Post by benshelpmeet on Oct 21, 2005 15:54:34 GMT -5
Hey! Ladies this sounded really neat and helpful. 
Several Cheap Meals..I will post a few...
these feed 4 people... ( these could be doubled or tripled if needed )
Sister Glenda can add some she makes too.
Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast
pkg sliced beef .39
milk 2 cups .25
1/2 cup flour .04
2 tbsp margarine .10
worchestershire sauce.0 2
8 slices bread .16
canned veggie . 30
______________________________
total $1.26
per person .32
Fried Rice
6 slices bacon .50
2 eggs .10
1 onion .10
1/2 green pepper .15
2 cups cooked rice .12
cornbread or biscuits .30
canned veggie .30
___________________________
total $1.57
per person .39
Meatloaf
1 lb ground beef $1.30
stuffing mix .60
2 eggs .10
1 cup milk .12
4 large baked potatoes .32
canned veggie .30
__________________________
total $2.74
per person .55
Breakfast
8 eggs .80
8 slices bacon .66
fried potatoes .24
toast(8 slices) .32
__________________
total $2.02
per person .51
Breakfast #2
pancakes .60
8 slices bacon .66
syrup and margarine .20
_________________________
total $1.46
per person .37
Ok ladies, what are some of your favorites. Were needing more money to build and were cutting our food bill, we will need some thrifty, good meals to make.
I read that when you eat corn bread with beans it is almost as healthy as meat.
Also we have changed over to turkey instead of Beef. It doesnt shrink like beef and we eat 1 lb instead of 1 1/4 lb and its so much cheeper and we like it.
Any other advice or frugile meals?
How do we make meals without using cheese? We eat alot of cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream of chicken, mushroom, etc. This is costly! Help...I need help! I've cooked this way for so long I do not know how to do any differant!
Love, ~ sister Darlene ~
Your cry for help is my cry for help. I am the same way. We love cheese and I don't know what we would do if we had to do without. I know we would live, but it wouldn't be pleasant.
I do know that adding shredded potatoes, cooked rice, and some sort of beans to meat makes it go further and more feeling. We add shredded potatoes to our taco meat and we now do it because that's how we like it not for money saving. I made rice, beans, and a little hamburger the other day and added canned tomatoes (home canned) and some peppers I had here and it was very feeling and good. I love your throw together soups. That is a great way to make something different, but cheap and good. I did that the other day with a bunch of vegtables that I had that needed to be used. I made vegtable chicken soup.
I hope someone else can be of more help to you. I will enjoy learning what others have to say as well.
You might want to check out a book called Miserly Meals by Joanni McCoy (I think that is her first name.). She does alot of stuff on money saving.
Heather
With the price of gas going through the roof, I'm sure we are all looking for ways to cut back. I'll start by listing 10 things that I do.
1. Put oil in a cheap spray bottle instead of buying Pam Oil Spray.
2. Make my own Bisquick.
3. Buy ground turkey (1.83 a pound) instead of ground beef (1.98 a pound for the 70/30 stuff.)
4. Buy turkey bacon (1.75) instead of regular bacon (2.25).
5. Make my own fabric softner sheets. (Half softner, half water into spray bottle. Spray onto rag and place in dryer.)
6. Make my own laundry detergent.
7. Make my own general cleaner. (32 oz water, 1/2 tablespoon of bleach. Needs to be made daily.)
8. Buy CHEAP cuts of meat and crock pot the heck out of them.
9. Rubber chicken once a month. ( the recipe is posted on the board somewhere!)
10. Place two blanks on my grocery shopping list. I can only add 2 unplanned items into my cart. Anything else would have to wait!
11. Take clothes we've outgrown (still in great condition) to the Clothing Exchange at church. Then we'll select clothes that fit and we like and bring home. It's FREE!
12. Turn off the lights when not in the room!
13. Make soup at least 2X/week from leftover veggies and leftover bits of meat and add noodles or rice.
14. Drive and do all errands on one day or afternoon. Don't go out more than 1X/week.
15. Read books, stoke up the fire in the woodstove, and sew those quilts to wrap in!
16. Shop at Salvation Army to find blaze orange clothing for ds to go hunting with dh.
17. Look for a grain grinder to reduce cost of natural foods by making own flours! Any ideas where to look?
18. Dehydrate venison to make jerky (hopefully dh and ds will get a deer)!
19. Drink lots of herbal tea and cocoa to keep warm this winter!
20. Reduce medical bills any way possible by staying as healthy as possible. Take vitamins now can save money later (no time off work for dh, medicines, etc.)
