can add choc chips, coconut flakes, raisins, etc. But I usually make them plain. My kids LOVE them. The recipe is on my website. I cut them into bars and freeze each bar. I totally agree that finding a workable granola bar recipe is tough.

What I do is make loose granola to top our homemade yogurt.. I like the crunch it brings to the meal. I have found that it is much easier to save on groceries, eat clean and healthy and not to throw away food when ordering all food via e-shop.

For few months now I have planned our meals family of 4 , ordered the stuff online and my husband just went to pick up the prepacked goods from store. Much less destraction and impulse bought items, much better planning and lots of saved time.

S- where we live it is free of charge to preorder and pick up groceries. Excellent post! I love that you keep weeknights simple. That is something I try and do also.

As for granola bars. I love having a simple snack and this recipe has been my go-to for years. I double the batch and put it in a 9×13 pan and leave it in the fridge.

Out family of 3 can polish off a pan in a week or so and they taste simply amazing on top of a little bit of plain greek yogurt.

Melt peanut butter, honey and butter together. Then add any ingredients you want. Looks like you guys do consistent lunch and breakfast and then a more varied dinner.

Great strategy. We are in Milwaukee, so we shop on Sundays during the Packers game. It is like a ghost town. Do you have an average cost per meal per person that you try to maintain? We are mostly utilizing the recipes link from BlueApron, but rather than use their service we go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients ourselves.

This might sound like an odd one but it worked for me and when I pointed it out to my colleague she noted the cost savings too. I rarely eat meat but when I do I eat halal meat. We have a very large Muslim community in my city — large enough that there is a section at the grocery store for the halal meats and products in a very basic sense like kosher for Jewish.

The overall price point is different and when they do markdowns they are more substantial. Food has always been my easiest area to tackle with frugality.

I then go back and write a new list, re-ordering my items based on my path around the store. If you are NOT familiar with your store, ask customer service for a map.

Seriously, most grocery stores have a map. Anyway, write your items down in an order from door to register in one straight trip. I have saved SO much by doing this because I am a HUGE compulsive buyer and my persuasive snack side is far stronger than my practical frugal side.

The other thing I do is buy whole raw chicken. Out grocery store usually has them for. With the leftovers, I can usually squeeze out more chicken meals that are all cheap.

Then with the bones, I make my own chicken stock and throw that in the freezer for other meals. When my freezer starts to overflow with chicken stock, we just have chicken soup.

I make the stock, but after straining out the bones, I just add onions, carrots, rice or whatever tiny pasta is in the cupboard. Last, ask if your store has markdown sections. Ours regularly has a bread markdown randomly located in one of the frozen food aisles…. I make it a point to always browse these.

It was about 4 times the amount I usually buy for my daughter for only about half a dollar more. Excellent guide.

I wonder what do the Frugalwoods use to store some of the bulk items, such as the big bags of oatmeal, quinoa, etc.? Thanks again. Homemade bread is also a good place to add good stuff. Just blend twice as much whole flax seeds as you would use oil.

Flax seeds keep for years. For real whole wheat bread, add in wheat germ. It can be bitter, so add as much as tastes good to you. I totally agree with your view on the judicious use of proteins. My wife tries to use meat with every meal, but eating too much protein can be costly and even unhealthy.

Keep up the great work! We eat out a couple of times a month. Yes, it costs more than cooking at home but we have some strategies to keep the bill reasonable. We always portion out at least half the meal to take home and take any leftover bread to use for breakfast or lunch the next day.

We also try to avoid buying coffee or tea out. I have good travel mugs and will make drinks at home to take with us when we go for walks in the park.

Other than that we do cook at home from scratch as much as possible. Soups are one of my favorite things to make since you can often add in odds and ends and it still comes out good. I added leftover rice to my split pea soup and it helped to thicken it nicely.

When you have a spoonful of peas left on the dinner table—too little to serve again, too much to finish off—put that spoonful in the soup box. Repeat with whatever spoonful portions are left at the end of the meal.

When the soup box is full, all you need for a great soup is to make the base of your choice broth, tomato, etc and add in the goodies.

Avoids waste and saves both time and money. Larabars homemade. Equal parts raw nut cashews typically, peanut is also good and dates. Pinch of salt, vanilla and cinnamon. Awesome backpacking food. Awesome snack. Have to use a Vitamix. For the granola bar question, I make these granola bars religiously.

