Scratch That (Cooking From Scratch) Itch

As every Frugal knows, one of the quickest and easiest ways to save money is to cook from scratch.  But what does that really mean?

I usually consider that all the cooking that comes from my kitchen is from “scratch”.

But how low does my “scratch” really go?

What I mean is this.  Yesterday I made Hamburger Stroganoff (with ground turkey, of course) for dinner.  The recipe called for hamburger, egg noodles, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 small can of drained mushroom pieces, some milk (I was out of sour cream), and I added a bit of white wine and Worcestershire sauce for a little extra flavor.

This seems like a pretty good example of a typical scratch, frugal meal.  Especially considering I had plenty of leftovers.

But, wait, are there some convenience foods lurking in that recipe? Could I have saved even MORE on my Stroganoff if I’d gotten a little more “scratchy”?

It turns out that, with the exception of the milk (and I only use powdered, which I think is pretty scratchy), ground turkey, wine and mushrooms the answer to that question is yes. All the other remaining ingredients could have been made by myself for a little extra savings.

Noodles are only flour, egg, and water.  I have made them from scratch before, and I found it a little tedious.  But maybe a little practice would iron out my clumsiness.  I use cream of mushroom soup as a sauce in this recipe; at the end of the year you can find pretty good sales of the name-brand stuff for .60 a can (that’s really good, usually it’s closer to a dollar), but actually you can make a do-ahead just-add-water-mix that is a reasonable white, creamy substitute.  It sits in a tub in your pantry until you need it.  It doesn’t have mushrooms, but you can add your own. You can even make your own version of Worcestershire sauce.

Well, a bag of noodles is not too much.  Actually, I usually buy bulk bags of spaghetti and macaroni at Sam’s Club, and they last a long time.  So I probably won’t go low-down scratch on that item.  A bottle of Worcestershire Sauce also lasts forever because you only use a little bit at a time, so I probably wouldn’t bother with that either.

But I think I would be willing to try the homemade “reconstituted” white sauce in place of cream of mushroom soup.  This is an item I keep stocked up in my pantry because I use a lot of it.  It’s an important part of casseroles, a Frugal mainstay.  This could represent a pretty big savings in my grocery budget.

And there’s another thing.  Gearing your grocery dollar toward the staples - flour, sugar, meat, spices, vegetables, fruit, powdered milk, eggs, beans, rice, etc. - can go a long way toward saving you from those costly, last minute trips to the grocery store when you run out of something.  If you have the staples, you will probably have on hand what you need to make those “convenience” foods yourself (like “cream of whatever” soup).

I still buy things like frozen dinners, fruit juice, ice cream, hamburger and hot dog buns, dog biscuits, peanut butter, granola bars and cold cereal, among other things.  But those are actually things I could make at home with stuff I typcially have in my fridge, freezer or pantry.

So, I think my “scratchiness” has lots of room for improvement.

But, like any Frugal endeavor, it’s best to ease into change, if you want to make it last.  So this is where I’m going to start: when I use up my supply of sale cream of mushroom soup, I’ll switch to the powdered version. Giddyup!