Use what ya got

My Frugal Friday tip this week is somthing I'm trying to do more of. It's simply this...when planning your menus, use what you have and/or only buy ingredients that will get all used up. This will also avoid waste. Before I started focusing on this, I would find a recipe that sounded yummy, I would buy the stuff to make it, and there would be leftover ingredients which would ultimately spoil because they were not ingredients I commonly cooked with.


Try to avoid planning menus that use ingredients that you'll only use for one recipe. Leave those recipes for special occasions, entertaining, or making a special dinner for your special someone. Instead, cook using "core" foods in your pantry, in your fridge, and buy only those ingredients for which you can plan additional menus to use up any remaining portion. I like what kitten.mom says about using as much as possible that is in the fridge.


If you want to kick it up a notch try to "coordinate" your menu so that you end up using similar incredients in some of your dishes. It's kind of like coordinating your wardrobe so you can mix and match.