They use brown rice cereal and brown rice syrup those ingredients are a bit more expensive , but making these homemade certainly saves and they are SO. than store bought.

Everyone loves these. If you have a food processing, another fun thing to do is to see how many things you can make in a row without having to wash it in between! Keep a few to eat, and freeze the rest for later!

The same holds true with grating cheese! Just buy chunks of cheese, and grate it yourself in your food processor! Bag each type of cheese into a freezer ziplock bag, and toss them into the freezer. Grated cheese at your fingertips whenever you want! Then, when you end up with a batch of raspberries, for ex.

Easy peasy, right? Got the idea? My trick to saving on baby food is skipping purée, homemade and store-bought, and doing baby-led weaning… Baby had what we had from the start and all we had to do was forfeit one or two spoonfuls from our plates to the little guy. I think the Classic Glo Bars from Oh She Glows are pretty darn good and fairly healthy.

Bulk foods are hard to find in Australia in the way they seem available in America. Things like rice are available but other things that are suitable for coeliacs are not. I just discovered Walmart Grocery Pickup. I may never set foot inside a grocery store again. We struggle to lower our monthly food bill, though we do not eat out and cook almost everything from scratch.

Oddly, perhaps, produce is the killer. We are pretty committed to buying meat from animals not raised in factory-farm conditions, and because this is more expensive, we eat a lot less meat than we used to. And are raising meat chickens in the backyard! Quite the adventure.

But I still marvel at the low grocery bills I see posted from others. We live a major metro area in the SE. I recommend checking out ethnic grocery stores near you.

It might seem daunting at first, but just jump into it and explore. Those are pretty good and cheap, good for buying beans, various grains and flour. Produce and meat not too expensive either, and there are many interesting selections. You would see many of the same foods in fancy international departments of your bigger grocery stores, and they would be a lot more expensive.

Asian markets are great too. I also used to go to a big Korean grocery store when I lived near one to get cheap seafood and the variety was amazing. Grilled octopus, anyone? Asian markets would offer cheaper rice in bulk. I know! We have lots of great Latino stores here in FL and we love getting our cheap spices there!

I always keep blue tape on hand for writing on food containers when I put them in the fridge or freezer. I put the name of what is in the container, along with the date of when it was put in the fridge. This helps for ensuring that we know how old something is before we eat it!

In medium bowl, mix together honey, melted butter, and egg. Add to dry ingredients. Pour in prepared baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Cool for 30 minutes before cutting. Leftover sandwiches which have been in the refrigerator become delectable treats when I smear a bit of soft butter on the outside and heat them up on a nonstick pan for a few minutes! Try making flatbreads. Espesially good for hungry kids.

My favourite recipes are Rachael Koo no yeast and ready to cook in 15minutes and Jenny can Cook. You tubeVideo on how to make them is so easy.

Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content. Eliminate Excuses; Identify Your Parameters Mr. I eat a vegan diet and that food is expensive!

I eat a lot of meat and it is expensive! I hate to cook and so I spend too much on ingredients! I love to cook and so I spend too much on ingredients! Where You Shop My beloved Market Basket Our first stop is where we shop.

Be Wary Of Coupons Our groceries on the conveyor belt. People wondered why I was photographing this… Coupons can be the best of times or the worst of times.

How You Shop Mr. Make your list at home ahead of time and while looking in your pantry and refrigerator. I always bring snacks and toys for Babywoods, which makes our weekly trips mostly pleasant. What You Buy Babywoods modeling some of our bulk, raw ingredients Since everyone has different dietary restrictions, preferences, and priorities, this category will be, well, different for everyone.

Instead of pre-made bread, buy flour. Good, pre-made bread is ridiculously expensive. Instead of chopped baby carrots, buy the big, whole carrots. Do you know how long 5lbs of carrots last? A long time, my friends. These are but a few examples. Look through your pantry and fridge and identify anything that came in a package.

FW whipping up homemade hummus. But for the rest of us, please familiarize yourself with the following key tenets of frugality: Frozen pizzas Other frozen food We have freezers for a reason , people.

Here are a few real-life scenarios where Mr. FW and I have resorted to emergency freezer meals: We had a baby and were in the NICU with her for a week.

Frugal cooking recommendations - Chili Cornbread Casserole Pancake Pizzas w/ cream cheese spread & diced fruit Tuna Sandwiches & fresh Veggies Black Bean & Salsa Meatloaf w/ mashed potatoes & fresh veggie sticks

After all, your cheapest meals will be using food that is already in your pantry. Try to buy cheap ingredients that are useful for a multitude of dinners. Useful ingredients for my extremely frugal food ideas, if you can get them, might include the following:.

