Need recipes/foods to buy on the Dave Ramsey plan...

[Dianne-TX]

We've slowly been implementing Dave Ramsey's guidelines around here. One thing we can't seem to get a hold on is our grocery bill. I'm thinking this is where we can find some extra money to save and send in on our debt. We don't waste a lot of $$$ on groceries, but I want to better use the money we do have and hopefully save a lot more by going really cheap. However, I'm needing ideas of foods to buy and recipes to implement. I don't mind "beans and rice, rice and beans", but I know that's going to get old. Any Dave Ramsey-ites out there who are veterans or currently going through it? I would love to hear someone's grocery list while they were going through this plan. Thanks for ideas.

[Kris]

You might want to check out this LLNOE forum. I swear some of those people can make a piece of dry toast feed a family of four for a week. :lol:

[jubilee]

You might want to check out this LLNOE forum. I swear some of those people can make a piece of dry toast feed a family of four for a week. :lol:

 

Don't have any meal suggestions but, just wanted to say thank you for posting a link to this forum. My dh just placed an order for some Ramsey resources. He is very excited to becoming debt free. I am glad he is finally putting action behind the words we have both been speaking for a few years now. It looks very helpful.

 

I plan on subscribing to this thread to see what others have to share.

 

Thank you again!

[Oakblossoms]

titus2.com has an open cookbook forum. There are a lot of people with big families trying to save on their food bills. Perhaps you could find something there.

[Oakblossoms]

 

http://planyourmeals.com/MealCalendar.aspx is a great new site someone showed me. You can put in your favorite meals and create calendars and thus shopping lists to keep you on your budget.

[Dianne-TX]

We, too, are looking forward to being debt free. It won't be anytime soon, but we're on the path.

[Ottakee]

These things take some time but I am finding that http://www.savingsangel.com is helping our budget.

 

Grocery game and others are out there as well.

 

They help you find the LOWEST possible price on items and then combine them with coupons (from the paper and on-line) to get items very cheap.

 

This week they had toilet paper for free, salsa for 34 cents a jar, name brand cereal for $1/box and then a free gallon of milk, etc. Many grocery (and even produce) items are 75% or more off. Now I would generally buy on sale or the store brand but this is still saving me money---plus I am getting better quality stuff.

 

I find that it is cheaper to buy stuff at rock bottom prices and then build your menus around what is in the pantry--rather than buying stuff for specific menus.

[PariSarah]

The idea is that you start cooking via formulas instead of exact recipes. The formula leaves lots of room for substitution, so that you can plug in whatever's on sale. Planning your meals around what's on sale can save you a lot of money, especially if also buy your pantry items on sale.

 

My usual example is stir-fry. To make a good stir-fry, you need one onion, two vegetables, and a protein. I make this every week or two, and it's different every time. This month, cabbage and broccoli are pretty cheaply priced; last month, it was zucchini and peppers. This week at Harris Teeter, chicken breast was on sale; last month, I found a London broil that was getting ready to expire; oftentimes I use chickpeas instead of meat.

 

Some other examples from my blog:

 

Cream-of-______ Soup (This month, it's sweet potatoes and butternut squash; in the spring, it was cauliflower and asparagus.)

 

Pasta Salad

 

Spaghetti Sauce

 

Stew

 

Good luck!!!

[TXMomof4]

The Hillbilly Housewife has some yummy recipes. There used to be a $40.00 emergency plan to feed a family for a week. I'm not sure I could do that. Some of the food seemed downright disgusting, but if it was necessary it would be helpful to see. It might just give you some ideas.

[Susan in TN]

Homemade soup can be very economical. Something I've done is to buy (frozen) turkeys while they're on Thanksgiving sales. If you have freezer space, a frozen turkey can sit in there for a good long while before you need to use it. Then every month, get out your giant soup kettle, add your turkey, a couple quarts of water to fill the pot, onion, celery, carrots, some dried herbs and cook it all day. At the end of the day, separate the meat (the worst part of the job) and freeze it in 1 or 2 cup portions (enough for soup or a casserole). Then strain and freeze the broth in 4 or 6 cup quantities.

 

Find some good soup recipes. Many won't require more than some broth, an onion, a vegetable or two, a couple herbs. Maybe some diced up meat (leftovers or from your frozen turkey stash) and a bit of rice. Someone on this board recently recommended Twelve Months of Monastery Soups - it has a wide variety of soups - many vegetarian. The one's I've made so far have been very tasty, and I'm not much of a soup person. Also look around Allrecipes.com - I found a great soup to make with some leftover steak and have made two soup meals from that.

