Cooking on a Budget

Wasting Food

I worked as a waitress a good part of my younger years, and it didn't really occur to me back then how much food the restaurant businesses were throwing out. It wasn't until I worked at a grocery store that all this food waste was really starting to bug me. I was happy when I noticed Day Old Bread stores opening up, and much of the outdated food going to the Homeless Shelters, and Food Pantries.

I don't throw anything out. Even if it's a dab of spagetti, it gets put in a container and put in the freezer for a quick snack, or one day a week becomes "leftover" day. If I can't save an item, it goes into the garden under the mulch to feed the worms.

Stretching the Budget

Some people are eating macaroni and cheese every night, and for them it's a delight just to get a can of tuna or Spam (which I noticed is not cheap anymore)

I've visited peoples homes and they say, We don't have anything to eat! Yet, you can open their refrigerator, and it's full of food! I simply do not understand this. Yet, they are always looking for ways to save money when they shop for groceries. It's kind of ironic.

I'm always looking for the easiest of recipes to cook. You should to be able to prepare tasty dishes with 5 items or less, that's my theory. If I go online to find a recipe as simple as "Sloppy Joe's," I don't want a recipe that you need 10 ingredients for, I need one with not more than 4 or 5. Not everybody has money to spend buying all the gourmet spices, and razzle dazzle that people are using to cook with. A lot of people are on limited incomes or food stamps, and are looking for ways to stretch the dollar that they have.

I've even started to make my own bread. I haven't bought store bought loaves in over a year. It's not hard to cook, you just need to develop organizational skills, and timing of food all getting done at the same time is important.

Cheaper Eating Out?

It used to be that it was cheaper to prepare home cooked meals instead of eating out. Nowadays, it doesn't seem like this holds true anymore. What happened? We got busy. Busy with life, busy with our jobs, busy, busy, busy. None of the modern conveniences that they said was going to save us time, doesn't seem to be doing that. All it saves us time for is for working more.

One of my problems with the fast food luxury is that my kids aren't learning how to cook. They don't realize that when they are older, and have their own family, that they too are going to be looking for ways to cut corners.

During the 1970's recession, we practically lived off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Also, crockpots and one-dish casseroles became very popular. You'll find recipes for these in this old recipe book website. During the 1950's recession, cinnamon toast and peanut butter mixed with Maple syrup was a treat!