if you do a search with the word frugal, a few threads come up, such as the one below.

Most threads have an eye on not wasting and economizing, even if the subject is not specific to that.

a more recent thread is also this one

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cooking/msg0111560930713.html

Here is a link that might be useful: downer dinners

Have you seen this? It's called Poor Man's Meal.

Here is a link that might be useful: poor man's meal

I think pretty well everyone on this forum is dedicated to "making from scratch"....everything! We make our own bread, cakes, pie crust, gravy, meatballs and even can our own produce. Some of us even grow their own meat!
Making things "from scratch" saves paying for the labor of someone else....not to mention you know what goes into the food you eat.
For example a $1.00 bag of beans and a $.49 onion, plus a little salt and pepper will make an equivalant amout of beans to about 5 cans costing $.89 each.
I can buy a whole chicken at $.89 a pound, on special, and from that 4 pound chicken get about 1 1/2 pounds of boneless skinless breasts, 2 boneless skinless thighs for a stif fry, 2 legs and 2 wing drummettes.....and still have the bony parts and meat clinging to it for a creamed chicken and mushroom soup.
So one $3.50 chicken will give you meat for chicken picatta for 3 or 4, chicken stir fry for 4, buffalo wings and legs for 2 and a pot of soup for 6. All you need is a good knife and a few vegetables and seasonings.
Linda C

Does it get cheaper then road kill venison?

A steak grilled at home tastes better and costs about the same as a hamburger eaten out. Frugal does not have to mean eating paste and shoe leather.

Linda is right about a whole chicken... hard to make more meals that taste wonderful for less.

: )
lyra

I make a few of my family's depression/recession meals, they are some of my very frugal favorites.

Grampa Soup is a boiled hamburger/potato soup with spaetzle, and is still my favorite comfort food. Poor Man's Perogies is a caserole made with mashed potatoes, onions, pasta, and cheese. Stuffed Meatloaf is meatloaf stuffed with seasoned bread. Sauerbraten-is made with a method that makes dubious meat taste okay and kills off bacteria, always served with braised red cabbage and spaetzle (though I never use dubious meat).

augie

I've always been pretty frugal. When I joined weight watcher's I started incorporating more whole grains and beans into our diet. Then the economy took a jump off a cliff, my hours were cut back at work, which gave me an extra day off that I can cook. We were sort of "ahead of the curve" (for once!! LOL).
I grew up with home-cooked meals. We very rarely ate out.
I guess it's just the lifestyle I've always had.
You know...."clean your plate, don't waste that, don't take it if you can't eat it, etc."
I've always shopped sales and stocked up.

As far as other living (beyond eating), we have made some cuts. Not too painful so far and they fit into our desire for self-sufficiency. I'm planting a little larger garden this year, we're raising our own beef, raising 2 heifers that will become milk cows (as desired, we'll breed for beef, but steal a little milk), we cut off long distance service (rarely use it anyway at home), and turned off the cable, which means NO T.V. at all. We're reading more, using the library, we still have internet service so we aren't hermits!! LOL

Long way to say "yes and no". :)

Deanna

This a great place to come to get ideas using up what's in your pantry. The best way to be frugal is to not waste what you already have. They also help you avoid convenient packaged mixes. You can make your own at far less cost with better for you ingredients. Garden Web also has a site on economizing, that's not the specific name, check the home site lists. Welcome to the club!

I've been trying to cut back myself. Probably the most "frugal" dish I make is lentil soup. Off the top of my head, I can't say what a 1 pound package of dried lentils cost, but it can't be much more than a dollar. Anyway, rinse a pound of dried lentils and pick them over for any weird ones or stones and such, put them in a large pot and cover them with about 4 inches of water (sorry, but I always use the same pot and add water by eye so I have no idea how much water, but it's not critical if you have more or less, it'll just give you thinner or thicker soup), and bring to a boil, then turn down and let it simmer covered. Throw in a few tablespoons of tomato paste, a few cut up stalks of celery, some chopped onion and sliced garlic to taste, salt & pepper, and you're done as soon as the lentils are to your desired softness.

You can make it with chicken stock, but of course water is much more frugal!

Add a nice salad and a crusty loaf of bread and it might be "peasant" food, but it's one of my favorite meals!

Lisa

Lisa, I agree, I love lentils and should eat more of them.