 

To perk up our soup meal, I buy frozen bread dough (usually less than $1 per loaf) and we have "homemade" bread and a lettuce salad with the soup. Sometimes we perk up the soup with a dollop of sour cream or a sprinkle of cheese.

 

Getting out of debt can be hard, but it's worth it. We did the Dave Ramsey thing 13 years ago and have never looked back. We're not wealthy, but we have more than enough!

[Dianne-TX]

http://www.e-mealz.com/

[SquirrellyMama]

One thing that we do is not have a lot of variety in our menu planning. Some day we can have all the variety we want but while paying off debt we are a little boring but we can plan out how much money it takes and we keep it there each month.

 

We love tacos and spaghetti. Those are the big two. And homemade pizza.

 

Kelly

[whitestavern]

This is my dirty little Dave Ramsey secret, as I am an organic, healthy food freak. I have started buying the 12 packs of Ramen noodles (I think they're less than $2 here!). I throw out the seasoning packet and cook the noodles in fat free, low sodium broth (chicken, veggie, beef). Then I put in a bag of organic frozen mixed veggies a few minutes after the noodles start cooking. It's super cheap and fairly (?) healthy. I'm struggling with my food budget on Ramsey...we don't eat much meat. I'm buying lots more chicken thighs and legs (which honestly, we prefer the thighs to breasts anyway) and as someone else stated, lots of beans and rice, pasta. I figure we'll only spend so much time getting out of debt and then we can go back to eating better, but for now, we're doing what we have to.

[TraceyS/FL]

http://planyourmeals.com/MealCalendar.aspx is a great new site someone showed me. You can put in your favorite meals and create calendars and thus shopping lists to keep you on your budget.

 

This site doesn't seem to be working for me :(

[Kris]

This site doesn't seem to be working for me :(

 

Not working for me today, either, but it was working yesterday. Looks like the domain may have expired, but it's been renewed now. I'd try again in a day or two.

[TraceyS/FL]

Not working for me today, either, but it was working yesterday. Looks like the domain may have expired, but it's been renewed now. I'd try again in a day or two.

 

Thanks - glad it's not just me!

 

I shall do that.... since i can't get to it, can you tell me does it allow you to keep an inventory of what you have on hand? Like 3, 1# packages of hamburger in the freezer.

 

OK, back to "work".

[Julie in CA]

I can tell you that we eat a lot of bean burritos. Pinto beans are cheap, easy, and healthy. So are flour tortillas, onions, and a tiny bit of cheese, and a dollop of salsa or taco sauce. If I'm feeling more ambitious, I make mexican rice to go with it. It's also easy and cheap. We can eat this twice per week happily.

 

I make homemade biscuits (easy and cheap) and then use 1 lb. of spicy sausage, some milk, and a bit of flour to make gravy to go on top. That with a bit of fruit is a filling and cheap meal.

 

Eggs are nutritious and fairly cheap. I'm an expert omelette maker, and it's a great way to use up odds & ends of whatever leftovers you have.

 

We also do a lot of potatoes, because they're filling and cheap, and a little ham and cheese on a potato goes really far. I also top them with homemade chili (goes back to the pinto beans being cheap & nutritious).

 

I don't have a particular planning system to recommend, but I've found it helpful on those times when I shop without a meal plan (and even when I *do* have a plan), to stop before I get to the checkout and look to see if any of these items are in my basket:

convenience products like pre-cleaned carrots

packaged rice or potato products

non-nutritious "extras"

out of season fruits/veg.

 

If I check my basket and I have any of those things, I immediately consider if there's a cheaper alternative, or if it really is the right choice (for each item).

 

For every single item, I brainstorm if there's a less-expensive alternative that would still be acceptable to me.

 

For example, first I started using a lot of canned refried beans in our meals.

Then I made sure that I bought cheaper cans of refried beans, and then only on sale.

Then I started buying bags of refried beans and cooking them in my crockpot.

Then I started buying my beans in the bulk section of the grocery.

Then I considered buying the beans in large bags (like 25 lbs maybe?).

Then I decided to stick with the bulk beans because when I checked the price, it was still cheaper than the large quantity bag.

 

I've been doing this for each item, and little by little I've been gaining ground with my grocery budget.

 

Planning ahead is still a great strategy.

