Living on a Shoestring

It’s hard to imagine a world without our Blackberry, Tivo, shopping malls and restaurants on every corner. Everything is convenient, easy, accessible and exciting. The kids are in a good day care, preschool, or maybe even a great private school. Everyone in the family has a wardrobe to allow each of them to wear a different outfit with all the accessories everyday for almost a month. You and your spouse have date night every week, and the kids are in various activities during the week. You and your spouse have frequent outings with friends. You have a decent house with a mortgage or a nice apartment, and each of you has a nice car with a payment. Dinner oftentimes is at a restaurant with the family or something picked up on the way home from work. If you cook, you pick up something boxed or packaged from the grocer’s that is quick and easy. Breakfast consists of boxed cereal for the kids, with Starbucks for you on the way to work. Snacks are ready-made or prepared from the store. Chips and dips are easy, and so are things like Capri Sun for the kids.

Everything is great; life is good.

And then one – or both – of you loses your job or are cut back. Or the wife who was home with the kids also has to go out and find a job of any kind.

In today’s economic climate, replacing that income can be hard, if not near impossible. Sometimes people find that they can’t replace that income and find that they are lucky to find an income of any kind, no matter how small. For those that had a good income from one, the other now has to find a job. Juggling schedules now becomes an issue, and maybe a babysitter is now added to the household expenses to fit the working hours that are required if and when both spouses are able to find a job.

Both spouses now become tired, and the frequency of grabbing something for dinner on the way home can increase. The mortgage starts getting behind, and maybe the car payments, too. Some social commitments are dropped because of schedules, and everyone starts getting cranky at home.

Life is getting tough.

But it’s also a good time to reevaluate lifestyles to make the budget work.

Learning to budget isn’t really all that hard, but changing your mindset to meet budgetary crises during rough financial times can be extremely tough.

In today’s economic times when people are losing their jobs and prices are climbing, what once worked as a good budget, just isn’t cutting it any more. “A penny saved is a penny earned” couldn’t be truer right now. People are scrambling to not only continue to bring in an income, but are looking for more ways to cut their budget so they don’t go into the hole any further.

The key to budgeting – and therefore living within your income – is a change of mindset. For most people, this is the hardest part.

And probably much of what I will write here will get tossed by many people thinking that this is just ridiculous. Well, many people’s incomes are ridiculous now (if they even HAVE an income), so think about how to incorporate some of this to help yourself out. When you start becoming hungry or you see your kids hungry, remember this site and come back here to get some more ideas. In other words right now “take what you need, but leave the rest” but don’t forget this site.

Okay, times are tough right now. People are losing jobs and prices are increasing. What once used to be a good family budget just isn't working any more. To now say that many families are in financial turmoil is an understatement. So what can we do to still keep a roof over our heads, a running vehicle in the driveway, the utilities on -- and still eat?

If you're like me, lucky even to find a full-time job at minimum wage, I'll tell you what I do. I’m a single mom with a teenaged son who is in competitive hockey (interpretation: big bucks!). Have you ever tried to feed a teenaged boy? Yeah, not a pretty picture on minimum wage. To top that off, I have a huge truck payment. Now, this is a truck we (my son and I) shopped for and found that was specifically for hockey, so we're talking the payment is about 3/4 of my check. Of course, we bought this before the bottom on the economy fell out! So we're stuck for about another three years because there's no trade-in value or refinancing available. Yeah, I know; I looked. Boo-hoo for me.

Okay, so out of my check, I have about $200 left over. $75 of that goes to our animal food. We have dogs and cats and a parrot and chickens and geese. So that leaves $125 left for household expenses! I do have some online sales (ebay and a web site) that adds a bit more to my income, and I've been able to work some overtime at work lately, so that's a bit more money. But I also have a monthly hockey bill for a few more months, plus travel expenses for hockey. So basically whatever money I have left over out of my income goes to hockey.

So how do we eat and buy household supplies? That is the million dollar question! And I'll share what I do to still eat.

We’re spoiled. We have so many things that we use that we’ve gotten used to that we just can’t picture life without them. I don’t think many of us would even know what life could be without them and therefore don’t think of many of the items we incorporate into our lives as frivolous when it comes to cutting the budget.

