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Frugal Challenges with Friends

Having a frugal challenge with online or offline friends can be a lot of fun and a great way to save money. You can cheer each other on, brag about your accomplishments and meet your goals together. Having a friendly community at hand really does make a different when it comes to being frugal Interested? Don’t have a community ready and available? Check out the Families.com forums, where there are plenty of new friends waiting to be part of a frugal challenge. Here are some frugal challenges that you can join or start. Pantry Challenge Cook only from your pantry … Continue reading →

Things in Your Pantry that Cost You Money

Did you know that there might be things in your pantry that will cost you money? I’m not kidding. Put your pantry on a frugal diet by eliminating certain things that could be making you spend more. Take a few minutes out of your day to look over your pantry. If you spot the following items, get rid of them quickly, before they cost you more money. Items that require expensive purchases Get rid of food that needs other expensive items or ingredients. Can everything in your pantry be turned into a meal with inexpensive ingredients? Or do they need … Continue reading →

Frugal Pantry: Pasta

When you reach into that pantry to plan out dinner, you might want to consider pasta. Pasta can be a great source of a filling meal. And with pasta, there are so many inexpensive options. Shopping carefully, you can get 16 ounces of pasta for less than $1. Add a few inexpensive ingredients, or even a small amount of expensive ingredients, and you still have a meal to feed the entire family for less than $5. I enjoy trying new pasta dishes, especially when I can throw some things together using food that we already have around the house. Last … Continue reading →

More Creative Ideas for Stockpile Cooking

There are three great reasons for cooking from your stockpile. You may want or have to skip your shopping due to budgetary concerns, you may be moving soon and want to use up the food you have, or you may need to clear out the food that is close to expiring, to avoid waste. I have been concentrating on this third reason for getting creative with the pantry food, but I’ll forgive you if you have one of the other reasons to do it. This post is part of the Ideas for Cooking from Your Stockpile Series. Hopefully you have … Continue reading →

Getting Creative with Almost-Expired Food

Using what you have in your pantry is important when food prices have risen so much. Creating meals from your pantry can reduce your weekly food budget or allow you to skip a shopping trip or two. It also prevents food waste. Sometimes you are faced with just a few strange items to use up before they expire or go bad. This is where you have to get creative. I’ll offer you some tips, as well as links to a couple of recipes that will help you create real meals from a collection of end-date food. This post is part … Continue reading →

Meals to Make from Bread

Stretch out your food budget by not letting anything go to waste. When you are faced with dinner time and there is “nothing” to prepare, take a look into your pantry. There are so many things you can make with what may be available. Today let’s take a look at bread. You can usually find bread in most people’s kitchens, and it is great for turning into meals and side dishes. This post is part of the Ideas for Cooking from Your Stockpile series. Main Meals: Try these ideas to make bread, fresh or stale, into a main meal. The … Continue reading →

Ideas for Cooking from Your Stockpile

With food prices continuing to rise, stockpile cooking is a great way to stretch out that food budget and minimize food and money waste. Whenever money is tight, you should always start with what you already have. Having a robust pantry allows you to make many different meals, but what if you find your pantry slimming down? With less bargains available, I have been seeing some shrinkage in my pantry. That is why it is so important to get creative and use up what you have. Now, when I mention cooking from your stockpile, I really mean your pantry, your … Continue reading →

Containers in the Pantry

It is no secret that I usually keep a well-stocked food pantry. In fact, I have more than one. Having a stocked pantry makes it easy for me to plan meals and to fix meals economically, stocking up on groceries when the deals are good. We’ve written a few different pantry articles here on Families.com (I’ll give you the links to them at the end of this article), but I have some more tips to share, namely, using containers and reducing dead space. Using Containers Just because something arrived to your home in a certain package, doesn’t mean that it … Continue reading →

10 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill

Who couldn’t cut their grocery bill down a bit? Aside from rent or a mortgage, food tends to be the biggest monthly expense that most people have. Just saving a small percentage on your food bill can yield big dollar savings. And if you use all of these strategies, you’ll actually save a large percentage. Here are 10 ways to cut your grocery bill. 1. Use everything you have on hand. Take a good look at your pantries, your fridge and your freezer. What meals could you make without buying anything? Take everything out so you can see exactly what … Continue reading →

Store Apples for Six Months

If you find yourself getting a good deal on Apples, Potatoes or other hardy produce, you might try to use it all up at once before it goes bad. or, you might consider canning some of the excess if you can. Here is another solution that will have your apples and other things lasting for at least six months. First, let me caution you against storing those apples in the refrigerator. Apples are okay stored short term in the fridge. In fact, I do it myself. I can store apples in the refrigerator for up to two weeks before they … Continue reading →