recipe: Make your own yogurt: 1/2 cup old yogurt or 1 packet yogurt starter/1-2 qts milk. Heat milk up to 180F, then bring down to 105F. Stir in yogurt/starter. Put in an oven with the light on for 8-10 hours until desired tartness. Use as a substitute for sour cream and start making your own condiments. Strain through cheesecloth (save the whey for soaking all those beans you have to eat on a budget!) and you can occasionally have a sort of tart cream cheese (lebneh) for special meals. —- we would be buying organic yogurt if we didn’t make our own, so this saves us about $10/month. (We eat a large amount of yogurt, about 4-5 quarts a month for a family of 4.)

Tip: Make a price book. Takes about 2 hours of your time, but then there is no more having to wonder if you’re getting the best deal.

My tip for entertaining would be to host potluck dinners where everyone brings a dish. Assign two people who may not be fond of cooking to bring beverages instead. I know we can make a huge pan of from-scratch macaroni and cheese for under $5- which is definitely less than eating out, and makes about 12 servings. If she also asks everyone to bring a couple storage containers, everyone can take home a little bit of everything that’s leftover. -Or- do board game nights where everyone brings an appetizer to share and their favorite board game.

Frugal recipe: Macaroni and Cheese
This recipe makes a ton, and can be halved, or quartered, to fit the person’s needs.

Ingredients:
1 box elbow pasta (or any ‘tube’ type pasta)
1/2c milk
3T butter
1 brick cream cheese (or omit & double the milk)
4c shredded cheese of choice (we use a mix of cheddar and mozzarella)
Salt, pepper, and a tiny dash of either paprika or chili powder
1/4c bread crumbs

Ok, cook the pasta according to package directions.
While you’re doing that, melt the butter in a large saucepan.
Add the milk and cheeses.
When the cheeses are fully melted, adjust for consistency.
If the sauce is really thick, add a little more milk. Too thin can either have more cheese added, or cornstarch.
Add the cornstarch by first mixing about 1T with 3-4T of cold water to get a slurry. Then whisk that into the sauce. Give it 5 or 6 minutes to mix in and thicken the sauce.
When pasta is cooked, drain.

When the sauce and pasta are done, you have two options:
1- Mix them together in the pasta pot or pretty dish and serve as is.
2- Mix them together, pour into casserole dish, and sprinkle bread crumbs over the top. Bake at about 375 for 25-30 minutes.

If you want this to be ‘single serving’, after it’s baked, refrigerate the whole pan overnight. Then, cut into serving sized pieces and put in baggies in the freezer. Then just defrost and heat whenever you want some. The recipe as is makes about 12 generous portions, which we usually serve with a salad.

For more protein, this is great with cubed chicken or ham added to it. It’s also good with spinach mixed it.

Hello!
I feel for your young friend. It is a challenge being frugal, especially with today’s generation.

One tip I would give her is to adopt a minimalist attitude. Not the one where you give all of your stuff away, but the one where you don’t buy anything else unless you desperately need it. For instance, instead of a television and a cable subscription (and a landline phone) I use a laptop and an internet connection for all of that as well as for my stereo, bookreader, and more. If she can make do with something else she has without purchasing, she is ahead of the game.

Another tip would be to embrace country foods. A pot of dried beans can last for days, and be supplemented with corn bread (those jiffy mixes are around fifty cents if she doesn’t have enough money to buy all the ingredients) and fried potatoes can go a long way. Just put some beans in a pot and let them simmer until they are done with a little salt and pepper, perhaps adding a slice of bacon or ham for extra seasoning.

Of course, by avoiding purchases she avoids debt, but I also encourage her to start a savings account with her change. It will help her save for unplanned expenses plus give her morale a boost. I put mine in a passport account at a local bank, and occasionally transfer some to an online bank (I use Discover) because they pay a LOT more interest than brick and mortars these days.

Instead of buying cleaning supplies, she can make them herself and save a fortune! I have done that for years. There are a few recipes on my blog if she is interested. or books she can locate on the subject. Just making laundry detergent alone can save her a lot of money.