I grew up pretty poor, raised by a Grandmother who could make a great meal out of nothing, so I got an early start. I had a few years when I was married, the husband and I owned a bar and grille and I spent more money than I should. We sold the bar, borrowed money to start a health food store. We had kids, eventually got divorced, and my early teaching was very handy at that time. I spent a few years as a single Mom with kids in college, so broke I didn't have two nickels to rub together, and got even cheaper.

Now I'm remarried but we have two house payments, two utility bills, three tax bills, and two daughters still in college. LOL I'm still cheap.

I've always had a garden, canned and preserved my crops, raised cattle and chickens. I do those things because I like to, but they end up being money savers. I cook extra for planned leftovers for lunch, so I don't eat out, that's something that's unhealthy and expensive, usually. I make nearly everything from scratch, even yogurt, and bake all my own bread. I eat lots of beans and lentils and eggs, but it's because I like them and because they're healthy considering my high cholesterol.

So, I'm cheap and I'm healthy. LOL. It's not a new thing at all for me.

Annie

I've been trying to cut back myself. Probably the most "frugal" dish I make is lentil soup. Off the top of my head, I can't say what a 1 pound package of dried lentils cost, but it can't be much more than a dollar. Anyway, rinse a pound of dried lentils and pick them over for any weird ones or stones and such, put them in a large pot and cover them with about 4 inches of water (sorry, but I always use the same pot and add water by eye so I have no idea how much water, but it's not critical if you have more or less, it'll just give you thinner or thicker soup), and bring to a boil, then turn down and let it simmer covered. Throw in a few tablespoons of tomato paste, a few cut up stalks of celery, some chopped onion and sliced garlic to taste, salt & pepper, and you're done as soon as the lentils are to your desired softness.

You can make it with chicken stock, but of course water is much more frugal!

Add a nice salad and a crusty loaf of bread and it might be "peasant" food, but it's one of my favorite meals!

Lisa

Weird - where did that second post come from?

Anyway! I forgot to add - sometimes I add some ditalini pasta to the lentil soup. It depends on my mood. And it HAS to be ditalini lol!! That's how mom made it so that's how it is!!

Lisa

I skipped buying strawberry preserves at Trader Joes today because strawberries are in season now and I'm going to make my own (and some for friends) preserves this weekend. I also have a big bag of cranberries in the freezer that I bought and stashed so I can make preserves when my last jar runs out, which is about now!

Soon it will be too warm for soup which is my favorite way to cook frugally. So I will start again (she says with determination!) to plan my vegetable plates for once or twice a week. I'll include a salad, slaw, or pickled salad like bean salad with two or three vegetables and leave out the meat that meal.

I want to get back into making yogurt every week too. I have yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit for breakfast often when the weather warms up.

For now I am eating out of my freezer to clear it out then fill it up gradually with turkey and beef burgers for the grill. I plan to make some freezer strawberry jam when the berries are plentiful here and I found a local source for blueberries too!

I think cooking period is saving money. Most of the people I know from work buy all their meals at restaurants. The ones that don't come from restaurants come in boxes designed to go from freezer to microwave. When I do the marketing, I see mothers with their brood trailing behind and two carts full of frozen convenience products. I cringe when I think of all the preservatives going into those growing bodies!

I brought homemade chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting to work the other day (was hard to find a recipe that didn't use shortening, but I did!). One of the new people asked me if it was Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker. The people who have known me for years knew better, and I certainly set the new kid straight (so to speak).

Frugal for me means buying the whole chicken instead of parts... and NOT buying fruits and veggies unless they are frozen until I can force myself to eat them before they spoil. Also have to know when to spend more... like on vacuum sealer bags. I tried the Great Value brand, wasted a whole roll trying to make them get a good suck n seal. Just would not work! I bought Food Saver brand and even though they are more expensive, they work the first time every time so there is no waste.

Lately, I've been relying on convenience foods more than I want to. Using being tired from work as my excuse, I was filling my grocery cart and belly with frozen foods instead of things I had more interaction with than pressing a button and lifting the fork to my mouth. Cooking is a lost art and I don't want to become so detached from it that I lose my passion for it. So, within the last week, I've baked a chicken and made the cupecakes and tacos and country fried steak with gravy... slowly getting back into cooking. I'm cleaning the kitchen and washing dishes a lot more, but my wallet and waist line are benefiting greatly. I haven't baked my own bread in a while (though I did make the offiial switch from white to honey wheat... at least for now), but I still have all the supplies and it's on my agenda. As soon as I finish the loaf I just purchased, I will be making my next one from scratch... I've already set the breadmaker pan out so I remember!

Bread???!! Purchased?????
Bobby!....are you OK???
Linda C