The great thing about soup is that you can make it out of pretty much anything! It offers an opportunity to use up all of the odds and ends that are sitting in your fridge, such as tired looking celery and carrots. Leftover meat and veg can also be added. I have also been known to throw in wilted salad.

Once it is whizzed up, no one knows! An ideal base for your soup is onions, chopped potatoes and stock. You can leave the potatoes out and add pasta or rice later to make it more hearty.

Then just thrown anything else in that you have to hand. Either chop it up small for a chunky soup or, if you prefer a smooth soup and have a hand blender, you can whizz it up. With soup making in mind, keep your vegetable trimmings to make stock , and you can do the same with poultry carcasses and bones.

You can do a lot with the humble potato. Try slicing four medium spuds as thinly as you can then add a layer to a greased baking dish. Dot with butter or margarine, add salt and pepper and a small amount of fresh or powdered garlic. Continue to add layers of the potato, seasoning in the same way until you have used them all.

Dissolve a stock cube in a small amount of water and add milk to make about half a pint of liquid ml. Pour over your spuds, then add grated cheese to cover. Eat as it is or, ideally, with a green vegetable. I have made this in my slow cooker, which is more economical to run. I add the cheese for the last 20 minutes or so.

You can make it really cheaply by using a packet sauce, stirring it into your macaroni or any pasta and topping with extra grated cheddar, browned under the grill.

Because they have such a strong flavour, a can of sardines in tomato sauce is lovely mixed with hot spaghetti.

Add some of the pasta water to loosen it a bit. If you have a pepper, fry that up and add it too. It may be a bit of a stretch to call this a pie, but it goes down a treat with some baked beans! Cook and mash as many potatoes as you think you will need, and mix in some fried onions. If you have any leftover cooked veg, that can go in too.

Grate some cheddar and mix half in with the mash and put the other half on top. Bake for about 20 minutes. Very similar to the dish above. Yes, there is a theme developing! Mix a can of tuna in with some mashed potatoes and fried onions. Top with cheese if you have some and brown under the grill.

Eggs make a cheap meal, and omelettes are a super quick and easy way to eat them. I know that, if ever I start earning enough money from writing that I can stay home and just write, I will need to schedule time for socializing and seeing people.

Is this happening everywhere? My back feels great! I can more easily be standing or sitting, and get to walk around much more.

I can breath so much better. The last few weeks of work I was using their disinfectant cleaning multiple times per shift, and doing the same here at home. It was just too much for my lungs! I was having some issues breathing. No harsh chemicals. This lifestyle change produces too much waste.

Packaging and materials to have groceries and stuff delivered. A crazy amount of peroxide bottles and paper towels. Way more trash. More water use because I am eating at home more. These things I feel bad about. I love the Homesteading Family and Roots and Refuge Farm.

Another food related channel I am watching is Mind Over Munch. I made a post about my easy disinfectant wipes , and another about what I did with my stimulus check. Take a look around to see what else I have been sharing here. My Dream? I want to learn all I can until I get there. That way, I will be better prepared.

Recently I decided to go through all of my herbs and spices. You may be shocked to learn that they were all expired! Oh, no! So now I need to stock back up. How am I doing this? A bit more slowly than normal. I used to just go to the store and buy newer jars of the herbs I always had at home.

But I hardly use some of that stuff. I ordered organic ground cinnamon and whole cloves through Misfits Market, and I am ordering fresh herbs from them as I can afford to.

The fennel, thyme, and parsley I ordered a few weeks back are already dried and in jars. Right now I have more fennel and parsley drying, as well as oregano and rosemary.

Did you know you can freeze ginger? I did not, but I learned you can and now have some all peeled and cut up and in the freezer, as well as organic cranberries, mixed fruit and some other things. Because I got a new fridge! The old one did not have a separate freezer, and the freezer it did have did not freeze food well.

Yes it was, as is this one, just a little dorm room size fridge. But it is perfect for me since I rent a room. This one does have the separate freezer, and I am loving it! Besides the ginger and other things listed about, it holds lots of smoothie packs and plenty of meat for me.

Oh, and I have a bag of frozen banana rounds so I can make some banana ice cream on a nice day! I am trying to organize my kitchen area.

