Frugal Eating: Family Feasts for $75 a Week: Book Review

A month or so ago I requested several books regarding cooking on a budget. One which just recently became available was Family Feasts for $75 a Week, by Mary Ostyn.

Mary has 10 kids in her family, so she's experienced in cooking for a lot of people, and doing it on a budget. We only have 1 child, not 10, but we still need to cook frugally and spend as little as possible.

She has lots of good tips about ways to save money around the house, when cooking, and so on. I have 8 brothers and sisters, so growing up, we were always finding ways to save money. We did a lot of the things she mentions, so there wasn't a lot that was new, but there were some things that stood out.

One major point she makes is that planning is necessary- meal planning, grocery planning, etc. It brought to mind the adage 'Fail to plan, plan to fail'. If you don't plan out your budget, your meal plan, your shopping list, etc, you won't be able to stick to your budget- you'll end up spending way more than you intended.

I found quite a few good recipes that I need to add in to the meal plan I made awhile ago. There are several things I liked about the recipes she included: they're not centered around meat (meat is included, but it's not like eating a steak and baked potato), there is a lot of bean and lentil recipes, and they're from around the world. Two of her kids were adopted from Korea and four were adopted from Ethiopia, and she's made an effort to include meals from their native countries, as well as others.

She also uses very few canned items, no boxed  mixes, and no canned soups in her recipes. She doesn't use them because they're pricey, which is true, but most of them are also sources of gluten, so I can't use them. Her recipes aren't specifically gluten free, but enough are naturally gluten free that I was able to find a good number of recipes that I can use.

She also includes instructions on canning, which I thought was helpful- it's becoming a lost art.

I like finding new recipes that are inexpensive to prepare, yet are still nutritious and taste good. I'm looking forward to trying a lot of the recipes she included.

Another thing she talked about that I really like, and will start once we move, is a 'price book'. Basically, you keep track of the items you buy the most, and you figure out how much they cost per unit at the stores that you shop at. That way you know which store has the best price and at which stores to use coupons and sales to get the absolute best deals. In a small notebook, using one page for each item, track the prices, locations, dates, etc for that particular item. It can be a bit overwhelming, but she recommends to start with 20 items and add on from there, as you can handle it. Sounds like a great way to figure out where to buy the items on your list. (She gives good instructions and examples, starting on page 38- much better than I can summarize here.)