at Wed, 02 Jun 2004 02:20:46 GMT in <a019e679.0406011820.5791d291
@posting.google.com>, (Pat) wrote :

>What are the best tips you've ever read and been recommended so far
>and also regularly practice, relating to how your family has made and
>regularly makes it's money go a lot further than it ever used to, when
>it comes to all your weekly food - drink purchases / expenses, if you
>have a family to look after, or when you did.

1) Make everything (and this includes breads, tomato sauce, jam, etc...)
from scratch.
2) Focus on staple beans and grains - barley, wheat, rice, etc, and kidney,
black, pinto, etc. beans - and buy them dry.
3) Buy everything that you can in bulk: beans, grains, spices, etc.
4) Make a lot of things that stretch relatively expensive items like fresh
vegetables and meats - this generally means lots of stews, pies (as long as
they're made *entirely* from scratch, including pizza) and casseroles.
5) Buy all fruit and vegetables seasonally, preferably from local farmers,
and seek out u-picks.
6) Freeze stuff you can make ahead or buy in season at much reduced prices.
7) Waste nothing. Milk gone sour? Make cornbread or soda bread. Extra egg
yolks? Use them for custard or ice cream. Giblet bag? Make gravy or enhance
the taste of a stew.
8) Beware of the fool's bargain - in many ways. 10 packs of Ramen for $1.00
may seem like a deal until you discover how cheap it would be were you to
make them yourself from scratch. That 12-bottle case of sunflower oil on
sale may seem like such a deal, but really, how likely are you to go
through 12 bottles anytime soon? And on the other end, those spices may
seem expensive on a per-ounce basis, but a little bit goes a very, very
long way. The good fresh chicken may seem terribly pricey next to the bulk-
bag frozen chicken parts, but those super-cheapo chickens will give you
miserable yield - lots of bone, fat, and water, and little taste either.
9) Get nothing precut or prepackaged that doesn't need to be - e.g. sliced
mushrooms, bagged salad, chicken parts, beef stew meat in chunks, etc.
10) Decide what expensive foods you really can't live without, and with
those, get the highest quality that you can find. That's not necessarily
the most expensive of its type, though it often is. But you'll get more
satisfaction with relatively small quantities of the best than with huge
amounts of lesser quality.


--
Alex Rast

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