Are you a frugal cook?
@beautyqueen26 (16030)
United States
August 27, 2007 9:45pm CST
So, what are your your best frugal suggestions for feeding a family cheaply? What frugal tricks have you picked up to help you stretch your grocery dollars until payday? Please share. Here are some of my best frugal cooking/budget suggestions for feeding a family on a tight budget.
Living on an ultra tight budget and being frugal by nature, I've learned to know which foods will make our grocery dollar stretch the furthest. And, I've found that my family loves pasta, so why fight it! No, it's not the best diet food, but when you are in a financial pinch, it's ultra cheap and easy to fix.
I make my own pasta sauce most times with a little Sloppy Joe spice, basil, Italian spices and tomato paste and noone has complained so far.
Most times, I prefer to stay stocked up on various types of dry noodles (penne, rotini) and pasta, as well as spices (oregano, basil, garlic, onion, Sloppy Joe powder mix etc.) and tomato paste. I can buy about a months worth of dry pasta and noodles, spices and tomato paste for less than twenty five dollars! Now that's cheap!
While I would love to stock up on hamburger, it's not always possible and certainly not essential. Breakfast sausage is cheaper and actually works well in spagetti and various pasta dishes. It adds an interesting flavor that you can't get from bland hamburger and it costs about half as much.
Those items just mentioned will help me make a variety of delicious frugal dishes for just pennies per serving.
In a real pinch, I could most likely have enough food to last for awhile if I couldn't afford to buy anything else. Of course, it's never come to that, but I do like to be prepared.
2 people like this
12 responses
@carlaabt (3504)
• United States
28 Aug 07
That's a good idea with making your own pasta sauces. I wouldn't have thought to put Sloppy Joe mix in it! I like cooking with sausage instead of hamburger sometimes, too, but here hamburger is usually the same price as sausage, so we usually get it instead, because it is what my husband likes. Next time sausage is on sale, I will buy some and try it with some pasta. :)
We eat a lot of rice at our house. My son loves it. His favorite way to eat is when I fix chicken fried rice. The added bonus of that is that he gets a nice serving of peas and carrots without much complaint, and he doesn't even ask for ranch dressing! lol
He will eat rice just about any way I cook it, though. I've even just given him rice, cream of chicken soup, and mushrooms mixed all together and he loves it. Usually I put chicken in it when I make it like that, but that day I forgot it somehow (don't ask me how, I had cooked it and everything! lol). So if we were on a super tight budget, I would probably just make it like that.
2 people like this
@beautyqueen26 (16030)
• United States
29 Aug 07
That sounds like a super frugal dish. I will definitely make that rice dish. It's got all the basics and I can spice it up with stuff I already have in my cupboard. Thanks for the fantastic suggestion.
@creematee (2810)
• United States
28 Aug 07
Great tips beautyqueen!
I don't have a lot to add, but here's some things that I do.
Buy cheese in bulk! Shred it yourself, add a tablespoon of cornstarch to it, and shake it up (cornstarch prevents it from sticking.) Then you have shredded cheese anytime, with less fat (Pre-shredded cheeses are coated with wax to prevent sticking!) and for a lot cheaper.
I also buy ground beef in bulk (10 lb.) I bring it home, divide it up into how I want it (usually 1 lb. packages) and then freeze it. Bulk hamburger is usually 10-20 cents cheaper/lb. than buying just what you need.
cook from scratch! I haven't been doing a good job on this lately, because it's been too hot to cook. BUT it is cheaper than buying a box meal. My kids actually prefer my homemade mac and cheese to the Blue Box variety! :)
We use your sausage idea quite often with pizza/spaghetti even Hamburger Helper! Another idea is using left over chicken or roast beef for these things. Cut it up pretty fine and add to the sauce or whatever you are cooking. My hubby actually prefers left over roast beef fried up with his eggs and hashbrowns for breakfast.
I've got lot of my own tomato sauces made up, I've been canning this summer, but if I run out, I'll have to give the sloppy joe mix a try.
Again thanks for the great topic! :)
1 person likes this
@beautyqueen26 (16030)
• United States
29 Aug 07
The key to using the sloppy joe mix as your pasta sauce is to make up the meat mixture as if you are going to serve it as sloppy joes, (according to the sloppy joe package--brown and drain meat, mix one tbsp or so tomatoa paste into mixture, add one heaping tablespoon sloppy joe mix, add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water, mix, simmer for five minutes). Be sure to use real tomato paste. I don't use ketchup or it tastes funny.
Once the meat/sloppy joe mixture tastes good, you are ready to turn it into pasta sauce. Next, dilute the mixture down with water to your desired consistency and you have instant pasta sauce, which ultimately tastes better than anything from a jar or can. You can make the sauce as thick or thin as you want. If you want to add fresh tomatos you can, but be sure to add something like a bit of sugar to cut the acidity. I don't use tomatos in mine, cause it always ends up tasting bitter.
