Best painless "stretching things" budget tips?

[Tinka_Belle]

I have picked up some gr8 tips! Thanks to all.

I Know that the economy is a mess & I would like to know if you any of you were always frugal or just started due to the economy. We have started to cut back. i recently went to the local beauty school for a cut & color & it cost $21 plus tip. I gave the girl a $20 tip as she washed, colored, cut & blew out my hair.

I just started, because DH and I have hit a major financial pitfall. We are literally struggling each month. The more money I save the easier things are.

 

[pampam]

Does the hamburger meat taste funny or different by boiling it rather than frying it??

Just curious.. if the taste is similiar I will need to give this a try!

I've been boiling my hamburger for quite some time, now. I only do it if I plan to make soup with the broth-put it in the fridge, and skim the hardened fat off the top. I've never personally taken the boiled hamburger and tasted it, but I do know there is no difference after the recipe is put together.

 

[Kycha]

Does the hamburger meat taste funny or different by boiling it rather than frying it??

Just curious.. if the taste is similiar I will need to give this a try!

I have not tried the boiling method yet. But, when I fry ground beef, I usually rinse the meat to get a lot of the fat out. And since a lot of the flavor is in the fat, it isn't as flavorful and it is far less greasy. But, it still tastes good.

 

[happycampers]

I Know that the economy is a mess & I would like to know if you any of you were always frugal or just started due to the economy. We have started to cut back.

DH and I have always been pretty frugal. The present economy has pushed me to actively search for more ways we can cut back. Lately, I've been doing a lot more coupon and rebate deals than ever.

 

[MELSMICE]

DH and I have always been pretty frugal. The present economy has pushed me to actively search for more ways we can cut back. Lately, I've been doing a lot more coupon and rebate deals than ever.

This applies to my family as well. While we've always tried to be somewhat frugal, I have been trying to use coupons, rebates & money saving tips a lot more.

I'm loving the SCR from Rite-Aid that I recently started. I'm actually going to take the rebate checks & put them into our Disney vacation account each month!

 

[Plantlady]

DH and I have always been pretty frugal. The present economy has pushed me to actively search for more ways we can cut back. Lately, I've been doing a lot more coupon and rebate deals than ever.

We've always been frugal too. My grandparents still have many habits they obtained during the depression, which were passed down to my parents, then onto me.

 

[Chicklogic]

Never tried it, but she did mention that the "taste is NOT effected." I think she also mentioned that you'd probably end up browning it in most recipes, anyway. In most beef based food, save burgers, there's usually something else that covers up the taste (think spaghetti sauce, taco seasoning, etc.). I'd give it a go!

You are exactly right, Snow. You can go ahead and "post-brown" the beef or just add it as is. It tastes the same as fried and you actually can get away with buying cheaper hamburger cuz you boil most of the fat off anyway

 

[bangzoom6877]

Here are some things we do to save a little here and there:

-I cook and bake from scratch. I find it is much cheaper to bake my own stuff (and I make it healthier) than to buy in a bakery or store. When going to someone's house they really appreciate it too! I even make my own soft pretzels which my son loves!
-Use fewer paper towels (dish towel for drying hands, etc.)
-Buy cheaper paper napkins...I find there is no difference between those and pricier brands
-I don't do it to save money but more for their health, but I water down my children's juice so they get less sugar. DS3 especially likes to drink throughout the day, but hates plain water so sometimes it is a full cup of water with a tiny splash of juice and he drinks it right up!
-I find that with my dishwasher, if I only put detergent into the wash space and not into the "pre-wash" space, the dishes come out just as clean. I just give them a quick rinse beforehand
-Buy meat in family packs when they are on sale, and freeze them in plastic wrap, breaking up the package of meat into sizes I would use for a meal for my family. Then some weeks I have enough meat for the whole week's worth of dinners!
-Buy whatever type of a specific fruit is on sale (i.e., Granny Smith apples one week, MacIntosh the following week, depending on what is on sale). We eat a lot of fruit and eat healthy so this saves us a lot!
-Buy whole fruit and veggies rather than pre-cut, and do the work myself
-Generic for medications, over-the-counter too
-I used to be a beauty product junkie, until DH reminded me that if I buy one bottle of shampoo and conditioner at a time and use it up, I could still switch brands the next time I buy if I want to or feel I need to! And I do not feel deprived!
-Stopped buying Clinique and started buying Almay make-up and other gentle store brands. I'm a make-up junkie too and have also cut back on buying so much!
-Stay at hotels that offer free breakfast. It also makes it easier if I am not familiar with the area we are travelling to, thus I do not have to scramble to find a place for breakfast and end up at the nearest I-Hop, spending $20-$30 on breakfast for the family
-Buy things for the house at local mom-and-pop places instead of Home Depot or Lowe's...we're on Brooklyn, NY and are lucky to have places like that which have cheaper prices, at least here
-Use our regular plates and cups since we run the dishwasher every night anyway. We only buy paper plates and cups for parties in the house
-At family BBQs at our house, ask who wants a hamburger, hot dog, etc. before cooking it, then freeze whatever meat is left over and have it for another meal
-We eat leftovers! Sometimes I do get creative with them, like I will roast a whole chicken and we will make 3 meals out of it. The first would be the traditional roast chicken, potatoes, gravy, veggies. The second would be to dice up the chicken, cook up some brown rice and veggies and make a chicken fried rice out of it. The third might be a big salad with tons of veggies and diced up chicken, or I make a homemade chicken salad out of it and we eat that for lunches.
-I make homemade soups in the winter and they last! Sometimes DH will make his chili, and we freeze half and have it for another meal, or sometimes he or I will bring it to work for lunch for the week
-We have a wonderful store right near my house called "Amazing Savings" and they sell all the popular toys for very cheap. I got my son his JoJo talking doll there for half of what it cost at Toys 'R' Us at the time! I am thrilled that I am changing schools this fall and will be working 2 blocks away from there! Planning to do my holiday shopping there FIRST for my kids and my nieces
-When we make a party at our house and there are leftovers (i.e., sometimes we cater food in), we invite my parents and my sister & nieces over the next day for dinner to enjoy the leftovers so we don't throw them out. We actually look forward to this when making parties, and also when we make Thanksgiving!
-When we go places like the Bronx Zoo, for example, we bring our own lunch in a small cooler and save tons of money!

Oh, and another thing which people here I am sure already know...stay at a Value resort on Disney property if you want to stay on property and be right in the middle of the magic!!

Seriously, we loved Pop Century and plan to stay there again when we go in 3 years!!

 

[Grendalynn]

My aunt (as well as my parents) lived through the Great Depression and one of the things my aunt did until the day she died was to serve her "Fridge Supper" on Friday..

She took everything that was in the fridge (NO leftovers were EVER thrown out - even if it was a portion of meatloaf no bigger than a teaspoon) and put it in a great big frying pan.. She would add a little bacon grease (if you don't have any, I'm sure butter or margarine would do), cut up some onions and potatoes, seasoned it with salt & pepper, and let it simmer until the onions and potatoes were done.. It was the best meal ever.. Even her kids couldn't wait for Friday to roll around..

We have done the same thing for years - especially when DH and I were first married and we had DS now 9. We call it Left Over Stew...

DH and I have always been pretty frugal. The present economy has pushed me to actively search for more ways we can cut back. Lately, I've been doing a lot more coupon and rebate deals than ever.

DH and I were actually talking about this the other night - that we really need to buckle down again and get back into this habit. Glad to see we aren't the only ones in this boat...

I could never do this, I use 2-3 per load I just love the smell..

I was thinking this same thing.... I was thinking I would cut back to just one to be "budget friendly"

You just reminded me! A good way to stretch a jar of sauce (in addition to what you're already doing) is to add a can of crushed tomatoes & simmer it all together. Actually if you've done all of that sauteeing & browning already you're well on your way to a quick homemade sauce...just add your crushed tomatoes & some tomato paste. You'll be skipping the sodium & additives in the jarred sauce.

I don't use jarred sauce (I make a huge pot about once a month & freeze it in bags...another budget stretcher ) but my mom used to use this trick when she was working full time & only cooking for the 2 of us.

Ditto! We do the same thing. Or I will oftenturn leftover meat saunce into Tacos or Sloppy joes later inteh week or for a weekend meal. With a litle pre-thought w can all cut corners and do whats needed to help with the family budgets...

