Frugal Framnett

One of my favorite soups is lentil pea soup.

The beauty of this soup is it is not a Martha Stewartesque soup requiring 128 simple steps (each with 28 sub-steps) to make. Not only is it simple to make it is very good tasting and will help fill your belly on the cheap.

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Getting ready to roll & cut pasta

So too with making your own pasta!
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One of the hangups most people have with doing their own cooking is not so much the money required, but the time. In opting for convenience people give up quality and pay more.

While homecooking always will take time there are ways to spread out and minimize the time investment.

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One of my favorite winter foods is beef stew. Not the kind you buy in a can at your local grocery store, but real homemade beef stew. Not only is it tasty and nutritious, but it is also made with inexpensive ingredients. Carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, and a hunk of inexpensive beef.

In addition, it does not take a huge investment in time to make, though the recipe I present is for slow cooking the preparation time on your part is minimal. Often times I prepare it the night before and then plug in the slow cooker in the morning.
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When grocery shopping, that is.

I’ve always heard the theory that shopping the perimeter of the grocery store - buying the fresh foods and not the processed ones - is less expensive overall. Now that my spouse is following a specific meal plan, I’m buying almost exclusively fresh food, when I used to buy a mix of fresh, canned, frozen, and some processed food. And lo and behold, my first week shopping, I spent almost twice my normal grocery budget. Now, some of that was “start up” expenses, foods that I can buy in bulk and use over time, but a lot of it was things I will have to buy on a weekly basis (produce doesn’t last forever, after all). I expected this to be the case, but it begs the question - contrary to popular wisdom, is shopping the perimeter really more expensive?

Source: Why My Perimeter is More Expensive Than My Aisles – I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… (From financial imprisonment to financial independence, a penny at a time. This is one family’s story.)

In the comments section I already explained that she is inviting a question not begging it, but of course there is a larger thought here…

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Well Lorie and I believe we need to take care of those who take care of us. Usually this means a stop at Third Base for some barley pops and either a pizza or sandwichs.

Not this time.

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If I have given you the impression I like to cook, that is good, because I do like to cook. This is pizza III in my current pizza pie cooking kick. This, in my opinion, is my best pizza effort EVER.

BTW, I consider YAPPie Place and similar derivations (e.g. Yappie’s Place) as my intellectual property. (more…)

I go to three different stores because one is generally cheapest but does not have everything I need (Aldi), one is cheapest on the things that the first does not have (Walmart), and the last runs good sales and I get their flyer in the mail every week to check them out (Kroger).

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Coupon savings have to date totaled to $34.93 which is nearly 47% of the cost of the newspaper. I figure by the time March rolls around the paper should be paid for.

I was planning on making pizzas for sometime now with the sourdough starter we had, I knew we had some pizza sauce in the freezer, and hard cheeses. In addition, we had a coupon for loose Italian sausage. Then I spotted the coupon for the pepperoni in today’s paper so took advantage of that. How did the pizza turn out?
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