Start your budget quest by making lists, and then make more lists of EVERYthing you buy and consume. And when I say EVERYthing, I really mean it! Take a pen and paper and walk around the house. List appliances that consume electricity (look for those clocks and timers and little red and green lights that show that something is on or charging).

Make a list of everything you buy, how much you use, and how much it costs to buy. List them by categories or rooms: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, cleaners, animal food, vehicle expenses, etc.

Then add up how much it costs you a month to run these items or buy these items. By the time you’re done with your lists, this should give you a pretty good reality check!

Click here to see a sampling of some of my lists to get some ideas.

Okay, this is where you have to really change your mindset and attitude. Look at those lists you made. Let’s get real here. What does everyone NEED to survive? Let’s list them:

Roof over our heads
Good running vehicle with insurance
Electric
Water
Heating
Food
Clothing
Phone
Household items (shampoo, pet food, etc.)

That’s it. That’s what we all NEED. So that’s where we start. If, by the end of this, you have extra left over in the budget, you can add in items, but it certainly won’t come under NEED; it will come under “extras” that you can allow yourself. Remember that.

Do some research about the Great Depression. The people who lived through this time knew how to survive, and most of us could learn some good lessons about survival in tough times from these people. If they couldn’t make it, grow it or find it, then they did without. I was lucky to know my grandparents, and a lot about what I will write about comes from my learning from them or their friends.

Most of us have at least a mortgage and a car payment. The mortgage will probably be with us for almost the rest of our lives unless we can figure out a way to refinance and pay it off. If you rent -- well, try not to, is all I can say. Relocating to a place where you can afford to buy is really the best in my opinion. A rent payment is just money down the toilet. When you own your own home – albeit still making payments so therefore the bank owns it – you at least have or are building equity. In your old age, you just may not have a payment, too, so think about that. Plus, house payments don’t go up (unless you have some sort of weird loan), and rent DOES go up as the cost of living goes up.

A vehicle, on the other hand, can be paid off and is a reality for the immediate future. So having no car payment is a real goal to work towards. Getting a good used vehicle is something that many of us have to lower our standards about, too. We don’t have to have a new vehicle, just something that will reliably get us to where we’re going and to fit our needs. And it doesn’t have to be a vehicle that turns heads, either. It just has to fit our needs – which needs include our income. But I do think that keeping a payment (or paying our savings) is a must for when it is time to trade in. At least hopefully we’ll be able to pay into savings for later on. For some of us, that just isn’t going to happen right now, but that’s the ideal situation.

And as long as we drive a car, we also have to have insurance, which then this becomes a fixed payment. I believe in keeping comprehensive insurance ALWAYS (even when it’s paid off) because supposing you really do have one of those accidents that totals your car? You won’t be able to get another car because you won’t have the money from the insurance. You can’t depend upon the other driver to have insurance! So even though this essay is about saving money, to me the extra cost is worth it to have that insurance to get another car. I’ve known a couple of people who dropped their comprehensive after they paid off their vehicle and then a short time later were without a car because someone slammed into them.

It’s a no-brainer to get rid of credit cards.  I think everyone knows that.  Yes, it can be hard for many people to cut up those cards and do without and just live on your debit card, but if you are in a financial crisis, it’s a must.  It’s almost like cutting up a security blanket for some!  If you can keep your hands off a credit card, then keep one for “emergency”, but you have to promise yourself that an “emergency” will really be a true emergency! (a new outfit or a new golf club or a concert or trip to the spa is NOT an emergency!)  Emergencies would include things like not having enough money at the time to buy a new tire that blew out or get the car repaired or the hot water heater quit.

Which brings me to clothes. As clothes wear out – and I mean WEAR OUT – clothes will have to be replaced. But this does not mean that you have to buy clothes every month – or even every year! Unless you grow out of them, of course... I have found that buying quality clothing – quality meaning good fabric, good zippers, well made with strong thread – will last many years; whereas buying clothes from places like Wal-Mart actually increases the cost of clothing in the budget. They are cheap and just don’t last. Most of these clothes are cheaply made in China with inferior fabrics and poor stitching. I have also found that places like Macy’s are starting to carry this cheap clothing. People scoff at buying at places like Nordstrom’s, but I’ll tell you, most of those clothes will last years!

Okay, I hear people saying how ridiculous this is. What about style? You can’t wear clothes that were in style five years ago!

