5 Days of Frugal Eating

Welcome to 5 Days of Frugal Eating.  This is just one of over 65 blogs participating in this "5 Days of" blog carnival.  What's a blog carnival?  Well, basically, you start on whichever blog you wish; then, you hop from blog to blog reading to your heart's content.  We desire to make this not only fun but helpful to you in your walk as a homemaker and teacher.  So, after you've read my post, just click the 5 Days of Blogging banner below to find more than 65 bloggers who have committed to writing on a chosen topic for five days.  We've got variety; so, do join us!

When you think of frugal eating, what do you envision?  The books I've picked up often assume you can afford a lot more than I could at my lowest budget point.

I thought about calling this 5 days of Survival Cooking; but, visions of bunkers of stored food or roughing it in the woods came to mind.  That's not what I mean by survival cooking. 

To me, as a mom with four children at home, survival cooking is filling tummies for the least possible amount of money.  It's not always the best nutritionally.  In fact, it's carbohydrate heavy.  Why?  Carbs are cheap.  Pasta, rice, potatoes.  You get the picture.  This is not meant to be a long-term way of eating.  This is getting by when things are their worst until things get better.

My view of frugal eating came as a result of circumstances. Because of corporate downsizing, we found ourselves in a position of lifestyle downsizing, and downsizing, and finally downsizing to a point where we were just trying to survive. During that time period, I learned to cook many things, nearly all from scratch, that kept my family from going hungry in the leanest of times.

This week, I'll share some of the things I've done to make a small grocery budget work for our family of six.  Today, I just want to give you some things to think about.

1.  If your family doesn't like it or won't eat it, don't buy it.  No matter how cheap it is, it's too expensive to throw out food.

2.  Start a binder or list of all the foods you can make even if they're not frugal.  Then highlight the frugal ones.

3.  Bake.  I found that if I didn't think ahead and bake bread, biscuits, etc., mealtime became super stressed as I tried to find something, anything to make the meager portions stretch.

4.  Someone once told me, "Always have your hand in the next meal."  She meant always be preparing ahead of time.  So remember to soak the beans tonight for tomorrow's meal.  Cook the rice ahead of time.  That kind of thing.

5.  Pray.  Pray when you check what you have on hand.  Pray when you make your lists.  Pray while you're shopping.  Invite Father God to be your shopping partner.

That's all for today.  Do drop in again tomorrow.

 

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May I suggest?

Forty Ways to Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without

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