rheanna

Cooking from scratch saves a LOT of money. You can pay less for simple products or you can pay for a product PLUS someone's labor in preparing the product. A simple spaghetti sauce made with sauteed onions and celery, a bit of finely chopped meat and/or lentils or beans, add a bit of tomato PASTE not sauce, thin with water and add a pinch of herbs -- and you're done. (20 minutes of your time as opposed to 2 minutes to heat up a jar of Ragu, but lots cheaper and you can tailor the ingredients to suit your family.) Tomato paste seems to me to cost less than cans of tomato sauce, and you get lots of tomato flavor -- you just have to dilute it yourself.

Smaller amounts of meat in the diet will save LOTS of money -- I normally chop it fine and put it with lots of veggies and saucy things. Buy fresh veggies ONLY when they are in season or in the bargain bin -- this means choose your recipes based on what you'e got in the house. Frozen veggies are just a nutritious as fresh, and canned ones are great in soups and casseroles. Beans of various sorts are filling and cheap. Beans are even cheaper if you cook them yourself (rinse, soak in three-times the water all day, and cook in the evening for 45 minutes or till done -- don't add salt until they're done cooking). Lots of people think that cooking beans takes too much work -- but my experience is that it takes a bit of planning, but not that much more of my own time. My philosophy is, I'd rather do a little planning than pay someone else for their labor.

If you've got a freezer, buy meats and things only when they're on sale, and freeze in meal-sized portions. The extra beans can go into the freezer as well -- it takes just as much time and electricity to cook up a big pot as a small one. A microwave oven defrosts things in a hurry when you've forgotten to take something out of the freezer in the morning. If you haven't got a freezer or microwave, than it just takes a bit more planning to keep costs down.

Learn to compare prices (price per pound or ounce or unit) and don't just assume that because you've got a coupon for a major brand that it will be the cheapest price -- often the store or no-name brands are cheaper, and are usually made by the major brands anyway so the quality is just as good.

Good luck in your adventures to keep costs down without sacrificing health and good flavor!

--Rheanna