I love being frugal. Not only does frugality save you money, it also means you are utlizing your resources to full capacity. I think the best life skills one can have is to put together something from what you have on hand into something delicious. Being frugal does not mean your tastebuds suffer.

From my challenge in the 40 days to come starting Monday, I hope to prove that it is not a conflict to stay within our budget and eat ethically.

I find it really satisfying throwing together a meal from the back of the cupboard! My favourite slapped together meal is probably okonomiyaki – especially since cabbage is so cheap. Great post Kathryn.

Amen to that, sister!

It’s not worrying about tricks and bells and whistles in the kitchen. Instead, it’s about having a lunch just like yours and being grateful for it, but enjoying it’s practicality and usefulness in the process. Ah, the wastage…am horrified by that link.

Just got back from the market and had an interesting discussion with the bloke at my favourite organic stall. He says business in more basic veg – potatoes, carrots, celery – has picked up, but the more smarty-pants things have dropped off.

Wonderful post.

this is a topic close to my heart ;) with my husband’s change in career last year came a significant change in our income level, so we’ve had to learn to be frugal. i think it comes easily to me, and like Sue and Fiona and you Kathryn, i really enjoy creating nice meals from what’s in the cupboard/fridge already.

i am also extremely adamant about not wasting food – this is one of my biggest pet peeves! in our little family of two, it is relatively easy to keep track of what we have and use it up, but i occasionally struggle with jars in the fridge. you know those jars of tamarind paste/jalapenos/etc that get pushed to the back? this is something i need to resolve!

I got so sick of wasting vegetables that now I buy less more often which means I don’t have wilted vegies that I feel obliged to use – but it also means I have less leftovers to play with on lazy days. I notice I tend to buy tins and then not use them so this is sometimes where I head when I need to use up – some of my favourite really lazy meals are tinned soup or tinned baked beans and toast (and in fact today I am working from home and have had beans on toast for lunch)

I also enjoy the challenge of putting something together out of what is left in the cupboards, I think this encourages creativity – I call them imagination meals. There are times recently when we have planned to eat out as a “treat” for finishing a project or because we been too busy, but I have vetoed it on the day due to the amount of food in the fridge. After all when we go to the expense of buying organic veggies it is heart breaking to let them rot (even if we do have one of the healthiest worm farms that I have seen for a while).

I’d prefer to drink a coffee at home (all hail the espresso machine!) than pay the few dollars each day to have a variable cup, or even worse take away container, of coffee. That’s saving $20 a week for a start. Or drink my own herbal tea, or juice up whatever is in season. Its amazing what money you can save just by changing how you drink and for me that probably makes up the difference in choosing to buy organic over conventional produce.

I’ve discovered the same thing Kathryn – that our tighter budget has forced me to rediscover seasonal food and to be more creative with fresh herbs and leftovers. So far it’s all good and I don’t miss the unaffordable out-of-season foods :)

I love the sound of your lunch. It’s quite a creative of use or exciting ingredients! I like the idea of building a meal around what you already possess instead of deciding you want something (today I want to make lasagna!) and going out and obtaining those ingredients. It makes so much more sense to work it out, in the opposite directing, as you have.

Returning to school in August means that I will be living exclusively off borrowed money, so I will certainly need to get more frugal. I’ve been tweaking a lot of bean dishes this summer—because they certainly go a very long way for a little bit of money.

Fantastic.

Yes, FRUGAL is nice and I also like… SIMPLICITY :-)

Great lunch.

p.s. Your new newsletter is amazing. I’m subbed to about 30 newsletters and yours is by far the best.

I love this post… and have been attempting a similar thing of late. And it’s great! We are actually eating healthier meals by using up what we have. It is also making me a better cook because I’m forced to be more creative and just have a go.

I often feel that I’m restacking an already full pantry and wonder why on earth some of the existing stuff just sits there month after month. Why was it purchased in the first place? ‘Just in case’ or ‘to possibly go with something-or-other if I make it’.

Well timed Kathryn, I think we need to starting thinking about becoming a little more frugal too. Food prices are slowly but surely creeping up.

Salads (as well as stir fries) are just great dishes for using up odds and ends. We always have a big stock of canned beans in too, ready to make things a bit more substantial (my husband is always laughing at me for the amount of beans we have in the cupboard!)

I don’t feel sorry for you Kathryn. I admire you and all your wonderful readers. If everyone in the western world were like this we wouldn’t have a problem with obesity, wastage, climate change and all the rest.

I wonder how many people have flour in their pantry these days. And use it all before the crawlies are evident. I have a couple of varieties; so handy to make pancakes, scones, muffins, cakes, pizza bases, fritters, etc. So expensive to buy these products otherwise.

For me must haves are canned tomatoes, tuna, pasta and rice and sure the good old canned beans. It’s funny but I get a real sense of empowerment being able to produce a meal from these basics and I’m slightly amused when the recipients wonder how on earth I came up with the dish.

This post has really touched me and I feel I am in the room with people who understand.

I totally understand Kathryn. My trick is to type in any leftover ingredients into the BBC food website and look for recipe inspiration. It works a treat every time!

Lovely to hear from you all.

I had a further thought after posting this. Some of our storecupboard meals are delicious, but some are a bit strange. While I cook a lot and am reasonably knowledgeable about food, my creations don’t always work out. They’re rarely horrible, but we do have some odd meals. And I think this is part of the process of expanding your cooking knowledge, becoming more confident in the kitchen and thinking more laterally about food.

Sue – I’m really interested to hear how you progress with the challenge. Eating more ethically, improving your diet and staying on budget is possible. And the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

We’re often complacent and unmotivated. Amongst eating well, eating within budget and eating for the planet, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. So it’s important to be reminded of what we can do.

Lucy – really happy to know there’s an upswing in the sales of basic vegetables. Much better economy than going to McD’s.

Mallika – I use the taste.com.au site in the same way. Great inspiration when you’ve got an odd set of ingredients.

YUM!
Hi Kathryn, Just wanted to say thanks for this great post a couple weeks back – I made a meal based on your lunch and it was lovely and fresh. It inspired me to go through my cupboard and get creative with what was there. (the “eating from the cupboard” posts were great also). I am constantly throwing out unused produce that I had “no time” to eat/prepare, which disturbs me. Your post brought home that just having a couple fresh things on hand is all that is needed for yummy “cupboard love” meal.

Lyndal thanks – I love the idea of “cupboard love” meals. I’ve been doing it more and more recently.

One thing I’m also learning is to simply buy less when we do the shopping. I’ve always tended to get a bit over-excited and fill up the trolley, with beautiful food. However we just weren’t eating it all. So now I buy less, under-shop almost.

This means we’re less likely to throw food out and towards the end of the week, we do actually use up all the foods we’ve purchased.

Plus, if we run out, we can always top-up from the local shops.