How to Save in the Kitchen

A friend of mine asked me recently to post some tips for stretching a dollar in the kitchen.  I'm still learning how to do many things myself, but my mom taught me a lot about stretching expensive foods like meat, and using every bit of what we cook in one way or another.  Also, baking.  Yes, baking.  Even though I don't care to bake (unless it's new stuff, as I get tired of making the same old things all the time), it really saves a lot of money and gives you healthier fare that tastes SO much better than store bought.  It just... takes more time.

Anyway, here are a few things I've learned from my mom, my grandma, and some awesome tips I've been using from Pinterest.  Yes... I love Pinterest (I think I'm an addict!  Oh boy!)

Meal Planning - I find that having a list of staples to keep on hand at all times greatly helps in this department as I plan the majority of my meals around those staple items.  However, if I have some new recipes I'd like to try, or find something on a great sale in the flyer that I'd like to take advantage of, I will find and plan meals that may have ingredients I don't usually have around.  I then only need to shop once for the week.  Oh, and another great advantage to meal planning is that I love using the leftovers in soup, or cooking more than I need for that one meal and purposely saving some for another (I do this before serving often so that it doesn't all get eaten... the more you put on the table, the more you will eat... no joke).  I do this often with steamed rice or root veggies. 

Eggs - I like to have eggs for breakfast, but they can be pricey.  To stretch them, I generally have steamed potatoes/carrots/celery/yams the night before, saving the leftovers to fry up with some sautéed onions/mushrooms, and then scrambling the eggs right in the mix.  I also like to throw in some greens (spinach is my fave).  I've heard of using chia seeds mixed with water for baking... never tried it myself, though, and don't know the price comparison.

Ground Beef - My mom did her best to stretch this staple by using oatmeal or bread crumbs (from dried bread crusts... see that tip here), and I still do that myself (to me, a burger doesn't taste right unless it has oatmeal in it).  Another thing I learned rather early on was the wonderful power of kidney beans!  I always mix one can of kidney or black beans (or even bean blends, there are so many out there) with one pound of ground beef when making sloppy joes, chili (it isn't right without beans anyway), or casseroles.  To make one pound of beef last for more than one meal, make chili, and then use the leftovers to make a casserole with mashed potatoes, or noodles.  Or, turn the leftovers into two meals of soup by dividing it in half.  I make soup 3 times a week.  Use a little beef stock, lots of water, your leftover chili, and add veggies, rice, pearled barley, or any other leftovers in your fridge.  And celery.  I always love to add a little celery.  You can even add the greens of the celery to the soup, they work great!

Chicken - I stopped buying boneless and skinless chicken.  Instead, I use the bones!  Sound weird?  Yeah, I thought so too.  We get the cheapest chicken, legs back on, and we use it in the slow cooker and save the bones (debone them before putting them on our plate to eat) and boil them later on for bone broth.  Alternatively, you can take your chicken and boil it to make chicken stock, removing the chicken meat to be used in another meal (mmm, casseroles), and saving the bones yet again for bone stock later.  To make bone or chicken stock, put your meat in a LARGE pot of water and add one chopped onion, one peeled and chopped carrot, chopped celery, star anise seed, and one or two bay leaves.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer for 4 hours or so.  When done, strain everything out, and voila!  Broth!  I generally add noodles, leftover deboned chicken, freshly chopped carrots/celery, etc.  Makes a great meal with homemade buns!

Cheese - Don't bother with the processed stuff.  Just... save your money.  It isn't worth it.  I get the real stuff from the local plant!  It is cheapest to buy it local rather than from the chain grocery store.  We save at least 30cents per hundred grams for exactly the same cheese.  And if you can find the stuff you want in the 'ends' bin (the cut-offs don't look or pack as nicely, but they taste just as great) you can get it for yet less!  Oh, and a good rule of thumb... if you like to cook with cheese, old cheddar will give you much more flavor for less volume of cheese than mild cheddar.  You can shred it and freeze it!  And I never use as much as the recipes call for.  I just add a little extra salt.

Salad - Buying salads at restaurants is super pricey.  Make them at home, and have them with just about every meal that you can.  They fill you up so you don't need as much of the more pricey meats or sides, and they are great for nutrition and digestion!  And in summer you can grow your own greens!

