The Tightwad Gazette's Casserole Equation- Save Money & Reduce Food Waste!
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- Опубліковано 18 чер 2024
- It's the year of reducing food waste for us and this casserole equation is the perfect thing for it! The Tightwad Gazette gives us a money saving recipe that you design to fit your needs. I used it to clean out some pantry and freezer items and make a tasty meal. So, have fun with it and get creative with your leftovers!
What you'll need:
1 c Main Ingredient- Tuna, Chicken, Turkey, Ham, Seafood, etc
1 c Second Ingredient- Celery, Mushrooms, Peas, Chopped Hard Boiled Eggs, etc
1-2 c Starchy Ingredient- Potatoes, Cooked Noodles, Cooked Rice, etc
1 1/2 c Binder-- Cream Sauce, Sour Cream, White Sauce, Can of Soup, etc
1/4 c Goodie Ingredient-- Pimiento, Olives, Almonds, Water Chestnuts, etc
Seasoning-- Herbs, Salt and Pepper, Season Mixes, Spices, etc
Topping-- Potato Chips, Cheese, Bread Crumbs, etc
Mix ingredients together. Add seasonings and pour into a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle with topping of choice and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes.
Book used: The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn 1998 - Навчання та стиль
Amy and her Tightwad Gazette changed my life in the 1990s. I was a newsletter subscriber and bought all her books. I became frugal, married, had two children, and raised them frugally per Amy's advice. We have been debt-free for 10 years.
Ive cooked like that for 30 years...
I raised 6 children cooking that way....
5 boys and 1 girl....
❤😂
Growing up in the 1960s & 1970s, one of my favorite meals that my mom made was tuna casserole. She topped it with broken up potato chips. ❤
Yes! I had some family members that would make it like that. There's just something about that salty crunch that makes it so good!
I loved the Tightwad Gazette back in the day.. glad to see it again.
She made such a difference in my life when she put out her newsletter. I don’t think she ever internalized the difference she made in other’s lives.
I love these Tightwad Gazette videos and the idea of the Casserole Equation. I'll admit I have not tried this, but you have inspired me to relook at my copy of The Tightwad Gazette. Thank you so much for renewing my love for these precious books.
She did not buy cookies but she made them. They had typical birthdays with ice cream and cake (she made the cakes and bought store brand ice cream on sale). There were 7 birthdays scattered throughout the 12 months, not 8 birthdays because her last 2 children were her oops baby that; surprise, surprise turned out to be a set of twins (boy/girl). They also had homemade jams in the home from fruits they foraged. They even gave the jams to friends and family as Christmas gifts.
Part of why she did this was to teach the difference between a need and a want. Another was the value of money and time. She wanted them to have adequate nutrition and calories without focusing on junk food. Sugar is addicting. There was usually fruit available. She made fruit juice popsicles. They definitely had sweet treats.
Yes my hubby used to bury people for a living he would bring me flowers homes that were discarded
This is an awesome UA-cam, new follower 😊
Oh I have the More with less cookbook too! Can't wait to see what recipes you'll cook. I tried I forgot to post my comment last week, but I would have totally taken the flowers, not sure for the soil though...
That cookbook is very interesting! I already have some picked out to try. As for the flowers, it is sad that they just sit there and go to waste. I wish someone could use the pile that's in that cemetery!
Some great tightwad cookbooks:
* "More-With-Less Cookbook" (as already mentioned)
* "Good and Cheap," Leanne Brown (she has a free first draft PDF version of this cookbook available on her website as well)
* "A Girl Called Jack," Jack Monroe (one of the best-known budget cooks in the UK)
* "The Best of Lord Krishna's Cuisine," Yamuna Devi (not specifically a budget cookbook, but since it's Indian vegetarian food, most recipes are low cost while still being super flavorful)
I have that cookbook
I have the same one you got
I found at my local store regular price chicken legs for $2.97 for a 6 pack I bought 4 packs
I have found that using "method" recipes and "meal formulas" let me meal plan but give me the flexibility to work with the sales. So dinner might be 1 protein, 2 vegetables/fruit, 1 starch, and a bread or dessert. So, mashed potatoes, hamburger patties, peas, carrots, and bread would work,as would vegetable beef soup with dumplings and rice and soft gingerbread, or tofu and vegetable stir fry with rice and fruit salad. So, I just go to the store with an idea of how many servings of each meal are needed and pick the elements based on the sales. This works for other meals, and it is customizable for whatever style of meal you prefer.
