Stretch Your Grocery Budget

Stretch Your Food Budget

• 1Stretch ground beef or turkey by mixing it with stale bread crumbs, cracker crumbs or oatmeal. You can even use the dregs at the bottom of a box of unsweetened cereal to extend your hamburger meat. Just crumble it up well and mix it well with the meat. If you need a binder, try a well-beaten egg, some milk or a dab of worcestershire sauce.
• 2Stretch soup by adding additional vegetables, noodles or rice. Extend a can of cream of chicken soup by serving it over rice or mashed potatoes. Serve canned stew or vegetable beef soup over a bed of mashed potatoes.
• 3You can save money by skipping sugar-laden fruit drinks, but if you are still buying them dilute them by adding more water. If you do this gradually, your family will not notice.
• 4Adding more beans to recipes provides additional protein and fiber while extending the number of servings at a relatively low cost. Even canned beans are very cheap protein. If you start with dry beans, they are even cheaper.
• 5Keep a container in the freezer to collect your leftover vegetables and scraps of meat. Even bits of leftover sauces and gravy can go in. Once a month or so, use the contents to make a soup.
• 6Remake leftovers into another meal. For example, yesterday's hamburgers or meatloaf could become the meat in tonight's spaghetti sauce. Put beef stew in a crust and make a pot pie. Baked chicken can become chicken casserole or chicken salad. Our grandmothers used to serve mashed potatoes one night and potato cakes the next.
• 7Leftover cooked cereal can go into a loaf of bread to eat with dinner.

Tricks With Stale Bread to Stretch Your Grocery Budget

• 1Turn stale bread into French toast. Just beat some eggs in a shallow bowl with a little milk, sugar and vanilla extract to taste. Dip the bread slices in and cook in a medium skillet with butter or margarine. No need to get all fancy! The kids will love this. Serve with syrup or jelly.
• 2Save stale bread crumbs in the freezer and use as filler for ground meats, or mix with melted butter to top casseroles.
• 3Top slices with grated cheese and warm in the oven or toast under the broiler to make a yummy cheese bread that goes great with soup.
• 4Of course you can make a grilled cheese sandwich, but how about making a grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Just coat the outside of your favorite pbj with butter or margarine and cooking it in a buttered skillet This is a high-calorie yummy treat!
• 5Make some bread pudding with your stale bread.
• 6Make croutons by drizzling herb butter (a stick of butter or margarine melted with some fresh basil and minced garlic) over bread cubes, then baking at 275 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes. Serve with salad or soup, or just munch as a crunchy snack.

Stretching Paper Products, Cleaning and Laundry Supplies

Your Grocery Budget is Not Just Food!

• 1Have you tried making your own laundry detergent? I did not like the results when I tried it; but, I have found I can stretch my store bought detergent by adding borax or washing soda. These detergent boosters allow me to use less and make my money go farther.
• 2Cut fabric softener sheets in half, or use them twice.
• 3Ditch the paper fabric softener sheets and make your own substitute by putting some liquid fabric softener on a wet wash cloth and tossing this into the dryer with your damp clothes.
• 4Hang your laundry as often as possible. For more information on how to do this without access to an outdoor clothesline, see my lens on laundry racks.
• 5Cut paper napkins in half. Just open them up, restack, then cut with large scissors.
• 6Use cloth napkins all or part of the time.
• 7Substitute family cloth for all or some of your toilet paper.
• 8Use vinegar to clean your house instead of expensive chemical solutions.
• 9Stretch dishwasher detergent by adding baking soda or borax.
• 10Instead of expensive toilet bowl cleaners, I have found that old fashioned Comet works just as well for a fraction of the cost. A can of Comet costs less than a dollar and lasts for weeks.
• 11Get the last drops out of a seemingly empty bottle of liquid laundry or dish detergent. Just add water, swish it around in the bottle, then dump the contents into your wash water. Repeat until no more suds come out of the bottle. When doing this at the washing machine, I just use the water pouring into the washer to fill my bottle to avoid trips back and forth to the sink.