Definitely baking from scratch...savings in not only health benefits of non-packaged and preserved items, but in food costs as well. If you don't have a well-thought out pantry already, it might seem more costly to get it up and running, but once you have it, you'll save plenty!
Buy in bulk as much as you can...pastas (unless you make your own!) flour (unless you grind fresh) sugar, powdered milk, etc. Buy it in the largest quantity you can get, re-bag into usable amounts and store. Flour in bulk is a bit nutrient deprived, but if you go that route, be sure to store it in the freezer for at least 3 days, them repack into whatever containers you wish. We buy Prairie Gold 100# at a time, freeze it to kill the possible flour bugs (I know...EEEWWW!) and then pack it into 5 gallon buckets from the local grocery bakery (I've used good quality bags to line the clean non-food buckets in a pinch). My flour keeps very nicely this way...as does my sugar and pastas.
Grain mill...Back to Basics is a good, dutiful hand crank one that is inexpensive. I traded mine up to a Family Grain Mill (friend traded with me). On the high end, Whisper Mills are not as good and are being phased out, so replacement parts are difficult to come by now, so steer clear of them. I do hear great things on the NutriMill, though. Me, I prefer hand-cranked and would love to find a good one with the larger fly-wheel myself )
Cut up every piece of clothing you are not donating or swaping...6 inch squares are perfect, working down to 4 in and 2 in to use up all you can in the clothing item. Save buttons, too. The squares are now ready for those cozy quilts Sister Darlene mentioned or the children can create all manner of gifts and toys with them. Blankets that are a bit worn, perhaps frayed on ends, etc can be used as batting for the new homemade quilts as well. Long items, such as sheets, make great strips for braiding into hotpads, chair pads, etc. Old denims cut into 6 in squares and stitched together make great outdoor blankets to keep in the car for picnics, etc (try sewing them with the seam side on the right sides and allow them to fray as they would naturally with washing and use...very country-looking)
On a work note...carpooling seems to be coming back in 'vogue' again. Sharing the expense of gasoline, meeting at a general location, etc. helps out everyone involved.
For the wilder bunch...Sister Glenda has made great strides in the art of hand-washing Even if you don't go full-bore as she did, washing the linens and underthings by hand make for wonderful whites and softly draping bed linens on the line Nothing like fresh from the line autumn scented sheets!
Sister Deanna
Wow! Thank you for such good tips...I have been also looking for a grain mill, as I so well, stupidly donated mine to Goodwill when I lived in Oregon, thinking I would NEVER mill grain and bake that way again..oh how smart I am now..hindsight I have heard the hand mills are fine, but it takes quite a bit of effort to grind that grain, I am going to end up getting an attachment to my Kitchen Aid, I hear those work pretty good..now to locate a source of whole grain, probably the local "liberal" health food store has it...and it gives me time to reconnect with the owner as he wants so add soap to his store..
I am a garage sale person, sometimes, I know my husband loves checking those out and flea markets, we did get 25lbs of sweet onions for only $4.00 not long ago, and now that fishing season is here for Salmon..he wants to get more fish..we have decided to not purchase any meat but clean out the freezer, as deer season is Nov 15th.
We use ground turkey here, I get mine for $1.00 a lb or less, it is just the frozen tube type. Cooking and baking from scratch is the only way if you can..You can rework about any box mix..for a quick lunch..just make up some macaroni and cheese, and toss in a can of chili beans and meat...there you have chili mac...my kids loved that one
I hope you all have a great day today...
God bless
Penny
Penny it is so funny that you use the mac and cheese and chili. for your kids my husband and children love that one also.
another one is mac and cheese and then put tuna fish that is drained into it. Now you have tuna mac.
We also do fried potatoes with chopped up onions fried and then [/badd a can of corned beef. Cook for a few minutes and serve this is cheap and well it really fills them up..
