This project often results in the discovery of bottles and jars of foods I forgot I had, and can't figure out why I have them in the first place.  Supercook is the frugal but disorganized cook's best friend.  Type in an ingredient you have on hand and want to use, and see what comes up (you can type in more than one ingredient).  For instance:

Mango Chutney brings up over 300 recipes.  Each recipe title tells me the other ingredients I would need- a dip with cream cheese, a yogurt chutney with just the addition of yogurt, and, hmmmm:
Curried Beef with Potato and Peas.  Supercook is like a giant Google or Dogpile search engine connected to cookery websites:

Most recipe search engines are very simple: a user types a query (like 'shrimp with garlic') and the engine returns a list of recipes which contain those words. Typically, the recipes returned will require many additional ingredients the user might not have at home. When coming across an interesting recipe, the user then either leaves out the additional ingredients or heads out to the supermarket to buy them. It is precisely this problem that Supercook aims to solve.

Supercook returns recipes you can actually make right now with the ingredients you have. It even tells you exactly how many recipes you can make, broken down into 'Starters', 'Entrees' and 'Dessert' categories. With Supercook, finding a great recipe is no longer a hassle, simply put in all the ingredients you have at home and Supercook will instantly provide you with hundreds of recipes that are all within your reach. If a recipe requires ingredients you do not have, Supercook takes the guesswork out by clearly listing the additional ingredients you will need. This eliminates wasted time spent browsing through recipes to determine whether or not a recipe is right for you.

As we organize our pantry, we put like foods together- all the nuts and raisins are in one area, for instance, because they are both used for baking and adding to other foods.  All the small seasoning packets, jello, and puddings go in one basket because they are all convenience foods (something I hope to discuss more next week).  Pastas, all sorts, are all in one corner, while canned soups, tomato products, and tuna are lined up in order nearby.  Something else we might consider is  a tip the grocery store uses- order items by expiration date, with the oldest items in front and newer items in back.  This way food doesn't languish in the dark corners until long past the expiration date.

I then plan menus, looking for recipes using the ingredients I already have on hand as much as possible. When I can't find a recipe limited to what I have on hand, I look in the sales fliers and choose ingredients based on what's on sale. I plan menus at least one week advance, preferably two, sometimes for an entire month.
I usually only plan out the main dishes. Side dishes tend to take care of themselves, since I keep frozen vegetables on hand, and lunches for us are generally leftovers.
As you look through your own inventory of what's on hand, be sure to think creatively- for instance:

those last rice crispies or corn flakes you bought to make marshmallow treats with can be used with butter and seasoning to top casseroles, ground up as bread crumbs or extenders for meatloaf.

The last few red hots from the bag of candy for gingerbread houses can go in teas or hot apple cider for a warm, cinnamon spicy drink.

The sugar you're sick of and fear will interfere with your plans for a sugar-free New Year? Make some sugar scrubs- basically half vegetable oil and half sugar, a few drops of essential oil if you have it, and scrub your hands, legs, entire body while showering. This stuff makes your skin feel so good- perhaps because

sugar cane produces glycolic acid, one of the natural alpha hydroxy acids that exfoliates the skin

There's another easy recipe for one here (scroll down, it's the second one, and white sugar is one of the acceptable substutitutes).

What else do you have? Share in the comments, and maybe we can brainstorm some ways for you to use it up. Or share a tip on organizing the pantry, or some creative way you've used up the last of something lurking in your pantry. Once you've organized your pantry, what's the oddest thing you discovered? I'll tell if you will.=)

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Note: Check the library for books!  I found most of these at the library when I first started my frugal journey.  You may also check Paperback Swap if you're a member there. (It's free to join.)

Books:

The Complete Tightwad Gazette. This was the first book that I found actually *useful* when I was single.  There is advice that is applicable to all sorts of lifestyle situations.  It is the book form of the now defunct newsletter.  I've bought this book numerous times, and always end up giving it away and buying it again.

The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. Pretty much everybody has heard of Dave Ramsey at this point, but I'm going to mention him anyway.  If you're in a great deal of debt or have no idea where to start, start with Dave.  I don't always agree with him all of the time, but his overall message is good.  Pay off debt, save for emergencies, and then live like no one else so later, you can live like no one else!  I love his attitude that all things are possible.  I have done many things in my life that were "impossible" so I know that most things can be done!

