So ask most of my friends and family, I’m not the world’s best cook. Actually I’m quite terrible. However since my DH started a part-time MBA, I had to pick up more slack at home. And one of the chores is cooking. But in an effort to save money I decided to learn.
My DH’s tip for saving money and for making better food? Start building a repoirtoire of recipes you like and are easy to make. That way you, can improve you skill level, but more importantly, already have the ingrediants on hand so you don’t have to run out to the grocery store to spend more.
The biggest expense I’ve found about cooking at home? Buying ingrediants you only use once. Then being stuck with a bottle of spices or sides that you never use again. Try simpler recipes with only common ingrediants so if it’s too hard or you hate it, it’s not a big deal. At least that’s what I’ve found.
And of course try to make these things weekly. Sure it’s lame to be eating the same meal every week, but as you build up your repoirtoire of recipes it’ll get easier. It’s taken me probably 3 years, but I think I can now manage enough different recipes for 2 weeks worth of food. Plus I really only need to shop every week for the a pretty set list of fresh fruits and veggies since I’m stocked on all spices and ingrediants most of the time.
And my not so frugal trick, buying premade pizza and foods in case I’m feeling lazy, but not wanting to spend take out prices on food.
What tricks do you use to cook at home?
10 responses so far ↓
1 Meg from FruWiki // May 31, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Most of my meals are variations on a few very simple recipes, things as simple as a baked potato with cheese or cabbage soup or tomato sandwiches. Most have less than 5 ingredients, sometimes only one or two.
Where I get into trouble is when I try to plan something new or just outside of my staples (or when I just buy too much food).
I get a lot of fellow frugalites trying to convince me that detailed meal planning is the way to go, but its usually just me eating and my meals are simple so it really doesn’t make sense. Plus I have to be in the mood for something to eat it. And I’ve seen the recipes they put on their sites and they aren’t all that simple compared to my meals. So, I’m sticking to what works for me.
2 Chris // May 31, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I don’t mind cooking at all. It is the cleanup that I hate. I always try and grill food as much as possible. No pots and pans to clean up!
3 JoeP // May 31, 2009 at 9:29 pm
One word: grilling.
You can do an amazing amount of cooking on the grill, and it doesn’t have to be expensive cuts of meat or anything. Chicken, sausage, burgers, vegetables, fish to name a few. Vacuum seal bulk food and freeze. Make a lot, vacuum seal and freeze leftovers for a quick grill-fresh meal in a rush, or for lunch.
4 Christine // Jun 1, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Two resources are very helpful:
1. A good 5 ingredient cookbook. Check it out at the library first. Photocopy anything interesting and stick in a photo album. You can drip all over it and all you have to do is wipe it off.
2. An open bin (bulk) spice store.
5 Colette // Jun 2, 2009 at 11:39 pm
one of my favorite things to do is leftovers. I save a lot of money by making something big on the weekends that has lots of leftover potential.
This is just a sort of example. I have to do this because we have 2 teenage eating machines in the house. They don’t like leftovers unless they are disguised as a new dish.
day one–ham
day two- potatoes au gratin with ham
day 3 sandwiches
day 4 soup with bone.
This can also easily done with turkey. It gives you a lot of freedom to experiment easily. If you don’t like it…..just don’t make it again.
6 LAL // Jun 3, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Meg, my DH is very picky about food. He prefers specific types and styles of food.
Chris and Joe, we used to grill once a week, until we moved to a place with winter! Boy does that suck! We still kept our smoker! And use it only during the summer because well, spring is still cold and RAINS. Fall isn’t that great either. I am missing 72 and balmy.
Colette, I do that with chicken and lamb and ground beef.
Chicken
-chicken salad
-chicken quesidilla
-chicken casserole
-teriyaki chicken
Lamb
-kabobs
-curry
-gyro
Beef
-mapo tofu
-curry
-hamburgers
-meatloaf
-spaghetti
Christine where do you find an open bulk spice store? That would be amazing!
7 JoeP // Jun 4, 2009 at 8:00 am
LAL: why would winter prevent you from grilling? I grill into single digits, just bundle up.
8 LAL // Jun 4, 2009 at 8:42 am
Too much snow on our deck! Wish it were covered. That would make it palatable.
9 JoeP // Jun 4, 2009 at 10:40 am
You have a garage? Maybe you could put the grill there and just wheel it just outside the garage door when you use it. That’s what I do, and it just involves a small amount of shoveling (plus I hang out in the garage out of the elements). I just hate to hear about someone giving up on grilling!
10 LAL // Jun 4, 2009 at 11:28 am
Nope, no garage. I have to shovel out our cars. LOL. We live in a townhouse with no garage, we’re lucky to have a parking spot off street.
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