You all are truly amazing. Seriously. Where else can a girl go to get that much information–full of links, lists, recipes, book recommendations, and pointers? Only to her blogging friends, of course!!
I was overwhelmed by all the comments and the time you took to give me your heartfelt advice on this annoying topic. I’ve read every single word and I’m still ingesting it all.
I copied and pasted the comments into a Word document and it was 22 pages! Last night I sat down with my highlighter and pencil and took notes and highlighted all the amazing suggestions.
And I want you to know I’m working on putting together the mother of all posts that will include highlights from all your comments, the links, the books, the recipes. It’s coming. It’s amazing. I hope you’ll learn as much as I am….soon. very soon.
Can’t wait to read it. I need help in this area too. Every since my little Molly came along 3 months ago, I haven’t got my cooking mojo back. My two oldest kids are doing a lot of the cooking, lol.
wow. can’t wait – it is a very annoying topic indeed.
Now that is a public service!
Oh, that’ll be awesome. I was thinking about this post all day, in part because I’d been compiling a similar post in my head when I came across yours. As you can see, you really struck a chord — we’re all in the same boat! 🙂
No, seriously, you are amazing.
Oh that’s sounds great! I’m looking forward to that! Bloggers are groovy. 🙂
Yay! I’ll be looking forward to that.
so great! I spent an hour writing things down! Love the exchange!
oh my! you are amazing to put it all together….there are lots of good ideas there.
Awesome! That means I don’t have to bop back into the comments every day and take a few more notes 🙂 Totally worth it!
I am so glad you are doing that for us! By the time I had read about your quandry and all the comments I was too exhausted to offer any help. It’s an exhausting subject! Managing food money has been my achilles heel for more years than I would like to admit. My kids are off in the world cooking for themselves and I STILL need help. So, I am looking forward to yours. The only thing I can add is I have seen the fruits of my labor, grown children, healthy and wise.Nourishing myself well while carrying and breast feeding them, all those bag lunches, healthy snacks and family dinners, worth every penny.
I am looking forward to seeing your summary of the comments. how nice of you to do that for all of us.
I’m right with you…I like the fresh foods but want more variety as well. I will not try a new recipe from a cookbook anymore, I have to have a word of mouth “must try” this recipe for me to add it to my grocery list because I’m with you on not wanting to add more different ingredients into my pantry.
My hubby does the grocery shopping and he has a bad habit…sauces…hot sauces and bbq are his downfalls so he has WAY TOO MANY of these in my pantry. I’ve decided this fall I’m cleaning out that spot and boxing them up to place under our bed so he can find them when he needs to yet not take up my precious space in the kitchen. I have a very small kitchen and cabinet space so I need to make it work efficently for me since I do most of the cooking and baking in our home.
I noticed when we have fresh fruit it’s gone within 2 or 3 days…what about the rest of the week when the kids like having fruit each day at all meals…I buy canned fruit in bulk when on sale for those last few days (pears, peaches, and apple sauce mainly). I make LOTS of apple and banana breads/muffins for breakfast meals to stretch the fresh fruit. I have bought frozen fruits for the cranberry orange muffins I make that everyone loves. Blueberries and raspberries as well when on sale in the frozen section help with the budget I think when made with breads. A treat my kids like is when I take Bisquick rolls I make and let them spread jam (sugarfree fruits) on them to also stretch the fruit budget.
My kids LOVE fruits, veggies, and chicken the most so I need to always find different ways to make them and inexpensively. They don’t care for rice, potatoes and only a little pasta. Of course I should be thrilled with this as they aren’t good foods for them to eat anyhow but I need to find other sides for the meal instead of rice.
I love this topic you picked and will be keeping my eyes peeled for more replies.
Wow, that’s some amazing work you put into that post – thank you, I shall print it out and keep it.
Definitely got to go with number 5!
Thank you so much for putting all the advice into this blog entry. I’ve bookmarked this so I can come back to it and re-read it for more inspiration as we’ve recently had to cut back our household spending due to changed circumstances.