You can add any spice you want, basil, oregano, garlic, you name it. And it practically tastes gourmet.
@brimia (6581)
• United States
28 Aug 07
I'm definitely a frugal cook. I make pasta which is always cheap, beans and rice, and stews with beans. I can always find dry beans and non-instant rice for less than a dollar a bag.
I also make a cheap veggie stir fry with $1 bags of frozen Asian mix veggies, which I serve with rice.
I rarely buy specialty ingredients for a recipe so instead I alter it to use items I have on hand.
@ravinskye (8237)
• United States
28 Aug 07
one thing we do it order food from angel food ministries. its an organization that works with churches. you pay 25 dollars and get like 50 dollars worth of food. plus if you buy the 25 dollar package they have specials you can buy also. like steaks at a really good price, and they are good steaks. they have a website www.angelfoodministries.com you can check your state and see if there are any near you. there are no income guidelines either, there motto is if you eat you qualify :)
@twilight021 (2059)
• United States
28 Aug 07
Besides Pasta some other things I use to stretch my food budget are rice and couc cous. Cous Cous especially can go a long way, and it's very filling. You can also season it any way you like so that makes it really versitle.
While being frugal, I also try to watch my weight. I think frozen veggies are great for adding vegatables and fiber to your meals. The plus of frozen over canned is that since they are flash frozen they retain most of thier vitamins (where canned loose most of them). You can make great soups with veggies, just a little meat, and rice. This is especially good in the winter time.
My boyfriend also love kielbasa, which is very affordable and versatile. I get the Turkey kind so it has lesss fat in it. You can make a good "lazy girls jambalaya" with this too.
1 person likes this
@lightningMD (5931)
• United States
28 Aug 07
I am a frugal cook also. I have picked up alot of tips and great recipes from the hillbilly housewife web site. Great recipes for making your own flavored rice dishes that cost so much in the stores can be made for pennies from scratch. We also stretch our food budget by buying angelfood every month. You get a huge amount of food for 25.00. Everything we gotten so far has been really good quality and tastes great. We also love pasta. I make my own sauce too. I saute onions and garlic in olive oil then I add diced tomatoes and basil and oregano. My daughter doesnt like the jarred sauce now since I started making my own. You should check out the web site I think you will like it.
@luvadeal46 (289)
• United States
8 Oct 07
Well my budget necessitates that I am... i started a post yesterday and asked if you had $110 to go you two weeks what would you buy at the grocery store....I didn't have to go shopping yesterday as I had the items to make corn chowder and biscuits and beet hash. Today I will not have to go to the store either because I have everything to make a turkey soup...Which again cost me not a penny...Son went out to eat last night with relatives and he brought home left over turkey.. I took the turkey and potatoes that we picked from the field for free... carrotts that I pulled out of my dad's garden and of course an onion that did cost me something about a month ago...and I will make some dumplings...I would be interested in hearing about frugal meals and what you would buy for $110 for two weeks worth of groceries...
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
28 Aug 07
I never thought of the sausage. We just don't eat very much meat. And I do various things to stretch - I make as much as possible from scratch, and in some recipes, I'll substitute, like if a recipe calls for milk, I'll use half the amount of milk and use water for the rest of it.
We use coupons when possible. Our grocery stores don't have a double coupon day or anything like that, but it does have a 10% off day, so that's when we go.
@livewyre (2450)
•
28 Aug 07
I do my own pasta sauce...I always start with frying some onions before adding the chopped tomato.
My favourite money saving trick is to make a stew/soup with the remains of a chicken. We sometimes have a whole chicken (they are fairly inexpensive) on a Sunday, I 'pressure-cook' the remains with some veggies to make a soup or stew so that I have some suppers through the week...
@subha12 (18441)
• India
4 Sep 07
I am generally not a frugal cook.
but when I was away from home for my job and had to cook food for myself,
most of the days I would cook Rice and pulse with turmaric, salt,spices and veg in pressure cooker.
We call it khichdi in India.
I used to have scrambled egg with it.
Its nutritious as well as cheap and easy to make.
@serenidity (641)
• India
28 Aug 07
I am always eager to save money wherever and whenever it can be. And although food is the last thing I cut costs on, some planning while grocery shopping helps me save a bit on that too. Whenever there is a deal on canned beans like 4 for 5$, i stock up 4 cans each of all the beans that I use. Washing detergent, cooking oil and sugar comes cheaper when you buy in huge packets and thats exactly what I do as those items are always going to be used. I buy most of the vegetables fresh, but some like spinach, okra, broccoli and mixed vegetables, i prefer to buy frozen, big packets so that I need not buy those fresh every week. Soup for the family is always made by me, as we have soup almost every day.