Method recipes are like the recipe in this video. They tell you how to make the food but leave a lot of leeway I'm what you use. These are flexible enough to easily fit into the meal formulas
Thank you for this! That sounds like a great idea! I've really been focused on reducing food waste and spending so I will definitely try this. It looks like it would give you lots of freedom as you navigate sales!
Something she did that I incorporated was, what I would now call the $1-$1-$1 method. I keep my meat to $1lb (turkey $0.29-$0.37lb, Ham/pork $0.59-$0.89lb, chicken thighs $0.69-$0.89lb), keep my starch to $0.40-$0.75lb, and vegetables $1 or less a lb. The vegetables are the hardest to meet that number. By doing this, I can feed a family of 4 for less than $3 a dinner. Then I average the cost to allow less and more expensive meals to meet the budget. My goal is alway under but diversity of food taste and nutrition is important.
An example would be sweet potatoes $0.25lb, Turkey $0.27lb , broccoli $1.25lb= $1.77 for dinner. The next night you t might be rice $0.40, hamburger $3.20lb, veggies carrots $0.99=$4.59. I would try to spend $21wk - $4.59(expensive dinner)=$16.41/6 (remaining days in that week) or $2.73 per meal average that week.
In the past, before extreme couponing shows, I used coupons and got a lot of food free. Pasta sauce on sale for a $1 with a $1 or $0.75 double coupon. Once for a month, a store had a name brand pasta on a monthly sale for $1 for 16oz. Right next to it was a store coupon for $1 off. $1-$1= free. So I stocked up for a year. Every box went into the freezer for 24hr and then into plastic baggies with the air squeezed out. Every item was rotated for freshness date.
I even got enough pasta over that month to to donate about 50 boxes. The food bank lady looked at the date and asked how I got it. I told her the store, sale and coupon, she gave me the wow and smiled. Once Safeway had a deal with sale, coupon and Catalina that paid me $1 for every box I got.
At the time, a family member work in a place that allowed him to take home excess newspapers that the clients didn’t use but we’re entitled to. I wanted the coupons for buying items to send to our Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. People at home didn’t realize that the PX overseas were poorly stocked in soaps, razors, toothpaste/brushes and many other things, basics really. Soldiers, Marines, etc would stand in line for hours to enter the PX only to find what they needed wasn’t available to buy. This wasn’t the case everywhere but it was in many bases and FOBs.
But it seemed silly to not use them for other items. I never cleared shelves. I donated what I could not use or send overseas. My saving to send the boxes $12-$15 a box for shipping came from my grocery budget savings and a very small inheritance I received from an uncle who was career military. Foodwise I got 40 boxes of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran. I donated 20 boxes. I didn’t have much money but that didn’t stop me from feeding my family and donating items to the food bank. No food sales tax in the state so truly free except effort.
Oops, I’m droning. Have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season!
I like your cupboards. Now I will watch your vids for the first time.
She also lived in rural Maine on a farm so probably a lot of home grown food and junk food wasn't on every corner
I don’t buy junk food for my 5 kids, it’s simple they use their allowance for it
The dirt isn't as weird as the lifting of items. At least then, you're getting it directly from the keeper of the grounds. I guess the part of it that would make it weird is the watching and waiting for a fresh grave to be dug, assuming the ones near you aren't full.
I laughed at the thought of having to watch and wait for a fresh grave! That really would feel weird to do!! Although I'm guessing that a lot of smaller graveyards would be glad of the help!
The cemetery where my parents are buried has a small mountain of dirt at the back of the property. I'm guessing that's not unusual.
I'd be worried with cemetery dirt about contamination from embalming chemicals from adjacent graves. Who knows what's in it and I would mostly use dirt for vegetable gardening so it's probably a pass for me.
The cemetery thing would seem disrespectful to me. That is me, not judging.
It would feel odd! And I'm not sure that cemeteries even allow that anymore!
My parents are in a older small cemetery, after Memorial Day, they take all the flowers off and just pile them in a heap until trash man picks them up, I have many times scavenged thru the pile and picked up crosses, flowers etc and made new arrangements since I have a lot of graves in other places. But never took any dirt LOL