Okay, so the bills for the first of the month have been paid, hopefully no suprises come our way in the next 2 weeks. Dh and I are travelling tonight so $20-40 of the 100 will be going towards gas, $5.00 entry fee x 2 as we're going to support our friends band, probably won't be drinking because there's no money for it. So when we get home tomorrow that leaves $20 for next week for gas and $40 for the next 2 weeks for food. Eek. I can't tell DH not to go tonight (though I might stay home to save half the entry fee) because he's been planning this for a while now. But I do need help with the $40 for groceries... We have lots of venison (i don't really like it but I'll eat it since its food) so I just need to build some meals around that. I've never been so frustrated in my life...hopefully this part ends soon. Winter always sucks you dry for some reason.

Anyone else find they get into tough times at the end of winter???

My ex husband and I survived on eating venison and game only for a time.

Some things I did with venison was

pound it with some seasoning so it's like a steak

put venison in a crockpot with a bottle of barbeque sauce until the meat is shredded and falls apart then eat on buns or bread for a sandwich

cook venison until tender then add it to casseroles, my fave was added it to cream of mushroom soup and green beans, ot put venison in a dish with cream of chicken soup with dry stuffing on top then bake covered in oven at 350 for a hour I believe

You can be creative with venison

for your venison, you can chop it up and use in all kinds of stuff:

Stew
Chili
Pasta sauce
Meat loaf
sheppards pie

this way you can add spices to help cover the taste you don't seem to like.

Good Luck,
leezza

Venison cut into strips and cooked with onions and peppers
Venison stew is a favorite here

egg noodles, can of cream of mushroom soup and a handful of frozen green peas(a can of tuna too if you want)

egg noodles--big bag
soup--2 cans
tuna--2 cans
peas--one small bag

less than $4 for both meals

This makes a CHEAP dinner. Plan it for once both weeks.

I sometimes say to my family--It is hot and there is plenty of it! It may not be gourmet but get over it! lol

Bean beans beans--did I say beans?? LOL

Make a huge pot of beans and rice!

Then the next night make spaghetti with beans instead of meat.

Can you say leftovers!!

1 large bag of beans
1 package of cheap rice
1 package of spaghetti
1 large can tomato sauce

Another set of meals(not counting the leftovers for lunch) at around $4

1 cheap loaf of bread--ha ha ha yeah right, can you believe the cost of bread??

1 cheap package cheese slices

small tub butter

you can have grilled cheeses like they are going out of style for lunches

Add 2 cans of soup and have soup and a sandwich

you could get away with about $5 for one dinner of soup and sandwich and many many lunches.

OR you can have a grilled cheese and a bowl of left over beans.

why don't you tell us what is in your pantry and we could help you go from there?

I just got back from the store and spent $15 on items that will carry us through the next week. I do have a lot at home. I bought the following.

5 lbs potatoes
1 lb carrots
4 bananas
2 tomatoes
1 lb grapes
1 gallon milk
12 things of yogurt
8 things of cinnamon rolls

OK, you could do without the cinnamon rolls LOL, they were on a great sale and I had coupons so I got them. If they hadn't of fit into out budget I wouldn't have. Other than the milk, everything was on sale.

Try to eat the cheapest that you can, using what you already have on hand.

I have ground venison in the freezer and don't like it much. Try hiding it in things. Here is a recipe for hamburger casserole that you can use the venison for.

1/2 pound spaghetti noodles, broken into small pieces and cooked.
ground venison
1 can tomato sauce, plain
4 oz cheese (if you don't have cheese then just omit this)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion salt

Brown the venison and then combine everything together. Cook on 350 for about 25 minutes. The tomato sauce hides the game flavor.

Good luck! You can do this! I always think challenges are fun and this will be a challenge for you. Careful planning will get you through.

May I ask: What is venison? I've never heard of it before.

Royal, deer meat.

May I ask: What is venison? I've never heard of it before.

It's deer meat.

Good Luck, I bet you can do it. Just be very careful with your money!

