The frugal part
A little over two years ago, my household underwent a grocery budget overhaul. Within a few months, we were spending 40% of the previous year’s monthly average. At this point, it is more like 25-30%. I’ve always been a bargain shopper, but more for clothing, household goods, etc. But I realized that watching the sales, using coupons, stocking up, and buying seasonally can really make a difference when combined.
These changes also had some unexpected but awesome benefits. Shopping this way made me so much better at meal planning and wasting less. I also became more creative with both new and not so new ingredients. It was a revolution, and these things are what really gave me the desire to start FrugalHomeMade.
While being frugal is very important to me, I make my best efforts not to let it come at the expense of I ingredient quality. I also try to balance my frugality with efforts to make conscious choices like seeking local products, supporting small businesses, and buying organic foods.
The homemade part
I have always enjoyed cooking from scratch, knowing what goes into my food, and learning about the way foods are “supposed” to be made. I love making my own anything, from pasta, to sauces, to stock. But also realize that not everyone (including myself) has time to make homemade everything every day, so I am always looking for ways to make things ahead or for shortcuts that don’t come at the expense of quality or flavor.
I am also an amateur gardener (see my kale in the picture above) and look forward to continuing to expand what we grow ourselves and becoming more successful at it.
Everything else
Our household is fortunate to not have any dietary limitations, and because of that we can and will eat anything. I am more concerned with making sure my family eats a wide variety of nutritious foods than with making sure we avoid any particular type of food.
FrugalHomeMade is intended to be about obtaining and preparing food, because that is what I love and make my best efforts to know. But every once in a while, a post may sneak in involving a DIY project (or hack), yoga, home organization, cloth diapering, food philosophy, couponing, or some other topic on which I am far from an expert. I am here to learn as well.
Thanks for reading! I’ll be looking forward to your reactions to my recipes and strategy and I hope you will share your recipe ideas along with your advice as I try new things.