Well, yes you can. Remember, we’re talking about NEED here, not keeping up with the Joneses. Here’s a trick: buy only clothes that have classic lines and styles to them, and most will never go out of style. Don’t buy the latest fad or fashion or color scheme; keep it simple. I know, for some this will just not go over; but remember, this is about changing your mindset so that you can live within your income. You HAVE to give up “image” and focus on NEED, or you won’t make it to stay within your budget!

Children’s clothing is another category all together. Of course they grow faster than weeds, but remember, everyone’s kids do. Try connecting with friends and neighbors to become recipients of outgrown clothes and find someone to give yours to. Start a neighborhood children’s clothing swap or a swap circle. Think of some ideas to help each other out in this category.

Thrift stores and Free Boxes are great places to get clothing. I know, some are going “yuck”! But honestly, I have found some absolutely great stuff at these places. Think about it. It won’t hurt you.

But the main thing to remember is don’t buy any more clothes! Wait for clothing to wear out – or mend them!

Mending – what’s that?

A button falls off, you sew it back on.
A hem comes undone, you sew it back up.
Jeans and pant knees get holes in them, you patch them.

I remember turning collars on shirts. When a collar or cuff on a shirt started showing wear or fading, we used to take them off, turn them over, and sew them back on. They looked like new after turning!

We used to darn socks, too. Not mend, but darn. See how to darn here.

Of course, all of this requires using a thread and needle. Maybe it’s time we learned how to use them again?

Utilities are another one of those “fixed” items in the budget. True, you can downsize them a bit by turning off lights and unplugging those phantom loads (appliances that have clocks and timers on them), take shorter showers, turn the heat down a tad (and the a.c. if you HAVE to have it, like if you live in the desert or you’re elderly and it could be a health threat, but most people really don’t need it – so think about air conditioning: do you REALLY need it?), but what else do we include under the category of “utilities”? A lot of our utilities have actually become luxuries, not “needs”. So look at that electric bill. Start unplugging!

The other “utility” that now most people think of as a “need”, is the phone, of course. Ah, the phone! That bill can really be cut drastically. Okay, another resounding “Are you nuts?” from the audience... but really, a phone is a necessity, but are all the frills that go with a phone necessary? No. Call the phone company, and get a basic phone, and I don’t mean a basic phone PACKAGE, I mean a PHONE. Whatever your phone company tells you is the price, double it. By the time you put the taxes on the price of the phone, it’s just about double, so you’ll need to know this when doing up your budget.

Some people don’t get a land line and only use a cell phone. That’s okay, too, but you have to remember to stay off the phone and quit yakking and texting. Oh, my, do I hear groaning out there? But really, folks, to cut down the phone, you have to stay off the phone, which means less minutes or a much smaller package to buy. I find a pay-as-you-go cell phone works great for me. I use my cell ONLY when I need to while I’m on the road. Period. I pay about $5 per month, if that. I use my land-line ($30 or less per month) and LOTS of email!

In reality, I feel if you’re paying more than $50 a month for ALL your phones, you’re paying waaaaaay too much! So take a good hard look at how you can cut back here, and what you really need versus “would like” or “really have to have” or “everyone else has, so you have to have too”. When I hear people talk about how they “only” have an $80 cell phone bill, I’m appalled, because I know that’s in addition to their land line, which is at least as much as the cell. Get real here, and you can save bucks to help keep within your income. Remember, it’s a MINDSET that you have to shed here.

The internet is sometimes bundled with phones. Do some shopping around. I have found that if you pay more than $30 a month for internet service, you’re paying too much (this is for internet plus DSL). So do some shopping in your area and see which is cheapest: bundled with the phone, or individually. Yes, it takes time, but it’s well worth it in the long run.

If you can do all of this and still keep your Blackberry and do all your texting and calls and internet under a total of no more than $80, then you’re okay. If not, you need to do some serious rethinking here. $80 total is still high, though.

