Cole - The Art of Frugal: Feeding a Family on a Budget

The Art of Frugal Eating

Feed a family quality fare at frugal prices

Kaylee Cole

Copyright 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction
The Art of Frugal is proud to present the Art of Frugal: Eating!
In this book, you will find advice, tips, and great ideas that you can use and build upon in order to apply our frugal living to one of the most fundamental basics of life, eating. This book is a resource for both experienced cooks and experienced frugalists.
At the Art of Frugal, we take a casual approach to matters of frugality. While saving money on eating is very important to us, we shy away from extremes and adhere to moderate lessons learned that we have garnered from years of experience. Everyone knows a story about someone who has saved some amazing amount of money by using coupons or scoring a fabulous deal at a store, but we do not intend to match those stories or make that a goal.
In the following chapters, we will describe sustainable strategies with specific tips to help the reader save money while enjoying quality food. Our strategy is to supply you with information and share our knowledge so that you can apply them and continue to learn yourself. Frugality is not a one-time concern or a competition to see who can save the most on a product or item.
At the end of each chapter, you will find our Tips & Take-Aways, which present a concise summary of important information covered, as well as a Resources section, including online and offline resources you can use.
We strive to help you save money in a sustainable manner that can be continued for a lifetime. Even small savings add up when repeated month after month or year after year.
We hope you enjoy our work and look forward to your feedback.

Chapter 2. Cooking Frugally at Home
Cooking at home is the bread and butter of eating well, feeding a family, and living frugally. Learning how to cook well without overspending needs to be something you excel at with ease. There are many home cooking tips that are important to learn if you want to be able to save money while preparing home meals. In addition to shopping for great specials, you need to learn how to transform inexpensive ingredients into meals that you and your family are going to enjoy.
While this might seem like an intimidating prospect, the truth is that it is not as hard as you might think. By spending a little time learning how to prepare delicious and inexpensive meals, you can enjoy eating at home while also saving money.
Time
One of the most common complaints of people who struggle to prepare meals at home is that they don't have the time. There are many ways to save time and still save money while creating quality and delicious meals. One of our favorite kitchen cheats is to use a crock pot. A crock pot is a simple kitchen appliance that you place ingredients into, turn on at a low temperature, and then let cook for several hours. You can get up in the morning before work and place the ingredients for your meal into your crock pot. After work, you can come home from a long day and have dinner ready. One of the best features of a crock pot is it's great versatility. You can make a wide variety of dishes, including a stew, pulled pork, pulled chicken, green chile mix for burritos, or just about anything else that needs to be cooked over the course of several hours.
Since slow cooking meat is a great way to tenderize it, you can use less expensive cuts than you normally would, which will save you money. Best of all, you don't have to worry about trying to cook a quick meal after working all day. Included at the end of this chapter are several of our favorite basic crock pot recipes to get you started.
Another time-saving tip is to pick one day per week and cook several meals all at once. Spending a few hours planning and cooking on a weekend can pay dividends in money and time savings during the week. Cook large portions and re-use them later for lunches, or pre-cook dinner meals and freeze until mid-week when they will just need to be reheated and served.
Taste
One treat that many of us enjoy the most about dining out is getting to cut into a juicy steak. Unfortunately, going out for a steak is not very frugal (usually very expensive), but the good news is that you can enjoy steakhouse quality steaks from your own home at a fraction of the cost. The first step, of course, is buying the steak. You should look for either family packs of steaks that sell at a lower price, or maybe even a slightly less expensive cut (such as shoulder, flat iron, or beef skirt).
When it comes to cooking beef and meat items, the preparation can make all the difference in a world class meal or a poor quality one. As long as you take the time to properly prepare it by using a less expensive cut, it should not make that big of a difference in taste. While a T-bone steak might be your first choice, you can probably prepare a flat iron steak, which is less expensive, so that it will be just as appetizing. A simple grilled flat iron steak, topped with crumbled blue cheese or feta cheese, is one of my family favorite meals (and very easy to make).
The first step in preparing a great steak at home is to marinate it. When cooking any cheap cut of meat, whether pork, chicken, or steak, marinating the meat overnight will give it flavor, as well as tenderize it. Some expensive cuts may not require marinating, but when living frugally and buying more affordable selections of meat, marinating in a bag overnight in the fridge (always keep chilled and never room temperature) is the way to go. After a night in marinade, it is a simple matter of grilling or cooking in the stove, along with a side of corn, green beans, rice, or another favourite, affordable side dish. There are so many endless combinations of dishes that can be served in the same manner, and the meals can be created based on the meat item available.
Re-use
While having a great steak is terrific, it's not always the most practical. One of the other important home cooking tips for people looking to save money is to prepare every meal with the intention of having leftovers. Leftover food is usually as good or better the next day, and it offers the convenience of not having to cook every day. With a bit of planning, your family can enjoy leftovers at home, or even pack them for lunch at work or school.
With a little creativity, you can even prepare meals that have the versatility to be easily changed into a different course the next day. For example, a meat loaf dinner can be made into meat loaf sandwiches. Leftover chicken can quickly and inexpensively be made into chicken salad. Cooking once for multiple meals is one of the most important home cooking tips you need to learn in order to save money while dining at home.
When you are trying to eat frugally, one very important home cooking tip is to make sure that the meals you prepare at home are meals that you and your family will enjoy. Just because you are trying to save money doesn't mean that you need to suffer through meals that are of poor taste or quality. Spend some time searching online for recipes that look appealing, and then make adjustments to them where you can to cut your costs a little bit. By taking the time to learn different recipes, you can prepare meals that you and your family will love without breaking your budget. Dont be afraid to experiment with recipes and make them your own either. Substitute ingredients for those which you have on hand or can find cheaply (or even better, grow yourself).