I can't grow tomatoes either! The only part of our yard that gets enough sun is the front yard...

I can't grow tomatoes either - But maybe its because we havent seen the sun in FOREVER!! We are in NH and haven't seen the sun in over aweek and a half almost 2 weeks!!! And its still raining!!

Saving all change (even if it's .99 on a $1.01 purchase) makes a huge dent into our vacation FUNd

We did the same thng last year for our Disney Trip! We started late but all th money we did save was our fun money for the vacation. We have already started savinga ll change for our upcoming vacations! We round up on everything - if its costs $2.40, we pay with $3 and put the change into a jr each evening. Every little bit counts...

You can really freeze milk?? Does it change the taste? How long do you freeze it for?? We just got our every 3rd month trip at Sam's done and milk was $3.32 for 1% milk. It's $4.29 at Food Lion here at home. Thanks!

My parents did this a lot when we were kids, especially when times were tough. There were 5 kids, so we had to stretch everything... We also froze bread as well...

DON'T LET 'EM CATCH YA!! My family has not noticed...... my son is also 18 and 6'6 (LOTSA MILK)

I am considering this... 3 boys (9,5 and almost 2) We drink A LOT of milk!!! wonder if they will catch on?? We will often water down DS1 bottle down at night as we are tryng to ween him off the bottle at night. I drink milk as well and am not sure I wuld like the taste???

This is a great thread!! I will def. be a regular here!!

Another thing that we do as other do, I think I read that we will buy bulk meat packages. Then we will divide it up into freezer bags, mark and date the and freeze accordingly.

I water down all juices and fruit drinks, ice tea, etc. The kids don't notice the difference, they get more liquid and less sugar

We also water down juice... 50/50 or so. Not only does it stretch the juice but as other postes day it also cuts down on the sugar intake...

Another thing that i have really been aware of is the snack prices. Not so much in the summer as we dont need to pack lunches, but duing the school year I try to make cookies, brownines, breads and such to pack the kids, Even if its divving up my ow bok of crackersor oreos. The pre-packaged snacks like cookies,crackers and things tend to be pricey. I also buy fun,reusable containers. They re eco and budget friendly. They have great sandwich containers that also help kee sandwiches fromgetting smooshed!!

Great stuff!! Good job everyone! I also suggest the Dinne Budget thread - very interesting info and ideas there!!

 

[arminnie]

I bought a brisket on sale at a great price and cooked it in the crockpot.

It was very good, but it was just too big. We were getting tired of it.

I froze some of it. But part of it (already cooked) I ground up in the food processor and used instead of hamburger in a casserole. It was great.

I did it because I didn't want to make a trip to the store for hamburger, but I loved the idea of "recycling" the meat. Because it was all lean meat I used less, and it ended up being cheaper than hamburger.

 

[happycampers]

-Buy whole fruit and veggies rather than pre-cut, and do the work myself

I do this too. I usually cut the carrots into sticks, but when the kids see me peeling, they ask me to set aside a few whole carrots for them.

One of the kids brought home one of those "Weekly Reader" magazines and it had a piece about baby carrots. It said that baby carrots were created to use up the odd-sized carrot pieces that weren't the nice, long carrot sticks that look good in a bag, and a machine cut them into that shape. (I know, they aren't a uniform identical shape, but I guess that is because of the way they went into the machine or the original shape of the carrot piece.)

I bought a brisket on sale at a great price and cooked it in the crockpot.

It was very good, but it was just too big. We were getting tired of it.

I froze some of it. But part of it (already cooked) I ground up in the food processor and used instead of hamburger in a casserole. It was great.

I did it because I didn't want to make a trip to the store for hamburger, but I loved the idea of "recycling" the meat. Because it was all lean meat I used less, and it ended up being cheaper than hamburger.

Great idea! I did this before with a roast for tacos, but it ende up more like shredded meat. I just may have to try this idea with the food processor. The term "recycling meat" just cracked me up.

 

[Grendalynn]

I drive PAST the drive thru, not through it! I used to visit once, sometimes twice a day for my Iced Coffee fix, but have started making my own... I would even wash out their plastic cups and lids fo my own coffee so that I still have he coneience of haing it with me in the car. ((I only use them a couple times and then throw them out - I am very aware of the plastic contaminnats thing)... It may not save much, but in the big scheme of things, all those $2.25's add up to something! Now if only I could get DH to cut back on his Frosty Cold beverages!!..... Yeah right!

