Experiments in Cheapness

[livius drusus]

Inspired by the success of my garbage stock and my non-existent cash flow, today I attempted to draw blood (concentrated mushroom flavor) from a stone (the Pyrex dish in which said mushrooms were roasted). In the past I've just washed away the barely-there crust left behind stuck to the bottom of the dish, but today I put it on a burner, added a small splash wine and attempted a deglaze.

It was not what I would call effective. It gave me a bit of a meth lab vibe because the Pyrex isn't meant to be used on top of open flame and the heat distribution was very hard to control. It was either too cool or cooking off at the speed of light. Then I lost half the reduction just trying to pour it out of the dish.

In the end all I got for my efforts was about an 1/8 of a teaspoon of burgundy colored, supercharged mushroom steroids. Tasty, but not enough to grow hair on your chest, if you know what I'm sayin'. Next time I'll use a dutch oven to roast the shrooms and deglaze the bottom of that in a normal fashion.

What kind of bizarre (or not) tricks do you try to get every last cent of value out of your pantry?

[lisarea]

I think that making stock is really my big one. It saves money because I make it out of garbage, and it's WAY better than store boughten, so it's just a win-win all around and I think everyone should do it. (Once, I made soup with pre-made chicken stock because I'd run out of homemade, and the gentlemens were all like, "This tastes dumb!" It really did.)

You already grow your own herbs, which is another good one, because fresh herbs are really expensive and also way better than sad dried ones. And when I buy dried spices, I usually get them at ethnic markets or in the 'Mexican' section of the regular grocery store because the stuff that comes in little cellophane bags there is lots cheaper and better than the stuff in jars.

Also, really seriously, ethnic markets are usually cheaper and better for a lot of things, from spices to produce and meat. Once, I had to buy some giant buttload of ginger for something, and it was literally TEN TIMES as much at Safeway or whatever as it was at the Asian market. And mushrooms--all different varieties--are practically free. It's ridiculous! I really really strongly recommend you just go wander around any local ethnic markets aisle by aisle and just see what they have.

Making yogurt isn't really a huge money-saver necessarily because regular store brand yogurt is pretty cheap. However, for organic or specialty stuff, it can save money too and it's really easy. My bro and his wife were making that designer culture yogurt at home by propagating the cultures from the Activia brand along with their existing cultures, for example.

[freemonkey]

Originally Posted by lisarea

[spices] ...in the 'Mexican' section of the regular grocery store because the stuff that comes in little cellophane bags there is lots cheaper and better than the stuff in jars.

I do that too. Way cheaper, more fresher. I wish we had more ethnic stores around here, though.

I buy day (or more) old grocery store specialty bread for at least half off. A few minutes in a hot oven makes it nice.

During the course of a day I add grounds to the coffee filter and grounds that started the day in the coffee maker. This saves on both coffee filters and coffee.

[Qingdai]

Other than peeling and eating broccoli stems in stir fry?

[livius drusus]

Yeah, like what do you do with the peels, Richie Rich.

[Qingdai]

Dental floss.

[viscousmemories]

Ew, who buys the stems anymore?

[Qingdai]

Who said buy, spendy McSpenderson?

[viscousmemories]

You steal them?!

[Ensign Steve]

Yeah, from your dumpster.

[Qingdai]

OMG Freegan!
I could grow them, although they'd be mush after the last freeze.

[freemonkey]

lol @ "freegan". liv, you should add that to the title of this thread.

[LadyShea]

I bake bread, weekly when I am home. I eat the whole loaf myself, but that's okay because when I don't have homemade bread I eat a loaf of store-boughten mydamnself (toast for breakfast and snacks) and then the man and boy eat another loaf for sammiches and stuff. I made pan ordinaire today, and it cost like whatever 3 cups of flour cost. Also, I mentioned in your garbage thread, I processerize the stale ends or crumbs from cutting (yes I scoop them into a bowl from the cutting board), and freeze them. Bread crumbs are useful.

I also put a whole frozen chicken in a pot with garlic, onions, and carrots tonight. That will become some kind of soup or stew for us and mom for prolly 2 nights (over rice tomorrow, from my SS rice cooker!). A whole fryer is like 3 bucks when they go on sale. I try to do 2-3 meals with any cooking if I can

When hubby makes a pot of green chile (not expensive), I freeze at least of a third of it...it's great over eggs or plain bean burritos, or I like to eat it like a soup with tortillas.

[wildernesse]

This is not really about food, but it will help stretch $$. My grandmother always saved things like bread bags and would use them for storing certain kinds of leftovers (biscuits) and scraps (for the cows), as well as cutting the bags open and rolling dough out on them.

Using the freezer is a great path to cheapness, because lots of things freeze well. You aren't hurting much to toss the last spoonfuls of veggies, bread, grains into a bag/container in the fridge. You can use that in soup or to make fillings for veggies. The trick is to have a day when you actually commit to using what is in the freezer, so you don't run out of space or forget about what you have.