All this has been a huge help. The food looks so much better in jars, than they did left in the various size packaging, and actually takes up less space. I am able to give her a little from each box to help her out as well.

I did order some reusable snack, sandwich, quart, and gallon size bags. When I was in high school, we had Home Economics. We learned how to prepare a few things, one being a taco dinner that was mighty tasty, and the basics about baking and whatnot.

If you have any tips not listed, or want to elaborate on any that are, feel free to do so in the comments. You can also email me at shannonlbuck gmail. I always answer as soon as I have a free moment. We want to be able to keep them, though, to use when we can.

I trim off any less-than-perfect parts compost these if you can and then pat the leaves dry using a towel. The laves I place them between dry cloths and into a container until I need them.

Place the cut leaves into a freezer safe container and freeze. I always use mine within two or three weeks, and have never had a problem.

I like greens, somewhat. I like spinach. I can even handle kale, chard, and collards prepared in certain ways.

But let me just say I am consuming far more greens now than I was a few years back. This is the best way I know to get greens into my diet without noticing too much.

I do add some greens to salads, and I eat a lot of salad. These include the lettuces, spinach, and kale. I still need to try this with the chard and kale. If you have a garden, or know someone who does who is willing to give up one or two each of chard and kale plants, then you can have these fresh into the new year.

An off year. Everything has been so different. My birthday was last month. There is a huge gazebo where I rent, and my daughter Skye, my mom, and I used it that day for a little socially distanced visit. Skye had painted me this picture. Later, the bestest dropped me off a gift, and Zowie brought me dinner.

Instead she brought me this meal, then hurried home so I could video chat with her and my Littles. The almond butter compliments some fruits and vegetables nicely.

Every morning I seem to want an apple. Let me just say that I am especially excited over the pizza stone! The lady said it will fit nicely in my toaster oven. I found this super cute photo of my girls while going through a memory box. They were so little! Here are some recipes from the blog to enjoy during the rest of your summer.

Celery is a nutritious addition to the diet. As well as being used in one-pan-meals, casseroles, and soups, you can do other things with it.

Use some of the stalks or the greens in salad or smoothies. Add celery to juice. Snack on it plain. I love mine with nut butter. You can also use it when making vegetable stock. I use these in smoothies. As the weather gets nicer, many people start wondering how they can save money on groceries while eating fresh foods.

You can pick the herbs fresh, in just the amounts you need. And when these harvests do need to be cut at the end of their growing seasons, you can hang many of them to dry — and store them for out-of-season use.

I will not pretend to be an expert on drying herbs, though I do so minimally in my own kitchen, but I will share this article from Mother Earth News. It will help. You know, when you have leftovers in the refrigerator, and maybe a little of something left on the shelf.

I do have vegetable based pastas on the shelf, and will be trying them — maybe soon. The pasta cooked perfectly in the skillet, and the liquid did make a little gravy of sorts.

The finished dish tasted good, and that is my main criteria for a meal. Onto the recipe. And what do we do for dinner? Order take-out!!! So what are we supposed to do, starve?! Eat a cracker?!!!!! We frugal weirdos go to our reserve of emergency freezer meals. But in none of those instances did we order take-out, because… we had emergency frozen meals all set to go in our freezer!

We keep several frozen pizzas in our freezer at all times. No exceptions. Running out of frozen pizzas would be tantamount to running out of soap or beer.

We also have a stash of frozen meals that Mr. FW cooked. On nights when he has the time, he whips up a gigantic batch of soup or chili and we use a food funnel to portion the extras in quart-size Ziplock bags we find that a quart is about 2 meals worth to freeze.

I mean seriously people, go easy on yourself and stock your freezer. In that same vein…. Similar to the plan ahead mentality of frozen meals, be honest with yourself about your capacity to cook on weeknights. Some nights, everything goes smoothly: children are well-behaved and do not smear banana in their hair, dogs do not whine underfoot and lick banana off the baby, mamas do not accidentally drop coffee mugs out of the dishwasher, daddies do not need to chop wood, and dinner comes out beautifully!

But other nights? Some people aka babies fling quinoa across the room, other people aka dogs eat said quinoa, which gives them indigestion, and everyone is a hot mess.

And so, what to do about dinner? Prepare for the inevitable melee of Mondays and create an easy rotation of meals to fall back on. I think a lot of people misguidedly assume Mr. Rather, we have a simple list of meals that we eat on repeat. Oh yes, you read that right, we eat the same, easy meals over and over again.