One more is we make a white gravy out of flour, butter, milk and then once it is thick we will add a package of dried beef chopped up now we will take this and put it over biscuits, toast, or sometimes I will cook up egg noodles and after they are done and drained I will pour the gravy over them and allow them to sit again will fill up the kids and well it is good....
One last one that we really love is for breakfast. We take egg noodles cook them and drain them. Then take them and place them in a skillet with a little butter saute them for just few minutes. Once they have done that get about 12 eggs beat them up with a little milk add them to the egg noodles and scramble them up.. It is a way to expand eggs for those large families..
Of course I have also found that you can save all kinds of money by washing your clothes by hand it does take a little while but it also helps save money on the water bill. I can wash all the clothes of the day and that like i said is a whole lot. and only use 10 gals of water. You use more than that in one load of a washer.
One more thing we do is make our own peanut butter. When we have the chance to pick up anyones pecans, black walnuts etc we do and then we can them in jars. As we need them we can open them up and then send them in the blender and we have peanut butter. It is free.. other than our time.
Hope these will help someone. I am sure I have more that I could share.
glenda
another one is mac and cheese and then put tuna fish that is drained into it. Now you have tuna mac.
Ahh-ha Glenda!! There's my dinner for tonight We make mac and cheese from scratch, although I should perfect the homemade cheese sauce recipe as we generally use Velveeta (well, the cheap store brand...spicy one is good) My cheese sauce never quite tastes right...I think I do a touch too much flour in it. It's not bad, just a bit off.
Another tip I'm sure anyone who sews any does is to trace off your pattern in the sizes you need, butcher paper, news roll, even newspapers. This leaves your pattern in fully in tact for swapping with someone else later, or simply when yuo need a different size. Not to mention, the better the paper, the longer you can use the pattern -- that pattern tissue just doesn't stand up to repeated uses and foldings. Now, a friend of mine, cuts hers at the size she wants, and irons it onto a thin interfacing to make it more sturdy and durable...I just prefer the tracing onto other paper. I bought a large roll of banner paper at Staples a couple years back and it's served me well for the $18 I spent I think
Something else we do here is with the vacuum. We have a ridiculously pricey vac (it's a Kirby Silver) and the bags are pricey...well, they are more than my dependable Kenmore's bags were) I will often empty them and restaple at least 2 times to stretch the bag (but allergies are not a problem here...you might not want to do this if you have air filter needs, kwim?) We also sprinkle baby powder (scented if you have some...or add a bit of crushed scent yourself...we like lavender) and use your broom on the carpets. This works the scent in as well as cleans a carpet nicely...even better than some vacuums
This is fun Any more tips?
Sister Deanna
Have any of you tried sugar scrub?
It's teriffic for dry skin. It can be purchased at places like bath and Body, but it is very inexpensive and easy to make.
Mix equal amounts of olive oil and raw sugar.
Use instead of soap.
Sounds odd but it works. The sugar will not dissolve in the oil but will wash away with water. The sugar helps to remove dirt and dry skin flakes. Then the oil can soak into your skin. It works fairly well for garden soil and other work dirk and also removed latex paint well from my hands. Mostly I use it in the shower.
You can feel free to make all kinds of substitutions. I like to use a combination of olive, sunflower, sweet almond and apricot kernal oils. Sometimes I add some brown sugar. I usually add some scented oil, but use caution because some scents can be drying.
This is a great topic! I think the tuna with mac and cheese would go over good here...just NO peas..lol that is an inside joke, as anyone who knows me..knows Penny loathes peas with a passion in any form..some weird thing about them
I made softshell tacos, using some of my frozen taco meat from the last taco meal I added a lb of ground turkey. I make my own taco mix as well as a few other mixes..I will get those posted in the morning..it sure saves on the money.
Sugar Scrubs...I love those too! An easy recipe that makes a nice gift is..1 cup sugar or sea salt (if using salt..make a note to not use on any open area or mucous membranes) 1/8-1/4 cup of soft soap, 2 Tablespoons light oil, Safflower, sunflower, jojoba, Vit E oil..your choice. 2 TB Epsom Salts, 1 tsp of essential oil if desired, we are big on using orange oil here..or a more girly fragrance oil..I mix this up until it is thick slush...I tend to make mine more on the dry side rather than too liquidy..this is great on those rough heels and elbows..and just is wonderful to use in a bath..as the salt softens the water too.
