Mimi’s Idea’s For Saving Money in the Kitchen

Make a big pot of beans every week! Seriously, beans are nutritious and take the place of meat in a meal. We love pintos, greens, taters (fried or boiled with butter) and cornbread. That’s a heavenly meal!! Then you can use the bean stock and left over beans for soup. Add veggies like corn, celery, greens, some tomatoes and voila! Also refried beans with flour tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa and sour cream is a quick and easy meal if you have the beans ready to mash and fry waiting in your fridge.

Buy a whole chicken and make your own broth. You can buy a nice whole chicken at a very reasonable price. Boil it in a big pot of water until the meat is tender and falling away from the bone - you’ll have homemade chicken broth for soup and chicken for another meal. Keep a little meat for your big pot of chicken soup, make some chicken salad, use some to add to a butter and flour cream sauce and serve over rice or noodles. Great meals! And don’t toss the chicken bones. You can add them back to your pot of broth after you remove the meat and make the richest, thickest broth you’ve ever tasted. Fabulous!

Use left overs. I don’t mean to eat that little dab of green beans from last nights dinner, unless you just want to. What I mean is keep everything (if it’s edible) until you have enough for a pot of soup. I have used left over taters and green beans, pork and beans, corn, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, spaghetti, anything. Dump it in a pot and add some of your broth, maybe some tomatoes, cabbage....the sky is the limit. Seriously, I have used so many weird combinations and not once has the soup been inedible. We call it “Everything But The Kitchen Sink” Soup. If you liked it the first time it will be good in soup. Experiment until you get a feel for the blends. 

Buy a bread machine and make your own bread. I know, a machine is an expense, but a decent bread maker can cost you less than $60 and you will save money and make healthier bread than you can buy. You can make great bread totally by hand but a busy mom with little ones just doesn’t have the time or desire, so a machine does the hard work and you get the full credit and benefit. I never bake my bread in the machine (although you certainly can). I let the machine do the knead and first rise, then I take out the dough, shape it into two loaves, or four 12” pizza crusts, or a pan of dinner rolls or hamburger buns....all of which can be baked and frozen for use any time you need some bread. I make two loaves at the beginning of the week, slice it and freeze it in large freezer bags so that I can take out one slice or a dozen for sandwiches, toast, garlic bread. It thaws in just a few minutes and tastes fresh. 

Use a toaster oven - yes, that can save you money. It takes a lot less energy than your full sized oven and is great for toasting garlic bread or warming up leftovers, even baking that pizza. 

Don't use paper napkins. You're just throwing money in the trash, literally. You can buy a dozen washcloths at Walmart for around $5.00. Roll them up, put them in a cute basket and keep them handy on the table or counter.

Don't use plastic wrap either. Another waste of money. You can buy a 20 pack of covers (or "shower caps" as my kids call them) for $1.00 at the Dollar Tree, and they can be rinsed and dried and reused over and over!! There are several sizes in this box, from gigantic to teeny, so you can cover most any bowl in your kitchen.

Use foil to keep your burner covers clean. No matter how careful you are you'll get burned on spills that just won't come clean. The foil keeps them spotless or covers up ugly ones if you didn't cover them to begin with.