Because it gives us lots of time and money to do other things. Just sayin. We stock our pantry with the raw, bulk ingredients Mr. FW likes and he throws together whatever time and creativity allow for. Split pea soup: this is one of our favorites for freezing. Chili: another freezer fave.

Scrambled eggs and grits: has the advantage of being cheap, easy and quick, but has the disadvantage of not creating leftovers. Mix in with some pasta and squeeze fresh lemon on top. Bonus: tastes great cold and so is a good leftover candidate.

Sweet potatoes and quinoa: roasted sweet potatoes paired with quinoa. This makes cooking and clean-up easier and faster.

Let me dispel a common myth of Frugalwoods lore right now: we do eat meat! We also eat dairy! We will basically eat anything! But I digress. What we do with expensive proteins—meat and cheese—is use them sparingly. This also has the advantage of being extremely tasty and easy to freeze!

When in doubt, add beans, onions, and garlic! I exaggerate, but not by much. FW adds these components to just about everything he makes.

We also eat grass-fed beef, which we buy locally from our neighbors. Instead, Mr. FW mixes ground beef into homemade tomato sauce with crushed tomatoes and—you guessed it—onions and garlic. Our lunches are vegetarian and at least several dinners a week are as well.

Forgoing meat just a few times a week will lower a grocery bill in a hot minute. FW and I came around to AFTER performing a full clean-out of our pantry, freezer, and refrigerator. This is rather crucial for us since we live 45 minutes from the nearest grocery store and get snowed in with some amount of regularity.

Conversely, if you live in a small apartment in the city with easy access to a grocery store, this might not be a good exercise for you. FW could, at any time, whip up a batch of soup or stew or chili from the staples we keep on hand. FW knows we always have these base, raw ingredients to choose from.

All of these items are shelf stable for at least a few weeks and we cycle through them regularly. Snacking: we all do it. I find the disavowal of the need to snack will fast track you to buying convenience food or zipping through the drive-through or popping over to the cafeteria at work.

How do I know this? Have quick, healthy snacks at work, in your diaper bag, in your purse, your briefcase, your car, and certainly your pantry.

Here are a few tidbits we like to snack on:. Granola bars. fruit and veggies. This is especially good for an afternoon snack when I just want to crunch something. Dried fruit. We actually eat this for dessert, but it could work for snacks too.

What Are You Drinking? Cheers to cheap seltzer! Drinks are another element of a food budget. FW and I regularly consume the following, all of which have been frugalized and optimized:.

In each of these instances, instead of giving up something we enjoy, we found thriftier alternatives. This is the backbone of my luxurious frugality lifestyle philosophy : do what you love, but frugalize it.

The title pretty much sums this tenet up: DO NOT WASTE FOOD. The culprit here is likely a failure to plan ahead or, a failure to have simple weeknight meals you can whip up.

Do yourself the favor of making a list of easy meals you can cook each night. You could eat a different meal every single night and only cook once a week if you followed this pattern! Not eating leftovers. This is simply not allowed.

But dumping entire loads of vegetables or full casseroles in the trash? Not allowed. No excuses. Have a good way to store your leftovers we use glass containers and for veggie odds and ends, get a compost bucket for your kitchen and start a compost pile!

Kids add a whole new dimension to frugal eating and life in general, come to think of it…. In short, Babywoods eats what we eat. I cut up any large chunks since she only has two teeth , but otherwise, she eats our diet. When she was younger, we cooked homemade purees for her and froze them in ice cube trays.

Offer small amounts. We allow Babywoods to eat as much or as little as she wants at each meal. However, I offer her foods in small doses. Save leftovers. And so, I simply scoop these leftovers into a glass container and store them in the fridge for her next meal. In this way, we waste very little while encouraging our adventurous little eater to consume as much—or as little—as she desires.

Since desserts are expensive and typically laden with sugar, we choose to abstain as a family. Now I do love to bake for potlucks and dinner parties and the holidays!!!

Be mindful with beverages. Will Babywoods drink these during her childhood? Full stop. Breakfast at home! Many of my baby food ideas come from my wise and frugal sister, who has three kids ages 10, 8 and 4.

Seems to work well and avoids many a dinner table battle. Catchy, no? I thought so. I never leave the house without food. Not a joke. I always take a water bottle, almonds, and other snacks with me.