God bless
Penny
Several Cheap Meals..I will post a few...
these feed 4 people... ( these could be doubled or tripled if needed )
Sister Glenda can add some she makes too.
Creamed Chipped Beef on Toast
pkg sliced beef .39
milk 2 cups .25
1/2 cup flour .04
2 tbsp margarine .10
worchestershire sauce.0 2
8 slices bread .16
canned veggie . 30
______________________________
total $1.26
per person .32
Fried Rice
6 slices bacon .50
2 eggs .10
1 onion .10
1/2 green pepper .15
2 cups cooked rice .12
cornbread or biscuits .30
canned veggie .30
___________________________
total $1.57
per person .39
Meatloaf
1 lb ground beef $1.30
stuffing mix .60
2 eggs .10
1 cup milk .12
4 large baked potatoes .32
canned veggie .30
__________________________
total $2.74
per person .55
Breakfast
8 eggs .80
8 slices bacon .66
fried potatoes .24
toast(8 slices) .32
__________________
total $2.02
per person .51
Breakfast #2
pancakes .60
8 slices bacon .66
syrup and margarine .20
_________________________
total $1.46
per person .37
Ok ladies, what are some of your favorites. Were needing more money to build and were cutting our food bill, we will need some thrifty, good meals to make.
I read that when you eat corn bread with beans it is almost as healthy as meat.
Also we have changed over to turkey instead of Beef. It doesnt shrink like beef and we eat 1 lb instead of 1 1/4 lb and its so much cheeper and we like it.
Any other advice or frugile meals?
How do we make meals without using cheese? We eat alot of cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream of chicken, mushroom, etc. This is costly! Help...I need help! I've cooked this way for so long I do not know how to do any differant!
Love, ~ sister Darlene ~
Your cry for help is my cry for help. I am the same way. We love cheese and I don't know what we would do if we had to do without. I know we would live, but it wouldn't be pleasant.
I do know that adding shredded potatoes, cooked rice, and some sort of beans to meat makes it go further and more feeling. We add shredded potatoes to our taco meat and we now do it because that's how we like it not for money saving. I made rice, beans, and a little hamburger the other day and added canned tomatoes (home canned) and some peppers I had here and it was very feeling and good. I love your throw together soups. That is a great way to make something different, but cheap and good. I did that the other day with a bunch of vegtables that I had that needed to be used. I made vegtable chicken soup.
I hope someone else can be of more help to you. I will enjoy learning what others have to say as well.
You might want to check out a book called Miserly Meals by Joanni McCoy (I think that is her first name.). She does alot of stuff on money saving.
Heather
With the price of gas going through the roof, I'm sure we are all looking for ways to cut back. I'll start by listing 10 things that I do.
1. Put oil in a cheap spray bottle instead of buying Pam Oil Spray.
2. Make my own Bisquick.
3. Buy ground turkey (1.83 a pound) instead of ground beef (1.98 a pound for the 70/30 stuff.)
4. Buy turkey bacon (1.75) instead of regular bacon (2.25).
5. Make my own fabric softner sheets. (Half softner, half water into spray bottle. Spray onto rag and place in dryer.)
6. Make my own laundry detergent.
7. Make my own general cleaner. (32 oz water, 1/2 tablespoon of bleach. Needs to be made daily.)
8. Buy CHEAP cuts of meat and crock pot the heck out of them.
9. Rubber chicken once a month. ( the recipe is posted on the board somewhere!)
10. Place two blanks on my grocery shopping list. I can only add 2 unplanned items into my cart. Anything else would have to wait!
11. Take clothes we've outgrown (still in great condition) to the Clothing Exchange at church. Then we'll select clothes that fit and we like and bring home. It's FREE!
12. Turn off the lights when not in the room!
13. Make soup at least 2X/week from leftover veggies and leftover bits of meat and add noodles or rice.
14. Drive and do all errands on one day or afternoon. Don't go out more than 1X/week.
15. Read books, stoke up the fire in the woodstove, and sew those quilts to wrap in!
16. Shop at Salvation Army to find blaze orange clothing for ds to go hunting with dh.
17. Look for a grain grinder to reduce cost of natural foods by making own flours! Any ideas where to look?
18. Dehydrate venison to make jerky (hopefully dh and ds will get a deer)!
19. Drink lots of herbal tea and cocoa to keep warm this winter!
20. Reduce medical bills any way possible by staying as healthy as possible. Take vitamins now can save money later (no time off work for dh, medicines, etc.)
