Some more ideas from the Tightwad Gazette:
1. Fresh veggies in the winter for sandwiches, stir fry or salads can be grown easily and cheaply at home with water, seeds, and a jar. Sprouts are easy to grow from most dried beans and some seeds, and they are quick and inexpensive to grow. They are also very nutrition packed. It’s easy to grow a wide variety if you have jars and a windowsill. Google it.
2. When running errands around lunch or dinner time, my husband and/or I might start to get hungry before we can get home. To avoid a spur-of-the-moment meal out, we keep a small stash of snacks in the car ( crackers, nuts, fruit leather, breakfast bars) to tide us over. This has saved us many a meal out and the resulting cost.
3. A nearby grocery store publishes a get your flue vaccine shot from them and they will give you a free groceries coupon. Guess where we get our vaccinations. Every dollar of free food helps the budget.
4. Hair conditioner is essential for my longer hair but I keep the cost down by only using a pea sized amount that I work through my hair after I am done rinsing. I then comb my hair, leaving the conditioner on my hair. A bottle lasts a long time. (16 months so far!)
5. I cook a lot with dry beans because they are a very economical source of protein. To speed the process I soak them overnight, drain and freeze in one cup quantities. The soaking softens them and the freezing breaks the fibers. So, when I am ready to use them they cook up super fast.