No matter what. Ergo, I always take food. When Babywoods and I go to the grocery store and run errands, I pack sandwiches for both of us along with almonds for me , water bottles for both of us, and other sundry bits of snack. But hey, it is food! Have the foods you like on hand and the discipline to eat them and not order take-out!

You can do this. While I think Mr. And you know what we do? We eat it anyway. And then never make it again. FW has only made one meal that we really and truly had to toss. It was a most unfortunate fish stew that tasted awful.

Truly horrendous. We ate it for one meal and then threw out the leftovers. I hated to waste so much food, but wow, was it unpalatable. So, aside from fish stew disasters, buck up and eat it. Sign up to get new Frugalwoods stories in your email inbox. None of that here. Very comprehensive list. We tend to prepare crock pot meals given the kids.

My wife also cooks by feel so there are no recipes to share. I grew up in a household where meals were separate plates, so its been an adjustment.

But it is a huge savings. We supplement cost savings with our garden and some fruit trees in our yard. Fresh blueberries are expensive afterall 😉. Also figuring out things that taste amazing and are healthy and cheap… for example, 2kg of frozen blueberries from Costco are 8.

Surprisingly, per weight, this puts them at the same price as bulk apples and bananas at the local grocery store, and cheaper than most other fruit. Also, individually frozen lunches, if you work outside the home.

Oh, and final best tip: a lot of recipes use ground spiced Italian sausage as a flavour base for he rest of the meal. Replace with ground pork, add about 2tbs of oil or water texture , and add spices google for spicy Italian sausage blends….

Freeze in 1-lb bags and tug out for easy meal bases. Oh, and any water used to re-hydrate mushrooms makes the BEST risotto broth. Or Jamie Olivers recipe for sausage and fennel fusilli.

And the soup, specifically, freezes beautifully. The Budget Bytes Sauasage and Lentil Stew is a staple in my kitchen. Cheap and delicious, freezes beautifully.

It tends to be quite expensive, at least where I live. I finally got a grinder for Christmas last year and grind up whatever is cheap, which is often a nice lean loin which tends to be dry, but you can compensate. It takes a little work to do it right as you need to cut it up then par-freeze for the grinder to work well, but I do a number of pounds at once then throw it all in the freezer in meal sized bags.

We buy whole legs of pork when they go on sale, usually in the fall, ridiculously cheap. My husband cuts them up and grinds them to make sausage meat.

A lot of people are happy to give the scapes away to anyone who has a use for them. A container of fair trade cocoa lasts me for months. Anyone else being hit hard by a rise in grocery prices since the COVID thing? I checked out the price of a beef roast the other day and nearly had a stroke. I used to be an extreme couponer and I know how badly coupons can be for your grocery budget.

We did this with beans, rice, bread, sauces, soups, etc. Go through your pantry to use up existing items. I make a list of everything we need to use up. I only bother looking at the meat and produce; everything else is just noise.

I make note of what produce and meat is on sale. Make a menu. This way, I get the cheapest meals possible. It also means we tend to eat a lot of grains like rice with cheap fresh produce, which is pretty healthy. I would encourage you to make different types of freezer meals like soups, casseroles, enchiladas, desserts, etc.

It really cuts down on the need to eat out and spend money. I would add that if you pay attention a lot of the same sorts of things go on sale.

When it comes to saving on food, I think so much depends on knowing yourself. Is it more expensive, yes. But cheaper than buying a squash, letting it rot and ordering delivery instead 😉.

Chopped frozen butternut squash is one of the few things that I will pay extra for the convenience of! I absolutely hate chopping butternut squash too, so I cut it in half, clean out the gunk, and roast it cut side down on a baking tray with a bit of oil.

If your microwave is large enough, you can also cook butternut there. Pierce the skin in several place, then nuke on high for about 5min. Start checking every minute or so after that. Butternut freezes well though. Jamie Oliver never peels butternut squash. Once I saw him cook it with the peel on, I never went back.

Peel almost melts away and there is no taste of it. That, plus a clean kitchen towel to grasp the slippery gord, makes the job so much easier. At home I have salad dressing and veggie boullion. That all becomes soup, salad and bread.

This is so, so true Stefanie! For example, I find that when I keep those huge bags of pre-cut frozen veggies in the freezer, I eat 9 different vegetables before noon seriously, I did it yesterday! Things have changed for me, frugality-wise, in different seasons of life. Frugalwoods is a young mom of one.

