How do you stretch out your budget when it comes to food??



I will save leftover veggies. LOL When I made a frozen veggie like peas or corn, if there is some leftover, I will freeze them till I have enough for another meal, or just combine what I have to make a mixed veggie.

I will occassionally add some beans to my taco meat to make my 1lb of meat a bit bigger.

When I buy rolls for sandwiches, I freeze them right away, essp if they were on the discount rack. When we want a sandwich, we just take the 1 we need, and defrost it in the micorwave for 30 seconds. This keeps them from molding so quickly.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan9.Samantha7,Cameron5

New England Mommysavers Social Group, Join us!http://mommysavers.com/boards/group.php?groupid=10

I never seem to have lo veggies, but that is a good thing. Everyone is eating them.
I try and make multiple meals out of say a whole chicken.
I was adding beans to my hamburger meat too for tacos, but I stopped. I need to start to do that again. Makes it stretch out more plus more healthy.
I do use lo's as lunches. Great way to have a hot lunch instead of a cold sandwich.
I like your idea on the sandwich rolls. I need to do that. I am guilty of letting bread dry out or mold sometimes.

I am looking forward to some new ideas for stretching out food and saving money on my budget.

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OH here is another one. when I buy boneless chicken, I cut them in half and make 2 cutlets out of them. Doubles the chicken. LOL And its still plenty of meat for a serving. When I defrost them, before I cook them, I pound them out a bit to make them 'appear' bigger.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan9.Samantha7,Cameron5

New England Mommysavers Social Group, Join us!http://mommysavers.com/boards/group.php?groupid=10

When I buy hamburger to put in my spaghetti sauce or ghoulash I"ll buy a pound and half it into freezer bags because I don't need a whole pound for that stuff. I usually shop for meat a walmart so I can't just buy a half pound at a time.

I go to the bread thrift store here in town. Not only do I get bread i get snacks too like twinkies and cupcakes

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Plus when you do that, it will cook faster!! So you are also saving time and energy.

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OH lets think about seasonings too. At Walmart, the taco seasonings are SO cheap, they are like less than .75, and you can always find a coupon for them. I stock UP on those! So when its taco night, usually all I'll have to buy is the taco shells, which are much cheaper than buying the whole kit.

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~Missy~Mommy
Meghan9.Samantha7,Cameron5

New England Mommysavers Social Group, Join us!http://mommysavers.com/boards/group.php?groupid=10

LO lunchmeat. It seems that somehow we always end up with one or two slices that are quite enough for a sandwich. And not enough for everyone to snack on-my kids love to snack on rolled up lunchmeat. So what I do is cut it up and add to scrambled eggs for breakfast. My kids love it. Doesnt matter if it is ham, turkey, etc. It's pretty darn good.

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I try to make meals that will have left overs for lunch like chili, meatloafs ect.

also I try to do the same thing make a whole chicken and get two meals out of it or use 1lb hamburger 1/2lb for homemade pizza and 1/2 the lb in spahgetti suace or a casserole so I can get 2 meals out of 1lb of burger.

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SILENCE IS GOLDEN BUT DUCK TAPE IS SILVER.

As far as stretching the budget goes, I found that I was spending more on trying to cook for two people for each meal (especially on freezer bags, because everything comes in a family pack). Now I just make normal family sized batch of food, and DH and I eat on it until it's gone! Sometimes we freeze leftovers if we get sick of eating it. It saves me from having to cook every night which is a blessing because I am in school again, it saves energy because I don't have the oven running every night, and saves money on food as well.

I do the saving of the veggies as well. In fact we are having chicken noodle soup tonight with the leftover veggies and chicken that were in the freezer from previous meals.

I also use a whole chicken to make different meals, chicken tacos, chicken noodle soup, shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches......

I have been saving the heels of the bread in a bag in the freezer and when I run out of croutons I am going to take a stab at making my own. Much cheaper and I am guessing I will probably get a lot more for less.

Buying heads of lettuce instead of bags is another one we do. Along with regular carrots vs. bags of minis.

**I forgot to add that I also use the whole chicken carcass and boil it to use for the chicken broth for my chicken noodle soup.

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~SONJA~
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