The TV is another big expense for most people. In fact, I can see where it’s addicting. People have to have their Tivo to catch shows they’re hooked on, have to have 200 channels, etc. etc. Really think about this. Do you HAVE to have all of this? I’ll tell you, just sticking up an antenna again sounds really good to me when I just can’t afford this bill. I’ve done that. We’ll watch a DVD sometimes, but I find we do a lot more now when we don’t have TV. I do have the local channels to get the local news and weather, but that’s it. Thirty or forty dollars a month for 100 channels that I “can’t find a thing to watch” just doesn’t cut it for me. So that bill was cut immediately. Need “down” time? Read, play games with the family or friends. Take up a new hobby.

Okay, I know there are some people out there that think clotheslines are... what? “unsightly”? “tacky”? “gross”? Whatever. I don’t understand this mindset AT ALL. I’ve even heard that they’ve actually been outlawed in some areas. This is really absurd, and I feel definitely leans heavily on snobbery. In today’s economic climate, there is no longer room for snobbery. Besides, there is nothing like fresh line-dried clothes!

...and, to tell you how much it cuts the electric bill is an understatement! This is another way to help cut that electric bill.

I had my son go out to our electric meter. We shut off the electric in the entire house. We turned back on one breaker at a time to see which appliance used the most electric. Hands down was the clothes dryer! So that’s when I put my clothesline back into use. We’ve probably shed $50 a month off the electric bill by not using the dryer.

To learn how to use a clothesline, click here.

This can be a biggie for some people. Movies on a regular basis, eating out a lot, concerts, etc. Everyone needs a break, and I believe in budgeting this. But for me – because we are so bare bones – this comes ONLY if I have something left over. Otherwise, all our entertainment is free. I look for art gallery openings (food!), a friend putting on a show or concert, popping a movie in the DVD player and popping up some popcorn, craft fairs – things like that. This is one area that although “frivolous”, I feel is also necessary. We all need our breaks. But like our cell phones, this is also something that seriously needs to be looked at – especially eating out.

Eating out has not really become “entertainment” any more in our busy world – it’s almost become a necessity. By that I mean that we are so tired from work at the end of the day, that we will just grab some ready-made food from McDonald’s or something pre-made at the grocery store that we just pop in the oven or microwave, or open a packet and boil. Easy. But it is expensive!! I know we’re tired – especially if we have little kids – but it really is a huge bite out of the budget! So that is something to look at REALLY hard.

Go to the beach. Go camping. Have a picnic with friends. Potlucks are nice! Do some research about free entertainment ideas. Be creative!

It was brought to my attention that there are other items that many people subscribe to or pay for. These items would include things like Sirius radio and Onstar.  Do you have any magazine or newspaper subscriptions? Online subscriptions? Look for these subscriptions to eliminate from the budget.

Once you have your basic lists/expenses calculated and you can see where you can cut down, it’s time to look at what you buy at the grocery store. This is probably THE biggest area where you can cut expenses!

Take out those lists that include the kitchen and bathroom. With one teenager in the house, my household expenses run between $100 and $150 a month. Really.

I make a list (yup, another one!) of the basic things we use and eat.

For cleaners, I looked at the ingredients. Basically what I found were ammonia (yuck!) and soap in all the cleaners I liked. Did some research, and found out that vinegar is one of those wonder items that not only cleans, but disinfects, softens the laundry, and cleans the laundry! Great for sunburns and owies, too. Incredible stuff. So my list of cleaners dwindled to ammonia and vinegar and Comet (can’t find anything yet to work as well; baking soda is supposed to be a substitute, but sorry, just doesn’t do it for me!).

Have allergies? I do. I have found that mopping the floor and wiping counters and walls and doors with vinegar just flat out almost eliminates anything that is bothering me. And it cleans really dirty stuff just great with a tad of dish soap in it! And vinegar doesn’t leave a residue that has to be rinsed.

Vinegar with newspapers is an old-time way of washing windows and mirrors. First wash the windows and mirrors with a little dish soap, and then clean them with vinegar and newspapers. Works better than Windex! And for some reason, they stay cleaner longer. Don’t ask me why, but they do.

I even use vinegar in the shower and toilet. Seems to clean just fine!

If you have access to apple orchards, you can make your own vinegar:

Use the apples as you want for things like pies, applesauce, etc. but put the cores and peelings into a huge pot with a lid. Add water to cover the cores and peelings, and then wait a couple of weeks and take a sniff. When the pot smells like vinegar, it’s done! Just strain off and pour into containers and use like normal. Too easy, isn’t it? And yes, it’s REAL vinegar!

