Think outside the recipe: Pantry cooking saves money and time

Way back when our family lived on two incomes, I actually shopped for stuff called for in recipes. Now, I shop for the cheapest possible healthy items in food groups and find recipes (or make some up) that use what I have on hand. THAT is the concept of pantry cooking, and it's the one thing that can save you significantly on groceries.

First off, I have to say that if you don't have the More With Less Cookbook, get it. Find it used if you can, scour used book stores or garage sales, but get it. This is the only cookbook out there that has cheap people in mind and actually caters to pantry cooking and never wasting a morsel. Also, the recipes are low-sugar, which is great for my diabetic Hubs.

Today, I'd been de-nailing a pile of used lumber I'm going to recycle into a barn, and suddenly realized that it was 5 p.m., and I'd defrosted no animal proteins for the Chez Cheap evening meal. What's more, I'm pretty sure everyone is tired of canned green beans, and the five I picked in the garden... well, even I can't make those stretch far enough for four of us. In the fridge, I saw two heads of cabbage that were starting to look a little suspect, bacon ends and pieces (strictly for flavoring recipes, this stuff works great and it's super cheap as bacon goes), and five dozen eggs (from our chickens). When I was new to all this, I'd look in the More With Less index under “cabbage,” because that's what I had the most of that needed to be used, er, very quickly. Because I know my book so well now, and know what my family loves, I had three days' meals planned with that single glance in my fridge (Formosan Fried Cabbage with rice, Eggs Foo Yung, and Vietnamese Fried Rice).

If the fridge had been bare and I had gotten a head start, we could have turned away from Asian and gone more Mexican. A slow cooker (tightwad must-have) full of pinto beans can feed my family for at least a week, but I usually cook two pounds of beans so I can freeze some. (Think Bubba from Forrest Gump as I extoll the virtues of pinto beans, beans and corn bread, refried bean dip, bean and cheese tacos, bean and cheese nachos, fried bean patties, beans and rice, chili with beans, bean enchiladas...)

The bottom line is, you don't have to follow a recipe for every meal you make, and the ones you use the most should feature cheap food that's also healthy. Shop the stock-up sales, cook with what you have, and: Never. Waste. Anything. That's my cheapo mantra.

Plan a Break From Frugal Fatigue

We all have different goals for the money we're struggling to save, and sometimes those goals change as they get closer. Our goal was to survive at first. When we mastered survival on one income, we began paying down years of debt (credit cards and an expensive truck). Now that the truck is paid off and the credit cards are ancient history, we're working on this little house so we can upgrade sometime soon.

But, before we do, we're gonna lighten up a little.

SMH! Another dinner out??

After all, we don't take vacations, and we don't buy expensive toys except maybe once every three years. So lately, we're taking a “break” from some hard and fast rules of being tightwads. Some people need breaks from being squeaky, and I get it. I'm married to one. And, I'd totally be lying if I said I didn't love going out to dinner once in a while. It hurts my frugal heart to pay the bill, but when it's time to lighten up, it's just time. That time, for us, is summertime.

I'll just make up for it secretly in other ways. Like, feeding my family what we're growing instead of buying veggies. Like, stocking the freezer with a few extra roosters and getting creative with eggs. I'm not scared of you, summertime spending – just let me take a deep breath and set my goals aside to review later. I'm jumping in! (sort of)

Hey! Find us on Facebook and Twitter. We get downright silly, for a bunch of cheapos. Plus, you'll get stream-of-consciousness tips as I think of them, moment by moment! Well, I usually think of one a week, and I may or may not remember to post it. There's always a chance, though! - Becky