Our FI Nest

Prior to leaving on our trip to Mexico I realized we had way too much food to eat in time. As one of my frugal goals this year has been to keep our food costs down I didn't want to waste a bunch before leaving. We were only going for a week so I could have chanced it and most of it probably would have been ok when we got back, but instead I got to doing a bit of batch freezer cooking to preserve the food.  Part of the problem was also taking out some meat I'd planned to cook for dinner, but we had car troubles that day so were were running around getting that sorted out and by the time we go home, everyone was starving. So I didn't end up making the sweet and sour pork I'd planned and ended up with ham and veggie omlette. With only 1 meal left to prepare for the week my fridge looked like this: One of the sour cream containers contained some chicken broth made the day before with left over chicken bones and the other home made yogurt. The cardboard box had som...

I've always enjoyed cooking and have looked for ways to cut costs on our grocery bills. As time has gone on I've gone to greater extreems to save a few dollars, but it all adds up and doesn't really take that much extra time. Just planning. Baking Bread : Probably the most labour intensive, but gets a pretty good return and I quite like the taste. See my post for more details . Saves about $6/week Making Yogurt: I've been making homemade yogurt in my instant pot for about 2 years now. Saves about half the price of the cheapest yogurt I can find. I've been using "This Old Gal's" recipe. Costs about $5 (cost of 4 L of milk here) to make 4 Kg of yogurt (costing about $16 for plain store bought), or 3 kg of Greek yogurt ($11-12 at Costco). This saves roughly $8 per the two week period that the yogurt lasts us. Dried Beans instead of Canned : Since getting my instant pot this is so quick and can be done while I'm preparing the rest of dinner if...

The results from Week 1: Initial plan: Lasagna Lentil & Mushroom Pasta ( Yum & Yummer page 112 ) skipped because made meat sauce instead. Sweet and Sour Pork ( Looneyspoons Collection page 216 ) Sticky Chicky - Baked chicken in BBQ sauce (  Looneyspoons Collection page 167 ) , Mashed Potatoes, Carrots and Broccoli Switched to Pork chops Pizza with Sausage and Peppers Sausage cabbage skillet  with perogies Chili   Moved to next week What we actually ate: Friday: Pizza with Sausage and Peppers:  Made some pizza dough and let the kids make some individual pizzas. Took out the sausages (costco pack) so used a couple here and a couple throughout the other meals.  Beets on the side as the plastic container of pickled beets fell out of the fridge and cracked, requiring immediate consumption.  The adult pizza. Leftovers did lunch on Sunday. Saturday:  Lasagna  and baked bread Sauted up all the ground beef as I'd ...

Last fall I started baking my own bread and realized it was actually pretty easy. I worked my way slowly into it, beginning by just dumping the ingredients into the bread machine. The bread was ok, but if this was going to become our main source of bread, I'd need to get a bit better at it. Then I started just using the dough function and baking the loaves in the oven. That improved the density of the bread (most of the time), but I was needing to bake twice a week to get the roughly 4 loaves my family goes through. Around the same time my bread machine broke, my stand mixer (a lower end model) did too, so I took advantage of a Costco sale on the KitchenAid Stand mixers and decided if I was going to spend $300 on an appliance I better use it for more than just cupcakes! I bought 2 more loaf pans and increased my recipe a bit so I could get away with making bread just once a week. Since then I've challenged myself to not buy bread and have been curious how much it saves on...

Throughout this year I'll try to update the meal plan and groceries. What I bought: Costco Shop: $43 The plan: Lasagna Lentil & Mushroom Pasta ( Yum & Yummer page 112 ) Sweet and Sour Pork ( Looneyspoons Collection page 216 ) Sticky Chicky - Baked chicken in BBQ sauce ( Looneyspoons Collection page 167 ), Mashed Potatoes, Carrots and Broccoli Pizza with Sausage and Peppers Sausage cabbage skillet with perogies Chili The results: Will include what I actually made and ate next week.