Ammonia I have found is the absolute best grease cutter around! I use this in the kitchen around the stove and anywhere else I need heavy-duty grease removal. 409 doesn’t compare to ammonia. Actually, I haven’t found anything commercial that even comes close to working as well as ammonia!

By the way, I don’t use bleach except in my Comet. Bleach kills the bacteria in my septic tank which then requires pumping on a regular basis. By not using bleach, I haven’t pumped the tank in what? 20 years? Besides, I think bleach is one of those things that messes with our hormones, too.

This is a hard one. I have a hard time finding things that don’t give me migraines or make me break out or don’t leave my hair soft and shiny in all water (we travel a lot, so finding shampoos that work in all waters is hard). But experiment with different shampoos and cream rinses to find a cheap one that works. I actually don’t mind Suave (about the cheapest you can buy); it’s not too bad, but does leave a build up eventually.

Rinsing your hair with vinegar (another vinegar testament!) will actually soften your hair and rinse the residue out. But it’s kinda yucky to have vinegar-smelling hair for awhile...

Toothpaste I buy on sale. I was thinking of going back to baking soda and salt. Yup, another one of those Great Depression remedies! Baking soda and salt was what a lot of people used to clean their teeth with. Toothpaste was almost nonexistent (or unheard of to spend on). So this is what people used to use. Sprinkle a bit of baking soda in the palm of your hand add a tad of salt, wet your brush, and then pick some up on your brush out of the palm of your hand. It does leave your mouth feeling fresh! You just won’t have that minty smell, which is fine by me.

How many of you buy a new brush and comb when it gets too grungy? I’ll bet a lot of you do. I’ve got a brush I still use that is probably 40 years old. WASH THOSE BRUSHES AND COMBS! There is absolutely no reason to throw them out! First get all the hair out of them. Use a comb to get it out of brushes. I take my brushes and combs into the shower with me and use a tad of shampoo on them. Use the combs to get between the bristles of the brushes, and use the brushes to get between the teeth of the combs. Rinse well, and set on a towel to dry.

You can also use baking soda to wash them. Soak them in a sink with a little baking soda. Scrub them, rinse, and lay out to dry. Nice and fresh!

There are a LOT of items we buy for convenience.

Take baggies for instance.

They’re plastic. Plastic lasts a LONG time! We don’t throw out our Tupperware, do we? No. So why are we throwing out our baggies? I wash mine out and dry them and reuse. It’s no different than our Tupperware in my opinion. Boy, has that saved me a lot of money! I’m a big baggie user, especially when it comes to freezing food!

I’m not sure how we got to using paper towels. We used to use rags for everything. So I don’t buy paper towels any more, but use rags. The only thing I need paper towels for is the grease that’s left over in my frying pans. I do use old newspapers for that now. It’s not as absorbent, but they do wipe the grease out just fine before washing those pans.

Old newspapers I use for lining bird cages. I also shred all my junk mail and some newspapers and use that for packing when I ship stuff out through the mail. I also use newspapers for putting on the floor when I need to protect the floor.

Trash can liners are now my plastic grocery bags. I also use them to put my weeds in when weeding, cat poop from the cat litter box, picking trash up along the road. I also save all my big dog food bags to use for trash bags.

I burn all my paper trash in the fireplace. If you don’t have a fireplace, try composting at least the newspapers. My shredded paper – when it gets too full – I put in the compost pile.

You could go so far as to never buy TP again, too... that is something that people are starting to do. It’s called “Family Cloth”. Read all about it here.

My biggest most humongous rule: NEVER buy anything that can’t be made!

So that leaves EVERYthing!

This is the area that can REALLY cut the budget! How many of you spend about $100 a week per person? I’ll bet a LOT of you! I spend about $15 to $20 a week per person. Yup, really. And most of that is buying milk. I buy about three gallons of milk a week. I’d cut it out, but I have a growing boy in sports, so he’s got to have the fat and protein and calories. I NEVER buy 2%; I always buy whole milk. I’m leery of all the tampering with foods, so I always buy whole everything and never substitutes or “lessening” of anything. I don’t believe in tampering with our food – but that’s another essay!

Okay, so we don’t eat fancy. First of all, I don’t like to cook. So it has to be quick and easy. But if you want to cut that budget, don’t buy anything pre-packaged or pre-made!

