Yesterday, completely out of the blue, I started craving butternut squash raviolis. There is a restaurant down the street that makes them, but alas, we'd already used up our dining out allotment for the week.

Happily, the butternut squash were on sale, so I decided to make my own! Pasta dough and everything!

Cost of dinner for two at Italian restaurant down the street: $40
Cost of making my own at home: ~$4.

Granted, the restaurant ones likely would have tasted better. They certainly would have been prettier, but now that I've gotten over my completely irrational fear of making pasta dough, I can practice.

Tonight, I use the leftover dough to make homemade chicken alfredo.

What frugal achievements have you made lately?

On Thursday I turned in a frequent diner card for some free Vietnamese soup. On Friday I used a restaurant.com coupon to get half off a dinner I would have bought regardless. Then on Saturday my wife and I split a free hamburger for my birthday (I tipped as if we had ordered two burgers like normal people), and got a nearly free baby book with a gift certificate I got for friending BabiesRUs on facebook.

Last night I had to mail a ton of stuff. I bought 10 books of stamps in 2007 when they first offered the forever stamp. It's now 3 years later and I only paid 40 cents for my stamps, and the going rate is 44, I believe. My bf said 'You should post about your savings on get rich slowly.' What a perfect opportunity.

I still have a lot of stamps left. I just don't mail much anymore.

I planned all my meals for a month, went to Costco with a list in hand for what I need for the next 2 weeks... and spent only 111.85 on groceries for 2 weeks!!

This feeds a family of 6!

Maybe some of you are better at this, but for me, this is huge!

Indeed that IS huge. I plan my meals but not that well apparently! I need help doing that. We have a family of 4, and that would definitely be a good two weeks for us. If you have tips, please let me know where to find them!

My frugal achievement of the week is that I had friends for brunch and made creme brulee french toast entirely out of all the bread ends I save and freeze (the recipe actually calls for you to cut off the crusts, so I basically did the reverse). It was delish and cost me about 1-2 cups of milk and some brown sugar! The rest of the ends we pureed into tasty bread crumbs .

I was just given a pasta machine, I'll have to try that butternut squash ravioli as well!

I love making homemade food! Just this weekend made brownies, scratch cinnamon rolls, and yesterday 2 casserole dishes of chicken pot pie. For the pot pies we boiled a chicken and didn't put all the chicken back into the pot pies, so we have meat for chicken sandwiches or tacos over the next couple days.

The biggest kick we've been doing is making hot breakfast. I make homeade waffles and freeze the extra. Making the frozen, you just break them in half and toast in toaster, and they are done. Also been making eggs, french toast, and oatmeal, with sides of fruit (either fresh fruit or frozen berries, slightly thawed)

I think the thing that tripped me up before was thinking my meal plans had to be elaborate. They don't. Its ok to have kraft macaroni and cheese planned once in a while...

I also discovered the joy of soaking beans overnight and cooking a giant crock pot full of beans the next day.

The other secret is to just not eat giant portions. My man and I are watching our weight and are doing so by following the two fists together rule. Thats the size of your stomach, if your plate has more food than that... you don't need to eat it.

We don't have all 4 kids every day of the week either, so that is partly why its cheap.

I cooked a HUGE pot of chili. It cost me less than $10, and I easily got 10-12 very large meals from it.
http://www.boymeetsfood.com/2010/01/chili-for-a-crowd/

Cooking is definitely a way to save lots of money.

I taught myself to cook a long time ago in college, partly to save money and partly because I got tired of fast food. Now I am a fairly good cook I am told.

And, making everything from scratch makes it easy to both eat healthy and not spend much on food. We eat very little meat, just fish and chicken occasionally so that saves us a lot. Meat is incredibly expensive for its nutrition content. I am not a vegetarian but I think the virtues of vegetarian cooking are very important in any discussion of frugal eating. If you travel you will find that meat is a flavoring in most of the world, not a main dish (except for special occasions).

I think the quality is higher if you cook it, still working on the cost part! Our chicken was from whole foods, we use steel cut oats for oatmeal, we use bread with at least some whole grain to make the french toast, and I make a 50/50 white, whole wheat flour recipe with yogurt instead of buttermilk when making waffles.

I learned how to cook in college as well. Lived simply through that and grad school, but in last few years with regular jobs and kids, kind of lost our edge about that (can you say convenience foods?). It's been nice getting back to some of the things we forgot. For example in college, used to make homemade calzones. Now we make homemade pizza.

Oh yes...we eat convenience foods too. But that does not mean you have to break the bank or load up on salt and fat. We keep veggies burgers in the freezer for teh 2 nights a week that we are not home untilk after 9. We also generally make very large batches anytime we cook and freeze half of it. Plus teh part we eat usually lasts 2-3 nights. But we are just 2 of us. I realize that is more difficult with kids.

This weekend's project is figuring out how to make a healthy meusli-like mix to snack on. And is has to be cheap except a splurge on dried cranberries to toss in. My biggest problem is how to but the ingredients at a decent price without buying huge bags.

Believe it or not, Whole food bins for things such as granola, beans, oats, grains are not priced too bad and you can buy how much or little you need.

Also investigate whether or not there is a co-op near where you live, and whether you need to be a member to shop there. They also usually have bins that you can purchase large or small amounts from.

I should look up, but I had a great granola recipe from college. The main ingredients are rolled oats and cut up dried or freeze-dried fruit, but I would also throw flax seed, wheat germ, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds in there too), then you make a mixture of half a can of condensed apple juice mix with couple TB of oil, and toss the ingredients in this. Then toast on a baking pan tossing so gets toasty and in chunks. I don't have the specifics with me but you get the idea.

FWIW, the San Francisco Chronicle had a long article with multiple granola recipes this past week:

www.sfgate.com

Sandi

Wow, thanks for the tip to the SF article.

I like the Trader Joes blueberry muesli mix. It's mostly rolled oats with some rice crispies and other stuff in it. The oats are a no-brainer to get cheap. But the rice crispies and stuff is harder to find. I might look in the bins ar a Whole Foods even though they are usually expensive and I avoid them.

We have a freezer full of dried fruit we make in the fall from fruit we pick ourselves at a u-pick farm...speaking of frugal. If you eat dried fruit you know how expensive it is. But it is easy to make yourself at home.

I'm so proud of myself! For the first time I did a grocery list and then went on-line to compare prices and check out sales and bargains at the stores I know are relatively cheap. I found the best one and did my shopping for a week or so. Comparing with what I used to usually pay for groceries in the shop just around the corner I saved something around 30%! Shocking...