Frugal Meals and Cheap Cooking

Inexpensive Meals Keep Money in your Pocket

Frugal Meals

Frugal Meals are needed in any economy! Food is the the number one money drop item that we cannot eliminate. When you get hungry, which we all do several times everyday, are you in a frame of being to be all frugal minded and disciplined? Heck no!

You are looking around for the biggest, nearest and tastiest food you can find. Usually this will be expensive fast food, take out foods, convenience foods or snack attack foods. Unless, that is, we have cooked up a bunch of Cheap Dinner Recipes in advance!

Frugal meals are not that daunting to plan and execute. You really need a large fridge and must have a good deep freeze so you can make up meals into extra dishes and then practice economical Freezer Cooking for future dinners.

Save Money On Food

Let's begin at the beginning. Everyone wants to know how to Save Money on Food. A great way to start is not to buy it in the first place!

Plan a summer garden if you have the room for one. Serious (or just wing it!) gardeners save piles of cash and can create Inexpensive Meals all year by preserving their harvest for the coming months meals.

Not everyone has that much yard space, so if you do not, don't give up! Learn How to Grow Tomatoes and herbs on your patio. There are so many dishes that require the tomato based foods frugal meals are made up of. You really can save good money if you grow a bunch of tomatoes, and then practice Home Canning Tomatoes

Courtesy of mrpbps

Frugal Meals equals Cheap Cooking

Make spaghetti sauce using your herbs, and make canned diced, stewed and Italian plum tomatoes and keep them in your pantry for use whenever making meals like lasagna, meatloaf, spaghetti and marinara for all manner of pasta dishes.

I use on average two 32 oz cans of tomato whatever (sauce, diced, stewed etc.) whenever I make a common meal like spaghetti or lasagna. At $1.79 a can, West Coast prices, with an average of 4 tomato based dinners per week, I would be spending about $344.00 a year just on tomato products!

And that does not include the fresh tomatoes needed for salads all 12 months. How much is a tomato seed packet? $1.19.

Just having to go to the store, buy canned goods and lug them home year round is enough to get me into my garden and standing over my water bath canner!

Stock Up and Stay Out

Of the grocery store, that is. Make a list of all the staples you need to make a months worth of frugal meals. This means largely lunches and dinners.

This seems scary at first but really isn't because most families tend to repeat their favorite dishes about every 10th meal. So figuring out that you need a lot of Refried beans, tuna fish or macaroni is not so difficult after all.

Buy in Bulk and On Sale

Freeze it! Cheese can be expensive as you need a fair amount of it for many recipes. Cheese freezes very well. Better yet, learn all about How to Make Cheddar Cheese and make it yourself. After a bit of practice with Cheddar Cheese you can try your hand at learning How to Make Feta Cheese at home.

Buy cuts of meat only at a great price or do without until it comes on sale, which is frequently and often.

You can freeze large amounts of meat like chicken, steak, pork and ground beef. Separate into freezer bags for the portion sizes you usually cook with.

If you need laundry detergent, dish soap, shampoo and other non food items, the same applies. Use online coupons, buy only when truly on sale, and stock up within your budget. Remember those "Dollar Store" outlets? I have a love hate relationship with them. I have them figured out. 3rules for shopping at Dollar stores:

1. If it requires you to put it in your mouth, do not buy it. Toothpaste will taste worse than horrible, and I don't trust the candy or the cans of chili. Period.

2. Do go for the cleaning supplies and the dishware if you like them. Today I got bleach, glass cleaner (the foaming kind), scrubbing bubbles, two shower curtains and two large containers of laundry detergent, oh and some dish soap too. Cost? 8.00. Cost at Safeway? $25.76.

I also found some pretty glass bowls for the kitchen. They are just the right size, shape, and they haven't broken yet, even with the kids constant use. That's a deal.

3. If it looks cheap, it is, and if it looks like it will break soon, it will.

Cook Something Everyday and then Duplicate It

If you made stew for supper, plan a little and make two pots instead. Have the containers ready that you will use to freeze the 2nd batch.

There are so many frugal meals that lend themselves to freezing well.

Lasagna

Meat or Vegetarian, make up two or more pans by layering noodles, home canned spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese, ricotta, vegetables, whipped eggs and herbs like parsley and oregano. Cover and freeze!

Chili

Make your favorite chili in a double batch and freeze the extra in plastic containers with lids.

Marinade Chicken

Buy on sale a bunch of thighs, wings or breasts, get some gallon size freezer bags and the marinade of your choice. As the chicken thaws, it takes on wonderful flavor and can then be blended in your crock pot with stew veggies, for one example.

Courtesy of Dave Pulliy

Frugal Cooking Means Baking Bread Products

Baked Goods

Your freezer is great for more than just dinner! Baking is a serious money saver, and since it makes everyone feel so much better, why don't we do more of it?

Think about all the breads, the blueberry muffins, the banana and zucchini breads and the pumpkin cakes we could offer our friends and family, if only we would bake them.

The house smells wonderful and we have spent very little money. So what is it?

In my case, I think it is out of sight out of mind. What is your baking hangup? I am going to put out my best baking cookbook, the one with the glossiest photos, and leave it in plain sight. That should do it!

Courtesy of jasonlam

Crock Pots are Not Old Fashioned

Okay, so maybe they are, but they are the best thing invented for the kitchen, no matter what decade you were born in.

You can buy tougher, and cheaper, cuts of meat, combine that with liquid of your choice, and come out with a roast dripping off the bone tender.

Check out our Crock Pot Meals and start saving money without all the work!

Frugal Meals on the fly can be part of your arsenal to save money on food. Cheap cooking tastes great and is much healthier for you and your family. The kids learn more about how to cook than how to order take out, and you are also teaching them the value of a dollar.

The next time you even give a passing thought to ordering takeout, remember what Dave Ramsey says: Before leaving the house, ask every dollar who he is and where does he think he's going?

Embrace Frugal Meals!

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Frugal Meals to Family Security through Frugal Living