Ways to nourish your family on a budget....

Since becoming a stay at home mom I have had to really tighten the budget. I would like to share some of the ways that I keep my grocery bill from getting out of hand. We have five children with one due in February of 2009 so it's not cheap to feed all the hungry troops.

Before beginning I just wanted to remind you that even though the prices of our groceries and gas are soaring right now, those of us who are lucky enough to live in the US should remember that the majority of the world pays a lot higher percentage of their income in order to feed their families. This link here shows you families and what they eat for a month, plus what it costs them to buy it.


I'm just going to list a few things that we do to keep costs down, because you can pick up any magazine and get the same money saving tips over and over. I'm going to list some great money saving links at the bottom.

1. Cooking from scratch is the single most thing that I do to cut costs. Besides the money saving aspects of it, my husband has heart trouble and one of our children is on a lot of meds due to epilepsy and cooking from scratch let's you eliminate all of the unnecessary chemicals and salt.

2. I use more of the "pantry principle" that the book "Tightwad Gazzette" suggests. If you don't own that book already it's the best investment you can make to be frugal- or get it from the library for free. In the book she talks about stocking your pantry with the items you use all the time and stocking it with the weekly sales in bulk. Rather than planning week to week solely based on what is on sale, you shop to get the cheapest prices and stock your pantry. I still try to plan a weekly menu because it keeps me on track, but it's loosely planned as things change.

3. Instead of paying for the Grocery Game or (in West MI) the Savings Angel, take advantage of all the websites out there that do the work for you for free, I'll list some later.

4.We plant a garden and I can and freeze as much as possible.

5. We buy 1/2 of a cow and 1/2 of a pig which not only tastes better, but is cheaper by the pound. You can buy what you can afford and split it.

6. A lot of the time I stick to Aldi's or Save A Lot and simply cook from what they carry- just stay away from the junk food. The selection is limited, but you can't beat the prices on their staples.


Here is a free PDF cookbook from the University of Maine Cooperative Extension which is called "Saving Money With Homemade Convenience Mixes.

This website shows you videos with step by step canning instructions plus a wealth of other info about canning.

Here is a link from the Hillbilly Housewife where she explains about the Angel Food Ministries and she even includes monthly menus based on what foods are available. You do not have to meet income guidelines to use this service.

This link from Budget 101 has a whole list of mixes to make from scratch.


Here are some of my favorite blogs and websites, some are for money saving and some are for homemaking or recipes:

Money Saving Mom

A Full Cup

Mommy Snacks

Moms Budget

The Nourishing Gourmet

Keeper Of The Home

Tammy's Recipes

Glimpse of Sonshine

The Centsible Sawyer

Heavenly Homemakers

Life as Mom

Old Fashioned Frugality

1942 War Ration Book

Last week on Tammy's website she posted about her frustration with keeping her grocery budget low. A lot of people are struggling with the sub-prime lender problems, unemployment (I live in Michigan which has the highest unemployment rate in the country right now), rising gas costs and higher grocery bills. I had a conversation with my grandma who is my biggest mentor about how hard it is right now. She always has a gentle way of reminding me that things have been worse and that they will get better again. My grandma told me the story of growing up during the Great Depression and marrying in 1942 during the height of the war. She told me how tight her grocery budget was and some ideas of what her and my grandpa ate. It seemed to be a lot of humble and cheap meals, but they were homemade and she always found a way to save her rations for a special treat. I have a large cook book collection and my favorite ones are the really old ones. I also came across this war ration book at a garage sale. I do not know the person who originally owned them. I also have a few old fashioned "saving stamp" booklets. I remember my mom using S & H Green stamps growing up. The biggest lesson about them is delayed gratification. You had to SAVE UP your stamps to earn items that you wanted. You didn't just go and charge them. So my real "tip" for this week is to remind everyone that we all have different reasons for the things that we buy based on what is important to us; ie: allergies, food preferences, number of family members etc.. Just do your best and cook from scratch as much as possible. I have also included two frugal recipes. Even though my grocery budget is pretty tight, I'm grateful that I can go to the store and purchase anything that I like without restrictions. For more great tips check out Tammy's Recipes.

Inside the ration book- notice how they had dated each line to split it up through the month.

Back cover of ration book.


Ration book and stamp saving books.

Front cover of a war ration cookbook from 1941. I imagine it was given out for free or with a purchase of Swans Down flour or Calumet Baking powder.

Grandma DeKraker's Eggless Chocolate Cake

2 squares Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups sifted flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening (during wartime they often used lard)
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine chocolate and milk in top of double boiler and cook over rapidly boiling water for 5 minutes, stirring occcasionally. Blend with rotary egg beater; cool.
Sift flour once, measure, add soda, salt and sugar, sift three more times. Cream shortening; add flour, vanilla, and chocolate mixture and stir until all flour is dampened. Then beat vigorously for one minute. Bake in two greased and lightly floured 8-inch layer pans for twenty minutes or until done.
My grandma states that she usually sprinkled the top with powdered sugar to make it pretty.

No-Flour Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix all ingredients together. Mixture will be thick. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Flatten with a fork. Bake at 300 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Do not over bake. Let cookies stand briefly before removing to cooling rack. Yields 2 dozen.

Here is the cookbook open. Notice there is an eggless chocolate cake recipe there and other ones that have been modified to reduce rationed items.That recipe uses "soured milk" in it. My grandma states that chocolate cake recipes were the most popular because everyone still had birthdays and celebrations.