FRUGAL TIP! Make your kitchen a place of projects! Whatever you're able to make yourself, saves money and is healthier over what is bought at the store. I had this thought today as I was making coffee, feeding my sourdough starter, mixing sourdough cracker dough, grinding wheat berries for flour, making yogurt and sweetened condensed milk ( for coffee creamer), plus putting up the jars of tomato sauce and tomato juice I canned last night. These were projects in my kitchen. Many of these projects were short in time. Others were short in hands on time. All of them save me in some way at the store.
Your grocery needs aren't mine, but the more items you can make from your grocery list with basic ingredients, the better off you'll be. I also understand time constraints. Working a full time job can make this hard to do, but it isn't impossible. Everything I do now was done prior to quitting my full time job to come home in 2015. We had to know we were going to make it on my husbands income, which was around $35,000 then. We lived off of his income alone; Mortgage, utilities, groceries, etc. came from his check. Mine was used to pay off debt; a car, credit cards, and a student loan. In addition, many of the things I've learned I've learned from online research, BOOKS, and asking questions. There are so many things we just assume we have to buy at the store in order to have them for our use. That just isn't the case. Time doesn't have to be an issue to get started.
Short in Time
Chocolate syrup
Pancake syrup
Making spice mixes; Spaghetti sauce mix, Taco seasoning, Pumpkin pie spice, Poultry Seasoning, White sauce mix, Biscuit mix, etc.
Mixing up freezer biscuits (way better than store bought)
Making mayonnaise/ or salad dressing
Feeding sourdough
Mixing sourdough crackers
Making coffee creamer( with already prepared sweetened condensed milk)
Short in Hands on time
Mixing bread to rise. It will have two rises. One 30 minutes, then punch down, rest 10 min, shape, and final rise to double in size.
Making cookies or crackers- these doughs can be mixed ahead of time and then wait in the fridge for later baking
Making granola (to replace cereal)- takes minutes to mix up. Then just a matter of 20 minutes in the oven.
Things that take time
Pressure canning- Prep time, but mainly because you have to stay close to keep the pressure gauge steady
Water Bath canning- the actual prep of the items you're canning. Then getting it to boil and setting the timer. Once it boils you can go do other things until the timer goes off.
Baking the bread, cookie, or cracker dough- Just in watching to make sure they don't burn!
Making tortillas- mostly in cooking each one. Other than night, not too bad.
Making yogurt. Have to get the temp to 180 and keep it there for 30 min. Then it has to come down to below 110. You can do other things while you check the thermometer periodically. Then it just sits for 10-12 hours. The bulk time of making yogurt is in getting the temp right. The rest is just a culture process
These are just examples. These can be mix and matched easily. You can do many of the quicker tasks while working on the longer tasks. Many things can be done ahead of time such as mixing bread dough and putting it to rise in the fridge until you can get to it after work.
Chocolate chip chocolate Pumpkin cake
Canned Carrots
Ketchup
Refried Beans
Yogurt
I say all of this to emphasize my point that it is possible to save even more at the grocery store than with store sales alone. Start with the small things and work your way up. But start! It's what I did. The object is to start. Please share pictures of your own projects! I'd love to see and read about them in the comments below. Thanks!
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