Definitely baking from scratch...savings in not only health benefits of non-packaged and preserved items, but in food costs as well. If you don't have a well-thought out pantry already, it might seem more costly to get it up and running, but once you have it, you'll save plenty!
Buy in bulk as much as you can...pastas (unless you make your own!) flour (unless you grind fresh) sugar, powdered milk, etc. Buy it in the largest quantity you can get, re-bag into usable amounts and store. Flour in bulk is a bit nutrient deprived, but if you go that route, be sure to store it in the freezer for at least 3 days, them repack into whatever containers you wish. We buy Prairie Gold 100# at a time, freeze it to kill the possible flour bugs (I know...EEEWWW!) and then pack it into 5 gallon buckets from the local grocery bakery (I've used good quality bags to line the clean non-food buckets in a pinch). My flour keeps very nicely this way...as does my sugar and pastas.
Grain mill...Back to Basics is a good, dutiful hand crank one that is inexpensive. I traded mine up to a Family Grain Mill (friend traded with me). On the high end, Whisper Mills are not as good and are being phased out, so replacement parts are difficult to come by now, so steer clear of them. I do hear great things on the NutriMill, though. Me, I prefer hand-cranked and would love to find a good one with the larger fly-wheel myself )
Cut up every piece of clothing you are not donating or swaping...6 inch squares are perfect, working down to 4 in and 2 in to use up all you can in the clothing item. Save buttons, too. The squares are now ready for those cozy quilts Sister Darlene mentioned or the children can create all manner of gifts and toys with them. Blankets that are a bit worn, perhaps frayed on ends, etc can be used as batting for the new homemade quilts as well. Long items, such as sheets, make great strips for braiding into hotpads, chair pads, etc. Old denims cut into 6 in squares and stitched together make great outdoor blankets to keep in the car for picnics, etc (try sewing them with the seam side on the right sides and allow them to fray as they would naturally with washing and use...very country-looking)
On a work note...carpooling seems to be coming back in 'vogue' again. Sharing the expense of gasoline, meeting at a general location, etc. helps out everyone involved.
For the wilder bunch...Sister Glenda has made great strides in the art of hand-washing Even if you don't go full-bore as she did, washing the linens and underthings by hand make for wonderful whites and softly draping bed linens on the line Nothing like fresh from the line autumn scented sheets!
Sister Deanna
Wow! Thank you for such good tips...I have been also looking for a grain mill, as I so well, stupidly donated mine to Goodwill when I lived in Oregon, thinking I would NEVER mill grain and bake that way again..oh how smart I am now..hindsight I have heard the hand mills are fine, but it takes quite a bit of effort to grind that grain, I am going to end up getting an attachment to my Kitchen Aid, I hear those work pretty good..now to locate a source of whole grain, probably the local "liberal" health food store has it...and it gives me time to reconnect with the owner as he wants so add soap to his store..
I am a garage sale person, sometimes, I know my husband loves checking those out and flea markets, we did get 25lbs of sweet onions for only $4.00 not long ago, and now that fishing season is here for Salmon..he wants to get more fish..we have decided to not purchase any meat but clean out the freezer, as deer season is Nov 15th.
We use ground turkey here, I get mine for $1.00 a lb or less, it is just the frozen tube type. Cooking and baking from scratch is the only way if you can..You can rework about any box mix..for a quick lunch..just make up some macaroni and cheese, and toss in a can of chili beans and meat...there you have chili mac...my kids loved that one
I hope you all have a great day today...
God bless
Penny
Penny it is so funny that you use the mac and cheese and chili. for your kids my husband and children love that one also.
another one is mac and cheese and then put tuna fish that is drained into it. Now you have tuna mac.
We also do fried potatoes with chopped up onions fried and then [/badd a can of corned beef. Cook for a few minutes and serve this is cheap and well it really fills them up..
One more is we make a white gravy out of flour, butter, milk and then once it is thick we will add a package of dried beef chopped up now we will take this and put it over biscuits, toast, or sometimes I will cook up egg noodles and after they are done and drained I will pour the gravy over them and allow them to sit again will fill up the kids and well it is good....
