How Do You Stretch Your Food Dollar? (ingredients, restaurant, hamburger)

[linicx]

I make my own hamburger. I make Corn Chowder instead of Clam Chowder, I buy chicken/turkey parts for soup and pick the meat off the bones. Use reconstitued powdered milk for cooking and baking. Buy in bulk. Most restaurant wholesalers will sell to the public. [They generally carry three grades: good, better and best. The difference is the canned veggies and fruits are not the same uniform size in the lesser grades.] I use less meat than what is called for.in recipes like Chilli and Goulash. I don't eat meat every day. I don't buy name brands; store brands are normally cheaper. I use carrots, potatoes and celery for filler. I make a cheap vegetable soup wifh hamburger. I stretch tuna casserole by adding a can of peas. Chicken livers and gizzards are half the cost of cheap hamburger. Lettuce and corn have zero nutritional value except to a cowl I don't buy it. Use coupons and buy sale items.

Aldi's, Food 4 Less, Dollar General, Sam's Club, COSCO, and Kroger's (they own several national stores) have the best buys, IMHO. .

[Jaxson]

Just posted this on the using fresh foods thread. I grow my own veggies then can them up for winter. I do a lot of what you listed but don't use the powdered milk except in bread making or cocoa mix. I really should make myself use it for cooking. How would it hold up in making pudding?

Make more casseroles instead of having meat then side dishes so I use less meat this way. Use fillers like pasta, beans and rice to stretch meals and at times we eat breakfast foods for supper. In the summertime we have whole meals of fresh veggies out of the garden.

[gentlearts]

I only cook for two, and the most wasteful thing I do is to cook too much and wind up throwing it away.
I try to buy only the amounts I need, but I'm still working on it. Like the other day, I bought a half dozen ears of corn. Are we going to each eat 3?? NO. From now on I'm only buying 4, even though the math is harder.
I do frequently cook enough for 2 meals and freeze one for another day.

[Jaxson]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

I only cook for two, and the most wasteful thing I do is to cook too much and wind up throwing it away.
I try to buy only the amounts I need, but I'm still working on it. Like the other day, I bought a half dozen ears of corn. Are we going to each eat 3?? NO. From now on I'm only buying 4, even though the math is harder.
I do frequently cook enough for 2 meals and freeze one for another day.

Don't throw the food away get a container in your freezer to toss veggie scraps into others one for meats. Once it is full make veggie soup with it. If you buy too much corn cut it off the cob blanch it in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Lay it out on a cookie sheet to freeze, once it is frozen put into zippies or freezer container, you now how fresh corn to use! If you blanch that corn on the cob then freeze you can use it later as well by cooking in boiling water or microwave.

[deerislesmile]

There is a site called Hillbilly Housewife- she has a lot of ideas about saving $$ on food purchases, along with a lot of other good ideas!

[7G9C4J2]

It takes a lot longer, but if you use dried beans, soak them overnight and then cook them, the resulting meal is a lot cheaper than if you use canned.

[spyder1375]

Seeing that I am trying to sell a house and turn around and qualify to buy another I am eating a lot long lasting dishes. I have been cooking a lot of hamburger helper, roasting whole chickens, manwich, hamburger with cheap spaghetti sauce. I just use the exisitng herbs that I have to spice things up. Also when it comes to splurging my gorcery store has a sale spot for meats. So sometimes I can pick up a ribeye or shishkabobs for really cheap. Also instead of buying brand name dressings, cheese, etc I just buy the store brand or what ever is on sale and cheaper. Coupon clipping also helps.

[arsbadmojo]

I am a huge Aldi fan.

I try to make at least 2 dinners a week vegetarian.

At the same time, I've also gone through a major rethinking about food after reading some life-changing books. I'm completely done with supermarket meat, chicken and eggs. I'm going to try to avoid buying fruits and vegetables if I don't know where they came from. I'll have to make some exceptions, but that's my goal.

I buy things with as little processing and packaging as possible.

Doing these things costs more, and quite frankly it's putting a serious hurt on my budget, but it's completely worth it to me.

[georgiainwyo]

There is a thread under the subheading "Recipes" here under the Food & Drink heading that has a bunch of good ideas about eating on a budget. A college student wanted ideas. If you haven't already looked at those ideas, it's well worth your time!

[southdown]

One tip for making expensive ingredients go further -

Instead of using 'neat' parmesan, lightly toast seasoned breadcrumbs in a skillet, then mix with grated parmesan cheese and finely chopped parsley, even a little grated lemon rind and/or garlic. Use as you would parmesan, sprinkled on pasta, chicken, soup etc. Keeps well in an airtight container. It's yummyyy.