Making food stretch

that idea with the stew is a really good one. Will you add pre cooked potato or can it be raw when you microwave the food? I am basically doing same as you. If there are leftovers what wont happen often, I will freeze them for later use. Yesterday morning I had a nice porridge and I didnt even make it in the microwave. I just boiled water, put it in the deep dish, added the oats, cinnamon, sweetener and let it sit for 5 minutes before eating. Yummy and kept me full for 4 hours or so. Something else I am doing for years now is making Sunday my fridge raid day. Noooo not what you think now eating all the stuff in there. But putting all the items which have to go till next Sunday on one shelf so nothing will sit and rot in there. We save a lot of money with this method. First I just did that to give things a try but now its a good method of saving cash as well.

You can save a lot more money without buying premade food. I found while I was working so much I would buy more premade food which really adds up. Now I try to make things from scratch just like you did tonight for dinner. I am now trying to grow a garden with veggies,a nd fruits which will save a lot more money. I will keep a few cans of things when they come on sale for example a can of flakes of ham, or soup. The other night I made a flakes of ham sandwhich, and some veggie soup when I got home from work. I try to find foods that will fill me up for hours, not for the time being. The other night I made some pasta and loaded it with veggies (just left overs such as mushrooms, onion, carrots, tomatoes, spinach) with the pasta, and I had this cream cheese sauce. But normally I will add a little butter with seasoning. I never toss food I will put it in a container and keep it. I never eat all the food as it usually makes 4 servings and its just me.

Hello pointless. I live with my daughter and her three girls and husband. The youngest girl is 16. We trough away so may left overs it make me so sad. I do eat what left overs I can. When the girls cook they over cook. I try to get them to cut back but they just get mad at me and refuse to listen. My daughter doesn't like to cook so makes more than can be eaten at one meal About three or four days later I end up throwing it out. I could freeze but they still will not eat it.

I don;t buy the cans, they are expensive I make my stews from scratch, I get a huge pot that can last two or three meals from it. Also adding baked bread or biscuits to your meals makes you eat less of the main meal and that stretches the meais as well. Another important thing save every scrap, a small piece of meat and a potato and carrot is a lunch for at least one person in the house. No feeding the dogs, they have their own food, our food is so precious when we are on a budget. The golden rule don't through anything out, and freeze a lot of stuff those little bits of food can make a great casserole, soup, stew or whatever. Try to have different kinds of beans on hand they are a healthy ingredient to start off your soup with and if they are dry or even in cans they last longer than fresh vegetables.

That is terrific. We make our food stretch by eating leftovers. We can get several meals out of leftovers. Have a great day!

Thanks for sharing your recipe with us. I will definately try it in my home. I make a cheap version of Beef stroganoff. One bag of egg noodles,two cans of cream of mushroom soup and 12 ounces of milk. Minced deydrated onions to taste.

You've got some really good responses! Let me try to add my two cents' worth now. How to save money on food depends on what you eat as much as how the food is handled before and after cooking. If you use a crockpot, you can use a cheaper cut of meat and it will come out tender. Roasts are expensive, but you can get a cheaper cut and roast it and if you add a splash of vinegar, a little garlic and then pour a cup of leftover coffee over it, it will have the taste and texture of a much more expensive cut. If you eat tuna, save the water or oil that it comes in and freeze it. When you have a cup or so of it, make potato soup (the way you did it sounds delicious!) and add the tuna liquid, which will have little bits of tuna in it. Thicken it with flour (mix a couple of tablespoons of flour with a little cold water in a small jar and shake until it's mixed, then pour it slowing into the hot soup while stirring). You'll have a tuna chowder for very little cost. I rinse out the tuna can when it's empty and use that, too. Every little bit helps! Cooking from scratch is really the only way to save much money without eating very poorly. With the internet at my fingertips, I've learned to make almost everything from cheese sauce to tomato soup and from ice cream to corn dogs. The recipes are out there, so when I get a hankering for something, I look before buying it ready made. Most of the time it saves quite a bit and it really doesn't take much more time.

Beans and rice and cornbread are great stretchers. If I have a pot pie, I microwave a potato to go with it and it is healthier for me. They guys both want two to eat and that is very fattening and high in sodium. We will buy one of those water added hams that is about five or six pounds. Here it costs less than ten dollars. We get it sliced up really thin. It is better than lunch meat and really much cheaper. I put it with potatoes in a sauce, either a box mix or from scratch. I have a favorite crock pot recipe that uses ham, hash browns, cheese, soup and sour cream and onions and it goes a long way as well. I use the last bits of tortilla chips, saving them up to put on top of a chili casserole that is usually chili and corn chips, beans and corn with some cheese.

we eat lots of left over plus whenever we do have left overs, i generally put it in the freezer so it doesn't go bad. in the winter, i generally make big pots of soup, our own homemade hamburger helper or chili which will last a few meals (as well as hubby taking some to work for lunch.) i LOVE meals that i can get two or three meals out of. last week, they had beef on sale and i was able to get two and my inlaws (who we take shopping every week) bought us two as well. we had one and got two meals out of it Thank goodness for a big chest freezer (which we also got for free, but that is a whole nuther story!)

Hello Ms. PQ I always find a way to make my budget stretch specially in food eating healthy and delicious. I just made my lunch today with scrap veggies last night I make an elbow macaroni soup from the veggies with ground beef. Since it's rainy season now it is nice to sip hot soup.

I think its great that you are using your left overs instead of chucking it. I used to make two times the recipe and put half in the freezer. I used to buy coconut, carob, and whatever else sounded good and was healthy, added it to a cheap cake mix and make health bar snacks for my daughter. I would put afew out and the rest in the freezer to keep. I also bought chickens whole. Used the neck and wing and parts we didn't care to eat as meat for soup or enchiladeas. And I always saved the juice off vegetables, chicken and beef. Used margarine containers to put the juice in and then used to start stirfries, soups or whatever called for builon.

try to save left overs from lunch for my supper, and sometimes i will fix something good and save half for hubby when he gets home to eat.. i like the frozen biscuits, because you can take them out and bake one at a time, when its just me and i only want one that saves wasting.. and they last a long time in the freezer.. also i dont buy orange juice for the home, as we dont drink it very often so if i want orange juice i drink it at work from our juice machine.. i try to save when ever i can..

Yeah those are all really good things to do. A lot of people don't like to eat leftovers and that waste a lot of money and food. We definitely eat leftovers. When we make meals I like to have casserole meals. That way we use less dishes and we have a lot leftover. We like to make chili, and spaghetti and those types of recipes are cheap. I'm also going to be making certain meals in bulk and freezing a lot of it for meals for other nights. A great site that I appreciate is money saving mom. That is a great place to get ideas at.