I get so irritated!

**BeachFun** · 01-12-2012, 03:09 PM

I also use leftover hamburger, hotdog rolls or bread and make garlic bread or homemade croutons to go with our meals. This is a favorite with my family.

Every year we plant a vegetable garden. This saves us quite a bit each year.
I plant tomatoes(several varieties), peppers (several varieties), onions, eggplant,cucumbers, red beets, lettuce, spinach, basil, cilantro. I usually try one or two new vegetables to try. Some are successful, some are not. We eat as we are able fresh, freeze what we can't. I turn the surplus tomatoes into spaghetti sauce that I freeze. Peppers can be cleaned and frozen for later use. I make and freeze pesto from the basil. This is great with noodles or pasta or as a seasoning in other dishes. I can the red beets.
In the past I bought seeds at the dollar stores for as cheap as 10 packs for $1.00. This year I mail ordered my seeds from a seed catalog. I'm wondering if they will produce more. I had a coupon for $25.00 off a $25.00 purchase. My OOP was $2.90.

**Uniwolf** · 01-14-2012, 11:20 AM

okay, going now to post my families bread recipe in the recipe area. If I have time I will come back here and link over to it

Sorry has been a very crazy weekend so far.

**oheoh's momma** · 01-14-2012, 11:36 AM

use hot dog and hamburger buns for garlic bread also thanks for tip of flour in my baked eggs do that a lot for supper...it takes a while..but it is yummy

**Uniwolf** · 01-14-2012, 11:45 AM

okay here we go, I am off for a run to Sam's, so will talk to everyone later

Grandma's white bread

**carperisio** · 01-14-2012, 11:55 AM

I'm in NY as well, and keeping grocery expenses down here is not easy! =( Do you mind my asking what area? If you are near where I am I can share some of the local stores where I get the best deals on different items =)

**ladytoysdream** · 01-28-2012, 03:29 PM

Hi.
Any updates on how things are going ?

**Stacia** · 02-07-2012, 12:15 PM

We also instituted a no whine rule. Hubby actually presented it to the kids. "mom works hard to cook good food and from what we have and what is selling for good prices" don't complain just eat your food. The children have found new foods they liked because of this.

Also no one is allowed to say "there is no food" unless the fridge is empty or near empty. "There might not be food you want to eat but there is food you can eat, pick something that sounds good from what is there." This has helped a lot in our house

I was just going to say my biggest problem is getting my kids to follow the menu without complaining. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm going to use this rule as well from now on. I have also started cutting out; on hand snacks because they eat them all in one day and fill up on snacks instead of eating a healthy meal. They would fill up on snacks all day if I let them. I work hard making a healthy meal and they take two bites because they are not hungry by dinner time.

If there is no junk food in the house they will say "There is nothing" as well..lol

**oheoh's momma** · 02-07-2012, 12:42 PM

went to grocery this week cereal that was 1.98 a box went to 2.18 a box.. I noticed that everything went up in price by 5- 20 cents..... For my budget that is a big increase.. I think more thread about this will come.. By the way this was a great thread to learn how to streach your food dollar.... Way to go Ladies

**Stacia** · 02-07-2012, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by oheoh's momma

went to grocery this week cereal that was 1.98 a box went to 2.18 a box.. I noticed that everything went up in price by 5- 20 cents..... For my budget that is a big increase.. I think more thread about this will come.. By the way this was a great thread to learn how to streach your food dollar.... Way to go Ladies

Same here, everything has gone up the olive oil is like 0.75 cents more then it was a month ago.

**MrsClaus** · 02-07-2012, 05:36 PM

With all the talk of bread, I thought I would post this recipe. I tried it yesterday and the kids used them to have tuna salad on.

‎30 Minute Rolls

1 C plus 2 Tbsp warm water

1/3 C oil
...
2 Tbsp yeast

1/4 C sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

3 1/2 C flour

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

In your mixer bowl combine the water, oil, yeast and sugar and allow it to rest for 15 minutes. Using your dough hook, mix in the salt, egg and flour. Knead with hook until will incorporated and dough is soft and smooth. (Just a few minutes)

Form dough into 12 balls and then place in a greased 9 x 13 pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown.