So this leaves out things like cereal (hot cereal bought in the bulk section is fine, but that boxed hot cereal is also expensive!), mac and cheese, Hamburger Helper, already-cooked chicken, chips and dips, cookies, etc. You get the idea.

Yes, this can be hard, especially when you’re tired from a day at work, but YOU HAVE TO DO THIS if you’re going to cut that budget. This is THE area where you can’t be lazy and give in to that tiredness! No more running through KFC (which is incredibly expensive, by the way) or Micky D’s. Get out that frying pan or crock pot!

You also have to NOT buy snacks!! Chips – OMG those can add up! Cookies – make them! They taste much better anyway...

Look at things like Hamburger Helper to get ideas about how to make these yourself. Mac and cheese is too easy to make. Pasta doesn’t take long to cook at all! Just grate cheese over it. Add stuff, too, like tomatoes.

The one problem that I’ve seen when cutting out pre-packaged and pre-made from the menu is the taste. These packaged items have all sorts of other junk in them to make them taste “better”. So changing over to making your own might be hard at first because everyone is not used to eating whole foods or food made from scratch; they’re used to the taste of all this other junk that’s been put in for coloring and taste and preservatives. Yes, I’m convinced that preservatives also add a flavoring of sorts. But you’ll find that you’re eating healthier by cutting out the ready-made stuff!

Packaged or bottled juices also add up. NO sodas! (they’re bad for you anyway). Buy frozen juices on sale and mix them up in the pitcher and leave in refrig. Powdered drinks I found are also expensive. Brew up a bunch of tea from tea bags to keep on hand. Make lemonade (frozen lemonade I found is pretty cheap!)

Leave out fruit in a basket or tray in refrig. Yup, let’s get back to healthy! I find the kids eat them more when already sliced and ready to grab.

Cut up veggies. Carrots are quick and easy. I don’t buy those little carrots because I think they’re too expensive.

Now, because fruit and veggies don’t really fill up a teen, I find they need some carbs to fill them up. So, I also do:

Cheese and crackers (haven’t made my own crackers yet, but hear they’re super easy!)

Quesadillas!!! Can’t tell you how easy and filling they are for a teenager! Keep some flour tortillas on hand (or if you’re good at it, make them yourself!), and a hunk of cheese to grate. Pop in microwave for 30 seconds and you have a quick fill ‘er upper!

Top Ramen – I stock up on this when it’s on sale for between 10 and 20 cents a pack. Another quick and easy for a teen. I also use the noodles in stir fries.

Popcorn – now, this is something I taught my son to MAKE. We do NOT buy microwave popcorn!! We make our own the “old fashioned” way. It’s not only SO MUCH healthier, but it’s so much cheaper! Hands down, no comparison! Put a layer of oil in a sauce pan (the taller one, not a short one), then a single layer of popcorn. Turn the heat on stove to about medium high, put lid on pan (IMPORTANT! unless you want popcorn all over the kitchen!), and shuffle/slide the pan back and forth over flame until you don’t hear the corn popping any more (or until it’s slowed down and you can tell that it’s done). You have to shuffle the pan back and forth to keep the kernels moving so they don’t sit in one spot and burn. Melt butter in microwave and pour over fresh popcorn and then salt to taste. You can buy this in the bulk sections for about 89 cents a pound – SUPER CHEAP! Or use your air popper...

Cookies – I stock up at holidays on the ingredients because the stores seem to offer the ingredients so cheap! I freeze up tons of butter on sale, buy sugars, chips and nuts and keep all but the white sugar in one of my veggie drawers in the refrig to keep the ingredients fresh. Then all year long I have the ingredients ready to whip up a batch of cookies when we feel like cookies. Tip: never use margarine!! If you want GREAT cookies (or great anything you bake), use BUTTER! You’ll be amazed at the taste difference! I know, you can get margarine super cheap, but this is one area where I don’t skimp. Flavor is important! (besides, margarine being a tampered-with food, I’m leery of it).

I first made a menu list (yup! Another list...). And I stick to it. My menu list is basically this:

Pasta
Beans
Stews/pot roasts
Casseroles
Stir fries
Soup

These are all super cheap meals. Remember Sunday dinners at Gramma’s? That was the day of the week that the one piece of meat was cooked. Meat is so expensive... I buy the family size packets ON SALE and freeze it up in individual servings in baggies. Anyway, Sunday dinner...