One last one that we really love is for breakfast. We take egg noodles cook them and drain them. Then take them and place them in a skillet with a little butter saute them for just few minutes. Once they have done that get about 12 eggs beat them up with a little milk add them to the egg noodles and scramble them up.. It is a way to expand eggs for those large families..
Of course I have also found that you can save all kinds of money by washing your clothes by hand it does take a little while but it also helps save money on the water bill. I can wash all the clothes of the day and that like i said is a whole lot. and only use 10 gals of water. You use more than that in one load of a washer.
One more thing we do is make our own peanut butter. When we have the chance to pick up anyones pecans, black walnuts etc we do and then we can them in jars. As we need them we can open them up and then send them in the blender and we have peanut butter. It is free.. other than our time.
Hope these will help someone. I am sure I have more that I could share.
glenda
another one is mac and cheese and then put tuna fish that is drained into it. Now you have tuna mac.
Ahh-ha Glenda!! There's my dinner for tonight We make mac and cheese from scratch, although I should perfect the homemade cheese sauce recipe as we generally use Velveeta (well, the cheap store brand...spicy one is good) My cheese sauce never quite tastes right...I think I do a touch too much flour in it. It's not bad, just a bit off.
Another tip I'm sure anyone who sews any does is to trace off your pattern in the sizes you need, butcher paper, news roll, even newspapers. This leaves your pattern in fully in tact for swapping with someone else later, or simply when yuo need a different size. Not to mention, the better the paper, the longer you can use the pattern -- that pattern tissue just doesn't stand up to repeated uses and foldings. Now, a friend of mine, cuts hers at the size she wants, and irons it onto a thin interfacing to make it more sturdy and durable...I just prefer the tracing onto other paper. I bought a large roll of banner paper at Staples a couple years back and it's served me well for the $18 I spent I think
Something else we do here is with the vacuum. We have a ridiculously pricey vac (it's a Kirby Silver) and the bags are pricey...well, they are more than my dependable Kenmore's bags were) I will often empty them and restaple at least 2 times to stretch the bag (but allergies are not a problem here...you might not want to do this if you have air filter needs, kwim?) We also sprinkle baby powder (scented if you have some...or add a bit of crushed scent yourself...we like lavender) and use your broom on the carpets. This works the scent in as well as cleans a carpet nicely...even better than some vacuums
This is fun Any more tips?
Sister Deanna
Have any of you tried sugar scrub?
It's teriffic for dry skin. It can be purchased at places like bath and Body, but it is very inexpensive and easy to make.
Mix equal amounts of olive oil and raw sugar.
Use instead of soap.
Sounds odd but it works. The sugar will not dissolve in the oil but will wash away with water. The sugar helps to remove dirt and dry skin flakes. Then the oil can soak into your skin. It works fairly well for garden soil and other work dirk and also removed latex paint well from my hands. Mostly I use it in the shower.
You can feel free to make all kinds of substitutions. I like to use a combination of olive, sunflower, sweet almond and apricot kernal oils. Sometimes I add some brown sugar. I usually add some scented oil, but use caution because some scents can be drying.
This is a great topic! I think the tuna with mac and cheese would go over good here...just NO peas..lol that is an inside joke, as anyone who knows me..knows Penny loathes peas with a passion in any form..some weird thing about them
I made softshell tacos, using some of my frozen taco meat from the last taco meal I added a lb of ground turkey. I make my own taco mix as well as a few other mixes..I will get those posted in the morning..it sure saves on the money.
Sugar Scrubs...I love those too! An easy recipe that makes a nice gift is..1 cup sugar or sea salt (if using salt..make a note to not use on any open area or mucous membranes) 1/8-1/4 cup of soft soap, 2 Tablespoons light oil, Safflower, sunflower, jojoba, Vit E oil..your choice. 2 TB Epsom Salts, 1 tsp of essential oil if desired, we are big on using orange oil here..or a more girly fragrance oil..I mix this up until it is thick slush...I tend to make mine more on the dry side rather than too liquidy..this is great on those rough heels and elbows..and just is wonderful to use in a bath..as the salt softens the water too.
God bless
Penny