**bent** · 02-07-2012, 05:45 PM

sorry i didn't read all the post in this thread but here's what I use to do.
and I have one pick eater when ds was small he rarely ate much of anything unless it was my homemade eggrolls and then he could polish off half a dzn w/o blinking.
I got the kids involved by letting the choose which day we had their favorite meal; dd was spaghetti, ds was eggrolls and salad. as we rarely eat meat but do lots of beans, veggies, it worked out well.
now it's just the three of us so our menu doesn't vary much-
oatmeal, cold cereal, grilled cheese for b'fast m-f, with sat and sun being waffles/pancakes (homemade of course). I home school ds but dd packs a lunch for her school- usually noodles or pizza rolls (if on sale i stock up), or pbj. for supper one of the following: monster salad- had to use some fancy talking to get ds to eat so now we have moster salads, shark salad (chicken salad-mayo celery and pepper with canned chicken that I homecanned), tuna salad(eggs, onion, pickles, mayo) on toasted bread, eggrolls (these never make it to left overs no matter how many I make -usually 15-20 wrappers that comes in a pkg), chicken and dumplings - something ds will eat yr round even in hot summer, potroast (this is made 3-4 x a yr), spaghetti with homemad sauce- although dd tries to get her hunts meat sauce (that's just nasty btw) sometimes and I do that for her. quesidilla's (spelling here) I grill chicken breast add cheese and use my homemade dippin' sauce. occasionally a pizza, lots of raw veggies- I buy in bulk then break down into containers for easy use, 15 bean soup, pinto beans and corn fritters (I'm 46 and come from a long line of great cooks but can't make a decent corn pone so I do fritters), I make almond milk, rice milk but mom sometimes gives us cow's milk (kids are somewhat intolerant but still drink it when they don't have a choice). when dd cooks (we get mac n cheese or her spaghetti, grilled cheese sammies) when it's ds's (i get very afraid he's just turned 12 and loves to 'experiment with spices' he has come up with a tuna burrito that we have kept on his menu, noodles cups and brownies, chicken fingers are his speciality thus far along with amazing scramble eggs). I shop once a month at sav-a-lot and get the 5/$20 deal on frozen veggies/ and I am somewhat addicted to their deviled ham spread and chili. to feed the three of us I spend about $430 a month - and while some of that money is used to bolster up my pantry when I find good bargains on the foods we eat i stock up. this works for us. and once I got them on board of having the responsibility of cooking for the family they are doing very well. we take one evening a mth and search for recipes that we want to try then draw straws to decide who gets to cook... ds is a lucky boy and sometimes dd and I have a bowl of cereal after he goes to bed... so we don't hurt his feelings. but we 'lose' his recipe so it can't be duplicated.

both have recently voiced opinions of going on a raw diet (dd and I did back in 2010 she has been off soda's since aug of 2010 she lost 13 lbs and I lost 23) but it's more difficult during the winter months to find things to eat raw so we are going to do that when garden season hits.

**indigo53** · 03-15-2012, 01:48 PM

These days, we all need to rethink how we manage our personal economies. Are you looking at some online earning sites? These will help with expenses at Christmas or back to school etc. Surveys, reward sites etc. are small money makers. Sites like Frugality is Free will direct you to the reputable ones, as well as here in the Village. Did you know you can replant your celery? (OK, so I haven't tried it personally but I just put one in the garden yesterday)
Grow tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, herbs, onions and make and can your own spagetti sauce. I like to take as many things off my grocery list as possible. Do you buy coffee filters? Buy a plastic one, mine has lasted 7 years and cost me $3. No more buying coffee filters. Go through you grocery list and see what you can eliminate. Check out some homesteading sites and see what can be canned or frozen in the summer harvest. It's a challenge but frugality can also be fun and addicting.

**Anna43** · 03-19-2012, 02:09 PM

We have eliminated "throw aways" from our lives as much as possible. No paper napkins, no paper towels, wash & reuse freezer bags etc. Watching garage sales and thrift shops I now have a drawer full of cloth napkins. Rags clean up messes and can be washed and reused or thrown away if necessary.

I second whoever suggested the Tightwad Gazette books. The books really get you to think differently about spending and teach you how to determine best buys.

When I brown ground beef for a meal I reserve enough to top a pizza or add to scrambled eggs before I add it to whatever dish I'm preparing. I guarantee no one will notice the difference.

Another good book is the More With Less Cookbook. It has the best pizza dough recipe I've found. I also use the creamed chicken recipe and several others from that book.

When you make chili or goulash or spaghetti double the beans or pasta and (add more liquid if needed) to stretch the meat.

We had a rule for meals -- eat what's in front of you and don't complain. If I fixed something like liver, I would allow the ones who hated it to have peanut butter & jelly but they were not allowed to "hate" a bunch of meals.

When we were in a financial crisis I had a hard and fast rule that no one could get any food without asking. Snacks were usually limited to 2 cookies and popcorn. Everyone wanted choc chip cookies and I found a recipe for oatmeal choc chip cookies and doubled it but put in less choc chips. I made 16 dozen at a time and they were used for snacks, lunches and occasionally dessert.

Use recipe cards to write out daily menus. On the back note which cookbook has the recipe and page number. Once you have a batch of cards you can sort thru them to select your menus for the month. Color code with a kids marker with one color for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner.