Frugal Friday! Tips on Cooking Frugal

For a lot of people, getting the hang of shopping frugally comes easily.  It can even be a bit exciting!  Find a good deal, combined with the right coupon and you can get items for pennies on the dollar!  This way of shopping takes a bit of practice, but many frugal veterans will tell you that once they get the hang of thrifty shopping strategies, they never go back.

The next part, which can be a bit of an unspoken problem, is trying to COOK a frugal lifestyle.

When starting out, most people tend to have a similar experience.  We shop and bring home all these deals on specific items.  Then, when it comes down to making dinner, we have one or two things to fit our Rolodex of recipes, but are missing a handful of key ingredients because they were not on sale.  Here, we have two choices: 1) suck it up and buy ingredients at full price or 2) get creative!

Researching new recipes using what you have in your pantry is the only way to make your frugal shopping worth it! If you’re not a creative cook (Angela is, Micki is NOT) try using supercook.com.  It’s a great website that will allow you to enter ingredients you have in your pantry to create recipes. 

Some tips on frugal cooking:

1.       Keep key ingredients on hand.  If you find yourself using more of certain ingredients, make sure you stock up the next time they go on sale.  For example: I’m in love with slow cooker recipes.  A lot of great recipes require condensed soup to add thickness to the sauce, so I stocked up on Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom soup when they went on sale.

2.       Keep a good selection of spices and/or marinades.  There have been a few weeks where we were either short on money or the sales weren't spectacular, and all we had in the freezer was chicken breast or pork chops.  Keeping meat with a size of canned veggies interesting can be challenging, but keeping a stock of flavorful spices can help change it up until payday.

3.       Keep extra stock on the non-perishables…. For emergencies.  We will be the first ones to tell you that fresh veggies are the healthiest, but frozen keeps longer… and cans are the cheapest (generally).   I buy fresh when they are in season, frozen when they’re not in season, and cans when they’re dirt cheap (for emergencies!).  Spaghetti sauce and chili are other items that should always be in your pantry.  Spaghetti sauce can be used for spaghetti, pizza, dips, casseroles, etc. When you have chili on hand, you can make enchiladas, dips, chili dogs, and Frito pie. Pasta and rice are another shelf stable food item that NEEDS to be a staple in everyone’s frugal household.  A box of pasta should ALWAYS be purchased under $1 and can last for around a year.  When you’re getting creative with your cooking, adding pasta always seems to make it look more put together!

What frugal cooking tips can you recommend?