I am an older mom with 7 yep, s-e-v-e-n kids, and we homeschool, and I run two blogs, and hubby runs a business, and… my energy at 41 is more precious. I used to struggle with this until I learnt to put the whole squash into the oven and bake it, then chop when it cools 🙂. I also hate chopping squash and it can be very hard indeed.

I cook it whole in the oven and then scoop it out. Also same for pumpkin, except with next step to get the seeds, and roast them after. Totally, me too. I cannot bear the prep.

I know you can skin and chop and de-seed yourself, but even the thought makes me need to lie down quietly! If you ever need smooth cooked butternut squash versus chopped browned squares which sometimes you need , you can cook the entire butternut in a crockpot.

Stab with some holes, add 2 cups of water and cook it whole 8 hours on Low. Let it cool in the fridge before you slice it open, and you have magical squash puree without giving yourself a hernia! For any squash place in the crockpot with a small bath of water.

Cook on high for about 4hrs. The skin will slide off and your squash will melt off the fork. No more cutting your hands off trying to get into the shell. Works every time. Just a note on tahini; a little bit of peanut butter makes a fine tahini substitute when making homemade hummus 🙂 Love your blog!

Great tip! I made homemade humous once I really hated it. Perhaps this will be better? Same goes for open packets — like yogurt, cream, meat etc.

Also rice is such a high risk food that you should only keep it in the fridge for 1 day and you have to be super, super careful if you are planning to re-heat it. Stay safe people, if in doubt — throw it out.

Your health is worth more than a little bit of money! What I find is that most food expiration dates are remarkably conservative. I tackle this very topic in greater depth in this post: How I Fight Food Waste At Thanksgiving And Beyond.

I wonder if our dairy products are more pasteurized than yours because neither product would go bad in a properly cold fridge in 3 days. Also not sure where the rice fear comes from.

We do this all the time,. Now if it was rice leftover from a restaurant…probably not. A big yogurt pot once open can happily sit in my fridge 10 days. Use clean spoon to serve from pot, keep refrigerated, no problem.

Milk in my experience lasts 5 to 9 days once open fresh, pasteurised, not UHT. PSs just to add.. I make a batch of rice and eat on it for a week.

I have never been sick while eating rice….. I am Southern, and I sometimes eat the greens with cornbread, but rice works also. The rice is really good soaked in the pot likker. I add the pepper sauce which is hot peppers in a vinegar sauce.

Pinto beans and a slice of raw onion with sea salt on top make for a fine meal. I think health and safety culture does have a lot going for it certainly, but the nannying endless food policing is insane. I found that hummus is one of those foods for which you must acquire a taste.

I started eating it when my parents lived in Saudi Arabia and it was novel to Westerners. Then I worked with a group of people who were from the Middle East, and hummus was their favorite dish. That was back in the 60s and 70s before it became a popular item in the United States.

I make my own hummus, and adjust the seasonings for my taste. You might try making a batch and adjust the garlic, oil, salt to your preference. If there is no mold on it it is safe to eat. Rice — That is a misunderstanding between two issues. There is a bacteria that loves rice that has a poisonous byproduct.

Therefore even if you re-heat it and kill the bacteria the byproduct remains and can make you quite ill. It is only an issue for rice that is left out. Why am I not dead yet? I also cook for the week and eat off of it. And if it goes past five days the dog eats it. Once again just goes to show that I expose my body to enough bad stuff that I never get sick!

Rice is a high risk food? When I was young I lived and worked in the amazon with no refrigeration whatsoever and some hot and humid weather.

We often had rice and beans for dinner and then packed them up to carrry with us for lunch the next day. I did find that I had to eat the beans by 10 am or they start to go off, but I never knew the rice to be a problem. Thank you for this! I made hummus yesterday and we were out of tahini, so I subbed peanut butter.

We liked it even better. I will never buy tahini again! Leanne is a nutritionist. Leanne also gets it about making sure dinner is on the table in minutes. The recipes are flavorful and made with stuff you can easily find in the supermarket.

Also guilty of letting our 4 kids become too picky with their food, which resulted in too much waste 🙁. Ty, I get jealous when reading how cheap produce an other items are cheaper in other areas of the country. I have even noticed the Kroger affiliates here PNW are more expensive than say Arizona or even California.

My daughter has bball practice in the central district and the least expensive fruit and veggies stand is a block from her school. But then, so does housing or land.