Your Money or Your Life. My husband and I read this not long after we got married, and it completely changed the way we look at money.  We exchange hours of our life working at a job for money.  If we learned to live on less, we would have more time to do what we wanted.   It sounds very basic, but it is a concept lost on many people.  The book I linked is the updated version.   They give real life examples and interview many people living the Your Money or Your Life way in different seasons of their lives.  The authors of the book were both single and achieved great things.

More-With-Less Cookbook. An excellent basic cookbook that emphasizes inexpensive, healthful ingredients.  I used this cookbook all the time in my 'po grad school days.  The book was written by a Mennonite woman who was concerned at America's consumption of the world's resources.

Living More With Less. This was written by the author of The More With Less Cookbook, but focused on simple living.  If you're intested in simple living or simplifying your life, this is a good book to start with.

The Simple Living Guide: A Sourcebook for Less Stressful, More Joyful Living. A good go-to guide for beginners in simple and/or frugal living.

The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous  &  Broke. Suze Orman's no-nonsense practical financial advice for women who are just starting out.  I wish I'd read this sooner.

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic. An eye opening book about how our quest for stuff is getting kind of insane.

E-Book:

Crystal Paine is the coupon QUEEN.  She explains how she does it in her e-book/e-course Supermarket Savings 101. After reading her book, I dropped my membership at The Grocery Game and started doing it myself.

Websites and Blogs:

The Dollar Stretcher is a good starting point!  There are tons of articles on just about any frugality topic for any person at any stage in their life.

Money Saving Mom posts all the Walgreens and CVS deals each week, along with excellent money saving posts.  Crystal and her family lived on $1000 a month while her husband went to law school without taking any loans out.  She does not say that living on one income can be done- she shows you how! I've learned so much from her.  She's also the author of Supermarket Savings.

The Simple Dollar is "financial talk for the rest of us!"

Finance for a Freelance Life- Mrs. Micah is getting out of debt and having fun doing so!

Like Merchant Ships- our own Meredith and one of my favorite frugality blogs.

What are your favorite frugality books and blogs?  I did not even scratch the surface of what is out there!

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Moneysaving Mom received votes from Jamie, Dana, and Amy @ The Q Family.  Others mentioned Frugal Dad, Get Rich Slowly, Engineer a Debt Free Life, and Refund Cents.

Was your favorite site missing from the list?  Add it!

Question of the week:

What was your worst or craziest frugal idea?

Let's hear it: give us your best story!  The commentor with the worst/craziest idea will win a free gently used copy of the worst/craziest frugal book I've ever owned,  by the tightwad twins, Ann Fox Chodakowski and Susan Fox Wood.

After one look at the cover, my daughter decided that no matter how much money the ladies save in other areas, they spend far too much on makeup.

I think paying $4.99 for this book was my worst frugal idea ever.  Check out these tips:

• Use spray adhesive to cover a worn out desk pad and press a towel on top of it.  It's the perfect size!  While you're at it, hang the towelling as an accent wall covering between the shelves.  (huh? glue a towel on my desk to make it look better?  that must be one ugly desk.)
•  Send Christmas postcards instead of a card that carries the full price of a stamp.  (Because some friends and family just aren't special enough to entice us to blow 44 cents all at once.)
• Sand in a stand-up ashtray for inside or outside use is safer from fire and is cleaner and more convenient for the smoker.  (A stand-up ashtray also adds a certain "don't care what people think" charm to the living room, don't you think?)
• Paint concrete blocks a bright color and stack with holes in front to organize office supplies, magazines, files.  Top the two stacks with a board or door to make a desk.  (Who needs Pottery Barn when we can decorate with neon green concrete?)

Leave your worst or craziest idea in the comments to get a shot at winning this classic for yourself.  It would look great on a toilet tank converted into an end table.

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In light of that, we'll keep this week's question short and sweet:

Do you have a favorite frugal site?  Why?

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What do you think was your best frugal post ever?  What was your most controversial?

Let's hear it.  It's time to toot your own horn.  Search your archives and serve up your best work!

