Spaghetti is a good start. Also, corn dodgers are good. Indian fry scones are also good. Flour and cornmeal are cheap (relatively) and can be used in a lot of tasty recipes. I'll post the actual recipes if you want, or you can look up stuff on www.cooks.com
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Also, buy in bulk. You can get stuff like flour and rice more cheaply that way.
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I'm also trying to eat cheaply over the next couple months. I'm taking out a set amount of cash for food/household stuff at the beginning of the week and when it's gone, it's gone.
Little things I try to do myself are drink only water (let the kids have the frozen juice or milk when they want), if there are leftovers or bits of this or that in the fridge that will likely get thrown out in another couple days I will eat it for my lunch. As for breakfast and lunch, don't make anything for me until I see all the extra that the kids don't finish themselves.
I'm making soup today - sort of a chili/stew thing with 1/4# hamburger (calls for 1#) and extra beans. We'll have some bread or rolls from the freezer. (I buy often from the 40% off bakery rack at Wal-Mart so I get french bread loaves for 80cents for example and fill a shelf of my freezer with that.)
I've also got about 4 chicken breasts that need to be cooked. I'll spread that out into three more meals probably. Chicken alfredo (the 66cent packets from Wal-Mart - we use two for our family and add a little chicken - if you cut it smaller, it spreads out more - and a little broccoli), chicken a la king and maybe add some to the canned potato soup from the Church.
Lots of soup and bread. Oh, also that Tuna Helper "creamy broccoli" I think is the flavor is really good. My 3yo will eat that for breakfast, lunch and dinner, sometimes 5 bowls a day. If I double the boxes and add one can of chicken instead of tuna, it comes to about $5 a dinner. Add a loaf or two of french bread, and it's not bad.
I've heard of stores giving away their older produce if you have chickens or something you want to feed... I've thought about looking into that. Then eating the best of it ourselves. I know for a fact that whatever doesn't sell on the bakery rack gets thrown out - not even the employees can take it home. So, I don't know.
__________________
Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
I know you think I'm joking about the Freegan thing. And I was, when I origianlly posted that thread. But now I'm getting really curious about grocery store dumpsters. I may have to make a nighttime foray into the underbelly of retail castoffs...
Oh, and the garden thing? Yeah... um, I tried that once when I lived in Seattle and my corn grew to about 9 inches and my radishes were the size of marbles. Little marbles. Course, I was only 9 or 10, but by dang! I wanted a garden!
Berries do very well up there. I'd learn how to preserve fruit and stuff that you can get cheaply over the summer. 'Course, you'll probably have the kicker job by then and not care anymore... Life's cyclical, y'know...
__________________
Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
You could see if you have friends at restaurants who could bring home the food that they throw away at the end of the day.
__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Generally, less meat is cheaper, doing it from scratch is cheaper, casseroles, stews and soups are cheaper. Buy older cookbooks from thrift stores that are more "grandma style", because they tend to be heartier and simpler. Vegetarian is not cheaper if you're going the ethnic route and using exotic ingredients.
ray, have you got a library card? The very first book you should take out is "The Frugal Gazette." I thought I was a penny-pincher until I read this woman's stuff. She makes the point that no one cookbook is the best, because individual foods vary in price from region to region. (I'm landlocked, so fish is eeeeexpensive here. Basic cheap Southern dishes would be a specialty import in my area.) So it's time to dig out your calculator and start figuring out how much specific meals cost to put on your table.
That being said, here are three of my cookbook recommendations: 1) The Mennonite "More-with-Less" Cookbook, the 25th anniversary edition. Fun to read, too. 2) The Deseret cookbook the church has at Bishop's storehouses. You can buy it for about four dollars from Church Distribution. Recipes are basic, nutritious and quite good. A family favorite is Potato-Onion Soup. We eat it at least every second week. 3) The Reader's Digest Quick and Thrifty Cookbook (found at a thrift store.) Although there are recipes that call for chicken breast, which I don't consider truly thrifty, this has a LOT of meals that my picky family likes.
__________________
They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
The very first book you should take out is "The Frugal Gazette." Do you mean "The Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyzyn? Love that book. Some of her ideas are a little too extreme for my taste, but most are good, and her writing style is fun and entertaining. I highly recommend it.
Oh, duh. This is me slapping my forehead, because I own the books. My personal rule of thumb is: if I've taken a book out more than three times, it's time to buy it.
Yeah, I meant the Tightwad Gazette (and all three volumes are fantastic). I'm not about to re-use my vaccuum bags either, but those books are an amazing resource. And she also touches on dumpster-diving.
__________________
They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing... the truth of God will go forth till it has penetrated every website, sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done