Dry Beans vs. Canned - To save even more, buy dry beans instead of canned, and cook them yourself in a slow cooker overnight.  One pinner says to soak the beans in water overnight, and then put into a slow cooker with fresh water that covers the beans by one or two inches plus some salt (they say 1 tsp)  Set to cook low for 8 hours (although it probably won't need that long) and after 4 put in another tsp of salt and stir.  Here is a link.  You can freeze what is left in baggies for later use.

Drink Water - One way our household has saved loads on our grocery bill is by getting rid of all beverages except for water.  Before kids, we used to buy orange juice and iced tea... a lot.  I noticed after awhile how much money we were spending on the stuff, and my husband was drinking it so fast that I would hardly get one glass per pitcher, so I said no more.  We drink water.  It saves us at least $30/month... if not more.  And this is just the unhealthy beverages... and we never bought pop!  (yes... I consider orange juice unhealthy... it is pretty much just sugar at that point). We still buy tea.  And now more than ever (I never really drank tea, but now it is a daily thing.  One cup of camomile tea before bed helps me and the baby sleep).

Make your own Breads - I don't do this as much as I should, but baking your own bread and buns saves you money.  I generally get a 10kg bag of flour for $7 when on sale and I can make 10 batches of buns per bag (the estimation is 4.5 cups per pound of flour, so approximately 100 cups to a 10kg bag, and each batch uses 10 cups and makes 5 dozen buns)... I estimate one dozen buns for about 35 cents (my recipe calls for oil, eggs, and molasses... which ups the cost a bit).  You cannot buy buns or bread for that cheap.  Like tortillas?  Making your own tortilla shells will save you LOTS since they are little more than flour, baking powder, salt, and water.  Mix them yourself and you can make one batch for 20 cents... which will give you the same amount you buy in a store for $3.  Quite the markup!

Bake your own Cookies - Buying bakery cookies isn't cheap.  Again, you can make them yourself for a fraction of the cost and using healthier ingredients as well.  Buying processed cookies may be cheaper than the bakery ones, but they are NOT good for you and I would not recommend them (I like them once in a while myself... but I still try hard to stay away as I can eat 1/2 a bag in no time).  Oh, and the fact that they are eaten rather quickly is the other problem.  They have addictive properties that will lead you to eat them quicker than the bakery cookies would, plus there is little to no fiber in them, so they won't help you feel full and again, lead to eating more.  The bag will not last as long as a homemade batch of cookies would!  And who doesn't like homemade chocolate chip cookies over store bought?

Take stock of your perishables - This seems like a no brainer, but I have to remember to do this so often.  I hate when I look in the fridge to find an item I forgot I had that expired.  So, every week I go through my fridge to take inventory of what I have in there that may go bad soon (this includes leftovers... I try to make use of them within three days of putting them in there).  Make sure to include meals in your meal planning that can make good use of any leftovers or of produce/dairy that will go bad soon.  Baking is great for using up things like bananas, bruised apples (just cut off the bruises), sour cream, and yogurt.  Those are the things that tend to go bad quick in my house.  And avocados.  Why?  Because I don't buy the singles, I get the packs of 5 and forget they are there.  Oops.  That's when I like to make chocolate avocado pudding!  Mmmm, good stuff!  ( I really should put that recipe on here!  I can't believe I haven't done so yet!).

Wait for Sales - You can save so much by doing this.  Most sales cycle every 2 months or so, and buying imperishable items to last you that length of time will save you lots!  For example, I do not buy flour at full price.  I wait for our local Superstore to get the $7 sale on the 10 kg bags (they always limit to one bag per customer).  I'll get one, then if my husband goes to town at some point and is in the area, I get him to nab another.  I will buy produce in the 50% off section as often as I can (but only if I think I'll actually use it up).  I'll nab canned goods on sale as well.  I have a list of staples in my house that I base most of my meal planning off of.  I do not clip coupons... but I save on the sales.  Oh, and this goes double for things like toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.  And don't forget to get rain checks on something that the store is out of!  It may seem like a waste of time, but if you were there for a sale item and they ran out, you aren't out of luck completely this way.

Well, that's all I can really think of right now!  I've been trying more things like sprouting lentils instead of buying sprouts themselves for stir fry (never done this before, and the sprouts are looking oh-so-good right now!  The kids loved watching them grow!), and using seeds from produce to grow my own (instead of paying $2-5 per seed packet in stores).