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But Erin had a slightly different perspective, one that really struck home for me:

The biggest downfall to being frugal, at least for me, is that at times I get so caught up in saving money that I don’t think about my family’s needs. All the time and energy I put into finding good deals, simplifying our life, and trying to be as frugal as possible is pointless if my family is not happy. Sometimes it’s ok to spend that extra dollar (or 20) if it is going to please your husband or make whatever you are doing more special. I need to remember that even though I am to be a good steward of what God has given to me it doesn’t mean that I need to go overboard in my quest for frugality. He gives us everything we have and really, I can’t take it with me when I leave this earth.

This is one area I've often gone wrong, and then frugality becomes my own agenda rather than a tool for serving God and my family.  It can even become a point of pride.

Here's the question of the week:

Do you feel your blog has a special niche of its own? Did it happen by design or by accident?

So tell us: what's special about your blog?  Give us your best pitch!

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Each answer was different and insightful in its own way, but I especially appreciated Southern Seven's way of taking it beyond the wise use of money:

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This week, we have a new question that is sure to bring out some interesting thoughts:

Do you think there is a downside to being frugal?

So sound off. Is it all good, all the time?  Why not?  When not?

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Here's the first question:

What does "frugal" mean to you? What do you think it means to other people?

Answer in the comments, or post your answer on your own blog and come back to leave a link.  Extra points for unexpected or creative answers or an unusual perspective.  Have you posted about this in the past?  Shameless self-promotion is encouraged, so link up!

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Tell me a little about yourself: who are you?
I'm Mary, wife to the wonderful John and mom to 10 kids. Four of our kids were born to us, and six arrived via international adoption. I began blogging in early 2006 at two different places: at adoption.com and at Owlhaven, and I haven't shut up since.

How did you come up with your blog title?
I chose the name Owlhaven because we live out in the country on a rocky hillside where burrowing owls nested. When we got a houseful of kids, the owls decided that the rocks across the road looked a little more appealing than right next to our back yard. But we still enjoy looking across the road and seeing the owls swooping around hunting in the pasture.

What does "frugal" mean to you?
What do you think it means to other people? A lot of people think of frugality as deprivation, of never getting to have what you want. But I'm convinced that is the wrong way to look at it. Frugality opens doors. It gives you more choice in the long run. Frugality has allowed me to be at home with my children for the past decade. It has allowed us to be debt free except for our home loan (which will be paid off in 8 years-- hooray). It has allowed us to adopt internationally, which is not an inexpensive endeavor. I really wish that more people would understand how freeing frugality can be.

What do you think was your best frugal post ever?
My best frugal post was actually a series of posts. In September of 2006 I blogged about my 30 Days of Nothing «, where I spent a month trying to spend as little as possible-- no clothes, no books, nothing that wasn't essential. We ended up spending $318 on food that month. Our garden is huge and was in full swing that month, so that was a big help. But even taking that into consideration, I was still amazed that we spent so little to feed 10 people. These days I spend more like $800 a month to feed 12 people. I don't think I'd like to live as cheaply as we did that one month, but it was really interesting to see how little it was possible to spend.

Do you have any frugal heroes or role models?
I can think of several frugal heroes in my life. My childhood hero was my grandmother, who amazed me as a child by making quilts from old clothes, and used the wax paper from inside cereal boxes to cover food instead of buying plastic bags. My adult frugal hero would have to be Amy Dacyzyn, author of The Tightwad Gazette. Back in the 90's I was a subscriber to her monthly newsletter. At the time I was working as a nurse, but was wondering if my husband and I could make it if I stayed home with the kids. Her newsletters were a huge source of inspiration. I kept the whole collection and re-read them any time I need a kick-in-the-pants bit of inspiration to live a little better.

Do you believe the saying, "you get what you pay for"?
About 80% of the time I would say no. I yard sale quite often and can get wonderful clothes for my kids for much less than I'd buy new. There are some things that seem to last longer when you buy them high-end. Faucets, door knobs, carpet, etc. My large family is pretty hard on the furnishings in our home and I have not regretted spending a little more for higher-quality fittings around the home. My front-loading washer was more expensive than my old top-loader, but it works so much better. And as far as hot dogs (which we only have one a month or so) I MUST have Falls Brand beef, because most other brands gross me out. But as far as food and most of our clothing, we spend as little as possible. I still laugh to remember the time my daughter's friends were oohing and aahing over her beautiful $60 jeans-- and how their mouths dropped open when she told them she'd bought them at a yard sale for $3.