Hey everyone, thanks for the suggestions for the venison! Here's the bad news, I went and actually looked at the venison, its 90% sausages :(. I hate any type of sausage, a really strong aversion to it anyway, I guess I'll have to suck it up. But I wonder, is there anyway to scoop the meat out of the casing and use that kinda like ground meat??? I hope so because I can't eat an actual sausage, makes me gag. Anyway, the money is going ok. We've still got $60 in bills left and a bunch of quaters for bus money so thats doing well, but today is the kittens vet appointment. I chose a cheaper vet for him so this shouldn't hit us too hard.
Thanks for all the replies!

Sure, you should be able to squeeze the meat out of the casing and use it just like hamburger or loose sausage.

Good Luck!

Hey everyone, thanks for the suggestions for the venison! Here's the bad news, I went and actually looked at the venison, its 90% sausages :(. I hate any type of sausage, a really strong aversion to it anyway, I guess I'll have to suck it up. But I wonder, is there anyway to scoop the meat out of the casing and use that kinda like ground meat??? I hope so because I can't eat an actual sausage, makes me gag. Anyway, the money is going ok. We've still got $60 in bills left and a bunch of quaters for bus money so thats doing well, but today is the kittens vet appointment. I chose a cheaper vet for him so this shouldn't hit us too hard.
Thanks for all the replies!

Absolutely Rachel, just cut the casing open and use it like ground beef. I too don't care for venison, but will eat it when stewed with bell peppers (green) and onions in canned tomatoes (any kind you have on hand). After you brown the deer meat in oil (I use olive oil, as venison is VERY lean), add the peppers and onions and simmer a LONG time, like 3 hours or more. In the NE of the US we call this Swiss Steak. :D

Serve with mashed potatoes and a veggie and you are good to go. I swear, it will taste just like beef. :wink:

I don't have any venison tips, but just wanted to commiserate--winter sucks us dry, too. Between huge energy bills and all the $tuff that seems to come up for the kids (we just had to pay for track and baseball) it gets veeeeery tight this time of year.

The end of winter seems to suck us dry too. Imagine how the pioneers must have felt. I'm not big on venison myself but we end up with it because my dh hunts. I "hide" it in Sloppy Joe's, spaghetti sauce, stroganoff (use cream of mushroom soup & noodles), frittata (sp?), venison with canned tomatoes and seasonings over rice, brown the venison and use it in the 15 Bean Soup found in your dried bean isle. The possibilities are endless. Try not to look at like, yuck I have to eat this. But try to look at as being creative to reach your goal. I know your pain. We have a daughter in Community College and a son in High School and this last pay we were left with $200.00 for the next two weeks. (Our daughter just started a new waitressing job after a two month lull in employment. So she needs money for gas, just to and from school and work until her training is complete.) There's gas, groceries, a doctor visit, and prescription. I tell myself that if we do this now, in the future we won't have too. I'll still be frugal but have money put away and bills paid off. Sounds like a good trade off to me.

Blah, can't help you with the venison. I think if it was all we had for the main staple for a weak I would be one very hungry girl (hmmm, that would help my waistline) however, hubby loves it so when we are fortunate enough to have it, I will cook it for him.

Good luck in your search for venison recipes and yes, winter bleeds you dry financially and sometimes emotionally.

Thanks for your replies!! I think I will try that tonight with the casing, something about eating a whole sausage is so creepy. Anyway, We only have $40 left now. DH needed money for a haircut ( he still won't trust me to do it at home..lol), so that was $15. The extra $5 is going towards a load of laundry. But, DH is teaching guitar lessons tomorrow night so that is an extra $20. Also, the vets appointment only cost us $60, which I had budgetted (but nothing over $60 miraculously). So that gives us $60 for next week until the next payday. I think we're doing pretty good.

Your doing great. . You'll make it.
My Grandfather had a saying that We've adopted.
Don't worry about it Mabel , God will provide what we need to make it thru. If not we didn't need it. ( my grandmother )
In the last 40 years thats always came true.

As uncomfortable as the last couple weeks has been, I may try to challenge ourselves to just spending $100 for 2 weeks. It would definetly help us, I think we could do it.

We always get into trouble in January. I have great intentions when it comes to Christmas, but I always go over and we end up overdrawn. So January is a lean month. We eat a lot of rice and pasta and soup.