Big roast. What was left over, the meat was made into stews, casseroles and finally soup. It lasted all week. Just add a salad and some fresh biscuits and it’s a great meal! That Sunday meal lasted all week!

This is the way you have to think to make that food dollar stretch.

Now, with teenage boys in the house, it becomes a little different. I just don’t have anything left over from Sunday! So I have to come up with something new for every meal unfortunately. So that’s why my menu list above.

From my menu list, I make another list – the ingredients for those meals. So my ingredients would be things like pasta (lots of packs bought on sale for under a dollar and kept at the ready), meat bought in family packs and frozen in single servings, huge bags of potatoes, huge bags of beans, large bags of flour, etc. I buy huge of everything whenever possible. In other words, I stock up. Buying in larger sizes always comes out way cheaper, too! So it’s the ingredients now that I shop for.

For instance, bread. I stock up on flour, sugar and yeast. I make great bread in the bread machine (too busy to do it by hand). At $3.89 for a 10-pound bag of flour – which makes 10 loaves of bread and enough left over for a batch of cookies, my bread is costing me about 40 cents a loaf – compared to almost $4 for a loaf in the store! (or $1.50+ for that foofy stuff they call bread).

Recipe I use in my bread machine:

1 C water
3 C flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon yeast

You can add cooked cereals to this to change the flavor and texture, but this is the basic bread recipe that I’ll throw in (1 minute?) right before walking out the door to go to work at 5:30 a.m. My son eats it; if HE eats it and loves it, then you will, too! He’s so picky and finicky...

Anyway, when I come home from work or hockey practice, we’ll have a nice slice of fresh hot bread slathered in butter and raspberry jam... yum

We eat a lot of eggs from our chickens and fresh bread.

Hot cereal – make up a pan when you get up, and everyone else can help themselves. There are lots of hot cereals in the bulk section! We love the Bear Mush the best, but I will make oatmeal for me now and then (don’t get quick oats!!it comes out super mushy and doesn’t make great cookies, either!).  The 9- or 12-grain cereals are best when soaked over night as they take a long time to cook – not quick like Bear Mush or oatmeal. But those multi-grains are delicious in bread!

I do buy a “add water only” box of pancake mix to make pancakes and waffles.  I rarely make them, so keep the box in the freezer to stay fresh.  But I make my own syrup because it’s waaaaay cheaper!

Make simple syrup:

½ C water, boil
Slowly add 1 C sugar stirring until dissolved
Turn off fire and add a tad of maple flavoring
The rule is twice as much sugar to water to make simple syrup. It’s nice to have hot syrup!

My son doesn’t eat sandwiches. L He makes Top Ramen or eats pasta that I leave for him. Or I’ll put on a pot of beans in the crock pot that he can continually eat from.

Most dinners I just add a salad and lots of times some muffins or biscuits. I do have a box of generic Bisquick in the freezer or boxes of Jiffy muffin mixes when they’re on sale for a dime a box (can’t make muffins from scratch for that price!). When my box of Bisquick runs out, I plan to start making biscuits from scratch. I hear they’re too easy and hard to ruin. J But then again, when I go camping, Bisquick is fantastic because I don’t have to carry baking powder and stuff.

Basic Pot roast:

Hunk of meat (beef, chicken, pork)
Lots of cut up potatoes
Lots of carrots
Onions and garlic (if your family likes them)
Any other spices you’d like to add (like bay leaf)
Add about an inch of water and turn on pot.
Start in morning and it will be done in time for dinner! Just add some biscuits or muffins and a salad!

We also eat tons of pasta. I buy it on sale for under a dollar a pack. Make my own pesto from the basil I grow. I add peas and walnuts for my pesto pasta. Otherwise, I’ll add quick stir-fried veggies like sliced carrots, broccoli florets, snow peas, etc. and pour either olive oil or butter over all of them and add parmesan cheese. Kids usually just like butter and parmesan on theirs.