 

[mrsklamc]

Someone said they freeze bread and that reminds me- DH and I don't go through a loaf of bread before it molds, so we keep it in the fridge and it lasts longer w/o getting frozen.

 

[Chicklogic]

Someone said they freeze bread and that reminds me- DH and I don't go through a loaf of bread before it molds, so we keep it in the fridge and it lasts longer w/o getting frozen.

I remove 4-6 slices of bread from the loaf a day (depending on what has been used). This way the whole loaf doesnb't get moldy......................

 

[pigletto]

I love this thread!

I use 1 cup of baking soda instead of fabric softener in the rinse (vinegar will neutralize bacteria, but baking soda softens really nicely)

I use cloth diapers and buy them at diaperswappers.com (I use Motherease one-size with airflow covers)

This is also for health reasons, but my kids can have a glass of juice with breakfast, but then water the rest of the day, and we water the juice down a little (maybe 1/8th water). We never buy soda except at parties. This is all just normal to them. They think nothing of it.

We never stop at convenience stores for snacks. I always have things on hand in the van (raisins, granola bars, ect).

We never eat out more than once every other week.

I buy all their clothes 1 year ahead at Target, Children's Place & Old Navy when the clothes and shoes are 75% off. I also shop at mom-to-mom sales and subdivision sales (we are lucky this is practically a weekend sport for moms here).

We fill our thermoses with our own filtered water, never buy bottled (plus, I hate plastic)

I spend $1 for $20 worth of coupons on ebay (make sure you can use the amount you buy) then shop at Kroger, which doubles coupons up to $1.

The 2x/year that all the toys go 75% off at Target, I stock up so I have a bday and Christmas gift stash to select from for my kids' friends and sometimes for them (yes, I do have to buy some special things full-price for my kids, though)

I shop & sell on ebay and craigslist.

I freeze overripe bananas until I feel like making banana bread.

Tomato sauce is expensive. I buy a case of 15 oz cans of Hunt's plain tomato sauce at Sam's Club and season it myself with Mrs Dash (or you can use italian seasoning). It is way cheaper and tastes better!

We make our own pizza crust (very easy and quick)--never buy frozen dinners which are unhealthy anyway)

We don't use paper napkins and I just stopped using paper towels (should've a long time ago)

I am sure I have more that I am forgetting!

Excellent ideas! I think we do most of them. Though we really love our pasta sauce around here. I have been lookign forever to find a much cheaper way to make it. In fact if I thought it would be cheaper I would do it from scratch.
Maybe I'll try your method
Would you (or anyone) mind sharing your pizza crust recipe? And can it be frozen if I make a big batch?

 

[Chicklogic]

Excellent ideas! I think we do most of them. Though we really love our pasta sauce around here. I have been lookign forever to find a much cheaper way to make it. In fact if I thought it would be cheaper I would do it from scratch.
Maybe I'll try your method
Would you (or anyone) mind sharing your pizza crust recipe? And can it be frozen if I make a big batch?

Home made pasta sauce is cheaper....but much more labor intensive! My sauce costs only a few dollars to make but takes me 6 hours.......

 

[emma'smom]

How long will it keep this way? Can you do this with chicken breasts too? I'm thinking it would be great to do up a whole bunch...then it will be just easy to grab on busy weeknights.

I brown it before I freeze it, put abount a pound in a quart freezer bag and freeze flat. This way when I have forgotten to set anything out, I can quickly grabbed one bag for dinner. I throw it right in for taco, spaghetti, etc. No need to thaw in the microwave, being flat it thaws really fast on the stove or in the sauce. This is the best thing I have ever done for convenience sake.

 

[semo233]

For pizza dough and pasta sauce, check out this "from scratch" thread

 

[Chicklogic]

For pizza dough and pasta sauce, check out this "from scratch" thread

I got a great bolognase recipe from a food network show called "secrets of a restaurant chef" ~ I LOVED this show.......but they seemed to have pulled the plug after only a few episodes

 

[semo233]

For pizza dough and pasta sauce, check out this "from scratch" thread

Sorry, it looks like I forgot to include the link!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1906670