Regarding Frugal living

by Dawn
(Michigan)

I am on the parent coalition committee for the school district. We have speakers come in and gives us good tips. We had one come in and tell us about pantry shopping. What you do is before you go grocery shopping. Make a list of items that are in your pantry and fridge. Go over your list and either using a recipe book or Internet which is easier to enter the ingredients you have on hand to find recipes. It was unbelievable to think we had nothing for meals in the house and would have to run to the store and spend money when it was not necessary. An example of some meals by pantry shopping we did. Was mushroom steak. In our inventory we had hamburger, stove top stuffing, a jar of brown gravy, and potatoes. We did have to pick up a couple of small items which was an onion and fresh mushrooms and that was a meal. Another inventory list we had was boneless chicken breasts, milk, spaghetti, a block of cream cheese, broccoli and before we knew it we had broccoli chicken Alfredo for dinner. I was able to plan 2 weeks worth of dinners just by what we already had on hand. It saves a lot of time and money on shopping. Of course there may be a couple items here and there to complete your recipe. Planning ahead is also great if you are a busy working parent. I just go over my inventory on hand and make a list of things needed to complete the meal. Of course I got my little 5 year old chef help me prepare the meals.