 

As far as variety goes, I may make the same basic items, but vary the sauces. For instance, chicken legs are usually economical, but I may make them mexican style with salsa one time, and then italian style with marinara the next time. The same thing goes with basic rice and potatoes. Different flavorings or toppings are a great way to beat the monotony at minimal cost.

 

Looking for the strongest flavors for a price you can afford goes a long way. For instance, I have a family that *loves* cheese. The obvious first change is to use less. We started measuring our serving sizes. The next change was to buy only sharp cheddar, because even though it's sometimes a tiny bit more expensive, it's never double the price of mild cheddar, but we've halved our serving sizes again because the flavor is so strong.

 

Well, I can see I've rambled on...and on...and on!

Not sure if any of this is what you're looking for, but I still hope it's at least an encouragement. :)

[TraceyS/FL]

Julie - great tips!!!

 

I admit that i'm using canned refried beans with dinner - because i had them, and i made homemade torts and 2 "cans" of cream of chicken soup in the chicken thing i'm making :D

 

I'm going to have to do the cheese thing - great tip, and we use a ton of cheese!

[Kris]

Thanks - glad it's not just me!

 

I shall do that.... since i can't get to it, can you tell me does it allow you to keep an inventory of what you have on hand? Like 3, 1# packages of hamburger in the freezer.

 

OK, back to "work".

 

I didn't spend much time playing with it, but it didn't look like you could do something like that. It's a cute idea, but it *is* pretty basic.

[Wendi]

Also check the recent thread about "frugal recipes" or "frugal dinner". It had some good ideas, too.

 

Sarah's tip is important; if you use recipes to cook, you may spend way too much money buying particular ingredients for each recipe. I learned when my ds was on a strict elimination diet that winging it works well. Stock up on basics like rice, pasta, chicken, ground beef or turkey, marinara sauce, salsa, barbecue sauce, cream soups (or make your own), cheese, tortillas, beans.

 

Hillbilly Housewife has some good ideas. I also bought a cookbook called Cheap. Fast. Good! by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross. I got it from the library, and liked it so much, I decided to buy it off eBay.

 

Some of my favorite cheap meals: pasta, breakfast for dinner, quesadillas, baked potatoes, soup and grilled cheese.

 

Wendi

[Erica in PA]

.

 

Sarah's tip is important; if you use recipes to cook, you may spend way too much money buying particular ingredients for each recipe. I learned when my ds was on a strict elimination diet that winging it works well. Stock up on basics like rice, pasta, chicken, ground beef or turkey, marinara sauce, salsa, barbecue sauce, cream soups (or make your own), cheese, tortillas, beans.

 

 

:iagree: It took me about 10 years of marriage and cooking, not to mention periods of near poverty level income, lol, to realize this, but it does make all the difference. Keeping the basics onhand, buying only meats that are on sale, and then making whatever you can out of those ingredients is really the cheapest way to go, ime. I rarely buy specific things for specific recipes anymore. I used to spend $200 per week on groceries, when it was just dh, me, and our toddler. In those days I would flip through cookbooks and magazines, choose recipes, and buy the ingredients to make them. I did buy generic ingredients or use coupons, and tried not to choose recipes with really expensive ingredients, but it still came out to around $200/wk. Now we have three kids aged 12, 8, and 6, I've switched the way I plan meals and shop, and I spend around $80 per week.

[Kate CA]

Sarah,

 

Your stew recipe is exactly what I was looking for! What a wonderful helpful idea this plug-in thing is! Is it a book or something you came up with?

 

Oh, and you asked what to serve with it - well, we have a big family so I really have to have a bread product in order to make sure everyone is filled when I have anything soupish. We do any number of homemade things: biscuits, cornbread, whole wheat bread, or rolls. Biscuits and cornbread are for quick nights. WW bread or rolls are when my daughters have been ambitious. :001_smile:

 

This week one of them made WW cinnamon raisin brown sugar bread. It is *so* good fresh from the oven and tonight we made it into "French" toast for a simple easy dinner.

 

I have never yet made a good stew so now I am excited to try it again with your recipe. I think the key is the liquid. Wine! :D

[PariSarah]

Maybe they'll have a "basic muffin recipe," with five or six variations listed (like, add blueberries, or substitute yogurt for the milk). Joy of Cooking does a lot of their recipes like that.

 

Then I found a cookbook called How To Cook Without A Book, by Pam Anderson, which puts this concept on steroids. She has about ten dinner recipes, all of which are really infinitely customizable formulas. My stir-fry recipe, the cream-of_____ soup recipe, and the spaghetti sauce recipe basically came from there. She broke down what it is that a particular dinner actually needs--"you need one cup of any vegetable that can be boiled"--so that you know how to pick what works.

