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(More customer reviews)Much good advice for making a grocery list, keeping track of pantry items, making a pricebook, using less meat to begin with and not throwing away food. It's often known we throw away, she says almost half, of what we have on our plates. If you don't believe that then look at your kids plate the next time they head to the trash can. Or watch them pour a glass of milk to later dump half of it down the sink. We do waste a lot as this author mentions.
And one of the biggest ways to save is to eat less. It's an epidemic in this country that we all eat too much, do we really need to eat a whole bag of chips? And it certainly would save money to eat less.
Some of the author's suggestions was to grow your own food, start a compost pile, can your own food, use food dehydrators, go vegetarian, etc. While all good suggestions I'm not sure most families have the time or capability of start their own garden or willing to go vegan but it certainly is worthy advice. Also, buying food in season was listed as a saving suggestion but there were no lists given as to when in season was "in". Check "producepete" for a list of in season fruits and vegetables. Also the website quoted in book was mistyped, it's "yourgrocer" (not yourgrocery) if you want to find it.
One of her budget saving suggestions was to have breakfast for dinner. Our family has always enjoyed that, the kids love to have a "breakfast dinner". I've seen some families go so far to call it an inside out dinner and they turn their clothes inside out for dinner to make it a silly event for the kids!
I've tried her suggestion of making my own milk with the milk powder and water and it never "tastes" as good as real milk. I don't know that I would follow that suggestion either but if you were budget conscious enough it's helpful. One I have heard people do use is to purchase a gallon of whole milk and then when it gets to half a gallon refill it with the powdered milk/water mixture and most family members will never tell the difference.
I did love the suggestion about buying meats on sale and making 2 or 3 meals and putting the extras in the freezer. Our family has practiced that for years using "Don't Panic Dinner's in the Freezer" or "Super Suppers".
Her meal price was $2.00 or less per serving and in many cases, less. The recipe for quick and easy salsa was labeled as .26 cents per serving with a serving being 1/4 cup. The recipe served 12 so if I did the math right the total is $3.12. I'm not sure where'd you buy 3 tomatoes, 1 green bell pepper, 1 japaleno pepper, red onion, garlic, lemon juice, and the other spices (assumed you had them in your pantry already) for $3.12?
Another recipe was spicy pita chips listed as .03 cents per serving. It was using 4-4" pita breads cut into 8 wedges making 64 chips. I guess a serving is 2 wedges? That total came to $1.92. I've never seen pita bread sold in a 4pk but a 10pk of pita bread is $3.99 plus adding roasted garlic vinaigrette, cotija cheese, and other spices I don't see how it's .03 cents per serving. What am I missing?
The Big Batch Guacamole recipe calls for making your own lima beans by soaking them overnight, simmering for 80 minutes and then pureeing. On top of all that you add onions, butter, spices, and 3 ripe avocados and the per serving price was .34 cents serving 8-10. That comes to $3.40. I think I'll just buy the Wholly Guacamole for $1.99 at Kroger and save 2 hours of cook time plus the overnight soak the night before. whew.
Also, the entree serving suggestions are per serving not per meal. So if you're trying to be truly budget conscious you'll have to add the cost of the entree and its sides to get a total cost figure. Her suggestion for the swiss steak which serves 6 was to add mashed potatoes and sauteed peas and radishes which only serve 4 (hummm..which 2 people go without?). In this example, the swiss steak is listed as $1.90 per serving of 6 so for $11.40 you'd have to buy 1.5 lbs of cube steak, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, carrots, can of mushrooms, plus have on hand onions, worcestershire, marjoram leaves, etc. I think that's possible. Now add the mashed potatoes of .22 cents a serving and the sauteed peas with radishes of .34 cents a serving to get a meal price of $2.46 per serving. The sauteed peas and radishes for $1.36 you'd have to purchase 2 radishes and a 16oz bag of peas. I know the birds eye frozen vegetables are $1 something and I don't know if you can get 2 radishes for .30 cents?? I'm not saying it's not possible but you'll have to know if it is to determine if the cost per serving is legit for you.
I did make the baked tuna mac and cheese and her .84 cents per serving suggestion was realistic. It calls for a packaged box of kraft macaroni and cheese adding onions, tuna and other spices. For a total of $3.36 I was able to buy a packaged version of kraft mac n cheese for $1.33 and a can of tuna is $1.50 (I have gotten it on sale for $1.00). I'm guessing the difference was to cover the onions, salsa, egg, parmesan cheese, etc. Another recipes calls for making the boxed mac n cheese and adding peas for a price of $1.89 for 3 servings. ouch.
Lots of good recipes, with menus in the back. Lots of good suggestions for your budget, but you could also find them at "frugalmom" ; "couponmom" ; "dollarstretchertips" or "livingonadime" for free.
Check it out at the library first to see if it will benefit your family. As a cookbook it's OK as a realistic budget helper...iffy.
If you want good advice on using leftovers or planning your menu around using leftovers, better option is Better Homes & Gardens Cook One Eat Twice for that.
There are a few in-colors pics on the inside of the front and back flaps. The lay-out is similar to the Dummies books layout in that there are shaded boxes with tips, hints and tricks in them. The "Everything" layout calls them "facts", "alerts" and "essentials". I like that design but I know it does bother others because it interfers with reading the recipe. There is no pantry list so you don't know up front which items the author considers you'd have already thus not included in the prices. No nutritional or calorie information so if you need that it's not listed.
HTH.
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