How do you stretch your budget/stockpile?

[coupqn1999]

So moneys tight and you need to make dinner....... how do you help stretch the stockpile and or budget?

I buy my ground beef in bulk roles and cut them up into LB packages. Well usually I will put a lil less than a LB in each bag and when I prepare it,after cooking and draining it I use my chopper and chop the meat into very small pieces so that it goes further. Besides I don't like big pieces of ground beef in my food.LOL

So what do you do?

[guest2]

I do the same thing with the ground beef. Great minds think alike! I also add extra pasta to the hamburger helper type meals (if I have gotten those things dirt cheap, other than that I make homemade hamburger helper). We do lots of stews over rice or pototoes, stir fry over rice, and lots of casseroles. Homemade soups are another great budget stretcher. You an use potato flakes to thicken your potato soup or chowders.

[gemmbp]

I keep leftover veggies from meals,and mix them with leftover meat and mashed potatoes once a week to make a shepards pie,or a thick stew with cornbread.

[AmyMCGS]

I put my leftover veggies from meals into a freezer bag, and when it's full I throw in some tomato sauce (or catsup), stew meat (if we have it), and seasonings, and make veggie soup in the crockpot.

I've just very recently started buying and cooking meat in bulk. I just discovered that boiling seven pounds of hamburger in my big soup pot cooks it pretty quickly, and it doesn't clump together like when I fry it. Next month when we get our new freezer I'll be doing a lot more of that.

There is almost always some sort of pasta in my cupboard, and when all else fails, I like plain pasta with butter and herbs.

Mostly what I do when I'm low on groceries is get online and find casserole and soup recipes I can make with whatever I do have on hand. There are many sites where you can search by ingredient-- I use www.allrecipes.com the most.

[Jerseygirl]

Pasta-pasta-pasta. 1/2 lb of chicken-any piece that is on sale cut up and stir fry, some broccoli with garlic and olive oil over pasta= dinner for all of us for about $1.50.
Soup from leftover chicken or turkey, or ham. I put celery ends in the freezer, along with leftover veggies for this, add a few carrots, onions, spices, pasta or rice and you can do a huge pot for about a dollar.

[captclearance]

You can add fillers to your ground meat..... Like oatmeal......

[grneyegrl]

i always add oatmeal to my meatloaf and no one notices..usually 1\2 to 1 cup..and katchup,onions

debbi , i too add rice,extra pasta to my hamberger helper type of meals..i also add extra rice to my rice a roni(i get made fun of but it dont care)

i also make an egg and spinch dish--no real recipe just eggs(99cent dz) and left over spinch..i add a little cheese and onion.and the cheese is usually dry but still good. i cook it in an nonstick pan..made it this morning and it was sooooooo good

[dz_blonde_girl]

I go up to mil's and look for leftovers in her fridge She's been a cooking fool since fil passed away.

[CAGmomof2]

We Stretch our Food Budget by...
Expanding Leftovers by making Diffrent Meals out of the Meat from the Leftovers.
For Example: if we have Turkey Hamburgers one night we may have Turkey Sloppy Joes the next night.