Good luck to your friend!

When I got out of college I worked a full time and a part time job and it is tough starting out. But fun can be free and food inexpensive.

My food budget was $25-30 a week and I ate “out” for lunch 5 times a week by buying only one of the $1 sandwiches at a fast food establishment and always take my own drinks and snacks to work.

Clip coupons and cheap foods to keep on hand are:

Canned vegetables
Cheese
Potatoes
Pasta
Canned Pasta sauce (cheaper than in the jar)
Eggs
Rice
Canned Soups
Bread
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Spices (Aldi’s, Dollar Stores, and Walmart has cheap spices)
Milk
Juice concentrate
Oatmeal
Apples
Flour
Sugar
Baking Soda
Baking Powder
Chicken or Beef Bouillon

There are a lot of different combination that can be made with the above.

For entertaining, especially if you have friends that are on a tight budget too, is potluck and cards, board games, a video or just good conversation. To make it fun, you can make it a theme or challenge.

Usually there are always free or cheap activities in most towns – you just have to search for them.

Check local newspapers, grocery store postings, boards, and churches. One of my son’s best Christmas memories as a child is going to a church that put on the Nativity themed outdoor activity every year that only requested a small donation for the food bank.

I think the best thing you can give to her, to start with, is knowledge and a hopeful mindset. Early in our marriage, I subscribed to Amy Decyczyn’s Tightwad Gazette. That newsletter, and various books and blogs that have followed through the years, have had a profound effect on me. Reading Amy’s articles back when I was young, newly married, and just starting out, helped me look at my finances through a different prism than what I previously had. I felt a little less overwhelmed and deprived, and felt more empowered to make choices that worked for our situation. Your young friend needs to realize that a lot of others before her have gone through similar hard times and that she can-and will-make it!
I would also honestly recommend a book published by Reiman Publications called “We Had Everything but Money”. It is a book that is made up of the fascinating stories of those who lived through the depression. I have read it several times, and I read it to my kids whenever we’re feeling overwhelmed financially, etc. Reading about the true trials and hardships of those who lived through some pretty dark times helps us correct our attitudes and see abundance we didn’t even realize we had. Just as in all of life, attitude is EVERYTHING, and hope is the best thing you can give to someone! I think encouraging your friend to do some reading like this will not only give her hope and a better mindset, but will help her to see how to be more creative and resourceful, like using plastic containers for her spices, etc. instead of waiting for jars! I would LOVE it if you’d keep us posted on this young girl’s progress. It would be fascinating to watch someone develop their financial and frugal literacy! Wishing your friend the best!

I have a college age daughter and she is so expensive to shop with. So, I know from experience how to save money. College kids(some college kids) develop affinities for prepackaged foods and those are expensive! Definitely learn to cook and appreciate scratch cooking. And, I do not mean long, detailed recipes that take all day. Find several basic breakfasts, lunches, and suppers that you can cook. Use these as a bank to draw from when making up your menu plan. Learn to make anything you buy premade – even potato chips can be made in the microwave. I even now make my own chocolate syrup. Talk about cheap – and now I can have chocolate milk, ice cream toppings, etc. Use that internet! Search for recipes for anything you can think of that yu buy. I even found a recipe for soy sauce the other day. A great wealth of information about frugal eating and living can be found at http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com. She even gives recipes for using the angel ministries packs. Making up some muffins for breakfasts, snacks, learning how to make homemade tortillas, etc., will open up a large amount of menu ideas for not much money. Also, making lots of meals with one ingredient. Like baking a chicken and homemade bread on the weekend for eating a meal. Then using leftover chicken and bread for sandwiches. Then cooking the carcass for broth for freezing for later (freezing in margarine containers, whatever…) Then the next weekend, using any leftover bread for dressing/stuff, baking another chicken and loaf of bread, etc. Just planning ahead is the key. Good luck. I make a game of it and it keeps my chin up!