The Tightwad's Guide to Cooking from Scratch

[chipmunk]

Back when DD was little and drank a lot of juice, she never got it full strength; I always watered it down half and half. If I was reconstituting the frozen stuff, I'd add another can or two of water when mixing it.

I do use fruit juice full strength, though when I make freezer pops, though.

 

[abifae]

If you like the really OCD approach.... When I was hired to cook for a household to lower their food budget, I would print out a menu (had the week, plus a spot for special ingredients beneath each meal and the shopping list at the bottom) and go online to all the store weeklies. I'd plan the menu based on sales, entering where the sales were while i put the shopping list together, along with any great buys for stocking up.

I made double on every meal and all the leftovers were put into the bento boxes for lunch the next day BEFORE we ate dinner. No one could accidentally eat the lunch servings. Then the extra leftovers were frozen in individual sizes for non cooking days.

 

[ORChick]

Speaking of buying in bulk, and repackaging into smaller containers, an offshoot of this idea is to learn to cut up meat. Even if you don't raise and butcher your own (which I have not, yet) it is often cheaper to buy larger pieces, and cut it up yourself. A whole chicken or turkey, for example,, or a pork loin, which can be cut into boneless chops plus a smaller roast. Stew meat is just the offcuts from other pieces, and often quite ridiculously expensive; find a cheaper cut, and cut it up yourself. Same with ground meat; if you have a meat grinder (or food processor) you can often grind a cheaper cut to your own specifications. Cutting up a chicken is particularly satisfactory for me; I get the good bits for several meals (we are just two), plus (sometimes, but rarer these days) the liver to cook up as a tasty treat for the cook (OK, I know you don't all agree ), plus the fat and skin to render, and the bones to cook for hours into a healthful, tasty broth.

 

[freemotion]

Abi, that makes me think of my mother when I was a teen and we were....er.....monetarily challenged. She NEVER in my memory cooked a piece of meat or a whole chicken or turkey and put it on the table whole. It was cut up on the counter and put away before supper was served....only enough for reasonable servings was put on the table. We were never hungry, probably because of the whole milk and all the precious fat she saved and used. We ate a lot of free gleaned potatoes, too. Mom would go to the produce store (you know, the small ones not part of a grocery chain) and walk in the last few minutes before closing before a long weekend and buy a couple of tomatoes or something and pay with a twenty (back in the late 70's). The owner was the only employee.....and he'd see that twenty and wanted it. She'd casually ask if he had anything that wouldn't keep through the weekend that he'd offer at a steep discount. She came home with boxes of stuff to process (we all sat around the kitchen table sorting and trimming while she blanched and froze stuff) and usually a ten dollar bill as well. Both she and the store owner were happy with the deal.

ORChick, I have to comment on cutting up meat yourself. I used to get nauseous if I attempted to cut up raw chicken and gave up for years, only buying it in the form I needed. As I got older and handled it more, it got easier, now it is "nothing" to cut up meat. My father and I cut up the two pigs last winter, and rather than a chore that looms over you and makes your stomach go into knots.....one more big job to do.....I was rather surprised at how enjoyable it was. We had no idea as to what we were doing and lost a lot of standard cuts.....but we didn't lose any of the meat, it just wasn't always in a recognizable form or in neat, machine-cut chops. I felt "wealthy" as the day progressed and the packages piled up in the freezer. I am itching for this fall/winter's hog harvest and absolutely will do it myself from now on.

I'm sayin' this to encourage others who might hate cutting meat....it gets easier if you push through it. There are now lots of youtube videos on how to part up a chicken.....don't go for the "fastest" ones as it is hard to see what they are doing, and if I tried to part up a chicken in less than a minute I'd lose fingers!

We really do eat for a fraction of what we used to, and eat much better food. Nothing is wasted. About the only thing I ever throw away are very boiled and cleaned beef and pork bones.

 

[Wifezilla]

We really do eat for a fraction of what we used to, and eat much better food. Nothing is wasted.

The more nutrient dense the food you eat, the less volume of food you require.

 

[abifae]

I really do want to visit one of your during meat processing and learn how to do it. *sighs*

 

[Leta]

I'm sure everyone here knows this, but using bacon fat instead of butter or olive oil (and subbing lard for some of your butter in pie dough and biscuits) is very cost effective.

I mix a tablespoon of bacon fat in a cup of homemade Greek yogurt (usually made from cow milk, sometimes a mix of goat and cow milk) with herbs from the garden and teeny bit of dry mustard or cayenne, and some black pepper- this is one of the few homemade dressings that EVERYONE, even six year olds, eat with gusto.

 

[so lucky]

The farm where I have started to buy my raw milk held a chicken-processing day today. People could sign up ahead of time to help with the processing, and get a discount on the finished chickens. I stopped in to buy milk, and watched the operation for a while. I am thinking of signing up for the next one in two weeks. I kinda felt sorry for the chickens, tho, as they were able to see the killing cones and such from the cages they were in. I was wishing there could have been a curtain or something! These products aren't frugal, unless you count the savings in doctor bills, etc, but knowing where the food comes from is worth a lot. Course, I don't have to tell y'all that!

 

[Kala]

Gotta say I'm loving this thread. So many good ideas. I made my first pot of homemade soup this week. Seriously, first time ever! Lol. That's probably a sad fact, but I've learned so much here. My parents were NOT the make it from scratch kind of people as much as they were the what fast food joint is the closest to the house.

 

[valmom]

Good for you, Kala! I love soup of almost any kind. Especially in the winter, and especially bean soups of any kind.