Please note that I skipped over saving money on the phone bill until I have a chance to research options.
Cooking food from scratch is a topic I could write several posts about, at least, if not more. As a mom of 5 kids, making almost all of our food rather than buying processed food lacking in vital nutrients is how I ensure my family eats a frugal and healthy diet. While Laine has a weekly budget of $100 for 6 people (probably more now given the rise in the cost of food), our weekly food budget for 7 people averages about $150.
When I first started blogging with my original blog, My Daily Round, I was doing a lot of couponing. In fact, I wrote a series about my grocery shopping with coupons. Granted we didn’t buy tons of processed food, however, we did buy it if it was cheap or free with a coupon.
And yet, my husband and I have shared a love of cooking coupled with our love of growing our own food from the beginning of our relationship. Before we had our own garden at our rented row home in Southwest Philly, we borrowed space at my inlaws’ home and grew tons of tomatoes. Then we received permission from our landlord to dig up the front lawn at our rental and set up 5 raised beds and a compost bin. We froze and canned whatever we could from the garden along with fruit from local pick-your-own orchards.
My husband has always had a way of creating amazing meals in the kitchen with just the basics. He taught himself how to cook watching cooking shows on PBS like The Frugal Gourmet and Jacques Pepin. I’ve always enjoyed baking, keeping us well supplied with homemade bread and other goodies. While I’ve been home with the kids over the past 9 years, I’ve been teaching myself to cook and learning how to make our family’s staples like yogurt and kombucha.
Cooking from scratch can be expensive if one chooses expensive ingredients. If one uses a price book and sticks to nutrient-dense foods and the cheaper cuts of meat, along with growing some vegetables, cooking from scratch can be an economical way to save money and provide a healthy diet for a family that provides the added bonus of fewer doctor’s bills.
Resources:
Grocery Spending Series
Previous Posts in the Series:
Tithe
Give to the Poor
Pay Back All Debts
Save, Save, Save
Make a Budget
Freedom Account
Utilities
More on Electricity
Electricity Again
Thrifty Thursday at Coupon Teacher and Frugal Friday at Life as Mom
{ 4 comments }
Glad to see you mention the added benefit of fewer doctors visits as a result of eating food cooked from scratch–a lot of times that gets overlooked, but it is a definite financial benefit. Looking forward to visiting your blog again and your previous posts in this series.
Thanks! Yes, I think it does make a difference, and yet people don’t seem to connect the dots with the growing obesity epidemic and growing malnourishment epidemic.
I took a look at the rain collection post. It is a good idea to save the rain for those dry days. I am hoping hubby will work out a plan. Today he is helping build a youth building, but will have him look at the post for ideas.
thanks again!
I will be cooking more from scratch this summer! Thank you for sharing!
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