How does the rest of your family feel about your frugal ideas?
I am thrilled that my kids beg to go to yard sales with me, and that they remember the good bargains they've found in the past. If you can teach your kids to see frugality as a game to get good at, you're giving them skills for the future. Not to mention a whole different mindset. They've asked me why people are out there buying $60 jeans at full price when you can spend a fraction of the money, and end up dressed just as stylishly. And I don't really know. When I was a senior in high school, I took an economics class where one of the assignments was to add up our clothing expenses for the past year. My total came up to less than $300. My teacher wrote a note across the top of my paper. "Your future husband is a lucky man." I didn't really know why he wrote that until I saw that some of my classmates spent over a thousand dollar on clothes that year. That was in 1985. I was just stunned.

Is it ever possible to be too frugal?
Sure. It's all about balance. Your shopping routine should not be so time-consuming that you don't have time to play cards with your kids. And your frugal choices should not suck all the enjoyment out of food. I could feed my family beans 5 days a week and save more money. But I enjoy providing my family with a nice variety of good food, even though that means I spend a little bit more than I truly 'need' to. Of course there are extreme financial cases where beans 5 days a week might be what it takes to get a family back on track-- I'm not knocking that choice. But we can afford to add a few interesting ingredients to give my family with a healthy variety of food. So I am happy to spend that extra bit of money and effort.

We all have moments of glory and brilliance that we want to relive for the rest of our lives, right? What was your best ever frugal idea?
Well, this is certainly not THE best frugal idea ever, but it is one that consistently get hits on my blog-- it's my way of fixing a broken slat on a vertical blind.

What was your worst or craziest frugal idea?
Ummm...probably about 15 years ago when I tried making gluten. Basically it is flour and water that you mix and then rinse over and over while kneading. It makes this chewy kind of dough that supposedly passes for meat if you cook it with barbecue sauce and other seasonings. Scary.

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We are a husband and wife blogging team who write at Be Thrifty Like Us. We are in our mid 20's and are new parents to a baby girl. My husband is a CPA & I am a systems analyst. We love the outdoors and have a strong interest in finance – together, we make one heck of a money saving team!

When did you start blogging?  Why do you blog?

We started blogging in January. As new parents – we found ourselves staying in more. We decided a blog would be a good hobby for us after our daughter goes to sleep at night. The blog is a great, cheap hobby! Our blog was recently featured in Newsweek magazine back in March – you can read the article here.

We decided that if we started a blog we could help others to be thrifty and save money.The blog is also a motivator for us. Since starting the blog four months ago, we've paid down $20,000 in student loans and automobile debt! We are on a quest to get rid of our student loans so that we can fund our daughter's college education someday.

Lastly, the blog helps us get connected with other like minded people. We have learned so many ideas and money saving tips from the frugal and personal finance blogging community.

How important is frugality to you?

For us being frugal is both a game and a way of life. We continually try to live on less and send more to our student loans. We are used to being frugal and it's the way our life is. We do view frugality as a game sometimes – when we try to see how to get the best deal when buying something.

How does the rest of your family feel about your frugal ideas?

Our parents couldn't be prouder! Both our families are frugal people who worked really hard to raise their kids. They love to see us trying to spend our money wisely and do the best we can for our daughter. We've helped our families with budgeting, retirement planning and lowering their cable bills.

And did I mention I have gotten them all hooked on CVS? We have about five or six people in our extended family who are shopping the Extra Care Bucks program. My brother acts like we are crazy for clipping coupons – but I've noticed he is never one to pass up the freebies I offer him for his dorm room!

Thanks for your time. If you stop by Be Thrifty Like Us, we are sure you will find some interesting things to read. From our CVS weekly deal preview to our ideas on how to negotiate on purchases to our ideas on avoiding the dry cleaners – there is something for everyone!

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