Mixed blessing, that! Frugalwoods, you answered my question about the oats, thank you, I am so happy!! How do you store them? Hi Amy! Awesome post, Mrs. I totally agree that kids throw everything for a loop, haha!

Super easy and it gets our day off to a healthy start! We use OJ as our base though you could use water , add in a banana, frozen pineapple chunks, blueberries, etc and then TONS of spinach or kale! Our weakness is without a doubt coffee and dessert.

We get Starbucks a few times per week; but our daughters will only nap in the car now they are 3 and 4! Love all your tips!!! This week I made vegan sweet potato and black bean enchiladas that were amazing; and then made spicy potato and black bean burritos two nights later since they used the same ingredients!

You are totally right that black beans are a must; and every meal should begin by sauteing an onion! For example, I used to eat a Chipotle burrito bowl once or even twice a week.

So I set out to master the best vegan burrito bowl I could. The key to the rice is adding lime juice and a little olive oil. More recently, I had an amazing batch of vegan tacos featuring crispy smashed potatoes yum!

So now I have a perfect topping for my burrito bowl. The next challenge still working on it is coming up with a tasty vegan substitute for Vietnamese rice noodle salad bowls. I like your Chipotle hack. I did the same, but for us it was their barbacoa beef for burrito bowls.

I located a great copycat recipe and every few months, if beef is affordable, I make a batch and freeze it in meal-size portions. Probably at least a year-and-a-half.

will babywoods eat regular oatmeal? Yes, she has regular oatmeal plus a banana for breakfast no sugar added! Looks weird, but she likes it that way :. Good luck! My other 3 kids love oatmeal, I do steel cut oats in the crockpot, so good!

Food can be such a challenging aspect of frugality because there are so many emotional, family, and political elements tied up into how and what we eat. I very much agree with other commenters who noted the importance of working with your habits.

Neither of us enjoy cooking so more frequent simple meal planning to prevent the take-out meals is the next battle to fight! Food is so cheap in the US, and the average family spends less of its income on food than ever, but housing costs have skyrocketed.

My rent budget is five to ten times what my food budget is, and my income tax budget is three times that.

If you live in the U. you might want to give TurboTax a try. TurboTax knows about every tax deduction there is and can save you quite a bit on your income taxes when you file. Great post.

I am vegan so I chuckle at comments that a vegan diet is expensive. Like you point out, if you avoid the processed stuff and stick to whole foods then it can be crazy cheap! We do have slightly higher grocery bills because we balance shopping for a committed vegan me with my omni husband and kids.

The family eats lots of vegan dishes with the odd bit of meat served on the side to keep them happy. It works. As requested, this is a homemade vegan granola bar that we love.

Here is a link to the recipe. She also has a blog which has some fantastic and freely shared recipes if you google her name for those looking for recipes. Like you I am an avid hiker. I am in the process of completing the Bruce Trail in Ontario just shy of km.

These bars, along with a pb and banana sandwich are my go to hiking snack. Delicious recipes! Good, basic vegan food. This post is excellent! Thank you! We buy whole ingredients, waste almost nothing and bulk cook so we always have something to eat even if we are lazy.

Just ate NC pulled pork bbq last night. From the freezer! That will be pulled pork tacos for lunch today along with home cooked crock pot beans from the freezer of course.

That was pretty much a perfect list. Whenever I get into discussions on MMM on how to eat frugally — often people are frustrated that they cannot get their bill as low as others. I make many of those points. The big 3 for me: 1. What you eat. Paleo, Vegan, Omnivore, whatever — everyone has different needs I, for one, cannot maintain my weight at a healthy weight by eating a carb-heavy diet anymore.

So sad. Carbs are cheap. Where you shop. We have a couple of stores that have produce REALLY cheap, and we eat pounds per day. It adds up. Where you live. Some areas of the country are more expensive.

Some towns do not have a lot of competition. I love your list. And I love that it sounds like you help people figure out what will work in THEIR situation — or at least to think about their own variables.

But I have found that roasted sweet potatoes are okay for me for whatever reason. I roast up a couple a week and eat those for breakfast. I also throw them in soups. Ahhh food. Such an expensive thing, that. We have a few allergies, some of which we choose to buy our way out of and boy does it get expensive!

My spouse eats one between work and squash, nights per week. My parents alive on green smoothies and they throw the Entire Bag of spinach straight I to the freezer when they get home from the store, then take what they want.

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