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Why I think most recipes qualify as frugal

In the survey, some readers wondered why I post recipes, since this isn’t a cooking blog and since not all of the recipes I post are classic frugal fare.

fruit salad

So, I thought I should explain!

Honestly, Amy Dacyzyn of the Tightwad Gazette would probably never cook the things I make for dinner.

I don’t do a lot of meatless dinner meals, I make very few casseroles, I hardly ever cook with beans, and so on.

But here’s the thing: I view all (ok, most) recipes as frugal.

Why?

Because when you’re using a recipe, it means you’re cooking at home, and that is an incredibly surefire way of saving money.

Eating out, getting takeout, or buying hot, prepared food from the grocery store is going to be more expensive than almost anything you cook at home.

I mean, you can practically eat lobster tail and rib-eye at home for the cost of eating out.

(I don’t really recommend doing that, because you can maximize your cook-at-home savings by eating something other than the most expensive protein at the grocery store!)

I know there are some of you out there who are black-belt levels of frugal and you have the motivation and energy to really zero in on cooking with the most frugal groceries possible.

But based on what I hear, more of us are just trying to get something on the table instead of takeout.

So, my goal is to provide readers with reliable, accessible, delicious recipes for dinner.  

Because if you can make something that’s family-pleasing without spending hours in the kitchen, you are going to be way, way, way more likely to eat in instead of out.

If a recipe includes shrimp or boneless chicken breasts or a block of Parmesan cheese or even flank steak, I’m not going to sweat it, and you might not need to sweat it either.

Also, there’s this to keep in mind: Done is better than perfect, and the perfect is the enemy of the good.

If you make a rule that you will cook only with the most frugal ingredients available, you may find yourself burnt out and uninspired about eating what you cook (that would be how I feel about most casseroles!), and you may be more temped to give in to the takeout monster.

If that’s true for you, then take a middle road, and just focus on cooking at home as much as possible instead of fretting about the cost of a block of cheese or trying to feed beans and rice to a family that loathes beans.

If you get really consistent at cooking every night, then hey, maybe you’ll have some extra brain space to start focusing more on frugal ingredients*.

*at which point The Tightwad Gazette or The Prudent Homemaker can help you out.

But the main thing is to just get food on the table at dinner.

ham, applesauce, and salad

So. I don’t post explicitly frugal main dish recipes, but I’m pretty positive that every recipe I’ve ever posted, regardless of the ingredients it calls for, will save you money if you make it instead of takeout.

And that is the reason I post recipes.

P.S. Just do you know, I do think about the cost of a recipe when I decide if I want to try it.   For instance, there’s a Crab Louis recipe in a Cook’s Country magazine that looks delicious, but I feel like that’s going to be a little too expensive for my family. Also, I’m not into cooking up expensive steaks all the time.   The point is, I just don’t think that hardcore focus on the cost of ingredients is important unless you’ve tackled the takeout problem first.

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Carolyn

Tuesday 12th of December 2017

Eating out is expensive, so yes cooking at home is a savings to start. And being you are going to be spending the time to cook, cook something fun you will enjoy eating. It is even better if you picked it from your own garden fresh, or next is canned or frozen of your own. Plus you know where it came from and what is NOT in it.Hubby got three deer last year, and the kids despite the many varieties of preparing the delicious meat asked for chicken and other things as well. This year he just got one, and we will be making the venison tacos, jerky, etc, complimented by frozen and canned vegetables as well as herbs and spices dried from the garden. Just will run out of venison sooner. And the kids specifically want the tasty jerky, they inhale it. Have you checked the price of the dried meat snack in stores? Extremely expensive. Planting more onions, tomatoes, peppers, squash as well as the other favorites in May. Garlic was put in back in October. Cook at home from home sourced is the best in delicious frugal fare. Especially when you have guests for dinner . We froze alot of blueberries so holiday desserts of pies, muffins, etc will feature our own blueberries. Next year we plan on having gooseberry products, raspberry and strawberries added as well, being they were transplanted last April.

Kat

Thursday 7th of December 2017

The way that you think aligns well with my thought process about dinner/food on the table. If I only ate frugal meals, I would freak out and gonon a take out spree. I'm going to quote you on this - love it! "Done is better than perfect, and the perfect is the enemy of the good."

MommaL

Thursday 7th of December 2017

I am so encouraged by this blog. I read "super frugal" blogs, and get ideas, but always feel like a failure that I don't make beans every week and darn my own socks. Thank you for keeping it real. :)

Gwen

Thursday 7th of December 2017

Well said! I, too, consider it a win if we make dinner rather than do take out. It is inevitably healthier usually, and cheaper to make it at home. My family likes to eat meat and aren't big beans fans either. We find ways to make the meat a bit more frugal by doing things like buying meat in bulk at Costco and then breaking it down into meal-size portions that we freeze and then thaw for dinner.

I'd rather a happy frugal family with a fast/easy homemade meal that is "good enough". Thanks for all you do here!

Denise

Thursday 7th of December 2017

I love your recipe posts and totally agree that eating at home is cheaper than eating out. My kids and DH have different degrees of tolerance for spice - which I know you are familiar with and you mention all the time when you talk about leaving out spices in a recipe. Also, we love having steak, baked potatoes and salads for dinner and then realizing that we had steak dinner for 4 for the price of one dinner out! Bonus.

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