 

So I started looking at all my cooking this way--is there any way to strip this down into a simpler, customizable version? Okay, all quiche has the same custard for the eggy part. All quiche has a little bit of cheese. So all that's left is figuring out which foods go well together with eggs. Bingo! All you need is the basic proportions of egg and milk for the eggy part, and now you can use whatever combo you like!

 

Cinnamon raising brown sugar bread sounds divine!!

[Ria]

I just made a batch of this brownie mix. The recipe I found said it comes to about $0.53 per bag, and it made 9 bags for me. (Actually, I used Mason jars to store mine in since that way I can avoid buying bags.)

 

Bulk Brownie Mix Recipe

Makes 9-10 mixes

9 cups all-purpose flour

6 teaspoons baking powder

6 teaspoons salt

12 ½ cups sugar

12 ounces unsweetened cocoa powder (ounces by weight)

Mix well. Package 2 ½ cups of mix per bag or jar.

Brownies

Stir 1 jar or bag of brownie mix, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, and ¼ cup melted butter or oil together. If desired, add ½ cup chopped nuts. Pour mixture into greased 8x8†pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Even though we are on a strict budget, my guys still love their snacks. This is cheap enough!

Ria

[TraceyS/FL]

I just made a batch of this brownie mix. The recipe I found said it comes to about $0.53 per bag, and it made 9 bags for me. (Actually, I used Mason jars to store mine in since that way I can avoid buying bags.)

 

Ria - are these thick? I like thin brownies, and am in search of the perfect homemade easy grab (wait, maybe my behind would prefer me to NOT find them?!) mix. I had a box of Ghirardelli ones the other night and i was reminded how much they are.... perfect. But i baked the 9x9 recipe in a 13x9 pan.

 

Soooo, lol, can you tell me how thick they bake up so i know what size pan to use?

 

(i've been using bags for stuff - but i write the directions on the bag and save it for that item again).

[Ria]

Ria - are these thick? I like thin brownies, and am in search of the perfect homemade easy grab (wait, maybe my behind would prefer me to NOT find them?!) mix. I had a box of Ghirardelli ones the other night and i was reminded how much they are.... perfect. But i baked the 9x9 recipe in a 13x9 pan.

 

Soooo, lol, can you tell me how thick they bake up so i know what size pan to use?

 

(i've been using bags for stuff - but i write the directions on the bag and save it for that item again).

 

 

Tracy,

I just took mine out of the oven. I used a 9x9" pan, and baked them about 20 minutes (I have a convection oven). The brownies are 3/4" high (yes, I just measured, lol!). Does that help? They sure are yummy!

 

Ria

[TraceyS/FL]

Tracy,

I just took mine out of the oven. I used a 9x9" pan, and baked them about 20 minutes (I have a convection oven). The brownies are 3/4" high (yes, I just measured, lol!). Does that help? They sure are yummy!

 

Ria

 

Thanks for measuring :D

 

That sound on the thin side - so i'll try the 9x9 pan first. Well, after i buy more sugar and eggs! LOL!!

 

Dang, i really really want some brownies at the moment.

[Kate CA]

Thank you, Sarah! This is very helpful. We have a few cookbooks around here and I should probably pull them out and take a look at them from that angle. We also have the Make-A-Mix cookbook and it does the same kind of thing you mentioned about muffins, etc. We try to use more whole wheat then the author suggests and tend to use soft wheat for things like muffins, but it still works well to have the mix (and much easier for my daughters to make when it is available!) :) I appreciate your response. How is that darling baby doing?

[TraceyS/FL]

I just requested the Make a Mix book from the library - but i've been doing "surprise me" at Amazon and i can't wait till it shows up! LOL!! MAybe the library will be on the ball and actually transfer it tomorrow?!?!

[Kate CA]

I just requested the Make a Mix book from the library - but i've been doing "surprise me" at Amazon and i can't wait till it shows up! LOL!! MAybe the library will be on the ball and actually transfer it tomorrow?!?!

 

It is an excellent book! :)

[Kris]

This site doesn't seem to be working for me :(

 

Just in case you didn't get a chance to check back -- I forgot, too -- the site's back up. :001_smile:

[FishMama]

We're doing the same thing - DaveRamsey and reducing our food costs. We cut from $800/month for a family of 8 to $400/month. I've posted about it extensively on my blog: www.lifeasmom.com esp in the category titled, Grocery Geek. Come visit!