I am right with Stefano, above, and would like to point out that if your garden includes herbs, if you chop the fresh herbs and freeze them in ice cubes by the teaspoonful, you have premeasured “fresh” herbs at any time. (I make a lot of soups; your mileage may vary.)

I seldom use it, but I’ve never been able to come up with a suitable substitute when I want one and haven’t got it.

I’d never seen a pressure cooker in action growing up, except for bottling, until I went to Brazil. I got a couple of different people there to teach me how to use one, and now we use it all the time.

It can break down tough meats that even a slow cooker would have a hard time with, and makes cooking dried beans a reasonably timed affair (~30 minutes, no pre-soak).

Home made chili, refried beans, and bean and vegetable soup are all really cheap to make, and with a pressure cooker, it’s a lot quicker.

Gotta disagree with you on this one. As a rule, you’re right; but there are exceptions.

When I was furnishing my first apartment – I bought one of those $20 “Kitchens in a Box” which had everything I needed; but all of the items were of poor quality. Over time, I replaced the items that I use frequently with higher-quality brands; but the ones I use from time to time kept me from borrowing from a neighbor or buying something I need only once every two years.

Like: if I buy cereal, I buy milk. And if I’m buying milk, I buy something else to use the milk up: hot cocoa, or bread and eggs for french toast.

Or, if I’m buying celery for a soup or stir-fry, then I buy some tuna because celery is good in tuna salad.

The other frugal-cooking thing I do is to cut about half the recommended spices and flavorings out when I make a dish.

Oh: and you have to know when you can use tough cuts of meat and they’ll still taste good, and when you should buy pricier meat or skip the dish entirely. Stir-fry with skirt steak wasn’t awful, but I should’ve made something else with it.

#3 – I would never suggest using dry mil for cereal and certainly not for drinking, but we use it all the time for cooking, even when making oatmeal (real oatmeal, not instant), and I can’t tell a difference. It is cheaper, healthier, and more convenient the “real milk” and there is no downside that I have found.

#5 – See America Test Kitchen’s review of what inexpensive cuts work well with different cooking methods: http://americastestkitchen.com/tasting.asp?tastingid=305&iSeason=6 (free registration required)

I get the point of #9, but I can’t uniformly agree. Our waffle iron and our garlic press are very specific items but get used at least once a week. I think you need to evaluate how often you’ll use a specialty item, but I wouldn’t trade those for the world.