Frugal February

Frugal February

For us as a family, December and January are quite expensive with first the holidays and later a couple of birthdays. February is therefore the month to save a bit to come back on track. But I love saving money; it makes me more creative!
There is a lot to save in the kitchen, not just by spending less but also by looking at ways to use whatever you buy in more ways than just one. One of my favourite money savers is to make a week menu. Then shop for the necessary groceries on Saturday. I always have one day “off”, this day is meant for fun and easy; sometimes we go out for dinner and some days we will have some take out. Then of course there are always leftovers for days that we’re just to beat to go anywhere, even to the fridge

Rice is on the menu at least three times a week. Our oldest son is not too happy about this but then again, as long as he gets his weekly pancakes he is o.k. with it. Rice is cheap especially when you buy it big, I buy my rice at the T & T; we go to there every month to get some Asian goodies such as of course my favourite sushi. Another real good deal is the curry paste; I buy a container of green and red, this will give me about 20 great Thai curries. Curries are such a great way of using some left over veggies and you can vary with meat, fish or just veggies. I love Thai food! Sometimes I make a big pan of Thai curry by first heating the top layer of two cans of good quality coconut milk with a table spoon (or more if you like it hot) curry paste, I use this as a “grease” to bake the filling. I often use chicken although I also love fish in my curry. When everything is in the pan (veggies and meat/fish), I add the rest of my two cans coconut milk and put the dried noodles in there, heat it all together (make sure that the noodles are all being soaked), after about 8 minutes, you have about 8 portions of curry. Variation is the keyword here.

Another saver is looking for the more expensive cooking staples online. I Google a lot and this is how I found the best place to buy vanilla. I get about 40 pods for $20.- They have a wide variety, I usually buy from the Madagascar variety.
I use the vanilla to flavour my sugar, to make my own extract by putting about 10 pods in a jam pot (half liter) filled with vodka; steep it in milk, etc. It’s a great deal!
There is lot of saving to do in the kitchen! I love to hear how you keep your budget tied in the kitchen!