Another non-cooking related thing is to figure out what you can grow that gives you the most bang for your buck. Herbs are definitely there, but I would also add leaf lettuce. We bought a few oakleaf lettuce plants on a whim last year, and it was a great bargain because it was ridiculously tasty and continued to grow without bolting (flowering) well into the summer even in a sunny, hot location. From what I have read, lettuce is pretty easy to grow from seed and you can buy enough seed for months of lettuce for the price of a single head of organic lettuce. When I get settled in, I'll be setting myself back up for salad greens.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Oh, yeah. Head down to Home Depot and pick up some carrot/lettuce/radish seeds for something like 94 cents a sachet.

[Sauron]

I'm not sure this counts but.....I usually get teriyaki once a week at this really great Toshi's near to an old apartment of mine. I'll get an order for lunch, and another for take-out. See attached.

So I eat the first order of teriyaki for lunch. The take-out order becomes supper that same evening, but I usually don't eat the rice because it's just too much for me in a single day. But the next day, the rice is still good. So I take:

* one can Progresso lentil soup
* 1/4 to 1/2 onion, finely chopped
* 1-1.5 cups of yesterday's rice

Mix it all in a bowl (rice has to be broken up because by this time it's stuck together). Microwave for 3 minutes.

Add:
* lots of STAR olive oil
* black pepper

It's an entire meal by itself. No empty calories, and meatless as well.

[JoeP]

[S.Vashti]

Um, I'm afraid I've got nothing. The only thing I can think of that's close is that I don't ever buy canned beans, I cook up the dry. There's this great store near me called Garden Fresh, and they have more types of beans than I've ever seen before. I have about 5 kinds of dry beans in the house now: navy, kidney, black, pinto, garbanzo, black-eyed, and something else I can't recall. (and not getting up to find out) Rice and beans is (for me, anyway) incredibly delicious.

Cooked up in a slow cooker.

[S.Vashti]

Sauron, that sounds really good! I also put extra rice, beans, or barley in canned soup to make it a heartier dish.

[slimshady2357]

I'm sure most of this has been mentioned, but here are some of the things we do:

Make our own bread by hand (Ok Sou makes it ). We used to use the breadmaker, but it crapped out and now we just make/bake it ourselves. The bread is yummy and it smells teh awesomes!

I don't know about the supermarkets near you, but here our Tesco will mark down items about 1-2 hours before the store closes for the day. So we tend to go shopping at about that time. They regularily have big bags of potatoes, parsnips, carrots, etc.. for just pennies (literally, like 5 pence sometimes). Things like potatoes and parsnips Sou will parboil and freeze. Later we will use them as roasties. Oh and she often cooks some of the potatoes entirely and mashes them, freezing the mash in ziplock bags. The carrots she just slices into little batons and we freeze them too for adding to stir frys later. This means we often have loads of potatoes, parsnips and carrots in the freezer that are ready to go at anytime and only cost pennies. The marked down section is gold mine of money saving opportunities if you have enough freezer space.

There is a Chinese supermarket in the city nearby that has super cheap spices, rice, noodles, sauces, etc... We can get a massive conatiner of soy sauce for the same price as one of the tiny glass bottles from the local supermarket (we just kept our old glass bottle and refill it when it's low). The chilis I was buying for about £1.50 I could get 3 times as many for that price.

We do tend to re-use pretty much any and every plastic container or plastic bag that comes with some bit of food we've bought.

And batch cooking is a great way to save money and time Sou made a massive chilli and I made a huge batch of rice and we froze about 10 servings of chilli and rice Same with soups, currys, etc.

That's all I can think of right now...

[Dingfod]

I buy canned and dry food at Big Lots or Cheapo Depo. It's generally a lot cheaper than the supermarkets, plus you never know what they're going to have, it's like an adventure, like finding an overturned truck.

[freemonkey]

Originally Posted by slimshady2357

I don't know about the supermarkets near you, but here our Tesco will mark down items about 1-2 hours before the store closes for the day. So we tend to go shopping at about that time. They regularily have big bags of potatoes, parsnips, carrots, etc.. for just pennies (literally, like 5 pence sometimes).

Some stores around here mark things down like that, but rarely produce. It's baked goods, meats, cheeses and other perishables. Before they mark down much past half off, the stuff goes to the local food banks.

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I buy canned and dry food at Big Lots or Cheapo Depo. It's generally a lot cheaper than the supermarkets, plus you never know what they're going to have, it's like an adventure, like finding an overturned truck.

Since Big Lots left our county () I've started visiting a place called Grocery Outlet. It is an adventure, but sometimes not in a good way. I've managed to find some of the worst tasting coffee, among other things, there. So not much of a bargain in the end.

[Miisa]

Growing your own is not always possible for us townies, except for the occasional herb or tomato plant, but, depending on your local laws and customs, getting wild berries and mushrooms from the forest could also be an alternative. Though if you get enough, you need facilities to freeze your bounty. Not much of a gatherer myself, but some of my relatives are, and my aunt's chanterelle sauces and bilberry pies are legendary.

[livius drusus]

I read an article recently about urban foraging. The basic gist of it was there are tons of comestibles growing in parks, on sidewalks, medians, vacant lots, you name it. You just have to know what to look for and, of course, be highly motivated.

eta Here it is. It has links to databases with Google Maps of all the spots.

[viscousmemories]

There's a whole chapter in Omnivore's Dilemma devoted to mushroom foraging. It's fascinating stuff.