Simple Tips for Saving Money in the Kitchen

Buy a cheap small plastic pump spray bottle, and fill it with any cooking oil. Use it to oil baking or frying pans. It’s cheaper to use than "PAM"

Dry Bread Remedy - If your bread becomes dried out, try popping it in the oven for a few minutes after adding a little water to it (or microwave with a wet paper towel). The bread will absorb the water and become moister.

Use cloth napkins! Cloth napkins are a “green” way to go and cost less in the long run. If you have a stash of fabric, make your own cloth napkins. Always save the extra two or three napkins they give you at the fast food drive through window. I use these before I reach for a paper towel.

Stock up! When an item you use a lot of goes on sale, buy several. This is money in the bank! Freeze milk, meat, even sick granola bars, crackers, etc, in the freezer to keep them from tasting old until you can use them. Same thing goes for buying in bulk or shopping at a warehouse. Buy fruit when it is on sale and in season. Clean it, freeze it and make pies, breads, deserts, and smoothies all winter long.

Try shopping at small ethnic grocery stores. Their prices on fruit are usually about ½ of name brand grocers.

Check the “bargain bins” at the back of the store. Baked items are especially reduced. You can even find discounted “day old” cupcakes. If you need to provide a treat for the kids, do they really care if the cupcakes are a day old?

Use more pastas and beans with your meals. Making beans from scratch costs about half the price of canned beans. You can cook up a big batch, freeze them and they will be ready to pull out of the freezer for future use, ready to go.

When boiling water, put a lid on your pan, it will boil faster and use less energy.

Never, ever throw food out! Freeze it for later, make a smoothie out of aging fruit, make a “surprise” omelet by throwing in left overs. I have read that the average family of four, wastes $60.00 worth of food a week.

Never ever throw away a plastic container! Instead for buying Tupperware or purchasing other plastic containers, reuse butter, cottage cheese, sour cream or yogurt containers. Yogurt containers (the kind with the snap on lids) are just the right size to fill with cottage cheese, apple sauce or fruit to pack in lunches. The containers can be washed and reused until they break or just thrown away if your child needs a lunch for a field trip and doesn’t want to carry empty lunch containers home.

Remember, waste not, want not!