My son fortunately loves pinto beans, so I stock up on that, too, and am now growing them. I’ll cook them in the crock pot. I like grated cheese and chopped onions on my bowl of beans. I usually add cornbread:

Basic cornbread/muffins:

1 C corn meal
1 C flour
1/4 C sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
1 C milk
1/3 C oil
1 egg

Bake at 375-400 in greased square pan or in muffins for about 20-25 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Stir frys:

Cook Ramen noodles in a bit of water with soy sauce.

While noodles are sitting, quick fry in a bit of oil in a big frying pan some veggies like carrots, broccoli, snow peas, fresh garlic, grated fresh ginger (I always keep a piece frozen in freezer in a baggie; it grates real well when frozen!). Cabbage can also be added. When veggies are ALMOST soft, add noodles to frying pan and fry all up until veggies are barely tender (don’t over cook!). Yum.

Of course gardens can cut waaaay down on that food bill!

One thing I do year round is grow my own salad stuff.

Choose a nice sunny window or spot in your house. I figure two 2-foot window planters per person for enough continuous lettuce for salads. I also let one lettuce plant go to seed in each planter so that I can keep growing lettuce without buying more seeds. I also try to grow broccoli, peas, carrots and tomatoes along with the lettuce in the house. The planters look good in the kitchen and house, too!

I also try to grow all my own herbs. I plant garlic in the fall for harvest in mid-summer. I try to grow enough to last me all year, and just braid it and hang the braid in my kitchen. I do this with onions, too.

Basil I also grow not only outside, but in the house during the winter. Basil has a tendency to get aphids and spider mites when grown inside, so I have to spray with a dish soap and cayenne pepper mix about every other week. But I’ll make enough pesto from my basil to almost last me all year!

Pesto:

fill blender with basil leaves
add a handful of walnuts
add a couple cloves of fresh garlic
sprinkle in some parmesan cheese (1/2 c?)
olive oil – I start with a couple of inches, and add so blender can blend all ingredients
I then fill little plastic freezer containers with the pesto and freeze and then take out throughout the year as we need it. The containers are those Glad or Ziplock thingys that hold about the same as the containers of pesto we buy.

I compost. All my kitchen waste (except meat and bones and citrus) goes into a pan to dump for the chickens. Otherwise, it goes into a compost bucket with lid that I keep in the kitchen. All coffee grounds and egg shells go into this bucket and when full, goes into the compost pile. I also add shredded paper to this compost pile now and then. My pile is actually in my garden area, and it gets rotated every year. I have one spot in the garden that becomes the compost hole, and then gets covered before winter. The next year I do it in another spot; that way the entire garden eventually benefits from the composting. Yes, it’s a lazy man’s way of doing it, but works for me!

Grow a garden and learn to can and freeze. Look at your ingredients list and plan your garden around your list. Grow what you need first, then add fancier stuff to it. Try to grow as much as you can to stock up for the year!

If you have access to fruit orchards, see if you can harvest their trees and make up a bunch of jam or frozen fruits. Here we have a lot of apples, so I make a lot of dried apple chips, apple sauce, and vinegar.

Traveling can be hard to keep the budget down. We’ve become so used to “eating on the road”!

But think about it: what did Gramma and Granddad do when they traveled? They didn’t have a restaurant on every corner back then, did they?

My son’s in hockey. We do a LOT of traveling for tournaments. I have found a hotel chain that is like a little apartment – complete with full kitchen – that actually is CHEAP! In fact, it’s cheaper than Motel 6! It’s the Extended Stay motels. So we travel with ice chest now. We rarely eat out any more on the road, but I pack up the refrig and just continue cooking on the road.

Eating out, I’m finding out, costs more than the hotel rooms we book. So to cut that down, we rarely eat out any more. To actually be able to book a hotel room that is cheaper than any where else, just cuts down the expense that much more!

There are other ways of cutting down that expense, too. For instance, make your own meals and bring them. Have a picnic at road-side stops or parks. Eating this way also gives the kids a chance to run around and expend that energy, especially if you find a park. Sometimes parks and road-side stops will even have barbeque grills that you can cook on. Not everything travel-related has to be restaurant-centered!

Okay, so those of you that hate camping, you’ll have to “lower” your standards if you want to stay within budget or cut that budget while on the road. But even you camping haters will have to agree that just bringing your own sandwiches or fried chicken will be cheaper than eating out! Besides, a picnic can be fun!